Phil: I’ll guarantee there’s people here that have said, Lord, take me to a deeper place. I wanna know You better. I want more power in my life. I wanna be more effective in what I do, in how I serve You. And the Lord, in order to do that, He has to turn the devil loose on us and put us in actual battles because it’s when we fight with His weapons….
I mean, guys, does this sound familiar? Everything I’m saying was said this morning, and so well by so many, wow, I’m just blessed by the Lord’s presence and how clearly He’s saying these things to us. But if we will stand in those times and use what He’s given us and not listen to that other voice that wants to explain it to us and not go by our own unlimited understanding the stuff we think we know and not allow our emotions to be colored and turned into, turned essentially against the Lord, which is what happens, if our emotions are not on board and we’re just letting them run, what are we saying about Him?
And I’m not saying that to condemn, I’m saying that because I believe the Lord wants us to, He understands all this that we go through. He understands the battles, but He wants us as His children to grow and to learn and to become more what He wants us.
So anyway, the devil comes back and the Lord calls attention again. And the devil says, yeah, he’ll give up everything as long as you don’t touch him. Said, all right, he’s in your hands, but spare his life. And now then we come to the point where he’s got sores from his head to his feet and his wife is a big help. Curse God and die, get it over with. So, everything’s against him.
I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody here who could say, boy, Job, you just didn’t know any better, poor Job. Boy, have any of us have been in that position, I don’t think, I don’t believe I would’ve done half as well as Job did. What an example God has given to us. But anyway, obviously he got down in a very, very, very low place.
And he had three supposed friends who were gonna explain it all to him. And they gathered around him. And even then they waited for seven days ‘cause he was in such a state. And then finally Job speaks and the essence of what he says is, I wish I had never been born. Talk about the ultimate pity party. He goes on and on and on and on and on. What a horrible day that was. It should be wiped off the calendar. If only I had died at birth, would’ve been so much better. So Job was obviously in a very low state emotionally, anybody ever been there?
[Congregation: Yes, sir.]
Yeah, we all get there at times. And so there he was and he was going on and on and his friends start finally speaking up and saying, well, just take your case to God. Go to Him. If right, He’ll help you. Well, the thing is, what did they have to go on? They didn’t have the Bible. They didn’t have the unfolding revelation. They didn’t even have the Old Testament, let alone the New Testament. And so only the only knowledge they had was what had been passed down from Noah.
And of course he probably, he could still have been alive at this point, but he had been very old. But there was a certain amount of knowledge of God and Who He was that caused Job to know that we need to be righteous because He’s an all-powerful God and He’s just, He punishes wickedness. He rewards righteousness. And we need to serve Him and honor Him and live our lives in the light of what we know about Him.
And so there they are trying to navigate all this. And you know what, the most natural thing in all of this is to ask why. And I want to understand it. Now, I don’t care if you’re the most emotional person on the planet. They’re still a part of you that wants to be able to say, I can explain this. I can understand the why.
Oh my God, how easy it is for us to fall into that trap and just insist that we’ve got to figure it out. And just how hard is it for us to just to lay our case before God and say, God, I’m in your hands. I know that You are good.
Do you think God wants us to be in that place where we can just surrender and trust Him? This was a tough place. What an example the Lord has recorded for us of this man and how he was standing up to it and fighting and just, he knew he hadn’t done anything. I mean, he said, in fact, he said at one point, it’s a little bit revealing. The thing I greatly feared has come upon me.
But what does that tell you about the motivation behind what he was doing? He had a knowledge of God. He knew about God and he knew He was all powerful, that He judge his sin. And so there was a, you know, I’ve gotta be careful. I’ve gotta walk on eggs in my life. My children just had a party. I’m gonna offer sacrifices. ‘Cause maybe one of them cursed God in their hearts. I’ve gotta take care of that. There was a fearfulness to it. There was an honest desire to serve God, but it was still tinged with this fear. This, I’ve gotta somehow keep from getting, me here, falling under His judgment.
