Welcome into the Wednesday Bible Study. My name is Rick Burgess, and if this is your first time with us, we are working through the Book of Job. So if you want to go ahead and turn, where we're going to be today, we're going to be in Job chapter four. So in Job chapter four, things are going to change because now Job's friends that have arrived with him are now going to start speaking into his life. So we'll jump into that today. But let's open up with a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for today. I pray Lord that you will be glorified, that you will help us to glean from your holy scripture. Is everything that you intend today. Lord, And as we read this very ancient book, we're also reminded that, as Solomon told us, there's really nothing new under the sun, a lot of the same things we're going to see today are as alive and well today as they were then. So I pray the Lord that you help us to deal with it in a way that is pleasing to you, and to see ourselves not just as Job that's the part that we tend to do, but to also see ourselves as his friends. And your name, we pray Amen. So this Bible study is brought to you by the Manchurch dot com. Themanchurch dot Com. We are a completely comprehensive resource for men's ministry. If you at your church, or maybe you in your community you would love to start men's ministry, or maybe you'd like to have a more healthy men's ministry, we're here to help. We have all the resources you need. We have resources in the form of individual devotionals for men. We also have forty week curricula for small groups and we have a five of those, number six coming out this fall. As a matter of fact, Adler and I we got what one more session baby, and as far as the videos will be done with the next curriculum, that will then go to our team of writers who will right to study guides and that baby will be ready to go coming up this fall. So all of that's there. We also can send you speakers. If you're having your own gathering, we could just say, hey, we'll send you a speaker, We'll send you the curriculum, and you're ready to go. If we can help you with speakers too. We also do conferences. Our twenty twenty five conferences have all been complete this year. But if you'd like to get ready for twenty twenty six. As soon as we have those dates and cities, we'll start making those available to you as well. So if we can help you in any way, shape or form, you can go to the Maanchurch dot com and just shop around, click around, look at our strategy, and then contact us and we're happy to help you, and you can join the over twenty three hundred and fifty some odd churches that are now doing all of our strategy are part of our strategy all over the country and even in other places around the world. So as we go to Job chapter four, Job Chapter four, as I'm in now, the friends will begin to speak. What we have up to this point is we have the very clear picture of God's interactions with the angels, both with him and the one fallen angel, Lucifer. We don't know whether the others that went with Lucifer get to appear before him as well. I assume they must if Lucifer can. But there's this ongoing conversation and test with God and Satan. Satan is saying to God, if you will just let Job suffer, he'll turn on you. So far that has not happened. And Satan has thrown everything at Job that he's allowed to throw and who allowed him God himself. He has thrown the death of his children, He has thrown the removal of his wealth. He weaponized his own wife against him. And now Job has lamented his birth, preferring death over what he's going through now. But in that process, he still never sinned. He did not blame God for any of his woe. He blamed himself. What is that that's wrong with me? That I should have ever even been born? So now we have the friends that have been sitting in silence. They've heard this lament from Job, and you're going to find out pretty quick that the very flawed theology. Now Eliphaz is going to be much more subtle than some of the others. The others are going to be much more blunt. Elifaz is kind of an eloquent speaker. He kind of beats around the bush a little bit. He's not all that direct, but he still is going to eventually get there. But you're going to see that the health, wealth, and prosperity flawed theology apparently has been around for a very very long time. I have laughed and laughed at the number of you that are watching this Bible stuff here listening around the world, and even some of the friends that keep sending me the meme of the big giant wrestler coming off the top ring rope and then a smaller opponent laying on the mat. And it says, the Book of Job is the big guy and the little person on the mat is the health, Wealth and prosperity gospel. And here comes the Book of Job. I guess the book. I guess. If you believe in the health, wealth and prosperity garbage, you just skipped the Book of Job, I guess, And you also skip a lot of other parts of the Bible as well. So let's start with the elephas. In verse one, it says that then elf As the Timidite answered and said, now Timanite, there can also be the eloquent. It's another word for that as well, because he is very eloquent and smooth. Likely he's the oldest of these friends that are sitting with Job. But this is just telling us in scripture, there's a chain just speaker. Now we're not hearing from God, We're not hearing from from Lucifer. We're not hearing from job. We're now hearing from another person, and this is going to be Elafaz. And here's what Elifaz says in verse two. If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet? Who can keep from speaking? He's doing the if you ever had these