Job Part 2

[0:00] Well, good morning. I'm going to recap. Last week, we're studying Job. And so Job in the Old Testament, right before the book of Psalm,! You see Job has 42 chapters,!

[0:30] And then he suffers in his body. So he's going through significant pain and suffering. And the setup all seems to be because God asks Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

[0:47] Well, he only blesses you because you bless him. Because of this, he does that. And so there the challenge becomes.

[0:58] And so after that, the first two chapters, he goes into 35 chapters of the friends and Job going back and forth. And you kind of go, what is going on there?

[1:09] And that gets a little confusing. And then there's four chapters of God's response. And then finally, the last chapter is Job's revelation.

[1:20] And then some really good things happen. But Job asks God, in the midst of his suffering, the same thing that we ask. Why am I suffering?

[1:33] And yet, we talked about that last week. We know why we're suffering. James 1 lays it out, tells you why you're suffering. It's to make you more like Christ and so that you can have that relationship with God all the more.

[1:44] In 2 Corinthians 1.9, Paul said, all this happens so that we wouldn't trust in ourselves, but trust in God. And the real question isn't why is this happening.

[1:57] The real question is, can I trust you that all this is going to work out for my good? Romans 8.28, right? We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

[2:09] We know that. He didn't have Romans 8.28 then, but we do. And yet, we still ask the why. And at the end, in 42.1-5, we see that Job says, I heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.

[2:29] The eyes of my heart have been enlightened. Now I trust you. Now I have that epigenosis. Epigenosis is not just head knowledge. It's the experiential heart knowledge.

[2:42] I know you. Oh, I know you. Oh, yeah. That's the God I know. That epigenosis. That's what we need. So God doesn't tell Job why.

[2:54] Instead, he gives him himself. A little confusing. Why does he do that? Just like Jesus said to Martha. Martha's like, oh, Jesus, I need my brother Lazarus to rise again.

[3:06] You know, like, well, he's going to rise again. Oh, I know he's going to rise again, the resurrection. And Jesus could have said, I'm going to go raise him now. Instead, he says, I am the resurrection.

[3:20] What you need is me. And he gives Martha himself. And God gives Job himself. And we're going to talk specifically about 40, chapters 40 and 41 there.

[3:40] Where's Josiah? Is he back with the kids? He is. See, he said, Carl, I want you to talk about the dragon, the Leviathan, the dragon. You know, he's like a little kid. He's like the dragon, you know.

[3:52] Aren't we all interested in the dragon? I remember my daughter wanted me to read about the dragon all the time. We're going to talk about that behemoth and the dragon. Like, what does that have to do with this? Why does he go there? Well, that's kind of interesting.

[4:03] Well, Job sees God. And because he sees God, he's able to trust. And then because he's able to trust, he's able to receive God's grace.

[4:14] So why is seeing God important? Well, I'm not going to trust you unless I know you're good. And I'm not going to trust you unless I know you're going to do what you say.

[4:26] And so God shows Job this is who I am. And nothing can thwart my plans. I do what I say. And that allows me to receive grace.

[4:37] Look at 2 Corinthians 4, chapter 4, 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. So go to the New Testament. Go past the first four Gospels.

[4:49] Hit Acts, then Romans, and then you get into those Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. It says, And Paul did some suffering.

[5:37] When he says light and momentary troubles, he did some serious suffering. Remember that. Five times he was beaten 40 lashes minus one. Three times beaten with rods.

[5:48] Shipwrecked. Three times. Day and night in the open sea. Hypothermia several times. Hunger. Bandits. Rejected by his own countrymen. He saw some serious suffering.

[6:01] Yet he calls it light and momentary. But he says we need to focus on what is unseen. We need to focus on God. We need to have that focus on the vertical relationship.

[6:12] And not on what is seen. Which is the world. We see that every day. The horizontal. All my problems can be boiled down to, I'm just trying to find a solution in the world.

[6:24] I'm looking to the horizontal to solve my problems. I actually believe that this sinner who I'm married to is going to be perfect all the time and never sin against me.

