Overcoming Stressful Times

The Psalmist writes, this is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. That's Psalm 118, verse 24. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. So each one of us can ask ourselves today, am I rejoicing today or am I burdened so great that I can hardly make it? No expressions like I gave in the announcements. We're running on empty, but our tank is full. Well, perhaps we're running on empty when it comes to physical things and energy and strength and all of that, but our tank can be filled and can be full spiritually. So we can ask ourselves also, am I wishing my life away, hoping for a better day or a brighter day? I think the song goes. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8.31, if God be for us, who can be against us? This verse has served me very well over the past several years. If God be for you, who can be against you? And if God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should have everlasting life, come to repentance and have everlasting life, surely He's not against any of us. God wouldn't be a God if He were against any of us. Paul goes on to write in Romans 8.37, knowing all these things who are more than conquerors through Him that loved us and gave His life for us. So are we subconsciously letting the cares of this world get the best of us? Do we feel down? Do we feel depressed? There's no question that Satan and his minions have stepped up their deceitful practices. This world has gone mad, and it will get much worse. These are only the beginnings of sorrows, as you heard in the sermonette. I hear a lot of our brethren say, it can't be much longer. Oh, yes, it can be a lot longer. And, as you heard in the sermonette, the Apostle Paul, until the writing of 2 Corinthians, apparently thought it would be in his day. Remember in 2 Corinthians, he says that, "...let no one deceive you by word or letter, that the coming unto the Lord will not come until there be a great apostasia." And that word, apostasia, means it's translated into King James as falling away. It's more literally false teaching.

The great false teaching at that time, some were saying that Christ had already come.

And so today we see people running to and fro, knowledge being greatly increased. And on one hand, we're told that we live in the age of leisure. All life is so much easier now than it used to be. Well, brethren, I don't buy that for a minute. I grew up on a farm. We were dirt farmers. And from the age of 10 until I graduated from high school at 18. And after high school, went to college and so on, the life unfolded after that. I followed a mule day in and day out. I pedaled the bicycle down to the neighbor's couple miles where I went to baseball practice in town in the summertime. And I could go on and on with, you could say, the inconveniences of that time. We eventually had a washing machine. We hung the clothes out on the clothesline. We could talk about all the inconveniences of that time. And also, we could talk about, you know, it seemed like life was just sweeter or something at that time. We live in a time in which we're drug, and the word should be drag from pillar to post, and hardly can keep up with anything. There doesn't seem to be enough time to take care of our next obligation. We've got to be somewhere else and do something else, hurl from pillar to post, and rung out all the way. It is an age of stress. In so many things, we're there in body, but our mind and spirit is occupied with the cares of this world. There's hardly enough time for spiritual meditation for doing the things that build lasting relationships with God and Christ and each member of the body of Christ. And we surely are, I admire those people, who in spite of all of this, open their houses to other people, and they are hospitable. Do you remember back in the late 70s, I was pastoring big Sandy Tyler, and we developed a program. In fact, we even did a brochure, which the last time we packed up to move from Gladewater down to Houston, I found that manual.

And that manual, the acronym that we used was HUG, and that acronym HUG stood for Hospitality Under God, and it was taken off from when you've done it under the least one of my brethren, you have also done it under me. So how do you show hospitality under God? By doing it to the least one of my brethren. And maybe we can get that going and some family nights and that kind of thing.

At times, we're just numb. It seems their bodies and minds just shut down, as if to say, I can't take it anymore. Perhaps the chief complaint of our time from both young and old is, I'm so tired. Just about everybody in this building is saying, boy, I'm really tired.

I'm really weird. I'm weary. I'm really tired. But we keep pushing ahead, as if we have to meet our next obligation. It reminds me of a pre-season football practice we used to have in August.

Very hot. All that gear on. Running wind sprints, you get down to the end of the line, run one wind sprint. You say, if he asks me to run one more wind sprint, I'm quitting.

And you run one more wind sprint, you say the same thing, and run another. And so on it goes.