people that'll come up to you and they'll go and they won't tell you what they want to say, but they're almost kind of laying out, kind of testing the water. You problems not to get mad at me. I can't make that promise until I hear what you have to say. I can't. Maybe what you are about to say is going to make me quite mad. The other one I love is and I no offense. Well, that doesn't mean it's not going to be offensive. I mean, you know, we've seen all these different weird things we do socially. Elifas is kind of doing this version. He's like, you know, if if I decide to say what I need to say, are you gonna be patient with me? Are you gonna you're gonna get upset? Uh? But he's he's doing these rhetorical questions and two questions he's asking job is basically, uh that that if I'm gonna say something you don't want to hear. How are you going to react? But at the same time, is there really anyone that can keep me from saying what I want to say? And of course those answers are number one. I don't know whether I'm gonna be patient with you or not because I don't know what you're gonna say. But no, I even if I said no, I don't want to hear what you're gonna say, You're gonna say it anyway. Uh So, so that's kind of the setup that you get from lafaz here. And so now he's gonna start reminding Job of how many people he's instructed, uh basically preparing Job to say, you know, all the things you've told other people, you might want to apply that to yourself. Uh So, So here here you go in verses three through six. Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble needs. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient. It touches you and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God, your confidence and the integrity of your ways, your hope. So he's just heard this lament from Job, and he's kind of indirectly saying, this doesn't sound like what you tell everybody when they're struggling. Apparently Job was a man of you, as we know, that was blameless and upright, and I think he probably counseled a lot of people. And Eliphaz is reminding him of all the people he counseled and all the things he's said, and he's kind of saying that this last lament we heard there was a little bit of poor, poor, pitiful me in there. Now, what we're seeing Elafaz is showing us a lot of things here. You're going to see in a minute that the health, wealth and prosperity bad theology was alive and well then, but you're also noticing something else. Passive aggressive is not a new invention. Elafas is very passive aggressive. He's trying to be blunt with Joe without being blunt with Joe. He's trying to say something that's not going to be all that wonderful to hear, but he's really trying to go you heard this again, all the way around the fence, and then hen coming around this way and of course probably. I don't know if y'all are like me. I prefer the direct approach. Let's get to what you want to say. And I have this happening all the time. We have this text option now when I do the radio show that I do for a living, And it's so funny how even on tech people won't be directed anymore. They'll throw some rhetorical question out there, and I'm just like this, ask me, which you want to ask me? Just say what you want to say, come to me directly. And you also find out that people honestly have a really hard time being direct. People are much bolder if they can hide behind social media under some weird handle where you don't know who they are. The problem we have on the text option here or they do. They don't know that I can see their phone number. So what I do is if someone texts me something that goes after my integrity or my character, after the show's over, I just go call them. And I can tell you when I call them that nine out of ten of them will not take the call once they know that they have to speak to me directly. They want some do I had one today that actually had a conversation with me, and it went well because we got to talk directly. But most people in most settings would rather not be direct. Passive aggressive has become kind of the norm. Now I'm going to say something about you. I'm gona make a little comment here. I'm gonna do a little comment here. I'm not gonna directly say anything. I'm just gonna throw little things out there and hope you kind of figure out what I'm trying to say without me ever really saying it. So Elafaz has got a little bit of that in him, and so he has said to job in three through six, why don't you follow your own advice, you know, react the way you have taught others that they should react. And then he starts getting down to the point that he's really trying to make if you are so innocent in all of this, the whine did you seem to feel so bad? Shouldn't there be confidence in your innocence? You know full well that sometimes the truth hurts, is what he's saying, because we've heard you say that before. So he's starting already to kind of I'm trying to insinuate you claim that you're you're innocent. You don't know why all this is happening. But this lament we just heard didn't sound like anybody that's confident that they're innocent. You know, if you have this relationship with God that you claim to have and you know that you're innocent before him, what we just heard doesn't seem to reflect that. So he's starting to can I chipping away at it a little bit. Now, let's look at seven to eleven. Remember who that was innocent ever perished? Who was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and soul trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of a fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken, the strong lion perishing