What Job Teaches Us about Ourselves │ Msg 21/22

0:09 Well, let's face it. Now your Bible automatically just opens to Job. I'm going to ask you to do something a little different. I don't think that I've ever asked you to do this. I'm going to have you find a blank page front or back of your Bible. And I want you to write two things, form two columns. and today we'll fill in one and next Sunday we'll fill in the other. At the top of this page or this column, write what Job teaches us about ourselves. Then just number one through seven and then we'll save the next one for next time, what Job teaches us about our God. And won't that be helpful to see what he says to us about ourselves and then from the principles of Job what we can learn from him about our God.

1:06 They go together, sort of a one-two punch. Trust me, you'll need these, if not now, soon, if not soon, later. I want to read sort of randomly a section of chapters 1 and 2. All of it will bring back the memory of when we walk through this story. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. the next few verses describe what he owned and his children. There were 10 of them. Verse 6.

1:58 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And interesting, the Hebrew text says, And the Satan also came among them. The Lord said to the Satan, From where did you come? Then the Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it, the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there's no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.

2:43 Satan answered the Lord, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has. He will surely curse you to your face. The Lord said to the Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not put forth your hand on him. So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. You remember what happened?

3:36 Four different messengers. it happened on the day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house that a messenger came. Verse 16, while he was still speaking, another also came. 17, while he was still speaking, another also came. 18, while he was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother's house and a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died. Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. verse one again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and the Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord same question same answer the Lord verse three said to Satan have you considered my servant Job there's no one like him on the earth a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil and he still holds fast his integrity. Verse 4, Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh. He will curse you to your face.

5:16 So the Lord said to Satan, behold, he's in your power. Only spare his life. Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head took a potcher to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes his wife said do you still hold fast your integrity curse God and die He said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. I'm going to pray with me for a few moments. it's been a busy week, Lord.

6:11 We've been engaged in family life. We've been in touch with friends and co-workers at our employment. We've driven many miles. We've passed the nights, some fretfully, some calmly and at peace. We've taught a group of students here at the church through the latter half of the week. we've encountered surprises we've dealt with the predictable the inevitable and the week has run its course how grateful we are free of some disaster that could have leveled us and your peace has been our habitation and the source of our comfort thank you for your grace we haven't deserved your peace but you've given it we don't deserve your favor but you pour it out the presence of these children before us this morning reminds us of a new generation fresh innocent alive fun giving us hope to go on a reason to stay at it.

7:38 But a few a few have been struck deeply with surprises and sudden unexpected trials. You've been there through all of that too.

7:58 Perhaps to them more than any other, this section will speak, but ultimately to all of us. So give us ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to track with you what you have preserved through the centuries for us. Teach us through the promise of your word that whatever was written in earlier times was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort in the scriptures might have. hope, hope. What a great thing is hope. Thank you for those who wear the uniform and today and tomorrow especially we thank you for each woman and man, each brave soldier, sailor, marine, aviator, those who serve in whatever capacity on on the seas, on the land, in the air, places at home and dangerous places abroad.

9:03 Thank you for our commander-in-chief. Keep him thinking clearly and courageously. Give him the ability to turn off counsel that ought to be shunned and be sensitive to wise and correct advice. keep him humble, open, available, decisive, morally pure,

9:35 a leader worth our attention and respect. Thank you for these fine 18 men who advance their education in this queen of the sciences. Teach them good theology in this refreshing time away from their responsibilities at their churches. Soften their hearts where they may have become calloused. sweeten their spirit where they may have become cynical.

10:13 Give them fresh words to say to those who are hungry for you. thank you for the privilege our father of all things of our giving to you you teach us how to do that by giving to us we do that now as you have forever done it generously and and graciously joyfully thank you for our fairest Lord Jesus, our beautiful Savior, the Lord of the nations, Son of God, Son of Man. We worship him, our Father, as we worship you in the name of the Lord Jesus. And everybody say it.

11:07 Amen. Kids don't mean to be funny. It's just when they say things, they come across as funny. Even when they're answering questions that are fairly serious, it's remarkable how their answers, while true often, are just hilarious. Someone sent me this week some questions that children were asked, and ages 7 through 10, children answered. For example, how do you decide who to marry? Was asked Kirsten, who is age 10. She answers, no person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before. And you get to find out later who you're stuck with. Derek, age 8, answered, How can a stranger tell if two people are married?