[6:35] I believe that. And I can prove to you that I believe that. Because when that happens, I tend to get upset. Like, I'm shocked. I can't believe this. My wife doesn't get shocked anymore when I disappoint her.

[6:49] So I told you that we were going to focus on two key points. And last time we talked about trust in order to receive grace. Well, this, the second one today we're going to, we're going to get out.

[7:02] But let's go, let's take a look at God's response. So go back to Psalms and then turn left, hit Job. And let's look at chapters 38 through 41. These four chapters God responds here.

[7:14] And he responds, he kind of breaks them into two. In the first two chapters he says, who is this that darkens my counsel? Who doesn't understand my wisdom? You're messing up my wisdom, Job.

[7:27] There's things you don't understand. And then the second one is, you're messing up my justice. You don't understand my justice. You want to know why. You'd like to have your day in court.

[7:41] You're not understanding this. And you're kind of misunderstanding my whole justice. That's a significant point. So you don't have, you don't understand my wisdom. You don't understand my justice. So God says there are things you just don't know.

[7:56] You don't understand. Your mind can't even handle it right now if I were to tell you. You don't know. But I'm going to show you some things that you need to know.

[8:06] But you don't understand this. And I need you to be like this ostrich. Because you read this ostrich. You're like, what's the deal with the ostrich in there? He's talking about this ostrich being so dumb.

[8:17] And yet it flaps its wings and can outrun horses. Well, the ostrich doesn't have a lot of knowledge. If you've ever seen an ostrich, you think, man, that's a dumb bird. And yet, we don't have a lot of knowledge.

[8:30] And sometimes, you know, I'm a dumb bird. But I just need to trust and have that faith. I need to trust God. Have that faith.

[8:41] Trust him. Because I don't understand everything. So those are some key things God points out to him. Another thing God says is that I need to know God is there when I suffer.

[8:53] Just like Job needed that. God is always there. I need to know that my daddy is powerful.

[9:03] That he can take care of things. He loves me. And he has my best interest. That's what God expresses. I also need to see how orderly God made the world.

[9:16] He can take care of things. He loves me. He holds everything together. There's no random acts of suffering. There are no random acts of suffering.

[9:27] See, Colossians 1, 16 and 17 says, He is before all things and in him all things hold together. All things were created by him and for him. He holds it all together.

[9:37] He holds your world together. I don't understand. Sometimes I'm like the ostrich. But I just need to have that faith. We can't even control the animals, he says.

[9:51] It's like you can't. You can't control the animals. Can you really run your own life? You really want to take the reins when you can't even take the reins of these animals? Now, God doesn't pull rank.

[10:02] Now, I talked about that last time. And I used a word. And some of the kids love to say, well, the preacher said it on Sunday. So I'm going to repeat it. My kids did the same thing. They did the same thing. Like, well, he said it in church.

[10:13] So it must be okay. I'm a sailor. You can't rely on what sailors say. Sailors are bad people. I mean, they're naughty. Okay? Coasties are nice. They're wonderful.

[10:23] But sailors, they need Jesus. All right? So Job doesn't get humiliated by God.

[10:34] God doesn't lay into him. He doesn't talk about his sins. He doesn't air his sins. Instead, he's like a teacher. Brace yourself like a man. Because I'm about to question you.

[10:45] He gives him a little preparation. And we need that. That's not a dictator. He's not lighting him up. He's not icing him, cadets. All right?

[10:56] That's where they just make him do all kinds of fitness and make him cry and sweat. So God treats him like a father. He's firm, but he's gentle with Job like a parent.

[11:12] Firm and gentle. And God shares that he does what he says. That he will take care of those who are his. No purpose of his will be thwarted.

[11:24] Even when you sin, you're not messing up God's plan. Oh, there they just sin. There goes my whole plan. All my will is just really messed up. Yeah, no.

[11:35] No. You sin doesn't mess up God's will. His will is going to happen. He's going to get there. He wins in the end. God will work also to control Satan.

