Introduction:
James 5:11 - Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
Why I'm Willing to Wait on the Lord While I Suffer (Job 42:7-17):
- Because God will have the Last Word . (Job 42:7-9)
- Because God is Making me through suffering. (Job 42:7-9)
Philippians 1:6 - And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:10 - For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 5:8 - Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
- Suffering Humbles me.
- Suffering teaches me Perseverance .
- Suffering proves if my faith is Real .
Job 13:15 - Though he slay me, I will hope in him...
- Because Blessing comes after suffering. (Job 42:10-17)
Philippians 3:10 - ...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings
2 Timothy 2:10 - if we endure, we will also reign with him
Romans 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:11-01:18
I want to do a quick call back to the invitation cards because I read something this past week that really got my attention.
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This is from the Church Outreach and Attendance Campaign, people that track things like this.
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But why do people start attending church?
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Seeing a church in an advertisement gets 2%.
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An organized visit gets 6%.
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I'm not sure what an organized visit is, but it gets 6%.
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This was deflating.
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Invite from a pastor, 6%.
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Like, wow, really?
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But this is the encouraging thing.
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Invite from a friend, 86%.
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Think about that.
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86% of people that visit a church do it just because a friend invited them.
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And that's why we have these cards.
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It's super easy.
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You just hand a card to somebody, your hairdresser, the milkman, just whoever, and say, "Hey, if you don't have a church home, "I would love for you to join us at Harvest Bible Chapel." Easy peasy, but so many people would come to church if only a friend invited them.
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So open up your Bibles to the book of Job in chapter 42.
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Job chapter 42, this is the end of Job.
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Job was a story of a godly man who was afflicted.
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He lost his wealth, he lost his children, he lost his health.
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He had three friends come and give him a lot of terrible advice and counsel.
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Then there was another man, Elihu, that gave him some good advice.
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God speaks up and then Job repents of his doubting.
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And then we get to the end.
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Let's pick up in verse seven where we left off last week.
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It says, "After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, "for you have not spoken of me what is right, "as my servant Job has.
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"Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams "and go to my servant Job "and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, "and my servant Job shall pray for you.
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"For I will accept his prayer, "not to deal with you according to your folly, "for you have not spoken of me what is right "as my servant Job has.
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"So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuite "and Zophar the," how do you say that word?
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Namethite.
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You say it real confidently, nobody knows, right?
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You're like, "Oh, I guess that's how that's pronounced." Namathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.
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And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.
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And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
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"Then came to him all his brothers and sisters "and all who had known him before "and ate bread with him in his house.
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"And they showed him sympathy and comforted him "for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him.
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"And each of them gave him a piece of money "and a ring of gold.
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"And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job "more than his beginning.
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"And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, "1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
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"He had also seven sons and three daughters.
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"And he called the name of the first daughter, Jemima." I know how to pronounce that one.
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"And the name of the second, Kazia, "and the name of the third, Karen-Hapuch.
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"And in all the land, there were no women "so beautiful as Job's daughters.
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"And their father gave them an inheritance "among their brothers.
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"And after this, Job lived 140 years "and saw his sons and his sonsons, four generations.
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"And Job died an old man and full of days." So what do we have here at the end?
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We have a rebuke for the three amigos.
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We have a prayer by Job on their behalf.
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They're forgiven.
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And we see Job restored greater than before.
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So when you read the end here, the question is, what's the big takeaway?
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Like what is it exactly that God wants us to know from the book of Job?
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And you know, that's an easy question to answer because the New Testament actually tells us what God wants us to learn from Job.
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It's in James 5, 11.
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Can we get that verse up there, please?
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See, the New Testament tells us.
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Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
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You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
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There's the takeaway.
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God wants you to see Job's steadfastness.
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But, look at that last phrase.
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God also wants you to see that he is compassionate and merciful.
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Does God seem compassionate and merciful in the book of Job?
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I think we're kind of nervous to answer that question, aren't we?
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I mean, God permitted Satan to horribly afflict a righteous man.
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Is that compassion?
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I mean, if a guy's walking down the street and he's got a dog on a leash, and the dog bites someone, who do we blame?
08:33-08:34
We blame the owner, right?
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And we see it again here in the text.
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God is the one that's ultimately responsible for everything that happened to Joe.
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So, what is compassion and mercy?
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What is it?
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Well, back up to the previous phrase here and you get your answer, where James says, you have seen the purpose of the Lord.
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And you see, that's the big takeaway regarding God in the face of suffering.
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He is compassionate and merciful because he has a purpose for suffering.
