Sermon
Ep 440 | "My Redeemer Lives" - Chris Osburn 3/20/2022
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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It's good to be here and thankful for Hall, that have
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made it and appreciate the attendance.
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And hopefully this morning I'd say something that is a benefit
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to the congregation here and and in line with what God teaches us
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as well, the primarily so we're going to be talking about and
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teaching out of the Book of Job today.
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And a jumping between a few chapters and drawing out some
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points in this book. So most of us know, the story of
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job and how God allowed Satan to afflict job in many ways.
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And we'll go over some of those today and when we read the book
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of job, I've always wondered and had a question of why, why would
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God allow this? Why would God allow Ready to go
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through these things to go through this or through that,
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and the things that Joe went through.
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And the question that I want us to answer.
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Here's when we think about our life right now or in the past or
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whatever, we may come upon maybe a long time ago is why when we
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think about those questions, you know, God, why why are you
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allowing this in my life? Why am I suffering so much pain
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or going through this or that or whatever it may be?
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We're going to be starting in Job chapter 3, so we're not
Job 3 chapter mention
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going to be going through job one and two.
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And here's the kind of the setup up to Job chapter 3, in the
Job 3 chapter mention
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beginning of job. One, Joe had everything that he
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could ever want to desire. He had a wife, a house.
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Full of children, wealth, possessions, good health.
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And he was blameless before God, he feared God He did good.
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And he turned away from evil evil and then in an instant, all
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of his possessions were Stripped Away From Him.
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You had everything taken away from him and job, one tells us
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the kind of waves after waves of things, start happening to them
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one after the other and then all 10 of jobs, children died,
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instantly, we could read. In job to he loses his good
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health. Physically, he's miserable and
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in pain. And his wife is telling him to
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curse God and die. Yet, after all of that, at the
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end of Job 1 and 2, he is still worshiping God job.
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One says that when all this happened to him, to his
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possessions, and all his children, it says there in Job
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1, verse 20, through 22. It says, then job arose and tore
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his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped
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and he said naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked shall
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I return? The lord gave and the Lord has
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taken away blessed. Be the name of the Lord and all
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this job did not sin. Or short charge god with any
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wrong. so, these are really kind of the And then also to, at the
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end of Job chapter 2, it says in verse 10 through 11, it says,
Job 2 chapter mention
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but he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would
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speak. This is his is him talking to
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his wife? Shall we receive good from God?
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And shall we not receive evil? And all of this job, did not sin
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with his lips and those are two of the most remarkable
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statements that I can read you know about faith in the Bible.
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Those statements are of trust in and worship of God in the middle
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of unimaginable tragedy and loss and pain.
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But this was just the beginning of what job was going to be.
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Experiencing its one thing, you know to get a sudden tragedy
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happened in your life, something that happens that you don't
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expect, but job experienced a prolonged drawn-out experience
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of all this stuff happening to him.
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You know, it's one thing to I have sudden paying this one
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thing to have prolonged pain, and suffering, two, totally
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different things. And that's what begins to happen
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to in Job 3. And as we see a job, as a
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blameless, upright, man, who is completely committed to God, is
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now struggling with questions of why God is letting this happen
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to him. Joe was wrestling with the
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question of God. Why?
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Why is this happening? And he's wrestling.
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He's even in a trash Heap while dealing with these.
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These things in his life, then before long, some of his friends
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showed up, which is eliphaz bildad bildad and zophar and
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job, initially speaks in Job 3 and kind of a cycle begins with
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he and his friends conversing back and forth.
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First eliphaz speaks, then job responds, then build dad's
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speech than job responds. So far speaks, then job responds
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and they do this in a rotation of three times.
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And then The third time, one of the friends drops out in a new
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guy, new friend comes in and his name is Ella whom.
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So the Council of these friends is not very helpful.
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At all. And as we read through the book
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that Book of Job, we need to remember that sometimes because
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some things are happening in the Bible, does it mean that we take
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those specific things as examples to lean on?
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This is a clear example of not good counsel to take From job
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from job's friends. What a lot of what these guys
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are saying or is true at different points, but the way
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they apply that truth is often unhelpful or their time your
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tone in sharing these truths as unhelpful.
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And some of these things that they say just really aren't
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true. And at the core of their,
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unhelpful council is an instance, that job has done
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something. Basically job is done something
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to deserve all this. Job, you've done something
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wrong. You deserve this, this pain.