for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. Now Joe is a better man than me, because I'll be like, hey, get to the point. You're talking around everything. Say what you want to have to say. Let's get to it, you know. And I don't think any of us like having difficult conversations. I just think that some of us are willing to do it, but I don't think it's enjoyable for any of us. I don't like having tough conversations, and I don't like confrontations, and I don't like having to make hard decisions. I'm just willing to do them because you have to at some point. And so now let's look at all the things that the beautiful speaking Elafas beating around the bush is saying. He does now kind of go onto the state of Job's problem. As he sees it, These verses will get Elifaz. This is his view, Elfas saying, now what I'm watching, here's what I see Now he still beats around the bush, using all kinds of passive aggressive things, and and he says, he's basically saying to Job without saying it directly, what are you hiding? What are you not telling us? And he's saying, do innocent people perish? Now when he's talking about perish here, Uh, people were dying in those days, and not everybody who died was guilty of anything. Perish means do they do they go to hell? Or do they do? Innocent people? Are they at odds with God is what he's really talking about. He's not talking about that you would die in earthly death and your perish means you die in eternal damnation. And uh, and he says, are the upright cut off from God? Looks like God's abandon you. So if you were upright, would God abandon you? This is that just how I see it. This is how I see it. And you just wish at one point he would go, I got a feeling there's some great sin in your life and God's punishing you for it. Am I right about that? But he I mean that'd be two verses, okay, But now he wants to go all the way around all this, and he said, this is just what I'm observing. And I tell you, what up? What else I've noticed. I've noticed that we pretty much read what we saw. That's what I've noticed. Now we know forward foreshadowing that Jesus does take on that issue, and he does say what Jesus says, though you can be completely forgiven, which you're not going to see a lot of grace and mercy in this. Jesus is saying, all of you have fallen short, all of you is sin. None of you meet this standard to stand in the presence of a holy God. And really, what Jesus is saying is how we've interpreted it and talked about it in our family, and Cherry talked about this with our kids, and it's why that we wrote the devotional by the same title. Yes, you can be forgiven, but sin always matters. It does. There's repercussions for sin. Even when Jesus forgives you, if you repent, the earthly repercussion still stands. You know. A great example of that is what I call the sin that keeps on giving, the sin of divorce. It can be forgiven, but even when you're forgiven until you're dead, that divorce haunts you the rest of the time you're on this planet, especially if you have children with the person that you then didn't remain married to. That's never going away, not on this side. Now, you can make the best situation of it. But that Jesus didn't take away the repercussion of that sin. He didn't suddenly say, okay, you send against me with your marriage and I have forgiven you. Now let me go clean up all the mess, and everybody get along and nobody have any drama at a birthday party, and it's not gonna mess up the holidays, and your kids aren't gonna resent you, and they're not gonna play you against each other. So he doesn't take any of that away, and anytime you cry about that, he goes, well, now that was on you. You're reaping what you sold. Well, what they're saying here is a little bit different what Eliphaz is saying, because we're not in the New Covenant. Here, he is saying that this is an indication that God is against you. See we can see repercussions for our earthly sin in the New Covenant. And say, now I'm still forgiven. I'm still right with God. This is just the mess I made with my sin. But God has forgiven me of this. You may not have, but God has. Well, they don't really have that yet. So what they're thinking is if God's not with someone, it's because this person has been abandoned by God because of some evil thing they're doing that we don't know about. That's what he means by reaping what you sew. So then he goes into this bizarre poetic thing about lions, and what he is really taking on here is remember what scripture says about Job. In the very beginning, Job was highly respected, was a powerful man, and was blameless and upright like a lion. And so he's bringing this analogy in Job's the lion, and he's like, you know, but even lions they've met their match when they try to go against God. Those teeth get broken and they're not real scary at all. And don't you know, and this is just the wicked part of human beings. You got to think at some point that Eliphaz and all the others grew weary of just how wonderful Job was, and now's their chance to say, mister all powerful and mister blameless and upright is obviously done something not so blameless, not so upright and not so powerful now. And you know, if you if you've ever seen that in people, and and they're what they're really thinking right now is thank Goodness's life at one time used to really convict us, and now we're finding out he no better than we will. Instead of them trying to rise to the standard, most people just like to tear down people that seem to be right with God to make themselves feel better about their bad relationship with God. So anyway, here we go. Instead of people being sometimes inspired by devout followers of