WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.299 our father thank you that we are not in the dark thank you that light has come into the world 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:12.720 supremely in jesus but your word is a light to our feet and a lamp to our path please speak to 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:19.620 us now speak to our hearts address our fears address our concerns address our anxieties address 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:24.920 yeah our sin point us to jesus point us to his love his grace on the cross 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.600 to your greatness please yeah do a deep work in us now by your spirit as we hear you speak to us 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:36.079 in jesus name amen and reza will read from the book of job 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:54.120 our scripture reading for today is from the book of job chapter 28 starting in verse 1 00:00:54.920 --> 00:01:01.579 surely there is a mine for silver and a place for gold that they refined iron is taken out of the 00:01:01.579 --> 00:01:07.480 earth and copper is smelted from the ore man puts an end to darkness and searches out of the farthest 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:13.920 limit and the ore in gloom and deep darkness he opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:20.219 lives they are forgotten by travelers they hang in the air far away from mankind they swing to and 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:28.140 throw as for the earth out of it comes bread but underneath it is turned up as by fire its stones 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:35.700 are the place of the fires and it has dust of gold that patno bird of prey knows and the falcon's eyes 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:43.659 has not seen it the proud bees have not rooted in it the lions has not passed over it man puts his 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:49.819 hand to the flinty rack and overturns mountains by the roots he cuts out channels in the rocks and his 00:01:49.819 --> 00:01:56.359 eyes sees every precious thing he dumps up the streams so that they not trickle and the thing 00:01:56.359 --> 00:02:03.199 that is hidden he brings out to light but where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of 00:02:03.199 --> 00:02:10.620 understanding man doesn't know its words and it is not found in the land of the living the deep says 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:17.199 it is not in me and the sea says it is not with with me it cannot be bought for gold and silver 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:23.879 cannot be weighed as its price it cannot be valued in the gold of offer in precious onyx or sapphire 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:31.519 gold and glass cannot equal it nor can it be exchanged for jewels or fine gold no mention shall be made of 00:02:31.519 --> 00:02:39.819 coral or of crystals the price of wisdom is above pearls the topaz of utopia cannot equal it nor can it be 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:46.039 valued in pure gold from where then does wisdom come and where is the place of understanding 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:54.079 it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air abaddon and death say we 00:02:54.079 --> 00:03:00.939 have heard a rumor of it with our ears god understands the way to it and he knows its place for he looks 00:03:00.939 --> 00:03:07.079 to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens when he gave to the wind its weights and 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:12.000 apportioned to the waters by measure when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.939 a thunder then he saw it and declared it he established it and searched it out and he said to 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:25.960 the man behold the fear of the lord that is wisdom and to turn away from evil is understanding this is the 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:26.660 word of god 00:03:26.659 --> 00:03:37.639 thank you risa that's great to keep the passage open as we'll look at it together as well as some 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:40.259 other further chapters from job 00:03:40.259 --> 00:03:47.960 but yeah as you've heard the word wisdom come up a few times i don't know about you but i love to know 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.340 things and i love to kind of i hate not knowing things and so i really love having a smartphone with 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:57.700 the internet in my pockets i don't know if you have that our family dinners when we talk about 00:03:57.700 --> 00:04:03.300 something and something comes up from the past and i forgot it and so what is my natural response i get 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:08.759 out my phone and i go to google and find the answer right and try to remember i know what we're all it's 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:15.800 very rude i shouldn't do that but it's right we want to know stuff uh uh now of course we have chat gpt 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:22.160 and that will give you an even nicer answer rather than some websites um no we want to know things 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:27.380 that's how we live right we live by knowing things the more we know the better we can live that's what 00:04:27.380 --> 00:04:33.460 everyone believes but of course where can we find the answer to everything and we've been looking at 00:04:33.460 --> 00:04:39.500 the book of job and