Transcription
Ladies, um, I consider you all family, sisters. I know we see each other as sisters in the Lord, and we lift each other up. And this book of Job is real life things that are happening. And in this study, as I was looking over these chapters, there's so many different things that we could pull from it. And, um, I would love to say, "Wow, there was just this amazing thing that was so wonderful, which it it is, um, that the Lord has showed me." And I'm going to throw myself under the bus right now because uh, the Lord was pointing out something in this study that he was pointing out in me personally. And, um, just wanted to just share.
So, I want to speak from my heart in this in this lesson. It's going to be a little bit different than what you would probably expect, especially as we're going into wisdom. Um, I'm not necessarily breaking that down too much, but you'll you'll see. So, let me open this up in prayer.
Dear heavenly Father, Lord, we give you this morning, God, and we ask, Father, that your word would go forth in power today. Father, give us ears to hear what your spirit would say to us, Father God, and that it would, Lord, do an amazing work in every single heart, that it would just reach the creeks and crevices that, Lord, we sometimes cannot see, but that you, Father God, would do something absolutely amazing. To you, Father, be all of the glory, honor, and praise.
Now, looking at these four chapters in Job 28 through 31, >> [snorts] >> I've titled the message, "When Push Comes to Shove." Because what we have been seeing, as Lisa has described in the past, is more of like a boxing match with Job and his friends. And this type of relating is called adversarial. It's very argumentative. And it's one person is building up a case against another person, and there's no ministry that is happening. Job is not getting ministered to by his friends. He's just being beat down by his friends. And behind this kind of interaction is our adversary, the devil. In 1 Peter 5:8, we're told to be sober and vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And our adversary, the devil, he's the arch enemy, and he accuses men before God. And so, we saw this in the very beginning of Job, where Satan was accusing God, saying to God, "Well, the reason why he is not cursing you is because you have blessed him. You have set a hedge around him. You've blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased." And you remember those words that Satan was saying to Job. And or to God. And so, God said, "Stretch out your hand, but don't touch his body. Don't kill him. You can have your way with him, basically." And so, Satan did. And now, Job is in fear. And when people are being pushed and pushed and pushed, we can get to the point that we feel like we need to defend ourselves. And so, Job is now in a position where he feels like he needs to defend himself. And he had a he had expressed his fears to us earlier on in Job 3:25, he said, "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me." Um, he was afraid of what was of this actually happening, and it did happen to him. I've been there. Something so I was so afraid of has happened to me. And, um, trying to get to the point but when you're being pushed, you feel like, "I need to defend myself." Job 9:29 9:28 also says, "I am afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you will not hold me innocent." And in Job 30:15, the the chapter we'll be hitting on soon, it says, "Terrors have turned upon me. They pursue my honor as the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud." And so, we can see that he's fearful because his honor and his prosperity has been passed away. So, he is at a loss, but the good thing is, he's asking, "Where can wisdom be found?"
And so, in Job 28, there is this poem that Job wrote about the contrast of the riches of this world and where to find wealth to wisdom. And I would have recommend that each one of you do a study on wisdom because there's so much treasure. I have just notes and notes of pages. I can't get into all of them, but there is it's it's a lot. But I want to, um, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, talk about what wisdom is in these kinds of circumstances, in these kinds of situations that we face in our life, just like Job is encountering. He asked, "But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? From where does wisdom come, and where is the place of understanding?"
Now, wisdom, the actual definition in Hebrew, it is the comprehensive God-centered quality of mind and life that discerns what is truly right and acts accordingly. So, it's doing what the Lord's will is. And we're going to be talking about God's wisdom. I'm not going to break down all the different kinds of wisdoms. There's worldly wisdom, and then there's wisdom from the Lord. But wisdom is not an education. It's not something that we can go to school and get. It's not even just opening up the Bible and reading the Bible. Um, you might have non-believers who say, "I've read the Bible," but they don't have any wisdom. But reading the Bible has everything to do with it at the same time. Now, understanding in Hebrew, it's more than knowledge. It is the ability to differentiate and to weigh and to choose rightly in light of God's revelation. And so, Job then says in Job 28:28, "And to man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.'"
So, when I say reading the word isn't enough, it's because there is an attitude that we need to have in reading that word. And in the in the Bible, it says to fear the Lord, and that is to have reverence for God. And it could be an awe feeling where you're trembling before him because of his majesty, but here's the thing, it always presses toward loving obedience. So, it's always going to result in obeying him. So, if we're going to read the word, but then still do what we want to do, we're still leaning on our own understanding, and we're not submitting to him. And that's where we can get into trouble, and that's where we can fall into the hands of the enemy. And the enemy will traffic in realms of fear and in realms of pride. And to depart from evil, it means to just turn away from it. Have nothing to do with it. Because evil is irrational and it's self-destructive. And it's anything bad, wicked, harmful, or unpleasant. And so, why would God say then to fear him? Well, one of the reasons is because he wants to give us life. And yes, we have eternal life, but through our circumstances, he wants us to have life. And we're seeing Job just feeling like he's done, and he's going to die, and that's not how the Lord wants us to live. He wants us to live through our circumstances because we trust in him. And I don't know if you've been reading the one-year Bible, but in Deuteronomy, we've been going through that this past month, and there's just so many things about learning about how to fear the Lord and teaching these things to our children, and him having his way in us because it's a working in our heart. In Deuteronomy 3:6, it says, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live."
