[0:00] Well, good morning. It's good to see all of you this morning. I feel like I need to introduce myself. I'm Pastor Andrew, for those of you who don't know me.
[0:12] It's been a while, and it's really great to be able to have so many gifted men who can carry the word and deliver it from week to week. And we are a privileged church to have so many gifted men who can give us.
[0:30] The final song that we sang, and actually all the songs that we sang this morning really helped to speak of the theme of this section of Scripture we're going to be covering this morning.
[0:46] That last song in the final phrase of that song says, Draw me close and teach me to abide. Draw me close and teach me to abide.
[0:58] That's the essence of the message this morning. That's what we learn this morning from our passages that start in Job chapter 32 and work their way all the way to Job chapter 37.
[1:15] Draw me close. Teach me to abide. Of course, that song is drawn out of the Scripture. John 15 verse 4 says this, Abide in me.
[1:27] This is Jesus speaking. And I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine.
[1:39] You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
[2:00] By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. If you want to have a life that enjoys the product of fruitfulness, it must be attached to the vine.
[2:19] It's got to draw from the source of truth that comes from God in his word. And it's so important for us, especially in this day and age, because we live in a society, we live in a culture of influencers, right?
[2:34] And those of you who are younger would probably, it's kind of the hip term, influencers, right? And we might talk, the older generation, we might talk about counselors, advisors.
[2:47] We might talk about those who are providing a level of direction and guidance in life. But we have got to understand that we're living in a culture right now, and it's always been this way, but especially in the here and now, where we are bombarded by counselors.
[3:08] We're bombarded by influencers. Wherever you go, on the billboards, on the computer screens, on your cell phones, when you go home, you're listening to the radio, wherever you are, you're bombarded by influencers.
[3:23] And we are those who influence as well. Well, you give advice. You might not call it counsel, but you're going to provide your opinion, whether it's asked for or not.
[3:35] And we want our voice to be known. We want our voice to be heard. We want people to listen up. We have something to share. And that's, again, the day and age in which we live. We have something to give. We have an opinion to provide.
[3:47] And we just want people to listen. We want our voice to be heard. And so the counsel that we give is never in a vacuum. It's always conditioned by something.
[4:00] It's either conditioned by the experiences that we have, or conditioned by the things that we hear, or the things that we read, or the things that we see, or the latest talk show hosts, or the latest, the trending life hacks that you might be associated with.
[4:18] We are influencers because we have been influenced. Our lives are constantly bombarded by perspectives, opinions, values, and social norms.
[4:31] And whether it be Oprah Winfrey, or Dr. Phil, or for the older generation, Phil Donahue, or Barbara Walters, or Whoopi Goldberg, whoever it is, whoever's the talking head, whoever's sharing their opinion, whoever you're listening to, is going to be influencing you in a way to think.
[4:53] Maybe social media. Maybe it's Charlie Kirk, or Ben Shapiro, or Jordan Peterson. Whoever it is that you're tuned into is going to be somebody who is influencing your perspective, your values, your thinking, guiding your experiences, and also influencing your perspectives and your advice to others.
[5:18] The world is intent on influencing the way you think. The world wants your mind. Because if it can get to your mind, it can get to your heart.
[5:31] The world wants to have you. And so, there could be not a more important topic than what we're covering this morning. Because you will be influenced and are being influenced in some way, and you are an influencer, whether you think so or not.
[5:50] And so, this is a really important thing for us to consider as we look into the Word of God today. And it begs the question, how do we tune our ears to listen to right wisdom?
[6:08] And how do we tune our lips to speak the wisdom of God? How can we be influenced in the right way? How can we influence others in the right way? That's what it boils down to.
[6:20] That's really what this passage in Job chapter 32, moving all the way to Job 37, is all about. It's about influence. How will you influence?
[6:33] Will you influence in a way that points to God, or will you influence in a way that points to this world, points to you, points to your perspectives, your advice, your expertise, whatever it might be.
[6:45] How does your influence point to Jesus? How does your heart help to draw out and encourage faith in Him? Of course, the psalmist has a lot to say, and I love the psalms because it's so much about counsel, good counsel, right?
[7:03] And it opens up this way. It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stands in the path of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scornful.
[7:15] But, here it is, his delight is in the law of the Lord. In His law, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit and its season.