And that seems to be the way we are sort of living our lives today, but we keep on. Yet, at the same time, it seems that no one really appreciates the fact that we have sacrificed whatever to be here and to do whatever we can. And I know that many of you have made tremendous sacrifices over the years. Yes, I was there in Biloxi at that feast. Remember Dr. Hay doing his, he couldn't help but set another date, 82, as he covered Daniel chapter 4.

Before that sermon that day, Dr. Hay and I had brunch. I generally don't, generally don't, I have never had champagne before giving a sermon, but I didn't have the sermon that day, but Dr. Hay did, and we had champagne.

And he talked about the tree being cut down and the times of the Gentiles in 1982 and so on.

So after 1982, the church basically stopped the setting of dates for the most part.

But today we're caught up in the rat race of survival, and somehow we come to believe this is just the way it is. I can't do anything about it. I just have to do the best I can, and to a certain degree, that's true. I just have to hold on and hope that I can survive.

Now, what does this really mean? To me, it means we're not really in control of our lives.

We're not living life. Life is living us. Other forces are in control of our lives, and we're controlled by others. To a large degree, people talk about schedules and all that. We're controlled by the schedule. We've got to be somewhere else at some time. The reason that something like a crisis in the church can gain so much attention is that it can be an escape from the boredom of our humdrum everyday activities. And if you add such things as the social networks today on the internet, the Facebook and MySpace and all that kind of thing, that sort of fills in a void that people have in which they're looking for relationships and something. But electronically, they don't do it really face-to-face.

There just seems to be some kind of void or vacuum out there.

So we focus on something outside of ourselves, and that gets the focus off of what our lives are like in the loneliness and boredom of this current evil age. In spite of all of the media and all of the whatever and travel and so on, one of the biggest complaints about people today is that they feel lonely, isolated, in the midst of the crowd, and also that they're bored.

What does this really mean? It means that we are obsessed with self without even realizing.

Now Satan the devil has us right where he wants us. When we pray, oftentimes it's sort of out of desperation. Oh, Father in heaven, help me. I don't think I can take this anymore.

I've been there. I prayed it. I prayed it in recent days, maybe hours.

Our time that should be spent in prayer study and meaning interaction with others is taken up by some kind of vicarious activity.

Now vicarious sort of means living your life in a fantasy or living your life through others and what they're doing. There's no telling how many millions, even billions of dollars, have been made with all these kind of magazines that have to do with revealing the inside story of the various celebrities of the world. Entertainment world, sports world, politics, and the yellow rag journalism, national inquirer, inquiring minds want to know, oh yeah, if I just know what so-and-so likes to eat for breakfast.

But the truth is, sadly, we're not growing in grace and knowledge in the cares of this world of beatenness down into a robotic-like state of existence. I'm not talking about specifically you necessarily, but we live in a world and we can't help but be influenced to some degree by what the Germans call the zeitgeist, the spirit of our times. We have unwittingly become slaves to Satan's system. Is there a way to break away from this slave-like existence and to be set free?

Jesus Christ came to the earth and set us free from sin and death.

We know that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Paul writes in Romans 6.23 that verse, Peter cried out on the day of Pentecost, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the mission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's Acts 2.38.

People talk about freedom today. They think they're free to do anything they want to do, but that is an illusion. You can go on a trip like these two brothers and sisters from Florida did with their automatic weapons and shooting up the ceiling in the banks and terrorizing.

And it lasts maybe for a few weeks. Maybe it could even last a few years.

But eventually, you have to pay the price.

It's an illusion to think you can do anything you want to do. We're either the servants of sin, or we are the servants of righteousness. So do we really want to be set free from our robotic, slave-like addiction to this present evil world? Do we really want to get off the treadmill? If we're serious about living as Christ lived, we will begin to control our lives instead of life's issues controlling us. For the most part, and I'm surely no exception, to a large degree, we are reactionary kind of Christians, and we need to be those that are on the offensive and not so much reactive. Let's go to John 831. John 831, we probably all can quote John 832 by heart. In John 831, Jesus is in a discourse with some of the detractors of his day.