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Something bad happens, something bad happens to you, you deserve
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it. If something good happens to
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you, then you deserve it. And that is terrible, theology.
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That's a terrible way to look at the book of the Bible.
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However, in the middle of all these conversations between job
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and his friends, we do find some really some anchors to ground
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that job was relying on anchors that job had in order to move
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through these things that were happening to him.
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Joe 3 is exactly the place that we want to start and because of
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how many times job. Ask the question of why and I
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want to read the whole chapter of Job 3 and I was you read
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through it. Notice how many times job asked
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the question of why we'll start there in verse 1.
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After this job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
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And this is him actually talking about him being born.
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And job spoke and said May the day perish on which I was born
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and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived.
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Met that day. Be Darkness, may God above, not
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seek it, nor the light shine upon it, may darkness and the
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shadow of death claim, it made Cloud settle on.
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It may the blackest of the day terrified as for that night.
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May Darkness sees it may it not rejoice among the days of the
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Year, may it not come into the Of the months.
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Oh may it, that night be Barren, may know joyful, shout come on
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into it may those curse it who curse the day, those who are
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ready to arouse, the Vaya 'then May the stars of its morning.
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Be dark. Made it look for life but have
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none and not see the dawning of the day because it did not shut
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up. The doors of my mother's womb
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nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Why did I did not die at Birth?
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Why did I not pray? Irish when I came from the womb.
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Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast that I should
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nurse for? Now I would have Lain still and
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been quiet. I would have been asleep then I
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would have been at rest with Kings and counselors of earth
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the earth who built runes for themselves or with Prince's who
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had gold, who filled their houses with silver or why has or
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why was I not hidden like a stillborn child?
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Like infants, who never saw light, There, the wicked cease
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from troubling and they're the weary are at rest.
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They're the prisoners rest together.
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They do not hear the voice of the oppressor, the small and the
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great are there and the servant is free from his master, why is
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light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of
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Soul who longed for death? But it does not come and search
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for it. More than Hidden Treasures who
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Rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave.
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Why is light given to a man who is whose way is hidden and whom
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God has hedged in For my sign comes before.
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I eat in my groanings pour out like water for the thing.
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I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has
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happened to me. I am not at ease, nor I am
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quiet. I have no rest for Trouble Comes
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That's some heavy stuff. That's um, that's a guy who just
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really is saying why in the world was I even born.
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To experience this six times in this chapter job asked, why?
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Why is the question that we is the most fundamental of all?
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Like we said, why was I even born is kind of his why God?
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Why did you even make me? And he's coming before God.
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A faithful man hurting and not understanding and asking, why is
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he even here? And that's a clear and
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implication of job thinking. I don't want to be here.
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I don't want to live and he's actually longing for his own
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death. Sad state.
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So how in the world with Joe with all these problems and
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questions and trials? How in the world did he hold
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onto his faith in God? And in the chapters that follow,
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I'm going to show, you know, this is kind of an honest faith.
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That job really had, you know, he had nothing left but to hold
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on to God, that's all he had. And these anchors that we're
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going to go over. That job was relying on, you
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know, it's good for, it was good for him and it is also good for
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us today. So anchor number one that we
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want to remember that. Remember that God is all-wise.
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That's what Joe was holding onto.
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I want to jump ahead to Job 28 because this is kind of where It
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kind of contains a scene of a job's Journey, the kind of the
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climax. And when we get to chapter 8,
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God is God speaks to job and in the middle of the book here, the
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chapter there, this this chapter is kind of referred to as wisdom
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literature. The kind of you kind of see some
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stuff that you can see in Proverbs going through this
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chapter, kind of the same wording.
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And so was job is wrestling with the question.
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NY listen to what he said. Start saying here in Job 28,
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verse 12 and will read through verse 28.
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But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of
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understanding? Man?
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Does not know its value, nor it is found in the land of the
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living. The Deep says it is not in me,
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and the Sea says, it is not with me.
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It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for
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its price. It cannot be valued in the gold
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of ophir in the precious Onyx or Sapphire, neither gold, nor
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Crystal can equal, it nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine
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gold? No mention shall be.