the job is about when actually when there's no answer when something very difficult 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:47.320 happens and we can't understand it why did this great man uh this wonderful godly man suddenly 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:53.779 experience such intense suffering and we don't know i mean could chad gpt help i thought i'd just 00:04:53.779 --> 00:05:01.620 try that hey chad gpt why am i suffering okay this is what they said i'm sorry to hear that you're 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:06.259 suffering i mean that's very nice right but uh there could be many reasons why you might be 00:05:06.259 --> 00:05:11.459 experiencing difficulties both physical and emotional it might be helpful to seek support from a health 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:16.379 care professional or a therapist who can help you identify the root cause of your suffering and work 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:20.259 with you to find effective ways to manage it in the meantime please know that you're not alone 00:05:20.259 --> 00:05:26.360 and there are resources available to help you yeah we don't know right there might be lots of reasons 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:32.079 you're not alone i think for job that's really comfortable right with his friends around him 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:38.939 with he's just been arguing yeah you're not alone uh but this doesn't help right the thing and then the 00:05:38.939 --> 00:05:43.879 thing is we often don't know what to do i mean what does it say here find someone who can help you 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:49.540 manage it the thing is if you suffer you want to do something about it and and what can i do about it 00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:56.300 and if you don't know what's wrong what should you do i mean if you are sick you want to know okay what 00:05:56.300 --> 00:06:00.420 is this sickness right that's why you go to the doctor and a doctor can now tell you okay this is wrong 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:07.120 and you need this medicine if you don't know then what can you do and it can be paralyzing otherwise 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:15.340 but then again does that really help all right sometimes sadly there's medical conditions and you 00:06:15.340 --> 00:06:22.660 don't know what it is uh sometimes even even if you know how the question is why right that's the 00:06:22.660 --> 00:06:32.079 existential question okay i can see how cancer comes about i can't see why i now get cancer right 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:37.659 that's a much deeper question and and why was there covet that messed up the world so much and 00:06:37.659 --> 00:06:42.219 why is there a war in ukraine and you can think of of course we can give some explanations but 00:06:42.219 --> 00:06:48.159 basically we don't know and that's why job is so great to study right it addresses the questions we 00:06:48.159 --> 00:06:54.680 have uh or maybe prepares us basically for when we have questions and no answers and that's what we want 00:06:54.680 --> 00:07:01.039 to know because we all get older and we're all going to face difficulties that we are not even aware of 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:07.640 yet how will we be ready and in a way especially this chapter is going to be really helpful now 00:07:07.640 --> 00:07:13.400 what is this chapter that you just heard i think it's helpful to look at the the structure of of 00:07:13.400 --> 00:07:19.640 job we're going through the book of job and last week i kind of forgot to uh do that i thought i'd put 00:07:19.640 --> 00:07:24.860 it here so these are kind of how job is this long book but divided into sections here we looked at the 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:30.520 the introduction where kind of things in heaven and how job loses everything and then he complains 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:36.019 and then last week we did those 24 chapters and you may wonder is that just one big section well 00:07:36.019 --> 00:07:42.159 it's a debate between job and his friends and basically a friend says something and job responds 00:07:42.159 --> 00:07:47.719 and the next friend and job responds etc so they just go around in a circle one by one if you read 00:07:47.719 --> 00:07:51.819 through it oh yeah now it makes sense right it's just they go round and round three times 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:56.979 although the third time they kind of get stuck and you know the the second friend build up he's got 00:07:56.980 --> 00:08:02.720 almost nothing to say and so far he's got really he's silent uh they get stuck as we heard last week 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:09.560 because job he suffers he goes through this really difficult time and they thought there's a simple 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:15.480 explanation you know sin except that that is not the explanation and and then what is it and so they're 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:21.240 kind of stuck and actually as the book goes on we are not having dialogues anymore we're having 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:29.040 monologues we're having just you know speeches uh job will make a final appeal and then elihu some guy 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:34.060 shows up we'll look at him next week god himself will show up and we have the epilogue that's what 00:08:34.060 --> 00:08:39.779 we're going to do but then what is today's chapter because as you can see in the color i called it the 