[7:30] Its leaf will not wither. So there's two roads to choose from. There's a road of listening to the counsel of this world to be influenced by the ungodly, the sinners, the scornful, or to be influenced by the great influencer, by God Himself, who loves to steer you in the right direction, who has made His word available, His truth available to you.
[8:00] And as John referred to a little earlier, we are living in a day and age where we couldn't ask for anything more as it speaks to revelation, the revelation of God in speaking to all of the things of this life, providing direction for us in every area of life.
[8:21] What a blessing it is. And how do we access, how do we access that knowledge? How do we allow God's word to influence our hearts so that we can be the right kinds of influencers to those around us?
[8:36] Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. It's a familiar passage as well. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding in all your ways.
[8:47] Acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. I love the way the NIV puts it. He will make your paths straight. If you want to have straight paths, God delights in making them straight.
[9:04] God wants to counsel you. And God has provided His counsel, the best counsel in His word for us to access and through the power of the Spirit we can understand it and apply it.
[9:18] He not only helps us understand the truth, but by God's grace He gives us the power to put it to work. It's amazing. We are, of the most people, most to be thankful for what God has done for us.
[9:35] So, the title of this message and it probably kind of tips my hand as it were in telling you kind of where I land on Elihu, but what we're going to see is Elihu is a lot like his friends.
[9:50] He's going to speak for God when God is silent. And whenever we do that, whenever we speak for God and God is silent, beware.
[10:02] It's not only dangerous, it's disastrous. it will lead to disaster in your life and in the lives of those you're seeking to lead.
[10:14] So, we're going to pick up this study in Job from chapter 32 and as you can imagine, we do not have enough time probably even to read it all, let alone to talk about it all.
[10:28] So, I want to just hit the high spots. I want to introduce to you who this guy Elihu is. I want us to evaluate his life and his counsel because there's something for us to learn here.
[10:42] That's what the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.16 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness so the man and woman of God might be perfect, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
[10:57] So, there's something for us to learn here but we can't learn it unless we understand what's going on and however we take Elihu will kind of help to steer the way we see what's going on and the things we take away from his advice, his counsel.
[11:15] So, we're going to see the introduction to Elihu. That's kind of our first point this morning and we're going to see that Elihu was an influencer and right out of the gate you're going to notice that he is an angry influencer.
[11:30] Okay? And you're going to see this as we read through Elihu the angry influencer. Picking it up at verse 1. Notice. So, these three men ceased to answer Job speaking of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
[11:45] And because he was righteous in his own eyes speaking of Job this is when Elihu begins to speak. So, then Elihu the son of Barakal the Buzite of the family of Ram burned with anger.
[11:58] he burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.
[12:11] Now Job had waited to speak excuse me now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. And when Elihu saw there was no answer in the mouth of these three men he burned with anger.
[12:25] Do you see it? Anger. Anger. Anger. Anger. And not just frustration but he burned with anger. He was seething with anger.
[12:36] He just could not contain himself. We're going to see that more as we go. We don't know how long he's been present. We don't know how he's related to Job or his friends.
[12:48] We don't know how much he's heard about this. We don't even know how he got invited to the party as it were. Was he just walking by he saw Job and his friends sitting on the ash heap and decided to join we don't know we're not given that information but here he is.
[13:04] Up to this point he's been quiet. Up to this point he's been willing to listen. Up to this point he's shut his mouth. And now that Job and his three friends are silent Elihu decides it's now his turn.
[13:18] Elihu by the way means he is my God. That's telling of his orientation. It's telling of something about him and I think we're going to see as we work our way through that Elihu really does care about God.
[13:33] I believe that's the case. In his dad his father's name Barakel means God blesses. And so these Hebrew names point to God and that's significant for us.
[13:45] But it is important for us to see this anger that's on the surface. Five times excuse me four times in just these five verses the author wants to emphasize he burned with anger.
[14:01] And we're left with this question and we're not going to answer it quite yet. Is his anger righteous or is his anger carnal? Is it fleshly? We'll explore this as we move along.
[14:14] But there's two aspects to his anger. First he's angry at Job because Job has justified himself rather than God. That's in verse 2. And then in verse 3 he's angry because Job's friends can't seem to put Job down.
[14:30] They can't seem to argue their case. They can't seem to convince Job that he's in the wrong. Now on the surface Elihu is driven by the right motive.
[14:41] I think we can all agree that Elihu's motive of trying to justify God trying to glorify God trying to defend God's honor is a correct and lofty thing.