12:11 Derek answers, You might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. Which ties in with the question asked Laurie, age eight, what do you think your mom and dad have in common? Laurie says both don't want any more kids. When is it okay to kiss someone, Pam, age seven, when they're rich? Kurt, also age 7, answered that one, The law says you have to be 18, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. Okay, Kurt. Is it better to be single or married? Anita, age 9, it's better for girls to be single, but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.

13:09 And all the wives said, yeah, I knew you'd do that. One of my favorites, how would you make a marriage work? Ricky, age 10, says, tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck. another little child in our congregation is age eight is age six and her daddy wrote me this past week to tell me something she said when she has been sitting with them through all of the messages on Job.

13:55 She leaned over and said to her daddy, Daddy, when Pastor Chuck started the book of Job, was I four or five? You were still sick, sweetheart, wherever you are. Now, at the risk of having some tomatoes thrown in my direction, I'm going to tell you we have only two more messages on Job.

14:30 Don't clap. I got that. You know something's wrong when you read your scriptures and you say, now for the last chapter of Job, people start to applaud when you get there. I want us to sort of look at the whole book since we have been hammering our way through these trees and on occasion each limb and finding our way through this forest of information, I want us to come today to some sort of practical terms with what this book teaches us in a very, very practical way about the way we live our lives, what we learn about ourselves from Job, and then find out what it is we learn from Job about our God. trust me on this one. You're going to need one or more of the principles sooner than you may realize.

15:28 And while we have fun with it and have enjoyed ourselves on a number of occasions, today we're rolling up our sleeves and looking at life through Job's viewpoint and learning from his example. So we'll take today's talk mainly from the early part of Job, and then next time we will look at the latter chapter of the book and see what it says about God. But today about ourselves, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless, upright, fearing God,

16:11 turning away from evil. We read he had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. His possessions were great, thousands of sheep and camels, half a thousand of oxen and donkeys. In fact, the wrap-up statement in verse 3 is that he was the greatest in the East. There was no one better known, perhaps wealthier than Job. Job didn't know it, but there was a dialogue that took place in the invisible world above him.

16:54 As the Lord and the Satan had this encounter, for some reason Satan allowed into the Lord's presence, and the dialogue turns on the person of Job. The Lord calls Satan's attention to Job and says, Have you noticed him? And Satan, in standard operating procedure of sarcasm, of course, who wouldn't serve you the way you've treated him? He's got penthouse treatment.

17:25 But you touch what he owns, he'll curse you to your face. Philip Yancey calls it the divine wager. So the Lord, in today's terms, bet him that that would not happen. No, he wouldn't do that.

17:46 And I'll allow you the freedom to move into his world, but don't touch him, don't touch his person. And you recall he did that. And in a brief matter of really, really moments, Satan instigates a removal of all of the possessions, all of his ability to earn a living much of his property is destroyed and he's leveled in bankruptcy which brings us to the first of seven lessons we learn from Job about ourselves. we never know ahead of time the plans God has for us. Job had no way of knowing this. That morning dawned like every other morning.

18:44 The night had passed like most every other night. There was no early morning skywriting. There was no angelic visit. There was no tap at the window warning him that something would change or that all hell would break loose or the bottom would drop out of his life. He got up that morning like every other morning, And he began the day only to be interrupted by this messenger and that messenger and the next one and the next one. And before you could sneeze, it seems the buildings are gone and there are carcasses on the land and the servants have been taken or killed or kidnapped.

19:20 And Job knows nothing ahead of time. You can't anticipate it correctly. You're unable to predict it accurately. it's impossible to explain it fully. No one can explain it. Like a bolt out of the blue, his world explodes. and God didn't warn him ahead of time. could happen to you.

19:53 It could hit me on the way home. the next airplane trip for you or me could be our last. The fact is, we don't know ahead of time what his plan is. He has a plan. He just isn't obligated to warn us about it or to remind us that it could happen.

20:20 Hold your place here, and with another finger, find Jeremiah chapter 29. It's really worth a look. Turn, please. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. The subject is the Jews going into captivity, yet future. The subject is the life beyond the captivity, yet future. And the Lord, speaking to his prophet, who then speaks to the people, tells them, I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. observe it does not read I will tell you all about them ahead of time so you can be ready he simply says I know the plans my sovereign will is such that it is all put together Isaiah 55 tells us that his ways are high above our ways and beyond our thoughts they are different they are in another world a different perspective Let's get started.