So then, where can this wisdom be found? Because sometimes we think, "Gosh, I wish we could just get it. It's just seems like it's so hard." But in Deuteronomy 4:5:6, it says, "Surely, I I taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commands me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" And so our nation it is comprised of individuals that are filled with wisdom. In Deuteronomy 4:10b, he says, "Gather to Gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and they shall teach their children." And this commandment in Deuteronomy 30:11-14, which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you and it's not too far off. It's not in heaven that you should say, "Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear and do it?" Nor is it beyond the sea that we should say, "Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear and do it?" But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
You know that space ship that's out orbiting um I was reading the other day that it was going on the back side of the moon and while it was doing that for about 40 minutes of time, there was going to be no no way to communicate to them. And so everybody who's kind of monitoring the the space spacecraft is just they're they're all silent and waiting. Oh my goodness, are they going to come back on comms, right? And so I was thinking, "Wow, they are they have gone somewhere that nobody has ever been." But God has. And God created that. God even knows the back side of the moon, just like he knows every single hair on our head. And even if they did lose communication with us here on earth, they could never lose communication with the Lord. The Lord is with them. And sometimes we might feel like, "God, are you here in this place? Are you here in my situation?" And he says, "I am." >> [clears throat] >>
So, we need to access this wisdom when dealing with an adversary. And we can access this wisdom through Jesus Christ. Because the enemy, he wants to steal life from us in our circumstances. In John 10:10, it says, "The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly." And so if you have Jesus, you have life. 1 John 5:12 says, "He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life." And so this wisdom is just found in Jesus. And he in 1 Corinthians 1:24 says, "But to those who are the called Are you called? Both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God God and the wisdom of God." By asking, we can receive this wisdom. And the thing is about the Lord is he doesn't hold anything back when it comes to wisdom. And so 1 John 5:14 says, "Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." And ladies, if we are lacking wisdom in our situation we can ask him. In James 1:5, we can ask of God, who gives to all liberally. That means he gives this wisdom generously, bountifully, and he's literally holding nothing back. And without reproach. And that reproach means that he does that without fault or without blame. And it will be given to him. But if we keep reading, it says, "But in the next verse, let him ask in faith with no doubting." So believe that you're going to receive the wisdom that God has.
So this wisdom that God wants to give and that he gives freely, it's led by his desire to bless. And this word liberally occurs only one time in the New Testament. And so he's applying this word liberally to wisdom. And so it is for us to take from him whenever we need it. And so Job he has come to a point that he feels that he needs to express to the Lord and everyone else all of the things that he did. I'm not going to go into that in the study of all the things. They are all wonderful things and we definitely need more people doing these things that Job is doing. I mean, he's literally living out his faith by his works. It's amazing. But what I don't want us to miss is the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ when we are in that situation. Because Job said that he was in darkness. In Job 30:26, he says, "But when I looked for good, evil came to me. And when I waited for light, then came darkness." And so in the darkness, we could think, "Well, I need to talk about all the things that I have done, all of these really good things. God, I need you to see all of these really good things that I've done." Oswald Chambers he talks about the discipline of dismay when we are in fear. And he says, "The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and then on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for him strong. But when darkness of dismay comes, endure it until it is over because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressible wonderful joy." And this is taken from Isaiah 55:10 and 11, who says, "Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the Lord and rely on his God. Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks. Walk in the light of your own fire and in the sparks you have kindled." That means when we try to make our own light because of the things that we have done. "This you will have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment." He is our only light in the darkness. And I'm not saying, "No, we don't talk about the things that we've done in the past." Yes, we can enjoy the blessings of the Lord and we can say, "Thank you, Lord, for all of these things that you have done." But when we rely on those things to light our path we're not focusing on God himself.
And so Job he has been taken from honor to dishonor. He has been taken from a place where he was the go-to person. He was the person that everybody went to for counsel. He uplifted widows and he helped the orphans. And he was he was everything. He was a great great guy. But he says that terrors have turned upon him and they pursue his honor and his prosperity. He's been dejected. And he he's so scared that that happened to him. And so we look at Jesus who sits on the throne in heaven who on his own came down and he stepped down from his honor so that he could be with us. And he lived a life and he subjected himself to dishonor and he subjected himself to mockings and scourgings and to all of those things when he died on the cross for us. And so that you guys know the verses in Isaiah 53 where he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. And we just went through Easter celebration and we've read the scriptures where in Matthew they spat on his face. Matthew 26:67 and they beat him and others struck him with the palms of their hands. He went through all of that for us. He says Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?" The Lord himself, he experienced the forsaking of God and we don't have to feel that. We don't have to experience that where Job is feeling like God has forsaken him. He hasn't. And we see that because when Job was looking back at his at the past and he said when God was smiling down on me basically. It's saying in the darkness God is not smiling on me, but he is still smiling on us even in the darkness. And so while Job thinks that he has been demoted, he's actually been promoted to the greatest position by his suffering. And when we feel like we have lost everything or we have lost everything, we can suffer with Jesus Christ and have that fellowship with him. So we don't take confidence in our flesh or the things that we've done. And we take this opportunity to know him. Paul got to know Jesus and he can he shares that with us. In Philippians 3:3 it says, "For we are the circumcision who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Philippians 3:8 says, "Yet indeed I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." So we want to be found in him, not having our own righteousness, but we want to have Christ. He is our righteousness. And this is by faith. Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death.