[14:55] But we should be challenged by the truth that we learn from James the half brother of Christ in James 1 19 and 20 when it says know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
[15:18] Just keep that locked away keep that in the back of your minds understand that there can be righteous anger but there's also mostly the kind of anger that comes out of us it's driven by selfish motives it's driven by fleshly things and that anger does not produce the righteousness of God.
[15:40] So beware just because he burned with anger does not mean that he is speaking for God. Next Elihu was a wordy influencer not just an angry influencer but a wordy influencer and we see that in a sampling of passages beginning in chapter 32 verse 6 where it says this and Elihu the son of Barakal the Buzite answered and said I am young in years and you are aged therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you I said let days speak and many years teach wisdom and so while he waits and he's willing to listen now he's hit the tipping point now the others are quiet and now Elihu is going to step in we see that in verse 11 behold I waited for your words I listened for your wise sayings while you searched out what to say I gave you my attention and behold there was none among you who refuted
[16:40] Job or answered his words now jump down to verse 18 for I am full of words the spirit within me constrains me behold my belly is like wine that has no vent like new wineskins ready to burst I must speak that I may find relief I must open my lips and answer you get the sense of this eruption that's about to take place this explosion of words because Elihu just cannot contain himself anymore and the anger that's burning within him has now bubbled to the surface and now it's explosion you might call it word vomit that's what we see here and we know that he's angry he's angry and God will burn with anger too we see that in Job chapter 42 verse 7 but the anger that God will burn with we see this the Lord speaks these words to Job the Lord said to
[17:42] Eliphaz the Temanite my anger burns against you and against your two friends for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has so while there is this anger bubbling and boiling down inside of Elihu it's not an anger that we're going to see mimics the same anger of the Lord at least in terms of the person or the direction he has one of the two but he has Job also in his crosshairs and God is not angry with Job so is his anger appropriate are his words appropriate and from this point on we're going to see we're going to only hear from two speakers there's no more dialogue anymore it's only going to be a monologue that Elihu will speak for six consecutive chapters he will not take a breath he'll speak 2700 words more than any of the other friends of Job and I'm sure
[18:43] I'm sorry I don't know my popping up here there we go maybe give it a little bit more service loop that Elihu will just start to spill these words and he won't even take a breath and it's fascinating to me that as the younger individual he will speak four consecutive speeches as opposed to the three speeches of the others and he'll even speak more than God God will speak for four chapters about 1900 words and Elihu will just go on this rampage for 2700 words without interruption without inviting response he just keeps on speaking and I think the lesson that we see one of the minor lessons that we see is more words does not mean Elihu is more right more words does not mean you're more right matter of fact
[19:44] Proverbs 10 19 will say this when words are many sin is not absent but he who holds his tongue is wise there is wisdom in restraining the number of words and speaking in a way that is concise and deliberate and Elihu just gives vent to his words because of the anger inside and we are still at the point of deciding whether or not Elihu is speaking for God and that is one of the fundamental questions of our time this morning does he represent God faithfully or is he just like Job's other misguided friends is he speaking for God does he speak in a way that not only acknowledges God but does he speak in a way that represents God faithfully or we'd assume that since God doesn't rebuke Elihu at the end that Elihu must then be right in God's eyes what's going on there but let's just dive in and try to tackle these first couple of points quickly so we can get to the lesson in all of this for us does
[20:57] Elihu represent God faithfully does Elihu represent God faithfully that's an important question because fundamentally the lessons that we're going to learn from these chapters are going to rise and fall they're going to rest on what we determine how we see Elihu and how God sees Elihu if he's speaking for God then it's an example we need to follow if he's not speaking for God then it's an example for us to resist right so as you can imagine though commentators are really mixed on this and that has been some of the biggest challenge of these chapters is who is Elihu is he speaking for God and where are we supposed he says almost every commentary is skeptical about Elihu critical of his views his tone his character such a widespread agreement among critics ought not to be lightly jettisoned and yet in