[11:47] And he is going to deal with Satan at the appropriate time. Okay? That's going to happen. But remember we said, just because you want to do a Ryan. Where's Ryan? You want to do a Ryan.

[11:59] Oh, he's over there too. You go, that just takes Satan and crush him. You know? Right? The accusation still remains. You get rid of the accuser, but the accusation still remains. So God doesn't do that.

[12:10] But he will. He's going to take care of them. And then he talks about this behemoth and Leviathan. The dragon. You know, and they're dangerous creatures.

[12:21] And they cause suffering. And it seems like chaotic suffering. Right? That's important. Not necessarily evil, but there's suffering.

[12:33] Those are the behemoth and the Leviathan. But hold that. Let's talk about his friends. So 35 chapters. Boy, we got a lot to cover. 35 chapters. His three friends decide to go and comfort him.

[12:45] Right? Sounds pretty good. For seven days, they sit there in silence. That's awesome. Some of you couldn't sit there for a day in silence, could you? You know? Maybe 15 minutes would be hard.

[12:57] But they sit there for seven days in silence. That's important because we need to lament with people who suffer. We need to empathize with them.

[13:08] We need to comfort them. We need to lament. And we may not agree with somebody.

[13:19] In our nation, we have all kinds of disagreements right now. Right? We have some polarizations. We have some politically charged issues. And we may not agree with the actions of people.

[13:30] We may not agree with their political views. But you know what? Check and see if they're hurting. Are they hurting? Can I lament with them?

[13:41] Because those people that you're upset with, many of them are hurting. You may not like their action. My wife doesn't like my action when I'm hurting either.

[13:52] So we need to lament. That'll go a long ways. Or are we just like Job's friends and we're not careful what we say and we're not safe people?

[14:09] Now, I steal that word safe from Dr. Henry Cloud. He's a great author. He wrote Changes that Heal and Boundaries. And he talks about being safe. And a safe person you can trust.

[14:20] A safe person listens. They don't just fix. You know, what do we husbands do? We're trained to fix. You know, we listen to our wife. Boom. We just get into fix-it mode. And she just often wants us to listen.

[14:33] We need to listen. When people are hurting, we just need to listen. Not try to fix. Am I empathizing? Am I empathizing? Can I be trusted?

[14:45] And in Job 16.1, his friends, they accuse him of all kinds of stuff. Like, well, surely you must have done all these evil bad things. You must have been terrible to orphans and widows.

[14:57] You know, you're just a bad guy. And he says, you guys are miserable comforters. You're terrible. Like, gee whiz. You know? Well, and it's kind of crazy because you go to 2 Corinthians 1, and it's almost like Job knows this.

[15:16] So if you want to look at 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3 through 7, it says, If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation.

[15:48] If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

[16:03] So we are to be comforters. We are to lament and comfort those. So a big reason why you suffer, if you want to know the why, you get comforted.

[16:19] And so now you can comfort. I've gone through some suffering in my life, and I asked God after I got out of the Navy, Why? Why did I go through? I got an extra share of suffering, God.

[16:31] You know, I'm just kind of saying I think I got an extra share. I've asked some surveys around here, and I thought, Why is this happening? And God says, Well, Carl, you know, now you're qualified to do this ministry because you were pretty arrogant and full of yourself before, weren't you?

[16:45] And you really didn't have a lot of comfort for other people. You just said, Hey, suck it up. How come you can't do it? You just need to work harder. I didn't have a lot of comfort, a lot of empathy.

[16:57] But God's given me that. So let's look at Job's statements now, kind of through these 35 chapters. He says in chapter 3, It would be better off if I wasn't born.

[17:10] He goes that entire chapter like, Cursed is the day of my birth. It'd be just better off if I wasn't born. What does that sound like? You know, that's interesting. It sounds like Paul in 2 Corinthians 1 again.