In John 831, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. So there is a condition.

If you continue in my word, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Rather than those seven great questions of life that I have mentioned a few times, and I'll mention them hopefully nearly every Sabbath, does God exist? Who is God? What is God?

What is His purpose? Who is man? What is man? What is His purpose?

The answers to those questions sets us free from fear, ignorance, superstition, and the dogmas of man.

But note carefully again the condition. If you continue in my word.

So are we continuing in the word? Are we making God over in our own image and speaking for God where He's not spoken? You know, back where my brother lives, he lives in a little town called Benoit, Mississippi. He's a mayor of the town. Benoit's about 20 miles north of Greenville.

From his backyard, you can see a little space of the Mississippi levee, the Mississippi River levee.

And they have a unique situation there, and they've had it for decades. They call it Benoit Union Church, where they alternate pastors each Sunday, a Baptist one Sunday, a Methodist one Sunday, and a Presbyterian. And they alternate like that. And recently, the Presbyterian, they have some kind of presbyteries, some kind of setup in which they move pastors around sort of like we do.

And so their new Presbyterian minister was a walnut.

And my brother said, well, I don't think God's going to send me to hell. Go up there and listen to a woman on Sunday. See, people make God over in their own image what they think God would do and won't do. And so much of the so-called gay agenda has to do with toleration of all lifestyles and all beliefs. That there is no ultimate authority or place you do. It's just sort of like, well, God loves everybody, and there are no conditions. There are conditions.

Even if, well, it says in Psalm 14.1, the fool is said in his heart, there is no God.

But even a fool should know that there are conditions to almost everything that we do.

Now, on the other hand, as Paul writes in Romans 8, we can be more than overcomers through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who loved us and gave himself for us. I don't think we are remotely aware of how much the world is affecting every dimension of our lives. Let's go now to James 4.

James 4. We're going to look at this a little bit more closely than perhaps you have looked at it in the past.

The first 10 verses of James 4—listen to what I'm saying—the first 10 verses of James 4 describes the internal warfare that goes on in our minds, warfare that will destroy us and those we love if we don't get a grip on it.

In James 4 verse 1, from whence come wars and fightings among you?

Come, they not, hence, or from this place, or here, even of your lust, that war in your members.

First of all, we need to clarify the first interrogative.

Until, I guess it was about, I don't know, maybe three or four years ago, I had always viewed this question as to why there are disagreements and upsets—I looked at this verse—of why there are disagreements and upset among brethren. But really, that's not the principal intent of these first 10 verses. This has to do with you and I individually and personally.

And we'll explain. The Greek word that is translated among in this question, from whence comes wars and fightings among you? That Greek word among is in the Greek e-n, spelled in English. It's a primary preposition denoting a fixed position in place, time, or state, and by implication, it's a relationship of rest, intermediate, between.

So, whence comes wars and fightings between or among you or in you? The question that is being asked is not why are there wars and fightings among brethren, but rather, why is there war and fighting in all of you and me? Why do I have this warfare in my mind? The e-n could be translated as why are there wars and fightings among you if you understand that James is addressing a group as opposed to an individual. In other words, he's saying, why do all of you have this warfare going on in your minds?

Why do you have warfare going on in your mind?

This becomes clear when you know that the Greek word translated as members is melos, or melos, M-E-L-O-S. This is very important. Do you have it? M-E-L-O-S. And it means parts of the human body. From whence come wars and fightings in you? Come, they not hints even of your lust that war in your body parts. There's another way to read it.

So the warfare James is referring to is within the members of your body. James gives the reasons for grief, for worry, and unhappiness in the next nine verses.

But there is an antidote to this, as we shall see.

In verse 2, you lust. See, it's not saying the group lust, it says, you lust. I lust.

Individual, specific. This word, ye, is very specific and strong in the Greek.

You lust and have not, kill and desire to have, cannot obtain, you fight in war, yet you have not, because you ask not.

So it has to do with an individual and what he's going on in his mind, you ask and receive not, because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust.

You adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.