00:08:39.779 --> 00:08:45.379 same as the the beginning and the end i mean you could think this is just job right because before it 00:08:45.379 --> 00:08:53.480 is job and after it is job and it doesn't say who is speaking it in verse 20 in verse one but it's 00:08:53.480 --> 00:09:01.659 very different from how job speaks right job he is very angry and agitated after this debate and this 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:08.960 poem is very calm it's very reflective and so most people think actually this is uh inserted by the 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:16.160 by the writer by the narrator let's press pause and let's just see where we got to uh like uh yeah 00:09:16.160 --> 00:09:23.440 acquire in a greek tragedy or something like that um so it's uh it's a way to step back and that's 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:30.860 really helpful for us and as you can hear well this is wisdom literature this is it's about wisdom 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:38.879 right verse 12 where is wisdom to be found verse 20 from where then does wisdom come and in the 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:45.200 last verse uh behold this is wisdom it is about wisdom wisdom of course is about knowing and 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:51.399 understanding uh but it's about understanding the world and how it works understanding god's world 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:57.799 so that we can live in it right the wise person knows how to live and of course how you live is 00:09:57.799 --> 00:10:03.240 related to how you think the world works so what is wisdom and that is what job and his friends try to 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:10.259 do they try to okay what is the wise thing to do how do we understand this well let's see and so this 00:10:10.259 --> 00:10:16.240 would be really helpful for us and well the first thing that we get from this poem it's not what we 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:24.560 want to hear but wisdom is inaccessible wisdom is inaccessible we can't find it out we can't reach it 00:10:24.560 --> 00:10:29.740 there's a lot of interesting things about how god covers the world but we don't know them 00:10:29.740 --> 00:10:38.700 and the comparison here is with uh with mining right uh getting metals or or jewels uh verse one 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:45.360 surely there's a mine for silver and a place for gold that they refine iron is taken out of the earth 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:51.519 and copper is smelted from the ore right this is of course three and a half five thousand years ago 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:58.039 and so uh back then yeah or it doesn't grow in trees right how do you get iron well you need to 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:04.319 mine you need to uh well the man goes to the mountains he uh he puts his hand to the flinty 00:11:04.319 --> 00:11:10.559 rock and overturns mountains by the roots he cuts out channels in the rocks and he uh you know you go 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:16.500 to the mountains and you dig a deep tunnel and you hang and you pick and you look for metal and gems and 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:23.959 yeah i mean mankind we're very creative and we're very curious and we if we want something we try and 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:29.519 get it right and so that's what we do uh of course this is a long time ago if this was modern it would 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:35.139 talk about quantum mechanics how does everything work uh exploring the universe we want to know all 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:42.900 the secrets we want to know all the the precious things and that's and we've explored a lot we 00:11:42.900 --> 00:11:49.400 understand a lot about the world but verse 12 where shall wisdom be found and where's the place of 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:56.279 understanding you know can we find out why things happen can we understand how god runs the world can 00:11:56.279 --> 00:12:04.439 we understand how why job job suffers and the answer is uh no right uh verse 13 man does not know 00:12:04.439 --> 00:12:09.720 it's worth it's not found in the land of the living you can dig all you want you can explore all you want 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:17.299 you can't find out how god runs the world uh even you know verse 14 the deep says it's not in me 00:12:17.299 --> 00:12:23.599 the sea says it's not with me you know the most inaccessible places in the world right the bottom 00:12:23.599 --> 00:12:30.719 of the ocean it's not there you can go all the way there you can't find it even though it's so 00:12:30.719 --> 00:12:37.299 precious right because it goes on look wisdom would be so wonderful verse 15 it cannot be bought for gold 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:45.559 silver cannot be weighed in its price and verse 19 the topaz of ethiopia can't equal it nor can it be 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:50.639 valued in pure gold wouldn't you want to understand all the secrets won't you wouldn't you want to 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:56.019 understand why things happen in your life and in the world of course we want to we'll be so valuable 00:12:56.019 --> 00:13:03.979 but again we can't right verse 20 from where then does wisdom come where's the place of understanding 00:13:03.979 --> 00:13:11.679 it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air abeddon and death say 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:17.479 