[17:25] It sounds like a good chapter for you to read a few times, right? 2 Corinthians 1, verse 9, verse 8 and 9. Paul says, We suffered. And I want you to know how much we suffered.

[17:36] We despaired even of life itself. That's how low we were feeling. And yet, all this happened so that we weren't learned to trust in ourselves, but learned to trust in God.

[17:51] So that relying on ourselves, we needed to learn to rely on God. But we despaired even of life. So Job is experiencing that. And then Job, in these chapters, he complains about God not being there.

[18:05] That is a hard place to be when you don't think God is there. He says, I turn to the left, to the east, and to the west, and I don't see him. And yet, he is there.

[18:19] And he thinks this is unjust suffering. Like, I think it's kind of unjust. Again, he doesn't understand God's justice. So he's challenging that. He's thinking, this is unjust suffering.

[18:31] But he does state in chapter 2310 that I will be vindicated in the end, and I will be refined and come out pure. So he does understand that, but there's still this misunderstanding of what this suffering is, what this justice is.

[18:46] He's misunderstanding that. Well, let's look at what his friends say. His friends, they have three things. You're like, well, this sounds pretty good, Carl. I don't know what the deal is, because that's what I thought.

[18:57] It sounds pretty good. There's some good stuff in there. Well, they have some good things. They know that, one, God is just. They get that. God is almighty. They get that. And man is sinful, okay?

[19:08] They got those three things. But then in Job 42, verse seven, God says to his friends, like, you guys are in big trouble, and you need to have Job pray for you and offer sacrifice, because you didn't speak rightly about me like my servant Job did.

[19:25] And then he repeats it. So when God repeats things, you know it's gonna be on the test, right? A good instructor should do that. And God repeats that. You didn't speak rightly about me like my servant Job.

[19:36] Even though Job was a little off, these guys, they don't speak rightly. Well, what is that, Carl? Help me understand. What's the difference between them and Job? Well, the friends believe in quid pro quo. Any legal person in here?

[19:48] Got any legal person in here? I love my JAG in the Navy. I got to know them really well, because the Navy, I went to MAST, like, every week, because sailors were getting in trouble.

[19:59] You know, that's what sailors do. They get in trouble, especially on an aircraft carrier. And I worked with the people who got the lowest ASVAB score, and I was there every week with them. And so I got to know my legal person. And quid pro quo is a legal term, and it's this for that.

[20:13] This for that. Quid pro quo. See, they believe that you must have done something wrong if you're getting that.

[20:26] Now, Job does not say this, but he lacks understanding. But Carl, come on. The Bible says you reap what you sow.

[20:39] Right? Raise your hand and say amen. You out there? Anybody? Amen. The Bible says you reap what you sow, Carl, so you got to explain this to me. Well, that's Galatians 6, 7, and 8.

[20:50] So Galatians 6, verse 7, and 8. Now, that is in context. You got to read that in context, right? That's referring to the believer being challenged to do good works.

[21:03] The believer being challenged to do good works. That is not for you to take that as a quid pro quo. That doesn't make that into a legal term. What else do we know? Look at Psalm 103, 10 through 12.

[21:15] So I think it was either Mike or Andrew that read Psalm 103 last week. He does not treat us as our sins deserve.

[21:27] We know that God does not treat us as our sins deserve. And maybe you need to spend some time thinking about that. Like, what do your sins really deserve? If you line up all of your sin up till now in your life, you know, have you really been treated as your sins deserve?

[21:44] He separates us from our sins as far as the east is from the west. So how far is the east from the west?

[21:55] One scarred hand to the other. You know where I got that, Tyler, right? Good stuff. But God is patient with us.

[22:07] So you're thinking, well, what about the Old Testament, Carl? Okay, let's look at the Old Testament. God is patient. He waited 600 years before he takes the Israelites into exile.

[22:18] King Nebuchadnezzar comes along 600 years after God has been patient with them. Now, you've got to understand how patient God was because this King Manasseh, Israel's King Manasseh, he sacrifices his own son to an idol.