21:27 but the Lord knows his plans that he has for us, and there's good news at the end. They are plans for welfare and not for calamity to give us a future and a hope. The ultimate plan our Lord has for us is not a calamitous, fatalistic, heartbreaking, life-ending plan designed to disturb or corrupt our faith. It is a plan that is profound and it's different than you and I would have ever expected or planned. In response to this first lesson, I have some pretty simple advice. Be ready for anything. And I mean anything. I heard from a friend in our church just a few moments ago of a friend of his who works at EDS, making a great deal of money, enjoying a prosperity that was unusual for him and for his family, got notice from the guard that he was being called up.

22:40 He has to leave his work to go and serve in the guard, and in serving he will need to sell his home. They will need to become familiar again with a salary income and a lifestyle that is altogether different from what they've been used to all of these years, especially while growing into the position he had but no longer has. And it came like a bolt out of the blue. you don't know that you'll have your children by the end of this month. You don't know that their future is any more secure than you know your future is secure.

23:22 What you enjoy today, you may not be enjoying this time next year. This isn't designed to make you afraid. It's designed to help get you ready. I remind you, these are principles to live with. and to remember. Job's response, verse 20, is absolutely remarkable.

23:48 Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. blessed be the name of the Lord through all this we read Job did not sin nor did he blame God lesson number two a vertical perspective will keep us from horizontal panic a vertical perspective will keep us from horizontal panic don't misunderstand job job doesn't escape into denial he faces the music somber and sad that it is he's overwhelmed that's why he tore his robe he's broken and saddened and bankrupt that's why he shaves his head and sits in ashes. He refuses to escape emotionally through denial.

24:58 He falls to the ground and worships. What a remarkable response. His vertical perspective is firm, clear, in place. Nothing horizontal will cause this man to panic. I had, I enjoyed, I was blessed, I've lost. They're no longer with me. I'm heartbroken. But the same God who gave is the God who took away. Blessed be his name. I serve and honor and praise and walk with him. When I was back in this passage several years, several weeks ago, I read for you Francis Anderson's words.

25:54 Time has a way of erasing comments that are made in days past, and I return to a part of what he wrote in his fine work on Job. Job finds nothing wrong with what has happened to him. At this point, Job's trial enters a new phase, the most trying of all.

26:22 He never curses God, but all his human relationships are broken. His attitude is the same as before. It is equally right for God to give gifts and to retrieve them. It is equally right for God to send good or adversity.

26:50 Then he adds. it is easier to lower your view of God than to raise your faith to such a height. when things are rocking along comfortably and enjoyably and with good health and with a full family, my, my, how high is our view of God, how thrilled we are with those verses of Scripture, how we hang on the words of the sermon and we sing the songs of Zion. But when the bottle drops out, our song is taken from us And we began to wonder, was our view of God here really the right view since we're now here? It's easy to lower one's view of God when hardship...

27:51 a salsas. That vertical perspective will save the day. Well, it got worse. It just got worse. Job does not sin or blame God, which frustrates Satan, and does not surprise our God, who already knew Job would be a man of integrity. So there was another day, round two, and Satan comes out swinging. the Lord asks, have you noticed my servant Job? It must have been a great moment in that encounter when the Lord could point to Job and there has been no break in his faith or trust and Satan has to face the music. But Satan then says, ah, you touch his life, it'll be another story.

28:50 Skin for skin, chapter 2, verse 4, all that a man has he will give for his life. Put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh. He'll curse you to your face. He repeats the charge, the warning. So the Lord said he's in your power, only spare his life. Satan went out and smote him with boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. you've been sick lately? I mean really sick. Fever wouldn't go away. Hospitalized.

29:31 They couldn't find the cause. Some exotic germ that has leveled you. It affects your job. You don't have disability, and you can no longer work, and that's where he finds himself. It's horrible. He took a potsherd to scrape himself. The itching was maddening as he sat among the ashes. Verse 9, his wife said to him, look closely.

30:05 Do you still hold fast your integrity, Job? Come on, sweetheart. It's enough. Just curse God. Die. You know what? She loved him. Never doubt it.