we've heard a rumor of it with our ears even if you leave this world you go to the place of the 00:13:17.479 --> 00:13:23.399 death you go to the spiritual realm is it there is there how we can find it out and they say well 00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:30.519 yeah maybe someone once mentioned it i think i remember i'm not quite sure right basically we can't 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:37.579 find out wisdom we can't find out how the world works instead well verse 23 the only one knows 00:13:37.580 --> 00:13:45.300 is god god understands the way to it he knows its place god understands the world right why well 00:13:45.300 --> 00:13:52.200 because he he understands it verse 24 for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:58.620 the heavens when he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure when he made a 00:13:58.620 --> 00:14:04.340 decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder and then he saw it and declared it he 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:10.060 established it and searched it out now why does god understand the world so well well he made it 00:14:10.060 --> 00:14:15.759 right he made the winds and the thunder and everything he knows why that's running wind and thunder right 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:25.139 for them farmers that controlled life i mean god made those god runs those so yeah he knows how the world works 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:34.259 but we don't right we are humans we're limited creatures we can't find it out we don't understand 00:14:34.259 --> 00:14:41.639 how god runs everything this chapter says and it's a bit of a rebuke right here are job and his friends 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:46.980 and they've been arguing well this is why you're suffering and this is why this happens and they got 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:51.919 nowhere and the narrator and the writer says yeah that's right they got nowhere because some things we just 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:58.599 don't know there's a lot of things we do know but many things in life why this happens we just don't 00:14:58.599 --> 00:15:05.959 know maybe you are struggling with things you know you have this great relationship and you broke up 00:15:05.959 --> 00:15:12.679 why we don't know you know this uh you didn't get into the uni program you wanted 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:20.199 why i don't know why did all your best friends leave hong kong well you can give some reasons but 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:25.940 other people are still here you know why we don't know right there's so much we just don't know 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:33.500 god knows he governs the world and you can of course seek him and ask him and try and pray but 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:40.580 you may get it wrong right basically we don't know maybe you're here as a visitor and you want to know 00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:44.040 you're looking for answers right you're wondering why does this happen and why that 00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:51.860 and christianity has a lot of answers it has a lot of wisdom trust me if you look at it and yet 00:15:51.860 --> 00:15:57.159 there are some things we can't explain there are some things that okay generally i can see it but 00:15:57.159 --> 00:16:04.799 why this particular thing happened god hasn't told us and i'm sorry i don't know we need some uh but 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:10.120 what do we need then because this is ah frustrating right we want to know the answer but 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:16.620 well wouldn't it be great if god just told us right if god knows it he could tell us and 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:22.580 well at the last verse he said to man right god tells mankind okay here's the answer what 00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:29.700 what do we need what is wisdom and he says well wisdom here's wisdom wisdom is revealed right second 00:16:29.700 --> 00:16:37.560 point but it's maybe not what you expect what did he say well behold the fear of the lord 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:44.559 that is wisdom and to turn away from evil is understanding you want to be wise well 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:52.019 fear the lord live in a right relationship with him turn away from evil live his way basically 00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:58.419 make god the center of your life and and live like that and and that's wisdom now you may wonder is 00:16:58.419 --> 00:17:04.359 that how the world works actually wisdom kind of it has two meanings maybe you wondered did i make a 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:11.359 spelling mistake in the title that uh it said wisdom with a lower case actually wisdom with a capital 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:18.879 w is kind of how the world how god runs the world uh wisdom with a lower case is how we live in the 00:17:18.879 --> 00:17:24.799 light of it okay do you see those two that's uh yeah in hebrew it's like it's the wisdom versus 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:33.220 a wisdom kind of did that make sense but uh that's why it's like this but lower case wisdom this is 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:38.460 how to live and it's the same actually in all the wisdom books right if you've read proverbs what does 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:42.680 it say