So are you facing charges against you? Are is somebody pointing a finger at you? Well, Jesus had that happen as well. And Paul says, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended." This is Philippians 3:13. "But one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forward to the things that are ahead." So we press on. In the following verse 14, "To the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." And how do we do that? We do that in 2 Timothy 4:7, "By fighting the good fight. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." And so we can rest in the fact that God does see our ways. And Job had claimed that. In the teaching by Judy, it was pointed out that Job said confidently, "He knows the way I take. And when I am tested, I shall come forth as gold." And if you haven't seen that message, you needed pull that one up because God is doing an amazing work. And God wants to say Job wants to say to God, "Doesn't he see my ways and count all my steps?" So when we're going through this, we can be in instability. We can have our faith and then wonder if God is seeing. And so we need to be anchored in the Lord. And God does see. And he sees because he has a purpose. In 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him." So he wants to show himself mighty through us. Proverbs 33:13-15 says, "The Lord looks from heaven and he sees all the sons of men. From the place of his dwelling, he looks on all the inhabitants of the earth and he fashions their hearts individually." This word fashions means that he is purposefully forming or shaping. And he forms with purpose and power with covenant love. And so do we want to flourish? We must yield then to his skillful hands because he fashions our lives for his everlasting praise. That's going to mean that we come to the end of ourselves.
And I just want to point out the very last verse in chapter 31:40. Thought this was interesting where they it says, "The words of Job are ended." And it's almost like Job has to get it all out. And God's okay with that. You can get it all out. Um you all know I facilitate a group on Thursday night and I co-facilitate with another leader. And if we have time, we'll do like an icebreaker before we get into the lesson and it's a quick answer a question with one word. Things like, "What's your favorite food?" or "What is your favorite color?" Well, uh the co-leader, Laura, she had a question a couple of weeks ago which was so insightful and she asked, "When you are misunderstood, I will choose to and the the different answers that came out were things like, "I will choose to be loving. I will choose to be kind. I will choose to be gracious." And there was one of that stood out. And she said, "I will choose to be silent." And thought, "Wow, sometimes we need to be silent. I need to be silent so that I can hear the Lord." And Proverbs 3:5-6 it says, "To trust the Lord with all our hearts and telling not on our understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths." And in our quiet confidence in him, he will direct us. Psalm 62:1-2 says, "Truly my soul silently waits for God. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not greatly be moved." And in Psalm 62:8, "Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us." And so real wisdom is to take the position of the low and broken road. It's not going to God and saying, "God, do you see what I'm doing?" God approves of a broken and a contrite spirit. When we go to the Lord and say, "God, do you see what I'm doing? Lord, I have done this and I have done this and Lord, you have spoiled my success." As opposed to going to the Lord and saying, "Have mercy on me, a sinner." There's a difference. And wisdom says that we ought to take that route with the Lord because he is near to a broken spirit. Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit." And Micah 6:8 says, "He has shown you, oh man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly." Yes, Job is doing that. He's doing justly. "And to love mercy and then to walk humbly with your God." And God gives us grace and humbleness. James 4:6 says, "But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." And there is power in that weakness. When we come to the end of ourselves and the end of all of the things that we have done, because it's just Jesus and him alone. It's not Jesus and our works or Jesus or anything that we've learned. It is all him and him alone. And if we can come to the place that if this is it and all we have is the Lord, are we okay with that? In 2 Corinthians 12:7 says, "Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelation, a thorn of the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure." And you you know, you're familiar with the story where he asked the Lord to remove this thorn from him three times. And what does God say to him? "My grace is sufficient for you." So Paul, he would rather boast in his infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon him. He says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. When I am weak, then I am strong." And so in our weakness and in our suffering, we can live by the power of God who is strong, made perfect in our weakness.
Let us pray. Dear heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this time this morning. And we ask, Father, that you would have your way. If there is a lady who is being pushed to feel that she needs to defend herself, would you, Lord, come alongside of her and lift her up. Encourage her, Lord, that you do love her with an everlasting love and you see all of her ways and you are acquainted with every part of her. And heavenly Father, we give you, Lord, our hearts. And that you, Father, would continue to have your way in and through us and that you would be glorified and magnified in everything. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.