[22:37] That's pretty messed up. And if I were God, I would be like, take that sailor to mast right now. Oh, yeah. Throw him in the brig. That's what we do.

[22:50] Quid pro quo. But God waits 600 years. He's patient. He continually draws them, continually expresses his patience. Even King David.

[23:01] You guys know what King David did? You guys know what King David did? Right? He'd sinned. Right? King David sinned. Luke, you remember King David, what he did?

[23:12] He sinned. Yeah, he sins, right? He takes somebody else's wife and then he tries to cover it up. Murders him. Under the Mosaic Law, that deserves two death sentences.

[23:24] Under the Mosaic Law. David doesn't even get impeached. That's Jesus. That's Jesus. That's grace. Right there.

[23:35] That's not quid pro quo. Well, how about Jesus and the disciples? Remember that blind man? Remember the blind man? Blind man, the Pharisees. They say, bring that guy in here.

[23:47] Who healed you? Like, ah, this Jesus guy. Where does he come from? What do you mean, where does he come from? You're asking me where he's coming from? No one's heard of a blind man seen who was born blind at birth.

[23:59] You know, where do you think he comes from? Like, how dare you lecture us? You were steeped in sin at birth. See, you got that because you sinned.

[24:09] Quid pro quo. Even the disciples said, Jesus, who sinned? This man or his parents? And Jesus says, neither. Come on, guys.

[24:21] Did you not read Job? Come on. Yeah, we did. It was kind of confusing. So, they want to know who sinned, this man or his parents.

[24:37] Quid pro quo. No. That's not how it works. That's not how God works. If it is about quid pro quo, this for that, if you get what your sins deserve, then that means, what's the other side of quid pro quo?

[24:50] then you have to earn your righteousness. See, grace has got that two sides there. God is withholding what you deserve, but he's also giving you what you don't deserve.

[25:08] His grace, all of his glorious riches. He's not going to share his glory with you in a way that you earned it, but he's going to share his glory in a way that he gives it to you.

[25:19] The same glory that Jesus got. You read John 17. Jesus says, Father, I want them to have my glory, the same glory I have with you. And for those who are yet to be born, yet believe, I want them to have the same glory.

[25:32] That's grace. Same glory, we call it grace because we don't deserve it. It's not about quid pro quo. That's why Job is so important.

[25:43] You didn't know that the gospel was right there in Job, did you? Romans 8, 28, right there in Job. I didn't know that either until I read this. So what about that Elihu guy, Carl?

[25:59] That fourth guy. You know, he speaks at the end. He's a young punk who comes, I'm sorry, he's the younger guy who comes in at the end. You know, I once told someone, I was like, you know, I like that guy, you know, I love him, but I think he needs, I think there's some more growth to go.

[26:18] Like, what do you mean? Well, he hasn't raised teenagers yet. Those of us who've raised teenagers, we know, there's something that happens there. Well, this Elihu, Elihu, however you say his name, younger guy, and he says some good stuff.

[26:34] Certainly he says some good stuff. Some of it is kind of, he states the obvious. It's not necessarily helpful. He states the obvious. He focuses on what Job says. He doesn't accuse Job of doing these horrendous things like his friends did, but he focuses on what Job says, and he tries to hold him accountable to that.

[26:53] But he also says, come on, buddy, you must have sinned to suffer this much, because we know God puts disobedience in jail until they repent. He talks about that.

[27:05] So his idea of justice is also wrong. And then he says, Job is wicked and should be tested to the utmost.

[27:16] Well, that's a nice friend for you. I haven't gone through enough here. Go ahead and really pour it on. I mean, how much more could you do to Job? I don't know. But he's saying he should be tested to the utmost.

[27:27] But God doesn't specifically call out Elihu, but what God does do is he shows himself and he shows what is.

[27:39] He talks about his wisdom and his justice. And then he rebukes the three friends. So if there's anything else to be said, which there isn't, he would have said it.

[27:50] So Elihu also gets his correction, and he's going to be shown what he's not seen as God reveals himself. So let's look at God's response.