well the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:48.740 insight you want to be wise well the fear of the lord again ecclesiastes last year right this whole 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:55.359 book about how the world doesn't make any sense how should we live 12 verse 13 the end of the matter 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:00.500 all has been heard fear god and keep his commandments but this is the whole duty of man the same thing 00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:05.319 right fear god and keep his commandments i mean slightly different turn away from evil versus keep 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:10.460 his commandments job didn't have the law that's why it can't say keep his commandments because he didn't 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:19.620 have them but that's the idea uh fear yeah it's about god you you fear him you trust him you follow him 00:18:19.620 --> 00:18:27.720 which feels a bit like a cop-out right i don't know what you think i'm a parent and my kids always 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:33.759 ask why why do i need to do this and if you're a parent you can relate and i always try to explain 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:39.779 right i'm a i'm an engineer science background i want to always give okay this is why and i keep on 00:18:39.779 --> 00:18:45.379 explaining and ej is always very frustrated they should just do what you say but i want to explain 00:18:45.379 --> 00:18:52.920 and but the bible it often gives reasons it often tells you a lot of useful things but sometimes it 00:18:52.920 --> 00:19:00.420 just says no here it's just you know trust god fear god live his way and and and that's enough just 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:05.480 follow him when you don't understand it there's lots that you don't understand just follow him 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:11.680 although it's not unrelated right they're not two unrelated things i mean what is the connection 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:16.319 between the two well god is of course the one who runs the world and who governs the world 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:23.779 who made the world it makes sense of course that you trust him right if you want to use something well 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:29.920 how was it made who made it and then you know how it works right so so following the maker following 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:35.720 the creator makes really good sense but that's the idea we don't know how the world works but god does 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:44.580 so let's just trust him let's just follow him now of course what does this mean i mean fearing god 00:19:44.580 --> 00:19:50.560 that's such a strange phrase right and it sounds like being terrified and being being afraid of god 00:19:50.560 --> 00:19:56.920 actually it's not like that because if you hear that fear god and turn away from evil 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:05.200 who is the best example of that well in this book it's very simple right it's job job himself how did 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:11.400 he get introduced in one verse one and there was a man in the land of us whose name was job and that 00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:16.980 man was blameless and upright one who feared god and turned away from evil you want to see what it 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:24.640 looks like to follow god and look at job and job wasn't terrified of god right he loved god and he 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:32.420 sought god and when he went through unimaginable things he asked hard questions and he he missed 00:20:32.420 --> 00:20:37.400 god and he wanted him and he wanted an answer and he wanted his friendship back and but he certainly 00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:44.240 didn't come across as afraid right no fearing god is just that he's number one that he's the one you're 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:50.580 yeah who is the most important in your life and therefore yeah you trust him you follow him and then 00:20:50.579 --> 00:20:56.139 that is what job did right in all for the debate last week he kept on wanting to speak to god if 00:20:56.139 --> 00:21:03.539 only if i could speak with god and because he he knew him he loved him that is fearing god treating god 00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:09.519 as he deserves having a right relationship with him though of course what does that look like then as 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:16.039 well well it of course if you trust him you will live his way right of turning away from evil which is 00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:22.139 of course also what job did anyway you get a really beautiful picture of that as you read on in the 00:21:22.139 --> 00:21:29.339 next few chapters because job gives kind of this this final appeal yeah his summary defense you know god 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:34.619 i don't understand this i don't deserve this i think please let me know why i'm going through this 00:21:34.619 --> 00:21:42.119 it sets up the answers we will get from elihu and god himself but but let's just look at what job is like 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:50.139 yeah so what does he miss so chapter 29 he will long ago things were so good but what what did what 00:21:50.139 --> 00:21:57.379 did he miss oh verse 2 oh that i were as in the months of old as in the days when