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And if you want to know, if you want to know what God's purpose is for your suffering, that's where you have to get to the Job quality.
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You have to remain steadfast.
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In other words, if you wanna know why God is allowing you to suffer right now as you are, and I know many people here are suffering with all kinds of different things.
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If you wanna know why God is allowing that, you have to wait.
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And you can feel the air go out of the room, even saying that.
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We hate waiting, don't we?
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We hate waiting.
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I mean, just look at us.
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We're people that if we want to buy something and we don't have the money to afford it, what do we do?
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We use a credit card.
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I'm not waiting for that.
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I'll just charge it.
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We don't wait for anything.
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Somebody, from time to time, people send me like a YouTube video.
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Like, hey, you need to watch this.
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And you click on the video and it says, video starts after this ad in five seconds.
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I'm like, not for me.
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I don't know what you think I do for a living, pal, but I'm not waiting.
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I'll never know what that video is about.
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You know, we're the kind of people that we stand in front of the microwave and we say, what's taking this stupid thing so long?
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And we yank our soup out at 30 seconds because we're like, you know what?
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I really do like cold soup.
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We don't like to wait, but here's something else that's true about us.
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We will wait for something when we deem that it's going to be worth the wait.
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That is also true.
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I found that true in my life and you have too.
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But for me, if I think something is worth the wait, then I will.
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Like for example, like a month ago, I waited an hour to vote.
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I've waited two or three hours to ride a roller coaster.
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And I'm kind of embarrassed to have to say this but not loud, but many, many years ago, I waited for almost nine hours to try out for a game show.
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And I didn't even get on.
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but you will wait when you deem that it's gonna be worth the wait.
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'Cause here's the thing, you know what?
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You're suffering and look, you know the Sunday school answer, you come into church and we're going through the book of Job and you know in your mind, you're like, "Yes, yes, God has a purpose in suffering." I know that, that is sound theology.
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God has a purpose when I suffer.
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God, he's gonna do something with it, he has a purpose.
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So today I just want to ask you one question.
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Are you willing to wait?
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Because when we get angry with God over our suffering, when we are bitter towards God because of our suffering, and now we're not praying, we're not in the Word, we're not going to church, we're mad at God because we're suffering.
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Do you know what you're saying to God?
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You're saying, "God, I'm not willing to wait.
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"I've had enough." And the book of Job shows us, look, look, hey, you wanna wait.
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You really, really want to wait because it's gonna be worth it.
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So let's just pause for a second.
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I'm gonna ask you to pray for me I'm gonna pray for you.
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Pray for me to be faithful to communicate this life-changing truth from God's Word.
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And I'll pray for you to have your heart open to allow God to change your life through this Word.
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All right, let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we are impatient people.
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We consider those blessed to remain steadfast.
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So God, I pray now over the next several minutes that you would teach us from your word why we wanna be steadfast.
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And show us, Father, why we wanna wait on you.
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We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
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Isn't it beautiful hearing the sounds of the kids?
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Just love that.
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All right, why I'm willing to wait on the Lord while I suffer.
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I want you to jot some things down if you have an outline.
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Why I'm willing to wait on the Lord.
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I believe that waiting on the Lord is ultimately going to be worth it.
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Why?
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Number one, I'm gonna get through this quickly, but we have to address this.
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Number one is because God will have the last word.
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Because God will have the last word.
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God rebuked Job's three friends because they misrepresented him.
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And I'd just like to remind you quickly that God is going to handle those who speak falsely about him.
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And that, that is encouraging.
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Why?
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Because we too are surrounded by people that spew all kinds of unbiblical nonsense.
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We had a whole sermon series somewhat recently about discernment.
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Why?
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Because there's so many voices out there not representing God.
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And I get so frustrated because I get it when a lost person misrepresents God.
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But when you have people that are in positions of ministry and call themselves pastors, and they get up and say things that God never said.
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But here we have a reminder here in these first few verses that God's going to have the last word.
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God will have the last word.
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Like, okay, all right, well, so what do I do about these?
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What do I do about these people while I wait on God to have the last word?
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Well, what did God tell Job to do?
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Pray for them, all right?
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Because at the end of it all, when Jesus shows up, you're going to see, you wanna write this down, you're going to see when Jesus shows up that all that matters is what God said.
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So tune in now.
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And pray for those who aren't tuned in, all right?
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Like, oh, goody, goody, Pastor Jeff, but what about my suffering that I'm going through?
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What about that?
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So why do I wanna wait on the Lord?
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Well, number two, this is the big one.
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Write this down, because God is making me through suffering.
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Because God is making me through suffering.