See, that's what I'm talking about, the spirit of the times and the world in which we live.

How much does it affect you and I? I submit that it affects a lot all of us much more than we realize.

Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

We think perhaps that we can play both sides of the street, as it says, or as some say, but God says you are either for me or against me.

Do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit that dwells in us lust to envy the human mind the carlmine is subject to envy the carlmine is enmity this is Romans 8.7 the carlmine is enmity toward the law of God not subject to it neither indeed can be it's subject to that can it be overcome yes it can it through the spirit of God the word and spirit of God but he gives more grace grace carus divine favor where for he says God resists the proud but gives grace divine favor under the humble submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you these fighting these wars that goes on in the mind of anything from depression to feeling like you're the greatest in the world submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil he will flee from you draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double-minded see that's just what i said you double-minded you cannot have it both ways i cannot have it both ways the greatest perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses of the modern day church of course is the nominal christian church they try to have it both ways that they can be part and parcel with this world and yet be the people of God that's double-mindedness you cannot have it both ways be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the side of the lord and he shall lift you up now let's go to second corinthians chapter 10 we're putting once again this this warfare that goes on in the mind james gives an anecdote there the last seven from seven eight nine and ten we go to second corinthians chapter 10 you know the corinthians took paul to task on many issues everything from the way he looked to whether or not he would visit them whether or not he was an apostle it just goes on and on of the various criticisms they had a paul and paul was the one who brought the gospel to them they would not even have known the gospel if paul had not brought it to him in second corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh i mean this is spiritual warfare cleanse your hearts and hands you double-minded though we walk in the flesh we did not war after the flesh for the weapons of warfare are not carnal but mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds therefore he can say i'm running on empty but my tank is full we may be weak you know paul says that when i am weak i am strong i besought the lord three times that this thorn in the flesh be removed from me but god did not remove it and he says therefore i glory in infirmities because i'm when i'm weak i'm strong because then you have to totally rely on god i could say did i have the physical energy to come here today no i did not but through jesus christ our lord and he that loved each one of us and gave himself for me he gives us strength in due season and we can mount up on eagle's wings and we can run and not grow weary and we can walk and run with the horses not faint lose paraphrase of isaiah verse four the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds what are the strongholds those things from whence come wars and fighting in your members and your body parts so strongholds on the mind that's what the stronghold is satan tries to gain a toe hole a stronghold casting down imaginations it is a vain imagination to think that god would forsake us or leave us or put more on us than we can bear we can be more than conquerors through him that loved us and gave himself for us casting down imaginations every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god oh satan will say the way is too hard satan will say god is not fair the world will say don't you love everybody well jesus christ died for the whole world who is your brother who is your sister well we're all part of the human family but god has conditions with regard to how you can have a relationship with him with jesus christ and how you can become converted casting down imaginations every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ see christ says you can do it christ says the way is not too hard come and learn of me because my burden is light my yoke is easy cast all your care on me because i care for you we talked about that last week and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled your brother there is a way out now let's go to james 113 we can further see how self is responsible for the warfare in one's mind we want our mind to be in harmony with the mind of god and christ who has promised that he will never leave us never forsake us and all the things that we have already talked about and much more now we go to james 1 and verse 13 let no man say when he is tempted i am tempted of god for god cannot be tempted god cannot be tempted with evil neither tempts he any man so how how does it come how are we seduced there are two principal ways every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed see satan is the enticier the god of this world he makes the young people the youth believe that this world the world of glamour and glitter is the way and of course john writes as we've read from james as well love not this world for this present evil age is passing away the lust of the eyes the lust of the lust of the flesh the pride of life every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived brings forth sin so something comes into mind oh well if i just do this i just do that and you dwell on it a little dwell on it finally if it's conceived and it's brought to birth when lust is conceived it brings forth sin and sin brings forth death the devil did not