god watched over 00:21:57.379 --> 00:22:04.179 me when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light i walked through darkness as i was in my prime 00:22:04.179 --> 00:22:10.159 when the friendship of god was upon my tent when the almighty was yet with me and when my children were 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:16.820 all around me he doesn't say oh back when i was rich and when i was healthy no when when god was 00:22:16.820 --> 00:22:23.759 with me when he was his friendship was with me and you know we we did things together and you know 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:31.440 what does he miss he missed doing good because what was job like verse 7 when i went out to the sit 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:38.180 the gate of the city when i prepared my seat in the square the young man saw me and withdrew and the 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:46.580 aged rose and stood why was job so respected his money no um verse 12 because i delivered the poor 00:22:46.580 --> 00:22:52.480 who cried for help and the fatherless who had none to help him i put on righteousness and it clothed me 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:58.759 my justice was like a robe and a turban and he was such a selfless man yeah he was rich he was the 00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:05.519 richest man around but he used he did good and then now of course that's all gone chapter 30 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:11.319 yeah i've lost everything 30 verse one my now my now they laugh at me men who are younger than i 00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:16.980 whose fathers i would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock uh verse 19 god has cast me into 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:23.099 the mire i've become like dust and ashes i cry to you for help and you do not answer me i stand and 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:30.319 you only look at me yeah god this is my situation and so please give me an answer chapter 31 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:38.220 let me be weighed in a just balance and let god know my integrity oh that i had want to hear me 00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:50.000 here's my signature let the almighty answer me he wants an answer joe yeah god why i don't know what 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:55.519 you think is he asking too much is he demanding god show up and tell me where we're going to see the 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:01.139 coming weeks whether that is right but you can see his heart right his heart for god and his heart 00:24:01.139 --> 00:24:07.019 to do good chapter 31 it's so challenging as he just says look god i haven't done anything 00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:16.720 i mean uh 31 verse 1 it puts us to shame um i have made a covenant with my eyes how then could i gaze 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:22.879 at a virgin right i've made a solemn agreement i'm not going to look at kind of young unmarried women 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:30.340 you know challenging right somewhere in hong kong uh challenging uh he treats his slave so well 00:24:30.340 --> 00:24:39.440 right i think that's that's interesting chapter 31 uh verse 13 if i've rejected the cause of my 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:46.340 manservant or my maidservant when they brought a complaint against me yeah if i've treated my 00:24:46.340 --> 00:24:52.800 slaves badly uh verse 15 did not he who made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:59.639 in the womb so he says my slaves and me we're the same we're both made my gods right you maybe you 00:24:59.639 --> 00:25:04.019 think the bible justifies slavery or something like that some people say that actually three and a 00:25:04.019 --> 00:25:09.960 thousand years ago it said well we're both human and so i shouldn't treat them badly amazing and uh 00:25:09.960 --> 00:25:16.980 of course we saw he did good right he uh he helped the poor and uh good for hong kongers he he didn't 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:23.259 trust in money verse 24 if i have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence 00:25:23.259 --> 00:25:31.920 job in so many ways he really loved god and followed him you know it is a far higher standard than the 00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:39.620 old testament law it's it's almost the sermon on the mount it's so uh yeah now i don't know what you 00:25:39.620 --> 00:25:44.940 think of this you hear that and we need to hear it rightly i know how i usually hear this i hear this and 00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:50.660 think oh man this is what i need to obey this is what the standard that i need to keep if i want to 00:25:50.660 --> 00:25:57.759 really uh live god's way of course then we're sinners we can't we we can never fully live up to this i 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:05.500 know i mean job needs to be amazing right for this book to work if job was just an or was if yeah no one 00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:11.240 would ever think that i'm innocent and yeah right it has to be someone blameless and perfect for this book 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:17.460 to raise this question but then we think oh job is just an ideal and we don't even try 00:26:17.460 --> 00:26:24.339 actually uh if we love god if we know who he is we want to live his way even though if you don't do 00:26:24.339 --> 00:26:29.420 it perfectly i hope you know if you love god you want to live we don't