[21:58] Christopher Ash's opinion and yet I think it is wrong let us consider some of the arguments and he goes on to share his arguments now I don't know which commentators he's looking at or reading from all the commentaries that I have all the contemporary commentators see Elihu in a positive light that he is one who's approaching the argument differently than Job's other friends that he is one who's adding to the conversation that he's one who's addressing Job's sin in a way that's appropriate and truthfully I've gone back and forth and I don't think this is cut and dry and I don't want to provide a perspective that I've arrived but I do want to share some things that at the end of the day I think are convincing enough so we can understand where Elihu is coming from so while this is not a simple decision it is an important one and at the end of the day the question that we need to ask ourselves is does
[22:58] Elihu represent God faithfully that's the underlying question to commend about about Elihu we see first of all that he cares about the honor of God he cares about the honor of God and that by the way is fundamental in representing God to know who God is and to want to defend the things that God would defend and so we saw right out of the gate in chapter 32 verse 2 that Job justified himself rather than God and that's what got Elihu riled up and that's an appropriate reason to speak that's an appropriate reason to be angry second he claims to be speaking for God not just wanting to honor God but he actually claims to be speaking for God and we see this in chapter 32 verses 8 and 9 notice he says it is the spirit in man the breath of the almighty that makes him understand it is not the old who are wise nor the aged who understand what is right and to this
[24:11] Christopher Ash will say this he says Elihu implicitly claims divine inspiration for his words if this is so and then he says I believe it is then we are faced with a choice either Elihu is a false prophet or he is a true prophet and I agree we are left with one of two options you are either speaking for God or you are not speaking for God it can't be a both and situation in chapter 36 verses 2 and 4 not only does he claim inspiration but he claims perfection notice this in chapter 36 verse 2 it says bear with me a little and I will show you for I have something to say on God's behalf I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my maker for truly my words are not false one who is perfect in knowledge is with you oh really that's interesting basically what
[25:17] Elihu is saying is well God can't be here but it's a good thing I am because I'm gonna advocate for God and I'm perfect in knowledge and it's by the way perfect in knowledge is the exact phrase that he uses of God in chapter 37 verse 16 do you know the balancings of the clouds the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge yeah God is perfect in knowledge but buddy I am too so here we go I'm gonna share with you what God has in mind and by the way if he was or if he is speaking for God then he needs to have that kind of perfection but nowhere in the book do we find Elihu saying thus says the Lord and as we're gonna keep making our way through there actually he says I'm gonna share with you my own opinion so this provides a standard for us does he truly speak for
[26:20] God or does he not speak! God and that's important he wants to honor God he claims to speak for God he seeks to uphold the honor of God the character of God and that's seen throughout his discourse going all the way back to chapter 33 verse 12 he says God is greater than man in chapter 33 verse 26 he says God hears and answers prayer in chapter 34 verse 10 he says far be it from God that from the almighty that he should do wrong in chapter 34 verse 12 he says of a truth God will not do wickedly and the almighty will not pervert justice in chapter 35 verse 5 he says behold God is mighty and does not despise any he is mighty in strength and understanding then in chapter 36 verse 26 he says behold God is great and we know him not the number of verse 27 he draws up the drops of water verse 30 he scatters the lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea verse 31 he judges peoples he gives food in abundance upholding the character of
[27:40] God and the work of God over creation in chapter 37 is totally completely devoted to celebrating the work of God over creation and especially God's benevolence to his creatures he upholds the character of God he's interested in celebrating and exalting and worshiping God for who he is I love how he closes chapter 37 verse 22 he says God is clothed with awesome majesty verse 23 he is great in power justice and abundant!