make you do it contrary to what flip wilson used to say but he is an enticer he is a seducer he is the prince of the power of the air that the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience whereby we all at one time walked according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience as paul writes in the first three verses of ephesians chapter two so when we are unhappy when we're dissatisfied and feel the torment of war in our minds we have to take a look at ourselves the second place we need to look are we downcast and depressed because of our attitude toward our neighbor feeling of what he or she has done to us so why would we be unhappy with ourselves i submit that much of the unhappiness today is because people are unhappy with themselves and they don't feel like they measure up the typical answer is i'm not overcoming the way i should be i'm not growing i'm not making any progress this may be a self-justifying way of saying i'm still sending the same old sins well you we know the antidote for that that's to repent if god's spirit is working with you and i then one of the things it does is convict us of sin let's go to john 16 7 where jesus christ promises that he would send the comforter and one of the the first thing that it mentions here that the holy spirit will do and it does it in concert with the word of god and that is convict us of sin in james 16 john 16 verse 7 nevertheless i tell you the truth is about it is expedient for you that i go away for if i go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if i depart i will send him unto you and when he is come he will reprove the word in the greek is elencho e-l-e-n-c-h-o means to convict delay wait upon your mind and heart of whether this or that is right or wrong it will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment so one of the first things that the spirit and word of god does is to convict us this conviction creates feelings of guilt and anxiety and urge to act to seek relief and relief can be obtained through repentance and faith in god we can have the bible speaks of two great kinds of peace peace with god and the peace of god the peace of peace of god which surpasses all understanding some people never get to that first step of peace with god let's go to first john five i'm sorry first john one first john one verse five first john one verse five first john one verse five this is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all john writes the gospel of john and the first epistle of john to a large degree to combat gnosticism especially ascetic gnosticism the gnostics taught a system quote of knowledge the word gnostic means knowledge in the greek that in order to get back to god there was a system of knowledge that you had to master to be in the light and so at the highest level there was a band of light which would say it would be equal to god and then as you went away from god there were lesser bands of light till you finally came down to what the gnostics called the demiurge the prince of darkness the way to get back to the light to god was through memorizing the various levels and steps today this mystery system is extant among us with various social fraternities like eastern star elks masonic lodge and there are several others the mormons have some kind of a system similar to this of which maybe some of the laity there are not even aware of where you get up to like the 33rd degree supposedly there's something even higher than the 33rd degree so john writes this is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light and he is in the light we have fellowship one with another in the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins see this is an antidote to a large degree if the spirit of god convicts us and we feel have these feelings of worry doubt guilt or whatever it is about the past or anything else there's a way out jesus christ came to set us free in every sense of the word if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he's faithful and just forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say that we've not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us so we all need to be set free and we can be set free if we don't seek god's forgiveness and mercy then feelings of guilt and anxiety can overcome a person and cause them to be of all men most miserable now john brings this out if we go forward now to john 3 verse 18 see once god has called you into his marvelous light he's not going to let you go easily and he will do he will chastise us he will do many things hopefully hopefully to bring us back to bring us to our senses as we talked about last week sometimes we just go over and over our problems trying to figure out if i hadn't done this or that or the other the problem is this that or the other whereas we need to just go before god confess what we know we have done wrong and get up and go as if we've been set free and believe it verse 18 my little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before god for if our heart condemn us see if we have this warfare going on in our minds feelings of guilt shame anxiety whatever it is if our heart condemn us god is greater than our heart knows all things he knows it you have not because you ask not you ask amiss that you might consume it upon your own lust beloved if our heart condemn us not then we have confidence toward god i mean to be free of that whatever that cloud might be and to be set free and whatsoever we ask we received of him because because there is a condition we keep his commandments and do the those things that are pleasing in his side and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son jesus christ and love one another as he gave us commandment and he that keeps his commandments dwells in him and he and him and hereby we know that he abides or lives in us by the spirit he has given us so why is it that some