want to trust in other things 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:34.519 and we don't want to displease him and we want to have his heart for other people and those kind of 00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:41.480 things right that's just natural and if he says what is good then i guess we follow it right of 00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:46.460 course we don't want to trust gold because god is our number one god is the one we trust and also he 00:26:46.460 --> 00:26:49.819 says that money is the root of all kinds of the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil 00:26:49.819 --> 00:26:58.379 no wonder we shouldn't be greedy it's not good for us we should yeah but i hope you can see the point 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:04.080 right uh again don't mistake last week last week i said your suffering's got nothing to do with your 00:27:04.080 --> 00:27:10.040 sin don't take that just to mean okay sin really doesn't matter all right justice denied well actually 00:27:10.040 --> 00:27:16.720 it's justice delayed but the point is this it's about how we live right we may not understand what 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:22.280 happens in life we can't understand what god is doing but we just keep trusting him and keep living 00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:28.859 for him and keep following him uh which means yeah trying to please him doing what he says is right 00:27:28.859 --> 00:27:36.680 and doing and that's that's how you live if you trust someone you live as that person says as that 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:44.000 person wants you to live because that's that's a relationship right i hope that makes sense but 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.759 that's the challenge for us right maybe some very difficult thing happens at work tomorrow 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:53.759 and what are you going to do maybe you wonder why why did god put this in my life 00:27:53.759 --> 00:28:00.519 i guess it says don't turn away right don't be like job's wife you know curse god and die 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:08.859 you know seek him pray ask for answers but trust him right don't turn away from him when it happens 00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:15.759 uh don't don't be paralyzed actually you know what to do right maybe oh what should i do now well 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:24.160 keep trusting god and keep just living his way it's actually not difficult um don't you know don't 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:28.839 pause on your christian life i have that sometimes and when your life is messed up okay i'm gonna just 00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:33.700 press pause and i'm not gonna do anything christian until i know the answer i think that that's very 00:28:33.700 --> 00:28:42.920 tempting right uh i'm not gonna uh yeah actually that is this is no uh keep going keep trusting 00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:52.220 keep living keep walking just keep going with god even if you have no idea what's going on you have 00:28:52.220 --> 00:28:58.120 no idea why this is coming to your life god says just trust me and keep going in a way it's liberating 00:28:58.120 --> 00:29:05.300 right we we know what to do god has told us just keep following me and it'll work out it'll be fine 00:29:05.299 --> 00:29:12.299 just keep trusting me i think what we need to do then yeah do we trust god right here's the question 00:29:12.299 --> 00:29:17.879 we we trust our knowledge more than other things right if i just know the answer then i trust that 00:29:17.879 --> 00:29:23.779 and god actually says well in this case you're human and i'm god and you know you just need to trust me 00:29:23.779 --> 00:29:29.700 you can't know everything you just need to trust me and can we trust him 00:29:29.700 --> 00:29:38.319 oh yeah i think you know the answer to that right can we trust him yes we can and especially as 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:44.319 christians because we have something that job didn't have right because we talk about wisdom that 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:49.080 it's so inaccessible right it's uh it's not here on earth it's not in the realm of the dead where 00:29:49.080 --> 00:29:57.940 it's it's with god but what if wisdom didn't stay up in heaven what if wisdom came down and that's 00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:06.240 the thing right wisdom has come down and proverbs talks about wisdom as a person how a person kind 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:13.160 of you know through whom god created the world and uh you know that other philosophies did that like 00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:20.059 the greeks they thought of uh the the principle behind the universe the logos or word and john picks 00:30:20.059 --> 00:30:27.700 that up in his gospel john says hey uh there is a person at the heart of who god is john one 00:30:27.700 --> 00:30:34.580 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning 00:30:34.580 --> 00:30:41.059 with god all things were made through him without him was not anything made that was made here is the 00:30:41.059 --> 00:30:47.700 one through whom god made everything here's the one who is in a way at the heart of the universe right 00:30:47.700 --> 00:30:54.620 and then that person yeah came down and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen 00:30:54.619 --> 00:31:01.719 his glory glory as the only son from the father full of grace and truth god sent him down to us 00:31:01.719 --> 00:31:10.599 god's wisdom