Christ and the New Covenant, they want to tear that person down so they don't feel convicted by it. That's where you get sanctimonious, self righteous, holier than thou. Sometimes these labels are put on people. They're just the real deal. And I can speak from experience. I love my grandmother and always did, but I remember thinking it was she's a little over at the top, and you know, that's the classic in Dean and Sarah writes about this beautifully in The Unsaved Christian, and he preached about it at one of our conferences. He says, cultural Christians always think they're just as much a Christian as the most devout, But the most devout is just another kind of Christian that's really into it. They won't accept that. It may be that that's transformation and what I'm doing is fake. It's always no, We're We're all in the same boat. You're just a little more radical than me. And that's the way I saw my grandmother. But once I became redeemed, I realized that in our family, as much as we made jokes about how over the top she was and how radical she was, only to come to the conclusion, No, that's just what redemption really looks like. She was actually the real deal, and we were all a bunch of fakes. That's how it really was. And so in this case he was talking about the difficulty. Now don't miss the arrogance of his friends throughout these next several chapters. Does anybody really think that Eliphaz has never had anything bad happen in his life? I don't know that anybody comes through life and the falling creation and nothing bad ever happens, not one thing. And I laughed out loud. I didn't know this happened. But there was this Christian magazine back during the height of the Billy Graham crusades, and Billy Graham was just being used by God and these wonderful things were going on. Well, the magazine, instead of being happy and promoting Billy Graham, apparently the editor and the writer of the article had some distain for Billy Graham, and Billy Graham got really sick. I don't remember what time this was, whether what decade this was in, but he got really sick. Well, this person goes into the so called Christian magazine and pulls an elephants, Well, the reason why Billy Graham's sick is he's got some kind of sin. And he says, I've noticed some of the people who've been hanging around some things he's been doing politically, some of this. And see he's left, and now God's punishing because Billy Graham is doing something he shouldn't be doing, or he wouldn't be sick. Well, God has a wonderful, wonderful sense of humor. The same person that wrote the article about Billy Graham fell down a flight of steps and got injured, real bad. Do you know what he wrote about his own suffering attack from Satan. This is Satan in the adversary trying to knock me out because of my impact for the Kingdom of God. Billy Graham was sick because he was doing something wrong. I'm injured because I'm doing everything right. So you can see where the mindset in this just becomes as a cordon who's talking if it's true that if something bad happens to you, you've done something wrong. I see bad things happening to just about everybody I know to some degree. Okay, So Eliphaz is completely forgetting about that and uh, and so elafhas kind of had the attitude this magazine guy had. Suffering of other people equals sin in their life. Suffering for me is because how righteous and important I am, and I'm an enemy of the adversary, I must be taken out. I remember dealing with that was and I've seen it both ways. I had a guy who was nearly killed and that was his take on everything, is that he was so important and he was such an influence, and he was even out preaching and showing uh, the the flaws in Islam and standing up for the Christian faith. He was he was basically martyred nearly that the adversary, Satan, sent demons to nearly kill him, and they nearly and he nearly was killed. But one thing he left out, though that can be the case, It certainly can found out later that there was major deceit and sin in his life, that it was not a stumble, perpetual and ongoing. And as he was going around now being the voice of suffering, he had left out that he was sinning against God privately in a major way. That kind of changed our look at the near death experience. For our friend, it might have been God trying to give him his best shot at repenting, but in his eyes it was because of how important he was to the kingdom. But he left out the deliberate, perpetual sin that was going on secretly in his life. But of course, as God always does, he loves us enough to bring it out into the light. But anyway, so the bottom line is suffering and bad things happening to people really isn't an indication of anyth Only God knows what's going on here. But what a lot of people like to say is it only means one thing, and that's just not true. It could mean multiple things, and some of it you may know and some of you may not know. You just stay faithful. But suffering is part of our lives. But Elafaz is saying, in this case it has to be because his friend is hiding something. So then comes this disturbing vision. And if you don't think that Elifaz is the problem here watch this. Here comes who he is really working for. Remember, his wife has already been weaponized by Satan, and you're going to pick up pretty quick his friends are being weaponized as well. So here we go. Remember we know what's going on because we have the Bible. Job and his friends don't know what's going on. Okay, but listen to this now. Elifaz is going to say, you really need to listen to me because I'm so important. God came to see me in a vision. The only problem is we're going to discover I don't think it was God. So here we go, he says. Now a word was brought to me. Watch out, I got a word. I got a word. Just because somebody says they have a word, don't mean it from God. I just want you to know that vet these things out got a word for you. Sometimes it is one and you say thank you, that's a great whatever, But sometimes it's not. Just because somebody's got a word doesn't mean it came from God. So that's why you always want to know how to vet out a word from somebody. Now a word was brought to me stealthily. My ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night when deep sleep falls on the man. Dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit I would underline that glided past my face. The hair of my flesh. It up. There's no Hebrew word for goosebumps. