Lessons learned from Job #5
My redeemer lives
Job19:25
Introduction
We have been in a study of Job for several weeks and we have looked at all the suffering that Job went through.
We see more than the average person could bear. We see a man who had it all together get broken and face trial after trail.
We never pray for the patience of Job because to receive the patience of Job means we would have to go through what Job did.
This week has been a challenge for me. I preached last Sunday and my eye was itchy and giving me some problem but I made it through the day. Monday morning I wake up and my eye was just about swollen shut and itched like mad. I looked like Rocky Balboa.
I went to my family doctor and he sent me to a specialist and the specialist said that I got the cold sore virus in my eye. Lots of tests, strong medicine, ointment, medicated eye drops, and a lot of prayer.
Why does this have to happen to me! I got no time for things like this.
I thought maybe the Lord was going to make me a sermon illustration as a man standing up here with sores to illustrate Job trails. I glad he didn’t let it get that far.
Made me think- I may look fine today but it was a week. We do not know what other people have gone through in the last week. They may not show on their face what is going on in their heart.
But God does! He has seen the week!
At some point, we have to rise above what we are going through or it will take us down.
We have to surrender to God not the storms of life. (Repeat)
We can keep talking about the storms or we can begin making conversation about rising above the storms!
Which one are you this morning? How many want to be the ones that rises above? Let me see your hands.
We have had a baby dedication, rising money for alabaster, we have heard a beautiful song of how great God is, our worship team has lead us to worship…but nothing touches your life like letting God’s Word change you from the inside out! Amen!
Prayer
Chapters and chapters of pain and bad advice-
God remained silent for a long time to see what Job would do in these situations.
He allowed the devil to inflict pain, but God would not allow him to kill Job.
Satan could not do it. We know who holds the key to our lives as believers! We know that if he could, that Satan would take out the men and women of God so that God would get no glory and the gospel would not be preached to unbelievers
Satan is allowed to do only so much and we forget who has won the battle already and who has never given up His throne.
We live defeated lives and fall short of what God has called us to do because we have the wrong focus.
Job 19:25- Text Job speaking-
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes- I, and not another. How my heart yarns within me.”
It is his profession of faith in the midst of pain and suffering.
He knows that his redeemer lives! Satan could not destroy him though he did not know it was Satan.
He believed that whatever happens to him including if God brought judgment he was going to serve his God.
He understood that there was a redeemer coming to set forth his feet on this earth, though he did not know his name, we know his name and his name is Jesus Christ the Nazarene.
He knows that He is a living redeemer coming, not one dead but one who was resurrected from the grave and because this redeemer lives, he would also live, that he also would be resurrected.
He comforts himself with knowing that on the other side of the grave is victory and peace and eternal life.
When you know that your redeemer lives, there are a few things you will learn from Job and his experiences.
Examine your life
You will ask the question of God, Is there any un-confessed sin in my life? You will make sure nothing is blocking you from being able to hear God’s voice. There are so many voices battling for our attention. It is not necessarily the loudest that should get our attention.
2 Corinthians 13:5-
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you-“
Psalm 66:18
“If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, my Lord would not have listened” (New Living Translation).
Ask yourself: Do I have wrong motives? Is there anything (or anyone) that I love more than God?
As God brings things to mind, quickly ask for His forgiveness.
Accept God’s Sovereignty
Recognize if God is silent there is a reason for it and we must find out what is the reason.
He does not have to respond and answer and at times is quiet for us to learn the lessons he has for us.
Job would not listen to his friends and his wife when their advice was to turn his trust away from God.
Job 2:10
“Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity” God is in control and He can be trusted.
Listen to what God is saying
Although He appears quiet, sometimes He has already given us answers through His word, through the Holy Spirit speaking to the things we are going through.
We have to be sensitive and listening for His voice to speak to us.
We have to be intentional and ourselves quiet to hear Him.
Silence can be intimate times with the Lord
We must trust God during the quiet times.
