The Beginning of Wisdom Pt.4
The Beginning of Wisdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsA look at what it means to suffer asa believer and still serve God.
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I bet You Job fails?
I bet You Job fails?
9 Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.
10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is!
11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
Having prosperity can cause an individual to sometimes overlook what matters most. Pleasing God. To many of us are aspiring to reach the heights of what I like to consider the worlds standards. But wear the badge of Christ. That means you compromise your walk in some way shape or form and then justify your actions for doing so. Make suggestions that point you back to God’s grace.
So when we hear what Satan is saying it is a truthful one on so many plains.
11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.
12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Focus on the Creator who created the creation, not on the creation of the Creator.
This is why people jump off buildings and turn to substance abuse because it’s so much pressure that you were never meant to carry. There is so many burdens that you were never meant to be buried under.
Man finds himself as the creation trying to trump the creator. We start questioning God. Instead of reverencing God. Who are we to decide what is and what is not in the universe! The design is immaculate. It’s so complex that we can’t even begin to understand why it is laid out the way God has laid it out.
1 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
2 “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?
3 Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.
5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?
6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone
19 “Where does light come from, and where does darkness go?
20 Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?
21 But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!
22 “Have you visited the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail?
23 (I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war.)
24 Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the home of the east wind?
25 “Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning?
26 Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives?
27 Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground and make the tender grass spring up?
28 “Does the rain have a father? Who gives birth to the dew?
29 Who is the mother of the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
30 For the water turns to ice as hard as rock, and the surface of the water freezes.
31 “Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?
32 Can you direct the constellations through the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?
33 Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?
In the late 80’s the science community created a community called Biosphere 2 to see what man could do on another plant recreating earth in the desert of Arizona. The test had there challenges but one of the biggest ones was the lack of wind and the effects of this happened to be revealed when most of the trees in the glass city began to fall over. Test began to reveal that the lack of wind was causing the trees to not be able to gain rooted strength from the pressures of the wind.
We must understand like trees, man can not grow in maturity without pressures from life.
One of the most inspiring parts of the story of Job is the part where he realizes he can’t judge God.
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.
4 You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’
5 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Our prayer needs to be, Lord help me understand what I do not… If it is Your will.
Don’t get stuck looking in the review mirror when you have a whole road in front of you waiting to be explored.
God is expecting you too turn this trial into a triumph where you can walk away with a testimony of His goodness even when you’ve faced tribulations.
7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.
13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
Job faced many a trial that most of us will never even see a glimpse of! But it doesn’t mean that we still don’t hurt when we do and it doesn’t mean that God still doesn’t care for us. He absolutely does. The same way that one sin is not greater then another in Gods eyes are the concerns for ones suffering. Whatever you hurt in Jesus hurts in with you.
18 The Lord is there to rescue all who are discouraged and have given up hope.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
So why is this important, stop trying to be something you were never intended to be. If God wanted you to be none emotional then he would’ve made you with no emotions. No He wants you to have emotions because they make us Human. They make us who we are. Special. Job was special to God.
8 Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”
How does God see you? ____________________________________________
Be careful who you allow to occupy your space.
Some people are justly there and some people are jealously there. You have to be able to depend on those who are going to look past your disasters and look into your destiny.
Let’s look at what Jobs friends got wrong and then the one who got it right pointed Job back in the direction of understanding that at the end of the day God is sovereign and just in all his doings. This friend is named Elihu and he is the youngest of Jobs friends and the one who speaks last but makes the most sense.
Just because your young doesn’t mean you can’t know God.
The first 3 friends Chapter 4 - 25. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar
There is no Satan behind suffering. Only your own doing. We know this is not true as followers of Christ because we are warned about demonic forces at work in the world.
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
There is no final judgement. Blessings and judgement all happens now. Live right and blessings come now, calamity only comes on those who are evil now. Again another false assumption. Judgement delayed is not judgement denied.
24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.
26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.
27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’
28 “ ‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “ ‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.
29 “ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’ ”
There is a season and time for everything and everything is coming to a conclusion. It’s the way of the story and it’s ending.
9 They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.
There is no innocent suffering. Only those who do evil will face there consequences now. False again, innocent people suffer all day everyday. Jesus was the perfect example of that. He was innocent and still the devil went after Him with no understanding it was all apart of Gods perfect plan.
42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
24 Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”
28 Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.”
29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.
30 When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Every situation of suffering produces a strong finish! Let Christ be your example.
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Job was facing the reality that man knew nothing of God’s infinite Wisdom and that it was better for him to shut his mouth and repent with an understanding that through everything He faced, God was in control ultimately. Don’t loose sight of God he is doing something far beyond our understanding.
10 When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!
11 Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.
12 So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
13 He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.
Job was not blessed with twice as much as before because of his good conduct, he was blessed with it because God could. That’s the point of the story of Job, even in the bad things search for the good. God’s plans are so much more divine then you could ever imagine and even when things don’t go according to your plans know that He has got your best interest.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.
2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
No matter how ruff it gets, look to the promises in God’s Word.