[28:04] In the chapters 41 and 40 there, God talks about this behemoth and this leviathan, this dragon. It's kind of confusing. You're like, why did he just pick out those two creatures?

[28:16] You know? And they're kind of mythical too because they got some stuff that they're doing. Like, I don't know, that creature, I don't think that creature really existed. You know, there's some things going on in there.

[28:29] And, you know, did we ever have dragons that breathe fire? You know, there weren't any dinosaurs that breathed fire. But nevertheless, these creatures represent very dangerous beings.

[28:46] They're dangerous, they bring some chaos, and they bring some suffering. Not necessarily evil, but maybe like a hurricane. Hurricane's not necessarily evil, but it can cause a lot of damage.

[29:00] Well, where else do we see a dragon? Luke, where's another dragon? Do you know where there's another dragon? In Revelation. That's right. At the end of the Bible, we got the dragon, Revelation.

[29:12] An evil dragon, right? And God wins. God wins in the end. That dragon gets dealt with. And God has limits to evil, and he has limits to suffering.

[29:27] And he's going to deal with the evil in the end. He'll bring justice in the end. And so, God reveals himself in Revelation.

[29:39] He reveals himself. That's what Revelation's all about. We kind of get worked up in all the stuff that's going on, and there's some imagery in there. But it's about God revealing himself, who he is, what he says, what he does.

[29:53] He wins. Because he wins, I win. It's grace. God wants us to trust him. And Romans 8, 28, is right there.

[30:05] In Job. We know in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And we know how the end of the story goes.

[30:17] You ever just go to the end of the movie? I just want to know the end of the movie. Does the end, does it work out okay? Do the good guys win? That's what I want to know. You know? Does the guy get the girl in the end?

[30:27] I do that. I skip to the end of the movie. I know I'm terrible. It's the best part. So Revelation 22, verse 5, the end, the last chapter.

[30:39] Check it out. 22, verse 5. God wins, and then we reign forever with him. We reign forever with him. Revelation 22, 5.

[30:53] That's pretty neat. Well, let's look at Job's response again. In Job 42, now that God reveals himself. Job 42, verse 1 through 5, then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things.

[31:07] No purpose of yours can be thwarted. You do what you say, and I can trust you. You ask, who is that that obscures my plans without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

[31:22] You said, listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes had seen you. The eyes of my heart have been enlightened, just as Paul says in Ephesians 1 there.

[31:38] The eyes of my heart, now I have epigenosis. Now I see you. But verse 6 is kind of weird. I had read verse 6 for a long time.

[31:50] Like, that's kind of weird. I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. I abhor myself. Now we're back to hating ourselves again. You hate your birth. Did you not get anywhere? You know, so I had to call my smart friend, the great Devin McClure, now an ensign, formerly cadet.

[32:08] This guy thinks on the C.S. Lewis level. You know, he reads Spurgeon all the time and shares quotes for me that I have to like, you know, call my good friend Jim Major Grove. It's like, what does this mean? He's really up there and so I'm like, hey, what does this say?

[32:21] He's like, oh, Carl, that's easy. He's humbling himself. Like, oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense. He's humbling himself. Right there, his response to seeing God is to immediately humble himself.

[32:39] He does that. So I'm going to ask you to look at Isaiah chapter 5. So you're going to have to go to write a couple of books from Psalms there and look at Isaiah chapter 5.

[32:50] We're going to look at verse 1 through 5. Isaiah chapter 5. The first four chapters, Isaiah really talks about, or is it Isaiah 6?

[33:06] Am I confused on that? Now I'm questioning myself because I miss write down things sometimes. But Isaiah spends some time talking about these woes and he says, woe to you, Israel.

[33:18] He points out their sin. Yeah, it was six. I mistyped that. He points out their sins in chapter 5.

[33:29] He gives them six woes and they're significant, right? And we know that God likes to have seven. In the Bible. So the seventh woe, Isaiah saves for himself.