become become human and so yeah he is where we he's then the source of all wisdom right 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:15.759 that's what paul says when he says you know i want you all to know christ because then what can we do 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:21.779 well to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of god's mystery 00:31:21.779 --> 00:31:27.579 which is christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge all the treasures 00:31:27.579 --> 00:31:33.180 of wisdom and knowledge everything you might want to know about the universe everything god wants to 00:31:33.180 --> 00:31:39.680 tell us about everything it's in christ doesn't mean that if you know jesus you can get seven phds 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:48.160 that's not what it means no it means that you know we now know the heart of god we know 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:54.300 god has revealed more to us than ever before he's revealed what is at the heart of who god is right 00:31:54.300 --> 00:32:00.259 a father and a son loving each other in the unity of the spirit god has made known the heart of his 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:06.660 plans to bring everything together under christ right he has made his his heart his character right 00:32:06.660 --> 00:32:12.880 how do we see god so clearly when jesus came down and died on the cross in his love and grace for 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:20.520 all our sin and all our rebellion and all our unbelief that is how we can see who god really is we we know 00:32:20.520 --> 00:32:27.140 him better than ever before and when he revealed himself job wanted to speak to god well actually god 00:32:27.140 --> 00:32:37.080 was here god the wisdom of god in human form and we know him and that means that yeah we we can't 00:32:37.079 --> 00:32:44.740 understand the world but we can know this person we can know this wonderful person and who has all 00:32:44.740 --> 00:32:49.939 the answers and surely if someone died for you you can trust him right if he's gave his life for you 00:32:49.939 --> 00:32:56.419 you can give your life to him we don't know how the world works but it's run by the one who died for you 00:32:56.419 --> 00:33:04.899 then we can trust him and that is what we have that job didn't have and so let's do this right we 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:12.940 don't understand everything we don't understand why sickness and disasters and accidents and 00:33:12.940 --> 00:33:18.240 things that we don't know why all this happens we just know it's in jesus hands and so let's let's 00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:25.200 trust him let's keep following him let's be committed to okay i'm gonna keep doing what jesus wants 00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:29.960 i don't know what's going on but i know what he says is right and i'm gonna live his way 00:33:29.960 --> 00:33:35.579 and trust that he will love me and he will bring me through and he will sort everything out in the 00:33:35.579 --> 00:33:42.900 end and i yeah that is it that is how a christian lives by faith we repent and we trust in jesus 00:33:42.900 --> 00:33:50.819 and we trust him in all of life why don't we do that together why don't i give you some time i've put 00:33:50.819 --> 00:33:57.180 two questions here on the screen to think about you know just think how are you tempted to respond 00:33:57.180 --> 00:34:02.460 when things don't make sense well what is your temptation are you paralyzed and do you press 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:08.019 pause on your christianity do you turn away from god now what will it look like for you to fear the 00:34:08.019 --> 00:34:13.820 lord and turn away from evil and and then just think about jesus and his love for you and how that 00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:19.180 changes things so let me give you a minute or two and then i'll pray for us 00:34:19.179 --> 00:34:34.719 adoration 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:38.199 and 00:34:38.199 --> 00:35:08.179 Thank you. 00:35:08.199 --> 00:35:38.179 Thank you. 00:35:38.199 --> 00:35:40.199 Thank you. 00:35:45.179 --> 00:35:46.299 Let's pray together. 00:35:46.300 --> 00:35:50.640 Father, we want to humble ourselves before you. 00:35:50.900 --> 00:35:52.700 We admit that you are God and we're not. 00:35:53.539 --> 00:35:56.080 And we don't know everything that's going on. 00:35:56.140 --> 00:36:02.980 We don't understand the deep workings of you, of you, how you rule the universe, how you rule our lives. 00:36:03.940 --> 00:36:05.460 But thank you that we can trust you. 00:36:05.539 --> 00:36:06.639 Thank you that you sent your son. 00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:15.240 That he is now the one ruling the universe for our good to bring us home, to bring everything to completion. 00:36:15.900 --> 00:36:16.740 Help us to trust. 00:36:16.739 --> 00:36:23.859 Help us to see where we are tempted to not live with you, not follow Jesus. 00:36:24.919 --> 00:36:30.019 Turn us in love and trust back to him, back to your son. 00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:34.659 That we would know your love and live accordingly. 00:36:35.779 --> 00:36:36.759 Thank you we can do that. 00:36:36.760 --> 00:36:39.880 Thank you that you graciously revealed that we can just trust you. 00:36:40.700 --> 00:36:43.860 By your spirit, please strengthen us and help us to do that. 00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:45.520 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:36:46.240 --> 00:36:46.640 Amen. 00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:46.799 Amen. 00:36:46.799 --> 00:36:46.819 Amen.