You think that’s how God wants us to serve Him? Just, I mean, there’s a right kind of fear. It’s a deep respect. But to live under this constant, oh my God, I gotta be perfect or He’s gonna get me if I’m not, if anything bad is happening to me that just tells me He’s angry with me and on and on and on. These terrible accusations against God will settle in our minds and color what we do and how we think and how we think about ourselves. Bad stuff has happened. I must be bad. Oh, was that the problem here?
No, Job was the most righteous man in the world and God was revealing himself to him. I’m not gonna go through the whole book, but the basic story unfolds where he’s constantly trying to say, I didn’t do anything. And he said, you must have, or else this wouldn’t have happened to you. And they’re going back and forth trying to account for all this stuff with what they thought they knew and how it affected them and what their experience was.
God, we don’t know half the stuff we think we know. Wouldn’t it be good just to trust Him? Isn’t that what God is looking for from every single one of us? We just don’t know. And He does, but oh, how easily we let the devil accuse God of just, you know, He’s blessed them. He’s not blessing me. There’s something wrong. Maybe He has it in for me. Maybe this, maybe that. And we’re just, we’re questioning God’s love. Does he really love me, does he really care? Is he really good? Is he just?
And you know what, that kind of came into the play over time. Now Job at one point did have an answer to all these people that have this simplistic view that God blesses good people and punishes bad people. And he said, it’s not like that. Look at all the evil people that don’t care about God at all. And yet they’re having a wonderful life.
Well, what’s the conclusion that the devil’s likely to put in your mind when you think that thought? It’s not worth serving the Lord then, what’s the point? Oh, I’ll tell you, my God. We need divine light and divine help. And we need His word in times like that. There was a time when the Israelites got in that condition, generation or two had gone by after they were restored from Babylon. And the Lord put his finger on their problem and said, they were talking about, why are we doing all this? What good is this doing us to serve God?
How about Psalm 73 and Asaph? He started looking at all the people who were doing wonderfully in the world. Everything was going great for them. And why am I doing this? And of course, the Lord in that case revealed to him that, hey, this is not the end of the story, but here’s Job going through all of this and struggling. But there was one thing that God wanted to touch in Job’s life. The one thing that ultimately he would not let go, even if it came to the point where I’m not a hundred percent sure that He’s just.
What an amazing accusation. God just isn’t just, he doesn’t do right. I can’t really trust him. But there was a point where the justice of God and his own rightness, I’m sinless, I have not done anything wrong. I’ve served God with all my heart. There’s nothing wrong. I’m gonna hold onto my righteousness.
And when the Lord finally spoke to him at the end, He goes through the creation, were you there when I did this? Were you there when I do that? Do you know how this works? Do you, and on and on and on. And suddenly, oops, here I am. I’ve been speaking all these words outta stuff I thought I knew and here’s God talking to me and I don’t know anything. I’m just gonna shut my mouth and listen.
But the one thing the Lord point put his finger on, would you uphold your own righteousness at the expense of my justice? Many times we’re trusting in something in ourselves that’s not really what God wants us to trust in. I wonder how many of us are trusting in our own goodness despite what we sing and say, and when something happens, it’s just proof that I’m bad. I’m this, I’m that. God’s got it in for me.
Instead of saying God’s shaping my life to fulfill his wonderful loving purpose for me. And I don’t care how He has to do it, to show me, needs in me, to show me where my true trust is so I can let it go and put it where it belongs. I don’t care what it is. God, my life is in your hands. We sing the song, but is it? What happens if He says do this or do that or do the other, this is My path for you. Have we really laid everything on the altar?
But here was Job’s, here was the real root of what Job was trusting in was his own righteousness. That’s what it came down to. To the point where it almost caused him to question God’s justice. But you know, the wonderful thing was when God put his finger on that, he said, I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes.