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance, A form underline that was before my eyes, and there was silence. Then I heard a voice. Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? It's a very very disturbing vision. And Elaphast is trying to say, I tell you, I was told you need to fear God and confess your sin. Well, he says he was visited in the middle of the night by spirit. Notice he says that it was not a dream. He even says that he was awakened from the dream state. He didn't say that this was in a dream, but that it interrupted his dreams and awakened him from a very deep sleep. And it seems that when he was awakened that this spirit was terrifying and scary. And then the question the spirit asked, can mortals be more righteous than God? Can a man be pure? More pure than his Maker? Now here's where eliph has not really well versed in the ways of angels and demons. He says, it's a spirit. But here's the problem, and you know, you know, I told y'all, I think several Bible studies back and I had a meeting about it yesterday, and we are going to do it. We're going to start in April a podcast that's all about spiritual warfare, because I think it's so crucial that we be educated on demons and angels and discerning and knowing what's going on, and so we are going to do a podcast that's about nothing but spiritual warfare. I think it's avoided in the Western Church. We shouldn't obsess over it or anything like that, but it's avoided to the point that we're sending people out into his spiritual battle that's there, but we're not preparing them to fight it. And it's very dangerous. So here's some things to look for. Never in scripture where you see an angel not identified himself. If this was an angel, Elafast would have been told, I'm an angel from the Lord, and I have a message from God for you. This spirit doesn't do that. He didn't say where he's from, okay, and then he also never mentions God. The spirit never mentions God as far as a message from God, and he's gonna use God in an analogy, but he never says he's from God. Angels always do. And when you're terrified of an angel, what does the angel always tell you? Don't be afraid. I'm not here to spook you. I'm not here to scare you. Let me let all of you know something. If your mam ma's come into the foot of your bed, it ain't your mama, okay. And walking around your house, that's not your mama. Okay, that's a demon portraying himself as your mama. The angels are not here to come in and be spooks and scary and all this kind of stuff. An angel's presence may cause you to be terrified. We see this in scripture, but the angel immediately starts doing what. Don't worship me, don't be afraid. I have a message from God. This is who I am. They always identify themselves, and they always appear to look to everybody in scripture something recognizable, recognizable, a powerful man, a glowing man. Never do you hear anyone go some sort of spiritual blob or something. I don't know what this is. It's nothing you'd see on Ghostbusters. Okay. It's always something you can identify, and there's never chaos there's never attempted to spook you. Their presence again may draw a righteous fear, but the calming always starts and clarity is always there. Demons, on the other hand, terrifying with no explanation, chaos, destruction of you know, weirdness, no clarity. That that's demons it is. It is most likely, and most scholars believe Ela Fast is just being weaponized by Satan. He's just sent a demon to confuse Elafaz, saying, hey, you needed you need to ask Job some hard questions. Because what does Lucifer, Satan the devil, want Job to do. He wants him to curse God. He wants so what he wants to do? You go in there and demoralize him. Have you ever had people come to you when you were down and you think that person wasn't sent by God? That was no help. Thank you for the big pep talk today. So what we so there was no identification, He can't really tell what it is. They're never sent for the purpose of terrifying people. Only This spirit is likely and most believe. And I am in the camp because of all the things I just mentioned, this is not from God. Now Eliaphas wants a job to think because you know how these spiritual special people are. God contacted me directly, came to me in the vision. I've had a vision, and I have a word from the Lord of all the people on the planet. The Lord has chosen me. But really, what's happening here likely is no demons have tricked you. And this message is not something that an angel would say. I mean, you really would not hear. Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He's certainly not going to say that to someone God's trying to use, because usually when the angels go to someone God's trying to use, they usually were encouraged that God found favor with them, and we wanted to give them a word of encouragement, wanted to give direction. And this is just some hey, go ask Job this. So you think the demons don't know elafhas is headed to see Job and what they're trying to do is weaponize his friends, just like they've done his wife and and uh and before that. So so now Elphas hears that and goes, well, I tell you what, that's a sign from God that I need to uh, I need to set job straight. So think about like I said in the past, angels usually look like some sort of human. They're sometimes very large. It's very very glorious. Uh, but this doesn't this doesn't seem very eternal at all. Okay, So so listen what happens after this? And uh and and he says even his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error. Now this, this is good. This is a real, real important point here, Okay, because when you hear that about the angels, God charged angels with sin. Now that's almost like this demon's letting a little bit. He's kind of showing his hand. Now, well, God didn't charge the ones that stayed with him with sin. This is almost a complaint from this demon. He charged us with sin and offered us no redemption. The fact that this will be brought up an angel of God wouldn't be bringing that up. This is being brought up like, well, look, if he charged us with sin, you don't think he'll charge some mortal with sin. And how much less are you worth? And the message that this demon is trying to say, look at this in nineteen how much more those who dwell in how Clay whose foundation is in the dust. Who are crushed like a moth between morning and evening. They are beaten to pieces. They perish forever without anyone regarding it. Now, keep in mind this demon, and I absolutely believe that's what this is. He is trying to convince eliphas to now tell job. When it comes to human beings, God's indifferent. I mean, he charged angels with sin. You think that he's got the time to even care about human beings, y'all don't mean anything to him. He's indifferent to you. You're nothing. You were made from dust. That's all you're ever going to be is dust. But see, if you don't know scripture, a demon can make you think that God doesn't care about you. But see, if you know scripture, you start thinking if you hear this kind of garbage from a person working for Satan or a demon. What's one thing that popped into my mind pretty quick is that Jesus said that God knows the number of the hairs on my head. Well, my goodness, that's not indifferent. That sounds like he's very aware of all of us, not just me, all human beings. Then we know that he took on human flesh and then he went to the cross to offer redemption to these human beings that didn't deserve that option at all. See, we would know that all of the encounters we see even in the Old Testament with God with David, and God with Abraham, and God with Jacob, and you know the fact that he's even wrestling with Jacob, there's nothing in anywhere in scripture God's interaction with the human beings from the very beginning, when he walked with him in the cool of the day. We should know that God is on record that he does not see human beings as a throwaway. Now, he doesn't worship us, as some of the modern churches may convince you in some of the modern pray songs. He didn't worship us. He's not our life coach, he's not our homeboy. He is the one and only living God. He is the beginning and the end. He did create us, and he did breathe his life into us when we were nothing. And yes, our bodies will return to us because of our sin, not because he's indifferent to us. And what this demon is trying to convince Eliphast to tell job is God doesn't care about you. Why do you keep holding on to your integrity to this God that doesn't care about you. And see now you're saying, Rick, how does that apply to me? I'm gonna tell you how. And I mentioned it before, but I'm gonna tell you again. How many of you in this room believe in a sovereign God? Okay, how many of you believe that God is fully in control? Right now? Be careful because if you get a bad report from the doctor, are you bearing one of your children? The old Demon's gonna show up and say, well, so God did this to you. He'll take the very things you know about God. He'll also use those against you. So God could have stopped this, Yes he could? Well, I guess God cares so little about you. He's put cancer on you. God put that cancer on you. What, well, he could have stopped it, couldn't he. Yeah? Wow? So your loved one died and you prayed to him for that person to live. You prayed for that to go away. And you know what God said to you, No, because he really just doesn't care. That's where you got to know what to say back to it. You gotta I was I was just I was in a situation and I'll deal with it here in a little while, until anytime somebody I know is in duress. I'm talking about biggies, the big stuff, the little stuff too. He cares about all of it, but I'm talking about these biggies where you like, I hope this person can hold it together until I can get to them. This is what I always say to them, if they are a member of the church, if they are redeemed, I say, until I can get to you, you keep repeating and hang on to the promises of God that you know. You keep remembering the promises of God until I get there and we need to I mean to me, that's that's the life preserver until they get you in the boat. Right here comes the life to preserver. They're coming to get me. Well, you're floating in the water. You float on the promises of God. Don't you forget what you know about God. Don't let the adversary, don't let your sin nature, don't you let those demons say things about God that you know aren't true. And so that's what's going on right now, and it's what Job is going