[33:42] Normally the seventh woe is the biggest woe. And the woe is like cursed. Cursed. You're in trouble. In Isaiah 6, verse 1 through 5, it's like, In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting on his throne.

[34:00] And the train of his robe filled the temple. And there were seraphim with six wings, one covering their eyes, one covering their feet, and one flying around, singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty and the earth will be filled with his glory.

[34:17] And after they said that to one another, the foundations shook and it fills with smoke. So Isaiah gets this picture, this revelation of God.

[34:32] He sees God. And his response is, Woe is me. I am undone. He humbles himself.

[34:43] And he just immediately feels it. Doesn't even have to think about it. His response is to humble himself. And so I like to share with you this definition of humility.

[34:58] And humility is accepting where you stand before a righteous God. Accepting where you stand before a righteous God.

[35:09] Accepting is really important because you can know it, but you need to accept it. You need to embrace it. And accept where you stand before a righteous God is he's at the top and you're at the bottom.

[35:22] And I need to accept that. Whether you accept it or not, you are at the bottom. But you need to accept it. It's very helpful. And God sees, I'm sorry, Job sees God and he trusts him and he humbles himself.

[35:40] That allows him to receive grace. Because I am not going to receive from you if I don't trust you. And I'm not going to receive from you unless I think I need it.

[35:51] I'm not going to receive that sandwich unless I realize I'm hungry. I'm not going to receive from you unless I see I need it. And when I'm humble, I recognize where you stand and where I stand and that I need it.

[36:07] I need your grace. So trusting and humility. Some of you are saying, ah, I have an issue with pride. I need to humble myself. Let me tell you how you do that.

[36:18] You just take a really good look at God and you're going to see where you stand. Spend time meditating on God and what he says. Get that epigenosis.

[36:31] See, I need grace. All of my issues come down to I'm trying to find solutions in the horizontal instead of in the vertical.

[36:44] I want the world to go my way. I want it to be perfect. I want things to work out my way. I want to be focused on me.

[36:55] I become self-centered. I want to trust in myself. All this happens so I wouldn't trust in myself but learn to trust in God. When I trust in self, I'm self-centered.

[37:09] And when I'm self-centered, I'm not God-centered. And when I'm self-centered, then it's based on me. It's what I do. It's quid pro quo. It's this for that. It's about me.

[37:21] Well, I'm going to do these things so I can get this. And I don't want to do those things because I don't want to get that. It's not quid pro quo. It can't be self-centered.

[37:33] It's got to be God-centered. And God just blows our minds. And he doesn't give Job the immediate answer. He says, this is who I am.

[37:45] You don't understand my justice. You're going to experience suffering. You don't understand why. You're going to experience the suffering. It's going to make sense in the end.

[37:56] I'm going to win in the end. And all this is to teach you to trust and to receive my grace. Because that's what we need. If you look at James 1, it'll show you the purpose of that suffering and that you need to trust in order to receive grace.

[38:16] But it talks about the double-minded man in James 1 and then again in James 4. What is this double-minded man? That double-minded man is the one who trusts in himself, the self-centered.

[38:29] They don't humble themselves. They don't think that they're down there. Like, I'm not as bad as that, Carl. He's a sailor and he even said it. I'm about there. I'm not down there. I'm about there. And then you only think you need that much.

[38:42] And you're like, hey, can you lift me up? I'm underwater. How much do you need? I only need 70 feet. Okay. You need 100 feet, but you get pulled up 70 feet. Hey, I'm still drowning.

[38:54] Yeah. Can you pull me up? Okay, how much? 70 feet. Okay. But I'm still drowning. Yeah. If you don't trust and humble, then you won't ask to be lifted up all the way.

[39:06] And James 4.10 says, humble yourself for the Lord and he will lift you up. But only as much as you ask for. It's not quid pro quo.

[39:20] It's not self-centered. I don't get what I deserve and I don't earn my righteousness. I need to receive grace by trusting in God. It's time for communion right now.

[39:35]