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Listen, this is a very hard thing to say because I know this is an extremely hard thing to hear.
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But when you suffer, it's actually for your own good.
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And when you are suffering and you hear that, you're like, man, I don't really, I don't really know if I wanna hear that right now, but it's true.
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Whether you want to hear it or not, it's true.
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Look at Philippians 1.6, we'll have it on the screen here, where Paul says, "And I am sure of this, "that he who began a good work in you "will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." You see, God is making you.
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And God's word says when he's making you, He's going to finish his project.
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He's going to see it through all the way to the end.
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You're like, okay, well, what's the good work that he's talking about?
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He who began a good work in you.
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What is this good work in me?
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Well, according to the Bible, the good work is, Romans 8, 29, God wants to conform you to the image of his son.
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God wants to make you more and more like Jesus Christ.
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So how does that happen?
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How does God take me and he wants to make me like his son?
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How exactly does that happen?
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We have a couple of clues here from Hebrews.
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Look at Hebrews chapter two.
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It says, "For it is fitting that he, "for whom and by whom all things exist, "in bringing many sons to glory, "should make the founder of their salvation." That's Jesus.
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Look, make him perfect through, say it, suffering.
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What about Hebrews 5, 8?
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Again, talking about Jesus.
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This is one of the most profound verses in the whole Bible to me.
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Talking about Jesus, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
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Suffering.
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Adversity, trials, suffering.
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That's the only way character's built.
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I wish it was different.
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I wish God wanted to build my character by doing nothing but piling blessing on my head.
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I wish that was how God worked.
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But you know that's not how character is formed.
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But when you see suffering in that light, that this is something that Jesus Christ himself experienced and God had the ultimate purpose through Jesus Christ and he wants to bring some purpose about through me.
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Well, what is it?
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God is, he's making you through suffering.
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You're like, can you be specific about that?
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Certainly, letter A, write this one down, suffering humbles me.
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How is God making me?
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Suffering humbles me.
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Remember back in the first six verses of the chapter, Job was like, "Okay, yeah, God, I overreached, so I'm going to repent." You see, that's what happened in Job.
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saw his smallness in light of God's awesomeness. And that is where God wants us to get. Because naturally we think that we're a lot bigger than we are and we think God is a lot smaller than He is and God wants to change that. Say, "Look, "You're smaller than you think you are, "and I'm bigger than you think I am." You know the worst thing that can happen to you in your life?
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You know the worst thing that can happen is you live such a good and carefree life that you just coast through thinking that you never need God.
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That would be the worst thing that could happen.
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So, the most compassionate thing God can do is to let suffering humble you.
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So the suffering you're going through right now, is it leaving you broken?
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Is the suffering you're going through right now leading you to seek God like you never have before?
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That's great news, because that means God is making you.
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Letter B, how is God making me through suffering?
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Well, suffering teaches me perseverance.
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Now, we talk about perseverance.
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This is an active quality.
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This is a positive quality.
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This isn't like sitting back and wallowing, and woe is me, and my life stinks.
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And that's not perseverance.
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Perseverance is saying, "I don't like what's going on, but I'm moving forward, and I'm trusting God." That's perseverance.
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See, Job fought to persevere while Satan was launching his God-permitted assault, as did Peter.
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We talked about that a few weeks ago, right?
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Jesus said, "Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, "but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." Same scene.
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Job fought to persevere while Satan attacked him with his God-permitted assault.
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That was Peter's story, that was Jesus' story.
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Read the gospels.
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Satan continually went after Jesus Christ over and over.
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It's gonna be your story too.
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And you're like, hang on a second, Pastor.
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You have, it sounds to me like you're saying that this scene that happened to Job, it sounds like what you're saying is this is the kind of thing that happens to people who love God.
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This sounds like the people who wanna do the right thing.
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Yeah, that's exactly what the Bible is saying.
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Satan's not targeting people that don't give a rip about God because he's got them.
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But when you love God and you're like, I am committing myself to Jesus Christ, Satan's like, all right, can I do something about that guy?
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The book of Job is about a believer suffering because of his faith.
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You know that?
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The book of Job is about a believer suffering because he's a believer.
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'Cause remember the scene back in chapters one and two, when Satan came to God, God was the one that pointed out righteous Job.
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That's what prompted Satan's attack.
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My friends, we have no reason to believe that God is going to treat us any differently than Job, if we belong to Jesus Christ.
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Every morning, every single morning, your first thought should be this.
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There's a battle that's going to be waged against me today.
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And that should cause you to get on your face and cry out to the Lord and say, "God, any suffering that I experienced today, I know that you're allowing it." So God, I'm asking that you let me suffer in a way that glorifies you.