to have to hang on to because what he's hearing from what supposedly would be a friend. Is that he is saying to God you're worthless and God has turned his back on you and he's abandoned you. Now, Eliphas thinks he's saying this so that job will repent, but the demons and Lucifer are saying no, tell him that so he'll give up on God, so he'll turn on God. See, we can even be having the best of intentions. That's why we got to know even when we're the friend. See, everybody sees ourselves as job right now, be careful we're not elafas well. We come in there thinking we're doing all this good to try to call somebody to conviction. Nothing wrong with that, but time and place. Be sure before you're calling somebody out that you're not being used by demons to try to crush them, that they'll give up and they reject God. We got to know how to handle that too, because I think that Eliphas actually thinks he's doing joke some good, but he's deceived because he's had this vision that he thinks is from God and it's from the devil. It's like I remember Adrian Rodgers talking about that, saying be careful being these signs and wondrous people, because Lucifer can do signs and wonders too, And he said, and he'd tell it was just a he was saying, he was given this as an example of something that could happen. Not it didn't happen, but something that could happen. He said. You could be standing out there in the middle of a field and you could say, I just don't believe in you. God, give me a sign right now, give me a bolt of lightning, he goes, and you might get a bolt to lightning. And he said, then all of a sudden, you start going down this road of really bad theology, all based on that bolt of light and lightning. You stand before the White Throne judgment. He looks down. Your name's not in the Book of Life. And you screamed out to him, what about when you gave me that bolt of lighting? And the Lord God Almady said, I didn't give you a boat to lightning that didn't come from me. And then you look over there and then you see Satan going that one was mine. I fooled you. So our faith can't be based on signs and wonders. We may see them email aois and them very well may be above God. I've seen some pretty miraculous things, but I've also seen demons after me too, and I've watched them work and they're pretty good too. They're not God, but they can do things I can't do. I mean, I watched demons one time take a friend of mind and for a moment, render him completely blind. He was crying out, I can't see. I've been blinded as we were trying to walk some demons out of a place, and it was ugly and it was scary. Now, he that was with us was stronger than what we were facing. But for a moment, it was a pretty scary moment. But they sure could do it. So this is the situation not to fall victim to what you're hearing, even in spiritual warfare, that God has abandoned you. God couldn't care less about you. God is punishing you, and I'll tell you why he's punishing you. Job. This is what Elf has is saying. God is punishing you because unlike what you have been portraying to everybody where you're blameless and upright and you big powerful man. At the end of it all, what God is showing us is you're nothing but a worthless sinner that's been abandoned by God. There's a big pick me up speech. And what you find in there, see, is where the adversary can be so cunning. And I bring no glory to him because he's defeated by our Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ, and you are defeated forever. But he knows enough scripture to give you a little bit of truth and then dilute it with a lot of error. Is it true that we are sinners in need of mercy? That is true. Are we sinners? You better believe we are. But is it true that God has abandoned us? That is not true, Because you go, well, I am a sinner. That is true. But what's not true is him going. God's abandoned you, and there's no hope for you. Now. All we have to do is repent. And there's times where the difficulty you are in and I'm in, has nothing to do with sin. It's to refine you, to strengthen you, to give you steadfastness. You count it all joy in this you rejoice for a little while if necessary. The testing of your faith, the refining of your faith, the strengthening of your faith, how many of you have had difficulty actually strengthen your faith. Yeah, so then we get to the end, and then we'll wrap up for today. Lafask goes on with this very uplifting message that people are soon forgotten. Now you're just gonna be forgotten between morning and evening. They're beaten to pieces. They perish forever without anyone regarding it is not their tent chord plucked up within them, do they not die? And that without wisdom. He is saying, people are soon forgotten. They're just like tents. When you're done with the tent, you just pull the tent chords up, and people die. Without wisdom, people die ignorant compared to how wonderful God is. Now, keep in mind the problem with this is what Eliphas is doing is portraying God is not just hating the wicked, which he does, but he ultimately hates human beings in general, and then the ultimate dagger who cares about you job certainly not God. Yeah, I could feel that land on the room. Can you imagine hearing that? Can you imagine being just at the end of it all, wishing that you'd never even been born, thinking, man, I must be so at odds. It'd been better if I was still born. Curse it is the day that I was born. No baby should have been born that was born. See, Job's already got this message that some that he there's something he does feel like God may have abandoned him. But what see you know you would be wonderful here is if his friends would show