30:27 The sickness hasn't made her love the less. Her compassion kicks in. And she just thinks if we could just pull the plug, you curse him and he'll take you. You and I both know this will end the suffering. Until you're there, don't judge his wife, okay? Until you're there. she's lost everything too.

30:56 She too has visited the grave sites of ten precious lives. But he said to her, verse 10, you speak as one of the foolish women speak. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. Lesson number three. great discernment is needed to detect wrong advice from well-meaning people great discernment is needed to detect wrong advice from well-meaning people that's his wife this is his wife men and women this is his wife she's loved him through 10 births She's loved him through the rearing of the children.

31:49 She's loved him from the beginning of the business to the final, building it to the point where they could at last have some relief. And she's loved him when he was nobody and loved him when he became a household word in the homes of the East. and he has to have the courage to hear what is really being said and to detect this is wrong counsel, even though it comes from the lips of my well-meaning wife. By the way, lest you overlook it, when you look at her counsel, verse 9, she questions what God had admired, and she encouraged what Satan had predicted.

32:41 God had said to Satan in verse 3, end of the verse, he still holds fast his integrity. And she's saying, Job, Job, do you still hold fast your integrity? Satan had said, verse 5, he will curse you to your face. and she says to the man she loves, listen honey, just curse God.

33:06 And in the presence of the nether world, the enemy is thinking, yes, yes, do it. and you know that his demons are at work all about Job weakening him but he stands firm against it he's discerning he's courageous and so must you be when in the midst of a trial someone who desires your good gives you bad advice don't yield you go back to the scriptures you find your direction and you stand firm why? because well-meaning people do not always have a divine viewpoint the Bible always does Job knew better as much as he loved her he couldn't follow her advice not this time which brings us to his response.

34:14 Verse 10, he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. It must have been hard for him to say to someone he loved like he loved her, but it needed to be said, shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? What great theology. God isn't a divine bellhop waiting for our phone call to fulfill our request for the evening. God isn't here to make us happy, honey. God is here to be glorified in our midst and in our lives, whether for good or for adversity. Both come from him. Lesson number four. When things turn from bad to worse,

34:59 sound theology helps us remain strong and stable. When things turn from bad to worse, sound theology helps us remain strong and stable. It's amazing, frankly, that Job, after suffering such a barrage of cataclysmic events, would be thinking so clearly, so correctly, without wavering, no uncertainty.

35:29 Didn't even entertain her suggestion for a moment. You speak as a fool. honey don't say that don't even go there these lips cannot curse god death is in his hands when he's ready to take me he'll take me how could he do it he was so grounded in his knowledge of god sound theology so valuable reminds me of a cartoon i saw several years ago drawn by charles schultz titled back then Peanuts, remember? Linus is standing with his blanket at the picture window in the living room, and standing beside him is Lucy, who is, of course, in charge. And they're looking at it rain, and it is pouring down rain.

36:24 You can hardly see the trees out in the backyard from the window. The rain is pouring down. Lucy says, my, look at it rain. If this keeps up, it's going to flood this area. maybe the whole world, Linus says without hesitation. That will never happen. It says in Genesis 9, verses 7 to 17, that God will never again flood the earth. And he's put a rainbow in the sky to prove that his promise is true.

36:54 Lucy says, you've taken a big load off my mind. Linus looks at her and says, sound theology has a way of doing that. Maybe this took a big load off Ms. Job's mind. How helpful it is when the one who is suffering can teach the one who is well. Sound theology. Quick warning here, be careful that you don't substitute psychological gobbledygook for good sound theology.

37:35 Just be careful that you don't explain all of this around or away by double talk. Don't go there, it'll backfire. My birthday, I got a card, one of my favorite kind of cards. It's a far side card. there's a guy hanging by his collar on the limb of a tree sort of helpless and his camera is hanging around his neck and two bears are talking about his fate and one bear says to the other his name's Bradshaw he says he understands I came from a single parent den with inadequate role models He senses that my dysfunctional behavior is shame-based and codependent, and he urges me to let my inner cub heal. A little pause, and he concludes, I say we eat him.

38:35 That's great. Let's just eat him alive. Stay with sound theology. Guard against the gobbledygook. Stay away from pop psychology. It seems reasonable at the moment, and then the bottom drops out even further, and it will not stabilize or strengthen you. Well, the friends show up. You may recall, verse 11, three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, and they came, each one, from his own place. They made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes at a distance, they did not recognize him.