That’s an awesome thing, you know what, that’s what God’s looking for. We are going to discover if we’re gonna serve him, we’re gonna discover things about us that aren’t good, that aren’t right. And we’re gonna look and say, my God, I had no idea that was in there. I had no idea that my real motivation was just governed by that. I said I was yours Lord, but I had a condition there. It was, I’ll serve you as long as, I’ll serve you if, just like some of these examples we had here this morning.
But God has got to put His finger one way or another. And it’s usually gonna be by experiences that we would prefer not to go through. We’re gonna discover that these things are there. What God is looking for when that happens is a heart that says, yes Lord, I see it. I acknowledge it. I lay it at Your feet. I surrender in this area.
And I’ll tell you if wherever there’s a willing heart, God will give the strength to do exactly that because I don’t have it, anybody here have it? This thing all the time, that God has to put His finger in me and I have to say, God, I can’t even respond to that. I don’t have the power in me to do it. You’re gonna have to give me what I need.
But hasn’t He promised that? Hasn’t He said He’s given us through His great and precious promises, all things that pertain to life and godliness. There are things in every one of us that He loves us enough to take us through whatever it takes, in order to set us free, to bring us to a better place.
I think with all my heart, the Lord wants everybody to know here that if you are going through a period of oppression, some several testified to that this morning in the men’s meeting, I’m sure they’re not the only ones, guarantee they’re not the only ones. But if you’re in a place where the devil is just bombarding your mind with thoughts, with anxiety, with fear, with questions about God and what He wants. And oh my God, I don’t know what to do in the 1000 and one things that we get, we all get in those places.
Could that have happened if God hadn’t allowed it? We sing, nothing can happen outside of God’s will — except this. Somehow there are things that we exempt from that song or we disconnect from that song. But God wants us to realize that if He has allowed that to happen, to work on your mind, so that you have to contend with that, you have to somehow deal with those questions and those accusations that are coming from the voice of the enemy. Those are darts.
There’s a whole lot said about the armor this morning and how we have a shield, we don’t have to believe it just ‘cause it comes into our heads. But God is wanting to make His promises and His Word and His character and every bit of that so real, that we will be able to stand there and say, I don’t have to listen to you, devil. That’s your voice and not His. This is what the word says. Take that sword out and stick it in him.
And he knows he has no answer for someone who will absolutely agree with God, but you know we’re gonna have to agree with God, not just against the devil, but against things in us. There are things that need to die. There are things we don’t know about.
And of course we’ve often mentioned, and it was mentioned again in the meeting this morning about how the Lord brought Paul to a place where his heart, as far as he knew his heart was to serve God, do whatever the Lord put in his pathway. Oh God, I want to be used of you. I’ve given myself to you. And Paul didn’t know there was a problem.
What was the problem? Pride. He had been allowed to see and experience so many things. And human nature, it’s awfully easy for human nature to grab hold of something that kind of makes it feel like, yeah, I’m a good guy. I’m this, I’m that. It’s because of me. And Paul, the Lord saw the danger and the devil was getting ready to try to use this. And the Lord just put him in a position where he had a need and he cried out and it didn’t happen. The answer didn’t come right away.
How many of you have been through that? And your mind’s trying to explain that, why is God silent? Why doesn’t He answer me? I’m asking, oh God, why aren’t you answering? What did I do? Tell me what I did. That’s where kind of Job was for a long time. The Lord did answer him, didn’t he?
You know, the Lord knows when and how to speak to us and what to say. I pray that as we go along, we will finally get it through our thick skulls, that God knows what He’s doing, he knows how to do it, knows when to do it, that He loves us. That there’s a purpose that He’s fulfilling, that no devil in hell can stop.
We sung so many songs this morning about our foundation and the hope that we have in him. And it’s real. I pray if that’s not real in your heart, you’ll open your heart and say, oh God, oh God, I know one scripture that was quoted today, it was the one in Jeremiah about, I know the plans that I have, plans to not harm you anyway, give you a hope in the future.