up and say no, no, no, no. Suffering does not always mean that you're at odds with God. There are many times that suffering is about being allowed by God so that you're going to glorify him. Don't let God down, Job, what about that speech? Now, God's with you in all this. He's proving to the world that you're faithful to him, not because of your wealth, not because of your family, not because of anything other than He is enough. Oswald Chambers today is Jim Ever. I hope all of you have read Oswald Chambers my utmost first highest. I read it about every other year. It is the most challenging canting messages, and all these were his messages that he preached, and his wife's put them all together. And what is now been a devotion for a long long time. If you haven't read it, do it. And today was the conviction today, and it changed my prayer even today, even though I know this, but it was it was so convicting. I needed to be reminded of it. And Oswald was reminding me that even if your whole pursuit of God is for the benefits to you, you're off. Yeah, redemption is something that can bring you peace. But I hope that wasn't your only pursuit of God. Yeah. God can can use you, and he can bless you, and he can there's all kinds of things that God does that we benefit from. But he says that can't be the motivation if you want to truly experience God. Our desire for God is for God himself. I just want to know God. I want all the God that he'll allow me to have. Not I'm pursuing God because I don't want to go to Hell, and I'm hoping he'll forgive me so I can then go and live my life and ignore him. I don't. I'm after God because I understand if I get right with God, it's possible that He might bless me with this and blessed me that might heal me of this, might do that, might do this. All those things are. You can be thankful for those things, but Oswall says, but that can't be the reason you're looking for him. You need to be seeking him because he is everything. I just want God, not I want God. Plus. I want God for my redemption. I want God for my blessings. I want God for my children. I want God for my marriage. I want God. All those things you can certainly pray to him about, but be careful that that's not your motivation. All those things are part of the experience, but they can't be the motivation. The motivation means I want God because he's God. I just want you and that's enough for me. And it changed my whole prayer. I said, I said, right now, Lord said, that's exactly what you and I going to talk about right now. It's Hey, it is three thirty in the morning, and Oswald has been used by you again to say, you know, and that's that fine tuning stuff that's getting into the marrow of the bone. Are you redeemed? I am. Are you being sanctified? I am? Well, one day you be glorified? Yes? Are you doing what you think God wants you to do? Yeah? But are you starting to forget that the true gift is God himself. Maybe, so let me correct that right now, he said. Even even be careful about service, service is it's gonna flow from it, and it's certainly something you can do, but that can't be your whole motivation. You know, maybe maybe today you just should say God, no matter the situation I'm in, You're still God. And that's all I ever wanted anyway. I just wanted you and I have you. You know, what is that song? I can't remember the artist's name, but it's just I just want you, And in this way, it's an artist that's being convicted. He said. I think I've gotten to the point even though I sing these worship songs about you, I think I think I've even lost why I even want to do that. Today. I'm not gonna bring all my garbage to you. I'm not even going to try to sing these songs for you. I just want you, and that's enough. Forgive me for my motivations being wrong, even the best motivations. So, Rick, what is it that you that you want to be remembered for my service? For God? Now? Why don't people just remember God? Why don't they just why why don't we just want God and see, in this particular case, if somebody had come to job and said, no, matter what's going on right now, God has not abandoned you. God is driving this whole thing. Let's get together with you and see if we can't find the good in it, and let's not waste your suffering because God is the opposite of abandoning you. Right now. God is actually right in the middle and in control of this. And let's just sit here and be thankful that God is God and whatever he's doing, he is right. Let's pray Lord, thank you for today, thank you for that reminder. Thank you for the hardest thing today was not to be job. Frankly, it was to be elephants. Help us not to be elephants. Sometimes I think we all look at job and go, well, that's difficult, it's horrible, and I don't want that suffering. I don't want that misery. But everything he's doing is supernatural and it's in you. But there's so many times, just like we look at these incredible moments in biblical history, and we sometimes we put ourselves in the wrong place every time until recently in my life and David and Goliath. I'm always David, and really most of my life I've been Goliath, and you had to destroy that version of me. You're actually David in order. I just pray that you continue to mold us into the people that only you can. And today I think all of us are in agreement, and I hope we can stay this way. You're enough, you are enough, you are wonderful. You are sustaining no matter my situation because you are you. And that's steady, and that is unchanging, and it's the only thing, frankly, that we can, one hundred percent with zero hesitation, be sure of. And it's in your holy name, we pray Amen. Thank you very much,