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And of coral, or quartz for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
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The topaz of Ethiopia can unequal it nor, can it be valued
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valued in pure goal from where, then does wisdom come?
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And where is the place of understanding?
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It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from
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the birds of the air, destruction and death.
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Say we have heard a report about it with our ears God,
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understands its way, and he knows its place for He took the
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head ends of the Earth for, he looks to the ends of the Earth
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and seas under the whole Heavens to establish.
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A wait for the wind and a portion the Water by measure
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when he made a law for the rain, and a path for the Thunderbolt,
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then he saw wisdom and declared it.
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He prepared it, indeed, he searched it out.
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And to man, he said, behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom
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and to depart from Evil is understanding That's so much
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like what we see in, you know, in the Book of Proverbs, kind of
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the wisdom literature that we see there and job is searching
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for wisdom and understanding and he's frustrated because God has
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it. And he doesn't Got a job does
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not understand why he's going through these things.
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But he know God does he knows God does.
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And so when we get to verse 23, this chapter, we see something
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that's key for us to understand when we have these.
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Why questions? You know I want to show us
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basically three ingredients that are necessary for wisdom.
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So follow me on this as we go through these number one, wisdom
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involves knowledge. God understands the way to it
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and he knows its place. So to be wise is to have
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knowledge. The second ingredient wisdom
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involves perspective verse 24 for for he, which is God looks
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to the ends of the Earth and seas under the whole Heavens
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wisdom is the ability to perceive its to know.
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And to perceive then third wisdom involves experience job
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starts talking about how God has created everything.
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And he says there, he create he gave To the wind its weight and
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a portion of the waters by measure, he made a decree for
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rain and a way for the lightning of the Thunder.
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God made everything himself and he's the one who saw wisdom.
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He declare wisdom, he established wisdom.
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And you searched it out and God formed wisdom from the
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beginning. So with these three ingredients
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pulled from these verses knowledge perspective and
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experience, I want you to think on God's Limitless, wisdom. so,
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I'm sorry, will think we're thinking about our limited
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wisdom first and then we'll get to God's Limitless.
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Wisdom? So we lack all these things as
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humans. Okay, we lack knowledge.
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We lack perspective, we lack experience, we lack knowledge.
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And you know, how often do we make or act?
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Because or make an unwise decision because of we just
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don't know everything. You know how many times we found
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our saved saying? You know, if I would have known
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that, I would have done this. If what I want to Kno know this,
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I would have made. If I don't know there's
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construction in Bakersfield, I would have taken another route.
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So the knowledge produces wisdom, Likewise, we lack
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perspective. We don't see everything.
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We don't, we don't see everything.
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Clearly, our perspective is always at best limited, okay?
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At worst. It's may be jaded or distorted
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because of previous experiences in our life, our perspective on
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things, sometimes, it's even wrong.
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We never perceive all the factors that work in every
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situation are all the effects of a decision we might make.
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Or maybe we're just not able to see things from somebody else's
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point of view, Maybe, Something else has a point of view that we
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don't necessarily see all the way in that in that type of
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instance. Third, we lack experience, we
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learned some things for in the first time we, you know, go
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through a situation knowing that the next time how to do it
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better than that. You know, the more we grow and
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experience the more we grow in wisdom.
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But we're obviously limited in our experience.
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So we lack knowledge perspective and experience which is why we
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find ourselves sometimes searching for understanding and
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wisdom. So God's Limitless wisdom.
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Let's think about how he has perfect.
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Knowledge number one, God knows everything past present and
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future. He knows he has all the facts,
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she's got all the info. He knows everything.
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God never finds himself saying I wish I would have known that.
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I would have done it differently.
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We don't see that ever happened, God has perfect knowledge of
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everything. Secondly God has Eternal
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perspective on everything at all times.
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In verse 24, it says for he looks to the ends of the Earth
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and seas under the whole Heavens.
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So true wisdom that God has he is sees everything in a proper
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spec perspective and God has Eternal proper, perfect
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perspective. God sees and understands how any
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one thing will affect every other thing.
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Including every person at every time, Through eternity.
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That's a huge concept to grasp, but that's what God does.
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And he knows and has that perspective and then finally,
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God has Infinite Experience. He's always acted wisely and all
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that he has done and he's the actually the wisdom of authors
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wisdom, wisdoms, author, excuse me.
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God is Infinite Experience as the infinitely wise God.