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God, let me show the world what a life looks like to trust you, no matter what happens.
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If you want to learn how to persevere, the only way that happens is to endure suffering.
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God's making you.
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Then letter C, write this one down, "Suffering proves if my faith is real." Suffering proves if my faith is real.
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You know, that's interesting.
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Look back at verses seven and eight here.
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There's a couple of very, it was one interesting statement that God says twice.
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Look at the end of verse seven.
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It says, God says to the three friends of Job, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
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And in case you're like, Wait, is that what he meant?
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Look down at verse eight.
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Again, last phrase, "For you have not spoken "of me, what is right, as my servant Job has." Like, wait, wait, wait, wait a second, wait a second.
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When you go to chapters three through like 31, Now, Job said a lot of terrible things about God.
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So how can God here say that Job spoke of him what was right?
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Well, we have the repentance.
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We talked about that last week, but you know, there's something more going on here than just that.
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Because you see, God was affirming the kind of person that Job was.
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Let me explain, like, okay, so the three friends come up.
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They remember, their answer basically boiled down to this.
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Job, look, let me explain some theology to you.
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They were mansplaining, right?
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They're like, let me explain some theology to you, Job.
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They're like, here's how it works.
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When you do the right thing, you're blessed.
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When you sin, you're cursed.
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You see, you know what they had?
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They had a formula.
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Job wasn't interested in some formula from a book.
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You know what Job wanted?
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Even in his lowest points, we see that Job wanted to know God.
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We see it when Job cried out things like, "Where is God in all of this?
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I just wish that I could sit down and talk to God about this.
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See, Job wasn't just looking for some Sunday school answer.
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You know, explain to me why I'm suffering.
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He wanted to have audience with God.
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Do you know what that proves?
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Proves that Job's faith was real.
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because Job was unwilling to walk away from God when God disappointed him.
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We see even in his low points, Job 13, 15, Job says, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him." What a great statement.
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Kind of reminds me of when the Lord showed up and wrestled Jacob.
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And then Jacob says, "I will not let you go "until you bless me." Wow, and four times also in these verses, I counted four.
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I went to Cairn City, so that's all the higher I can count anyways, but I counted four.
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Four times, God referred to Job as, did you see it?
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My servant, Job.
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This is my servant, Job.
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God acknowledged Job as one of his.
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You see, that's what the Christian life is.
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The Christian life is waiting on the Lord.
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It's loving God and seeking God because God is God and it's not letting go, even when life is hard, even when God seems silent, it's having this Job attitude.
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Again, even at his low points, I will not let you go.
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You know, well, we have a baptism service.
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We baptize a lot of people over the years.
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But there have been times over the years that someone has come to me and they've said, do you think that person's faith is real?
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And I always have the same answer.
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I say, we'll find out, right?
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We'll find out.
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We'll find out when adversity comes.
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We'll find out when they start to suffer what their attitude is towards seeking God then.
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We'll find out.
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because suffering is what proves if your faith is real.
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So, way back in chapter 1 and verse 9, Satan asked God the question, "Does Job fear God for no reason. And we get to the end of the book and we have our answer with Job's repentance. Because you see, notice Job didn't... he didn't repent because he was restored. Do you notice that? It wasn't like God blessed him and Job's like, "Oh, okay, everything's good now. I repent." He repented before and also Notice Job didn't even have the promise that restoration was coming when he repented.
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It wasn't like, okay, it looks like God and I are going to strike a deal here.
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He didn't even have the promise.
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He repented because repentance was the right thing to do in the eyes of God.
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And a true believer will bow down in pain because my love for God isn't based on the stuff that he gives me.
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I wanna wait.
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I wanna wait.
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I'm suffering, but I wanna wait.
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Why?
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Because building character takes time.
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Again, I wish that wasn't the case either.
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I wish that when you came to Christ, it was just a wholesale instant change.
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I'm no longer making mistakes.
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I'm no longer saying wrong things.
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I'm no longer having bad thoughts or stinking attitudes.
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I wish that it was this complete instantaneous change, but it's not because building character takes time.
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That's why we gotta wait, it takes time.
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Ask any parent.
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Building character takes time.
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Ask anybody that's discipling a new believer.
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It takes time.
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Ask a cake.
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You know, you put the batter in the pan and you stick it in the oven Imagine the batter thinks that that's suffering, but if you take it out of the oven too soon, do you have a cake?
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I'm sorry, I think that illustration was only half-baked.
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But you get the point though, right?
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It has to wait.
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If it's going to be what it needs to be, then it's gots to wait.