[28:18] righteousness he will not violate here's a man who loves God and who wants to celebrate and exalt the wonders of who God is that's commendable fourth he speaks in a way that resembles God and we don't have time to to dig into all of the complexities of this but let me just draw your attention I think I have there in your study guide some examples of how God speaks at the end of this book and how Elihu will speak in a way that emulates or resembles God says that Job speaks without knowledge well guess what Elihu accuses Job of the same thing in chapter 34 verses 35 and 37 then in chapter 40 verse 2 God calls Job a fault finder Elihu does the same thing in Job 33 verses 9 to 11 then God says that Job has put him in the wrong we see that in chapter 42 verse 3
[29:21] Elihu will do the same thing in his discourse in chapter 34 verses 5 and 6 and then we see that Elihu will draw attention to the work of God over creation and he'll invite Job to consider the works of God can you imagine what God has done in terms of lightning and clouds and creatures and God will do the same thing draw attention to his work and his sovereignty over creation and fifth and finally he affirms that God speaks to his people that God is not silent that God does speak that God does allow his word to be known he says that in Job 33 verses 14 to 16 God speaks in one way and in two though man does not perceive it in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls on men while they slumber on their beds then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings and then dropping down to verse 19 this is another way that
[30:23] God speaks man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones so that his life loathes bread and his appetite the choicest food God does speak and Elihu affirms that God makes himself known to his creatures but then there are some reasons to be concerned about Elihu much to be concerned about and I want to just move through these quickly so we can get to the final punch the final lesson of this first Elihu does not reflect the character of God in his presentation in his discourse in his speech he does not represent he talks about the character of God but his life does not put the character of God on display that's what I mean okay and we see several examples first his anger he was an angry guy and while
[31:26] God will burn with anger Elihu's anger is misapplied he applies his anger to Job and to Job's friends while God will only direct his anger to Job's friends and he seems to this whole speech seems to be governed by anger you can see he is ticked off all the way through he is like on a rampage and you can see it's a testimony of his words from start to finish there is little or no compassion zero compassion of Elihu for Job's situation he is just ticked off we also see his arrogance his arrogance one commentator puts it this way Elihu's conceit would be less insufferable to an oriental than to us but to boast of one's integrity comes with ill grace from a youth who has experienced none of the sufferings of Job and yet pretends to gainsay his arguments it's an older commentary but
[32:31] Elihu claims to have this perfect knowledge and we see that Elihu is going to do what none of Job's friends were able to do going back to chapter 32 beginning in verse 11 I want you to notice the personal pronouns here and I think this gives it away notice in verse 11 I waited and then I listened then in verse 12 I gave you my attention there was none among you who refuted Job then in verse 14 I will not answer with your speeches I will answer with my share I will declare my opinion then verse 20 I must speak that I might find relief I must open my lips and answer one commentator puts it this way Elihu's response to their defeatism is to proffer himself as a champion of logic and justice no need to call on
[33:33] God is Elihu's retort I am quite equal to the task of overcoming him myself his anger his arrogance his disrespect and this may not be apparent to us as 21st century readers but we see nine times throughout his discourse that he refers to Job by name and you're like wow big deal he refers to him by name well none of Job's other friends have the audacity to bring Job down and to speak with him on a level plane but Elihu doesn't see that problem Elihu sees himself as equal to the task Elihu even sees himself as speaking down to Job even though he's older and wiser and more experienced and nine times he will address Job as a counterpart as a peer now again I know that here in the 21st century it's not a big deal but
[34:35] I gotta tell you that growing up in my generation you never referred to an older person by their first name never it was always mister or missus and by the way when I go back to the home church that I grew up in I still don't know the first names of whoever they are it's either mister or missus or hey good to see you and we have made respect so commonplace it almost has no bearing especially in the way we address one another and so it's hard maybe for us to recognize the disrespect that's happening but it's significant and I'll just leave it at that parents please teach your kids to respect adults maybe even call them mister or missus or call them by their title or coach or teacher professor whoever it might be it's a way for us to show respect he lacks humility and compassion not one word of compassion or sympathy he does not reflect the character of
[36:01] God in his life second he does not convey the truth of God he does not convey the truth of God and while he loves God and exalts! God's character he does not speak for God meaning he is not one who is addressing!
[36:17] the theology that God is consistent with God's nature he is spouting the same theology the retributive theology that Job's friends is speaking where this retribution or payment or reward you reap what you sow you get what you deserve you obey and you're blessed you disobey your curse that kind of methodology that kind of thinking so it should be no surprise that this has been the theme of the book and by the way going all the way back to the beginning of this book we find that that is what stands at the center piece of this disagreement between Satan and God where Satan will accuse God of buying Job's devotion you're making his life easy and so there's no wonder why Job worships you and so
[37:21] Elihu by continuing to adopt this methodology this retributive theology of you reap what you sow he continues not to speak for God but to actually speak for God's adversary the devil Elihu reiterates the same tired theology of retribution God will kill the wicked and preserve the righteous we find an example in chapter 34 verse 11 where he says for according to the work of man he will repay him and according to his ways he will make excuse me he will make it befall him and there are other examples as well but you get you get the idea third he mis represents the words of Job he mis represents the words of Job on five different occasions we find we find throughout his discourse that he says Job you have said Job you say an example of that is in