39:32 They raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and threw dust over their heads toward the sky. And they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw his pain was very great. Fifth lesson, caring and sensitive friends know when to come, how to stay quiet. and what to say.

40:19 Caring and sensitive friends know when to come, how to stay quiet, and what to say. You might add in parenthesis, if anything at all, I so wish that Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar had simply stayed silent, been there to fetch some water, bring a little bit of soup or broth just to be near.

40:51 You know, these men qualified on the first two, didn't they? They came to Job, they left their homes and the comfort of home, and they traveled however far, we're not told. And when they got there for seven days, did the right thing. They simply sat with him. we who have been hospitalized on occasion know the joy of looking across the room and just seeing the face of a friend and really down deep inside we're grateful they're not reading us a verse of scripture or giving us their advice or even telling us what we're missing that day in the news outside they're just there but when it got to the third one they didn't know to stay quiet. They felt like it's time to set the record straight, and so they rebuke him.

41:50 They question his motive. They even probe for hidden secret sins that brought this about. Now, we've looked earlier at what it is like to be a sufferer. Now we're looking at what it is like to minister to the suffering. you and I more often than not will be the hopefully the caring friend the sensitive friend everyone who is hurting needs a friend, needs a friend outside the family. Not too many, but some, some friends. It's the message of some friends to simply bring comfort and sympathy. It's the message of other friends at the appropriate moment in time to bring confrontation and reproof. David comes to mind early on after being anointed as the future king David is now hunted and haunted by King Saul out of jealousy and envy Saul's son, Jonathan hears these comments his father makes and knows that they are misplaced and incorrect and unfair And so Jonathan takes up the cause of David and becomes for David a friend.

43:15 He even seeks him out and finds places for him to hide and reveals to him words that offer hope and encouragement. That's the role of Jonathan. Time passes, Saul dies, David becomes king, and after years plunges into the horror of adultery mixed with murder and then hypocrisy and lack of leadership. And along comes not Jonathan, who's dead by now, but a Nathan, who is equally a committed friend, sensitive and caring. And Nathan comes to reprove his friend and to remind him, you are the man. And it turns David's attention, catches his attention, turns his thoughts back in repentance to God.

44:10 Everyone needs a Jonathan. Everyone needs a Nathan. Whatever role you play, it's important to remain caring and sensitive, to know when to come, to know how long to stay silent, and if to speak at all, to know what to say. Well, Job finally lets it all out, doesn't he? 3-1 opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. Job even says, let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, a boy is conceived.

45:05 He curses the day of his birth. Verse 11, why did I not die from birth, come forth from the womb, and expire? Verse 25, what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease. nor am I quiet. I am not at rest, but turmoil comes. You know what this is? Listen to me. This chapter provides us with words of a suffering, broken man. He is at wit's end.

45:42 The suffering doesn't end. The kids are still dead. The body's still covered with boils. There's not enough money to provide for what's needed. His surroundings are atrocious. The wild dogs feed on the garbage all around him. His wife is there disillusioned, heartbroken. That's enough. And he curses the day he's born. He despises the thought that he lived. And he's not resting and he is in dread. he must have sat at that moment at the end of chapter 3 with his head in his hands Let me give you the sixth lesson from a bit of a diagonal viewpoint here.

46:30 It's easy to be Monday morning quarterbacks when we encounter another's suffering. It's easy to be Monday morning quarterbacks when we encounter another's suffering. I mean, it's hard to read statements like this. I wish chapter 3 weren't in the book. I really do. I have to catch myself from saying, Job, don't say that. You're going to regret it.

47:05 But he needs space to say it. And so the Monday morning quarterback hears it and says I would never react like that. I would never say such a thing of our God. This is how I would respond. I mean, how could she call herself a Christian and act like that? What he's saying about himself or his God, why, if I were the Lord, I'd discipline him for that. Monday morning quarterback talk. We don't wait till Monday. We do it Sunday afternoons. Don't throw that past you idiot. They've covered the end. He's going to get intersected. What are you going to get a life? And most of us have never been a quarterback. And we've never had three 374-pound linemen with blood in their eyes, six feet nine, coming toward us, grinning.