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So during our questions, the Situation's we go through the
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the pain we might suffer the hurt, we may be feeling or
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anything like that, why? Me God, why am I going through
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this? Why, why is somebody that is
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close to me? Why is this happening to them?
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I was thinking this morning, you know what?
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Have you ever thought about how God works?
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Not only in our lives that may be in somebody else's.
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You know, what have God is working in our lives?
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In order to have an effect on somebody else's life.
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Maybe somebody's looking to us on how we react.
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To something for them to learn on how to address that issue may
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be that they're dealing with in their lives.
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God's Providence, which is the way that we work in our land, he
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works in our lives. May not be just about us.
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It's not just about us all the time, maybe it's about somebody
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else. Maybe we're going through this
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trial, whatever, may be in order to show somebody else how to
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deal with it. I remember, you know, Frank up
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here. Sometimes he would always talk
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about this subject and somebody would be asking me, why me and
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Frank would say? Well why not you Why not?
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Are you above everybody else? To not go through this
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experience? You know, maybe God is doing
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that in our lives, you know, to refine the goal to make us
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better to get us through that situation, whatever it may be.
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And he's never going to give us something that we can't handle.
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So we need to remember that. We are not all wise but God is
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we lack. So much knowledge and
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perspective and experience but God lacks none of these things.
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And this is why in the middle of jobs questions of why, right?
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In the middle of the Book of Job, we have Central declaration
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that God is all-wise and as a result, God is trustworthy
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because God is always And you and I honestly ask how can we
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trust God when this or that happened to us or is happening
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to somebody else we can trust God and we when we remember that
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his knowledge is perfect that he knows all things that he knows
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what is best in all those things and we can trust in God.
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And remember that his perspective is eternal.
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When we remember that, he sees so many things all at the same
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time. Throughout eternity.
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We can trust God when we remember that, he has Infinite
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Experience and that he has, and is always and will and always
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will be in that in wisdom, his wisdom.
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He knows how to take an evil and suffering in a certain social
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situation and turn to good, The primary example that is Jesus on
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the cross. Right?
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It's the story of Jesus, the perfect innocent, and blameless,
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Son of God, beaten and tortured nailed to a cross to die.
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Why? Why would God allow his son to
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go through that Jesus was on the cross and said and about the
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ninth hour? Jesus cried out with a loud
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voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani.
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And that is to say my God, my God.
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Why have you forsaken me? Jesus in his humanity and his
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suffering was asking, why why the cross, why the suffering,
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why the pain, why the death, why God are you letting this happen?
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And the answer is because God, the Father, In his Limitless,
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wisdom, his perfect knowledge of every single, he has perfect
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knowledge of every single one of our sins.
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And in his internal perspective, he has designed a way for every
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one of us who obeys, the Gospel of Jesus and lives for him.
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2,000 liters from that event. 2,000 years later from that
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event. That's what we count.
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Our time by. Is that event right around that
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time to be here today and to be saved from our sins God's
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Eternal perspective. And is Limitless, wisdom.
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So we praise God. That Jesus trusted God, the
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father in that situation. To endure the cross.
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The most evil act in history. The crucifixion of a blameless
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Son of God, ushered in the most wonderful reality in all of
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history and Salve. That is salvation for every
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person from every nation who follows the gospel, God is
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infinitely wise and we are not. So we have all of our questions
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about why we must remember that. God is all-wise it honors and
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glorifies God when we trust in him, even when we admittedly.
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And honestly don't understand what he's doing.
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Let me know. Stan, what's going on?
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May not want to know the reality of it but we trust that God is
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doing what is best for us. So that leads us into our second
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anchor that we can rely on and that is to hold fast to God as
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you are hope back in Job 3. The term of death and despair, I
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think is an appropriate description of jobs.
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State of Mine. He's despairing of life itself.
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A number of times, you talked about darkness, and this is a
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picture of Despair and the continues throughout the various
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responses that he has to his friends.
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For example, he had a response in job, 6 verses, 8 and 9.
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It says, oh, that I might have my request that God would grant
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me. The thing that I long for that
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at would plead that it would. Please God to crush me, that he
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would lose. His hand and cut me off and job
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7 verse 16. It says I love my life.
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I would not live forever. Let me alone for my days are but
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a breath joke. 10 20 through 22 are my days.