But that same passage also says, talks about seeking the Lord. You’ll seek Him and find Him if you do what? Search for Him with all your heart. There’s a God who will hear a willing heart and He’ll give you what you need. You don’t have to deserve it. Thank God.
I’ll tell you, Job was brought to a place where he realized the blessing of God was not something that he had earned, or he had to be living this fearful. Oh my God does this, God, I can see all the effects, but he’s just out there and I’m afraid he’s gonna crush me if I don’t live up to everything. And he finally came to a place where he realized there’s a God Who cares and Who loves me and is willing to come near.
He wants us to know Him better. Anybody here needs to know Him better? See, this is the pathway we just would prefer it to happen some other way. We want to have to be able to come down here and kneel at the altar and have apostle tremendous lay his hands on you and put it in you and take it out, whenever it doesn’t need to be there. It’s all gonna come in an experience.
I wonder if maybe that’s what the Lord was trying to do for me all those years ago. I was trying to get an experience, ‘cause that’s the way people said it’s supposed to happen. Well, there are experiences with God, but nothing in the way of an experience with God that touches your emotions can take the place of God dealing with us in life. There are things that we can only learn on the field of battle that you can’t get at an altar.
We need him in the darkest moment for us to just stand our ground and look to God and understand that His goodness is absolute. We can trust him in the darkest moment that His Word is still justice. As true as when our emotions are up. Emotions are all over the place and our understanding is so desperately limited.
And you know, if you’ve been, if you’ve known the Lord a while and you know a lot about scriptures, awful easy to just kind of coast a little bit. But I believe with all my heart, God is preparing His people to stand in this dark hour. And we’re gonna need to know our God and the people that know their God will be strong and do exploits. We’ll be able to stand, I believe in all my heart, in the midst of things that people are testifying about, seasons of darkness, seasons of questions, seasons of anxiety and fear, where those things are trying to crowd into our minds and our hearts. God is at work.
The devil is the one who is scared to death that God is actually gonna do something in us and through us. And we need to look beyond everything that we’re experiencing in the moment and say, God is taking me to a better place. And I see past all of this. I see His hand at work and I’m in His hands. Devil, you can’t cause me to question God’s faithfulness, His justice, His goodness, His love, all of those things. He is exactly the same yesterday, today and forever. He is exactly Who I need to be living my life for and trusting with all of my heart.
And I’ll tell you, there’s a God Who will give you a word in due season as we look to Him and wait upon Him. Sometimes we can go through periods of time where the devil is just bombarding our minds and then one little word will come. Oh, I love this line to that old hymn. When the battle is all over at the end, one little word will fell him. And many times it’s that one little word that God could drop in our minds that absolutely will cut off what the devil is saying. And we’ll believe that what God says and have the power not to believe what the devil says. And the devil has no answer.
Thank God for what he’s given to us in Christ! Don’t ever learn to listen to what your mind thinks when you’re trying to figure out stuff, your natural understanding. Say, God, I don’t understand, but I’m looking to You for to increase my understanding, to increase my faith, to take me through this. Help me to see the lessons that You taught Job of standing fast and look and repenting when I put My hand and finger on something.
And it came out pretty good for Job, didn’t he? He had twice as much when he was all done. God, there were earthly blessings involved in Him. But I’ll tell you, whatever God has for us, I want what He has. And I don’t wanna sink in a pool of self-pity. Am I the only one? Whoever does that. I don’t wanna sit there and, I don’t like this circumstance. I don’t like having to put up with this.
Someone recounted to me the other day, something Billy Graham said, said, I’m ready to die. I just wasn’t ready for old age. But the Lord knows what He’s doing and my life is in His hands and I’m trusting in Him. And that’s all He seeks for from any one of us. However, He has to accomplish that. Whatever He has to do to make us what He wants us to be is worth everything. It’s worth everything.