[38:22] Job 33 verse 9 you have that in your in your outline where he says you say Job and then in Job 34 5 he says Job has said and then in Job 34 9 he has said in Job 35 verse 2 do you say and then in Job 35 verse 14 you say so he he seems to be quoting from Job and some of the phrases that he lays in are words that Job has actually spoken but he cherry picks those words and cherry picks those phrases so he can raise up a straw man and then bring it crashing down that's what we find consistently throughout his discourse and so if you're just reading his discourse and you see what Elihu's words are and how he represents Job you're like wow I'm glad that Elihu spoke now finally we're getting somebody who knows what they're talking about the problem is Job didn't actually say the words that Elihu credits to him he's twisted them he's cherry picked them he's drawn them out of context he doesn't use the whole phrase and the whole context to lay it in so that he can provide the kind of argument that has integrity he's a poor representative of Job's words fourth he misunderstands the nature of suffering he misunderstands the nature of suffering we find this in Job 33 verses 29 and 30 he says behold
[39:59] God does all these things he's referring to suffering and God speaking through suffering he says behold God does all these things twice three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life and to boil it all down to summarize what he means basically he's saying God allows suffering to happen and he speaks through suffering so that we can be informed so that we can grow in knowledge and so that we can gain more access to truth from God and while that is true generally and that is something that we should celebrate God does use suffering in our life to help sanctify us to help us grow in our faith that was not the reason why God introduced suffering for Job God said he was blameless not that he didn't have anything to learn but you pull back the veil from chapter one and chapter two and the reason why God is allowing this to happen has almost nothing to do with Job and everything to do with proving his character
[41:10] I did not buy Job off he's a faithful follower of mine I have nothing he has nothing to prove in terms of his life but I'm going to demonstrate to you Satan that I didn't buy him off and so while suffering does provide for us knowledge and certainly Job will have learned through suffering that was not the cause of the suffering that Job was experiencing alright we take the next few minutes just to kind of wrap this up to draw two clothes and to help us kind of bring this home for us what is the lesson that we're to learn what lesson is there to learn from the life of Elihu and if I were to provide a lesson I were to say going back to the theme it's dangerous for us to speak when God is silent don't do it don't speak into a situation without prayerfully considering the word of God and seeking to address your counselee or the person that you're seeking to influence don't do it without allowing the word of
[42:29] God to govern your words your heart your direction and the influence that you seek to apply to a given situation and when it comes to the world that we're living in and all of us are bombarded every single day with influence influencers and the only way for your heart to be guarded against the influence of this world which is not only satanic it's dangerous and it will destroy you inevitably destroy you but guarding your heart and tuning your ears to consider what influence you should be listening to is by allowing your life to be resting under the great influencer the only and ultimate influencer God himself who has spoken through his word to us are you allowing day by day your heart in life to be directed by the word of God are you soaking in and basking in the glow of the great truth of God drinking in as it were this vine or this branch that's attached to the vine drinking in the wonders of God's truth so that when the influence comes all around you you can navigate that influence and be influenced by the ultimate influencer
[44:00] God himself so that when you provide your opinion when you provide your advice when you seek to make your voice heard it's not your voice that people hear but it's the voice of God it truly is the voice of God that's coming through an individual who has been conditioned to think about God exalt God and reflect the character of God the heart of God not in anger but in humility not in frustration but in patience as an individual who is willing to sympathize with those who are hurting in front of you those who are willing to take the message of the word and bring it to bear on the hearts and lives of those around you are we those who are willing to be influenced by God himself and as we follow God as we follow God then we can lead others to see and to know
[45:01] God that's ultimate for us we don't want to draw attention to self we don't want to lead people to my opinions we don't want individuals to be drawn to us because we think we have a corner on good advice or good wisdom we want to consistently and continually direct people's hearts in lives to savor and love the truth from God and to understand and to be anchored in the knowledge that God is faithful to direct our paths just closing with this trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight and so if those paths are not straight right now might I suggest that you like Job and like Elihu and like Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar that instead of jumping the gun and making a decision based upon the other influencers that are in your life that you wait and trust in the fact that God will bring his influence to bear on your life he will make your paths straight he promises to do that getting your attention
[46:21] God wants to get your attention too he longs to have our attention and that attention will always direct us to the words of God are you anchoring and resting your life in the truth of God's word oh may God help us not only for our own benefit for the benefit of others who we will influence day by day week by week let's pray Lord thank you thank you for your word thank you for the truth that we find there and thank you for the wisdom that helps to direct our paths Lord thank you for the promise that the life of those who follow the counsel from the scriptures will be blessed so Lord may we experience your blessing and may we be a blessing to others as we lead them to Christ in Jesus name amen
[47:29] God bless you have a great week miracle miracle miracle