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Not few cease, leave me alone that I may take a little Comfort
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before I go to the place from which I shall not return to the
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land of darkness and the shadow of death at land is dark as
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Darkness itself as the shadow of death without any order.
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Or even the light is like Darkness job, 19 verses 13
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through 22. He has removed my brother's far
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from me and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
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My relatives have failed and my close friends have forgotten me.
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Those who dwell in my house and my maid servants, count me as a
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stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
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I call my servant but he gives no answer.
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I begged him with my mouth. so, Job is in death and despair and
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and he's longing for he's longing for Hope in all this
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stuff that he's going through. And that's the kind of the
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challenge, right? It's what despair is.
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Its Darkness was no sign of light and Joseph are Joe hits.
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Rock. Bottom in a sense, in chapter
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19, we just read that. I got ahead of myself and
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beginning in verse 13. He says there, as we read in
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verse 13. Will keep, you know, above all
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other things. We should be going through, you
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know, these things. You know, we're not above all
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these things will continue reading in verse 17 of chapter
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19. I apologize.
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I got a little bit out of order. There says my breath is
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offensive to my wife and I am repulsive to the children of my
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own blood. Even young children despise me.
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I arise and they speak against me.
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All of my close friends of bore me, and Those whom I love have
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turned against me, my bone clings, to my skin, into my
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flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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Have pity on me. Have pity on me.
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Oh my you my friends for the hand of God has struck me.
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Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with
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my flesh. Seemingly basically no hope that
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that he had. And it's at this point in jobs
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life where we, we, you know, one of the most remarkable
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remarkable and thrilling triumphant parts.
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In this book. In the very next sentence in the
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very next verse in verse 23, o, that my words were written.
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Oh, that they were inscribed in a book.
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And I want us to feel the intensity there that they were
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engraved on a rock with an iron pan and led forever.
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And then in verse 25 and 3, 27 says, for, I know that my
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redeemer lives and he shall stand at last upon the Earth and
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after my skin is destroyed, this.
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I know that in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for
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myself and my eyes Shall Behold and not another how my heart
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yearns. Earns Within Me.
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Could you imagine going through this stuff that he did?
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And then being able to speak these words still have that
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faith and trust in God. Really a remarkable man.
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And he says, I know. Somebody else doesn't know.
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I know that my redeemer lives My Redeemer mine.
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Now that just because he had those questions, you know, that
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that he had that faith. It doesn't mean that he still
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didn't have those questions of why things were happening.
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It's like not like all of a sudden they've all been answered
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and quite the opposite. You know, job doesn't seem to
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have any of his questions after he doesn't know why.
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But he knows who. Jobe understands, who is the
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creator, who gives all life, who we can rely on?
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No matter what position he is. A redeemer of indicator.
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And this word is used in Ruth to describe the champion of the
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oppressed. It's used in Exodus to describe
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the delivery of the captives. It's used in Proverbs to
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describe the defender of the week, and, you know, there's
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something after your skin is destroyed, he saying here,
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there's something after the pain after the heartache, after the
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sickness after the grief, after my skin is destroyed that in my
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flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself, my eyes,
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Shall Behold yet and not another how my heart yearns Within Me
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So, let's hold fast. To God In Hope, do not turn away
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from God during our trials. Where else would we go?
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To whom shall we go? Because in John chapter 6, The
John 6 chapter mention
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disciples had nowhere else to go, but to Jesus, nobody else
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could give the life that Jesus was promising to them.
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And to us, there was no other place.
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So when we hold fast to Hope in him, you would Behold Him as Our
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Redeemer, our Vindicator Defender deliver provider and
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our healer, he is the one who alone can make All Things New in
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our life. We will see God.
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He is our hope. We'll see our hope one of these
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days. We'll see his face as we're told
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in Revelation. I think about Darren, and he's
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okay with me using this, but there has been blind most of his
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life and he's going to see God's face.
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That's amazing to me. Beautiful.
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And so we long for that hope to see God one of these days.
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He will satisfy our souls forever.
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So, jobs anchors, remember that God is all-wise, and hold fast
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to God. As our hope.
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We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
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Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
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would like any additional information or you would like to
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receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
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Please email us at info at True Church of Christ.
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Bakersfield.com. All our service times are on
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Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
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please, make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
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honored guest