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God is making me and God is making you and it takes time.
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So I'll wait.
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One more.
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Number three, this is the obvious one.
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Why do I wanna wait?
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Because blessing comes after suffering.
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because blessing comes after suffering.
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In verse 11 here, we have the first celebration in Job that we've had since chapter one in verse four, and God blesses Job.
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He gives him wealth, he gives him long life, he gives him seven sons, and he gives him three beautiful daughters.
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You remember that in, what is it, verse 15?
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It says, regarding the daughters, No women, there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters.
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And when I was studying this this week and I was meditating on this week and thinking, you know, there was no woman anywhere as beautiful as Job's daughters.
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All I could think of was, what did his sons look like?
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You know what I mean?
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It's like Job had seven boys and three beautiful daughters.
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Like, well, what did the sons look like?
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He had three beautiful daughters.
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But this is the way God works.
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First there's suffering and then there's blessing.
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That's just the way it is, right?
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Philippians 3.10, Paul says that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings.
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Wouldn't you like to know the resurrection power of Jesus Christ?
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Wouldn't you like to know that?
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What has to happen before a resurrection?
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Death, suffering, right?
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It's not a buffet, you don't get to pick and choose the parts that you want.
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2 Timothy 2.10, Paul says, "If we endure, "we will also reign with Him." First comes the enduring suffering, then comes the reigning beside our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Romans 8, 18, Paul says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Not worth comparing.
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So God blesses Job.
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And I need to point out here that this blessing on Job was not a refund, okay?
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Don't get to the end of the book of Job and think that what the Lord is saying here is, "Congratulations, Job, you did it.
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"You endured, buddy, good job.
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"Now you can have your stuff back." That is not the story here.
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Do you know what the story is here?
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It's grace. It's grace. I understand that God did not owe Job what Job lost. Do you know how I know that? It's because chapter 41, verse 11, we saw this, was that last week?
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God says, "Hey, by the way, I don't owe anybody anything." God wasn't on the hook to pay Job back.
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It wasn't as if God had to balance the scales.
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No, God made that pretty clear that this is grace when He gave Job back twice as much as he lost before.
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And you're like, hold on a second, car and city boy.
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I don't know if you noticed, but Job lost 10 kids, but he only got 10 kids back.
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That's not twice as much.
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And I would say it is, because the 10 kids that he lost, where were they?
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They're in heaven.
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One of my favorite preachers said, you never lose what you give to heaven.
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So yeah, Job got twice as many kids.
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My friends, God has poured his grace on us in Jesus Christ.
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Yes, we have blessing now.
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Don't get this idea that it's just, you know, everything's miserable now and everything's good.
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No, no, no, we have so much tremendous blessing now.
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We have the forgiveness of sin, we have new life, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have the fellowship of the church, but, but, but like Job, the big blessings come at the end.
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That day that we are co-heirs with Jesus Christ, we have glorified bodies, we are in eternal heaven in God's presence with suffering behind us forever.
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Blessing is coming.
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Are you willing to wait?
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Our worship team would make their way up.
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You know Job's story?
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It's our story.
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We have an enemy who wants us to suffer and curse God.
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We have a God who will use our suffering for his purposes.
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And we get all kinds of advice from people, good advice and not so good.
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Job's story is our story, but you get to write a part of that story.
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Are you going to condemn God for the suffering that you're experiencing?
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Or will you worship while you wait on God?
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Look, God is going to have the last word.
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God is using your earthly suffering to make you.
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And there is huge blessing coming at the end.
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You want to wait. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I just pray, Father, that today we would have a fresh, just like a recommitment in our hearts that we're I'm going to wait on you.
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Because I know there are many people here that are just worn out.
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They've been suffering, not just for a day or a week, but this has been going on for months.
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For some people, it's been years of suffering.
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And it's just so easy to, it's just so easy to get despondent over it.
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So Father, I pray that your account and how you dealt with Job would revitalize us, that we can step back and see the big picture, and that we will worship you while we wait on you.
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We have the opportunity to do that right now, Father.
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I pray that this worship is pleasant and joyful in your ears as we worship you, and thank you, and love you, and praise you from our hearts.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Covering Job 42:7-17
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In Job 42:7-8, God says Job “has spoken of Me what is right”. Why would God say this in light of Job making some pretty harsh comments about God in Job 3-31?
How exactly does suffering build perseverance? What is my part in growing in perseverance while I suffer?
How does suffering prove whether or not your faith is real? How do we know Job had a real faith?
Do you think Satan still seeks to afflict believers today? Why or why not?
Breakout
Pray for one another.