It is not always a time of neglect when we have not heard from the Lord.
We sometimes think something is wrong because we do not immediately hear from the Lord.
When we are comfortable with a person, we can sit quietly with them and not have to always be talking.
In quietness, when Satan approached God, He said, have you considered my servant Job?
God chose Job for the job. It was not a punishment, it was affirmation of his faith.
Keep talking to God
Just because God isn’t talking, does not mean we stop praying. Amen.
Maybe He is quiet because you will not give him a chance to talk.
God was silent and in chapter 38, He ask Job
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” asks God. “Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). God is in control and He can be trusted. God still answers prayer.
What we learn in a storm reveals our hearts.
Your heart can be broken and open or it can be broken and bitter. Your heart will let you know where you are at.
For God to do something, it has to be broken and open for Him to cleanse, heal, or change your heart.
You want a deeper faith in God, your faith will be tested or tried in fire. (That is a fact Jack)
His friends and his wife accused him of being a hypocrite, condemned him as a wicked man with sin in his life. He appeals to his faith, and his hope, and to his own righteousness. He knows the truth and he knows that his God knows the truth. The truth will be revealed and the truth will set him free.
There is a story in the book of Daniel of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three Hebrews who would not bow to the King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They had a choice- they could bow when the king told them or they could be placed in a fury furnace and die. That was their choice.
Daniel 3:14-
“Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?”
3:16- “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, king Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up”
That is living like your redeemer lives and you know that because your redeemer lives, so will you, no matter what! Halelujah!
You will learn lessons in a storm quickly because you know will not pass until you have learned the lesson.
If they are lessons the Lord needs you to learn, the best things you can do is learn them and not have to repeat them. Some lessons are stepping stones for your journey for you to move ahead and until you learn them you are not able to move forward.
While Jobs friends were confessing his faults , he was professing his faith
They all were finding ways to prove he was guilty of his sins against God.
He maintained his faith in God and said that he would not stoop to their level.
Why do you continue to attack me? I have not harmed you in any way. If I have sinned against God, is that matter not between me and my God?
Close
Restoration begins when we look to the Lord not the storm.
If you are a believer, look for Jesus to be there with you in that storm. If he takes you through it, He wants to be in it with you.
Restoration begins when we surrender to the Lord not the storm of our life.
Time does heal provided that the time was spent healing and not complaining with bitterness.
Job even prayed for the people that had attacked him.
Final words to his friends 27:10- “I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.”
Thou they treated him bad, he was not going to keep from them the God that he served.
21:13- Job is lamenting-“They spent their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. Yet they say to God, leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve him.”
Paraphrased, They may be looking like they are blessed, and they may be mocking my God, but one day, my redeemer is going to make it all right for me. I am more concerned I am ready for what is ahead than the here and now because the here and now is a moment in time compared to eternity.
In the end Job won, in the end, as believers, we win!
George W. Truett, a well-known pastor, was invited to dinner in the home of a very wealthy man in Texas. After the meal, the host led him to a place where they could get a good view of the surrounding area.
Pointing to the oil wells punctuating the landscape, he boasted, “Twenty-five years ago I had nothing. Now, as far as you can see, it’s all mine.” Looking in the opposite direction at his sprawling fields of grain, he said, “That’s all mine.” Turning east toward huge herds of cattle, he bragged, “They’re all mine.” Then pointing to the west and a beautiful forest, he exclaimed, “That too is all mine.”
He paused, expecting Dr. Truett to compliment him on his great success. Truett, however, placing one hand on the man’s shoulder and pointing heavenward with the other, simply said, “How much do you have in that direction?”
The man hung his head and confessed, “I never thought of that.”5
This morning, think about that! How much of your time are you spending putting up treasures up there? Including your walk with God here and now- My redeemer lives! How about your redeemer? Does He live in your life and are you willing to die to yourself so He has full surrender of your life?
Prayer-
Amen.