48:07 And we say, don't throw that thing, you go-go! Don't throw it! If I were there, I wouldn't have thrown it. I'd take a hit. Yeah. Yeah! Leave it in the book. Leave it in the book. Don't try to take it out.

48:31 We all have our Job chapter 3. We all have said things. We've all done things. We've all responded in the wrong way. We've all run off at the mouth. We've all thrown interceptions. And we don't need someone to tell us what we already know. We may even think at the time we're doing it, I'm going to regret this.

48:56 But we do it. You'll need this lesson. You'll need this principle. Especially if you're a spiritual leader. You teach the Bible study or you're on a staff of a church or you're a pastor, you're a counselor. The world's full of I told you so's or shouldn't, you ought not. Just be quiet. Let it be. Eliphaz lands on him with both feet. Fists are swinging. Round one, round two, round three, punching at Job. And Eliphaz has never gone through what Job is going through. Well, the last one is over in chapter 42.

49:50 Doesn't that have a nice ring to it? Chapter 42. Chapter 42, Job repents. How beautiful it is in verse 6. I retract what I said and I repent. What a great man. He suffered through all of this for who knows how long. No one seems to know. Some say weeks, some say months. I don't have any idea. I don't know how to guess. It's taken us months to get through it, so I can't imagine how long it took him to live it. And finally, finally, he endures, he endures. And the Lord four times calls him the same thing.

50:34 Verse 7, it came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job. He said to Eliphaz, my wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. There's no repentance I hear from you. There's no retraction I hear from you. He says again three times in chapter 42, verse 8, my servant Job, my servant Job, my servant Job has spoken what is right. Verse 9 concludes the Lord accepted Job. James 5.11 says we remember the endurance of Job. Here's the principle. The cultivation of obedient endurance. is the crowning mark of maturity.

51:32 The cultivation of obedient endurance is the crowning mark of maturity. I don't know of a wholesome, healthy Christian who doesn't long to reach maturity. If you ask me in any unguarded moment, I will tell you my great goal in life is to be grown up in my walk. I would love it if the stone simply reads, here lies a man who finally became mature. You know what that tells me? That tells all of us it's a slow, arduous process. And Job... reached it, reached the goal. David Roper in his work on James, which he titles Growing Slowly Wise, writes this.

52:41 When trouble comes, we have two options. We can view it as an intrusion, an outrage, or we can see it as an opportunity to respond to it in specific obedience to God's will. This is that rugged virtue James calls endurance.

53:04 Endurance is not tooth-clenched resignation nor is it passive acquiescence. It is a long obedience in the same direction. Where are you today? Where are you in your journey? Hard place, severe trial, maybe back to back. I plead with you not to discard the list of seven lessons.

53:44 I would ask you sometime, even this afternoon, to go back and read them aloud, to insert them in your journal. Think through your current situation and apply whichever ones are appropriate. Go there. It could make all the difference in your growing up rather than simply growing older in your faith. I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please. I'd like you to close your eyes. wherever you are in your journey God has allowed you to hear this today some of it has not been easy none of it has come easily to me in preparing it I can tell you I really worked on this message I wanted to say it just right so that there would not be anything that would cause a snag to keep you from coming here privately and personally this is not counsel you'll find in tomorrow morning's newspaper.

55:13 You'll not hear about it in a film you see or a magazine you read. This is fresh food from the word of God. This is what will hold us together when everything explodes. and let me say for you who've never met the Lord Jesus Christ he is not only available to you he is ready to hear your prayer of acceptance Lord I I'm a long distance from you my life hasn't been what it should have been and I come just like I am and I come to your son, Christ.

56:07 I accept the fact that he died on my behalf and paid the full penalty for my sin. Acknowledging that I believe he has been raised from the dead. I trust him for now and through eternity and he will not turn you away. our ministry has been trained to talk with any of you who wrestle with whatever some struggle the need for salvation a walk with god dealing with some particular issue you can meet them in our prayer room i invite you to come today Lord, we love you. Lord, we thank you. Lord, we worship you.

57:00 Lord, we submit to you. And we confess to you the stubbornness of our own wills and all of the energy that we have burnt up, running away from the very things that we needed to face.

57:22 Deepen our relationship, Lord, so that you and we are closer and you become the focus of our full attention and our absolute affection. Break us to the point of full surrender. And then use us as you have used Job through the centuries as a model of endurance. I pray these things through Christ our Lord. And everyone said, Amen.