people would rather go to the pit go into the fires of gehenna rather than to face the situation to repent boy i wish i knew the answer to that one no with a carnal mind there are three basic responses to sin as adam demonstrated when god confronted him after adam and eve eight of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil one is to hide and that's usually the first step that most people take to hide try to hide from god you can't hide from god second is to blame adam said well this woman you gave me she gave me this and the other then is to try to justify self and there are many who play the martyred and myrtle role and wallow in their guilt and become filled with self-deprecation and self-pity they perform a type of penance which we talked about last week and a seemingly fruitless effort trying to pay for their own own sins see there's only one way and we've read it from john chapter one see the good news is god and christ are long suffering they're merciful and there's no sin that cannot be forgiven when joe was in the very depths of despair and he had come to the end of his rope as they say he thought that the only person he could talk to was god oh if only the almighty would speak to me his three friends had tried to keep him to help him but to no avail and they really were more enemies than friends they did not see joe's problem god says that they did not properly assess joe's situation offer words of help joe was personally consumed with self-examination let's go to joe chapter 31 joe chapter 31 there was a tape that some here in this area circulated around some fellow i think in the dallas fort worth area gave about joe that people got excited about but they it's wrong some good points in it one of these days maybe i'll bring that but here we are in joke 31 verse 24 if i've made gold my hope or have said to be or said to the fine goal you are my confidence if i rejoice because my wealth was great because mine hand have gotten much if i beheld the sun when it shined or the moon walking in brightness and my heart has been secretly enticed or my mouth has kissed my hand this also were in iniquity to be punished by the judge or i should have denied the god that is above if i rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me or lifted up myself when evil found in him neither have i suffered my mouth to sin but wishing a curse to his soul if the men of my tabernacle said not oh that we had all his flesh we cannot be satisfied job goes on and on with this self-examination verse 39 if i have eaten the fruits thereof without money or have causing owners therefore to lose their life let thistles grow instead of wheat and cockle instead of barley the words of job are ended so he just went on and went on to what he could have done should have done whatever but he really couldn't get the point then god sends his messenger to job who is elihu not one of the three elihu now we go to job 32 and verse 6 in job 32 and verse 6 and elihu the son of barachial the buzz eyed answered and said i am young and you're very old therefore i was afraid and dare not show you my opinion so elihu begins to speak and elihu gets job's attention we go to chapter 33 verse 1 elihu speaking wherefore job i pray you hear my speeches and hearken to all my words behold now i have opened my mouth my tongue has spoken in my mouth my words shall be of the uprightness of my heart my lips shall utter knowledge clearly the spirit of god have made me and the breath of almighty have given me have given me life if you can answer me set your words in order before me stand up in other words stand up joe take it like a man i'm going to tell you the way it really is in an earlier place as i've mentioned joe said oh if the almighty would only speak to me sometimes we might say oh if i could just have a conversation with god not these ministers here not my neighbor not my husband not my wife i want god to talk to me i submit to you that god is speaking to all of us today we sing the song god speaks to us by his great hand we're led and alai who comes on scene verse six behold i am according to your wish and god's stead i also am formed out of the clay when he gets down to it i'm just i'm just like you i'm made out of the clay a lie he says but god has sent me to you now the ministry in the church is either the ministry of god or it's not and one of the great things that has taken place in the church it's sort of like making god over in our image i told this little story about my brother and saying well i don't think god is going to send me to hell for going up there and listen to a woman once a month or however often it is or that we might say whatever we might say i don't think god is going to do this or that and we become our own ministers and to a large degree if you look around the whole spectrum of the various offshoots of what used to be the worldwide church of god there are scores and scores and there will be mores and mores of them because people become their own ministers and they make god over in their own image to suit what they think is right verse seven behold my terror shall not make you afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon you see the purpose of correction or trying to help people is not to put them down it is to lift them up to raise them up so that they may be justified in the sight of god surely you have spoken in my hearing and i've heard the voice of your word saying i am clean without transgression see we just read from first john chapter one verse 10 if any man say he's without sin he's a liar truth not in him i am innocent neither is there iniquity in me behold he finds occasion against me see jobe says god is finding occasion against me and god counts me as his enemy whereas the bible says if god is for me who can be against me jobe says he puts my feet in the stocks he marks all my paths every little thing i do i just you know god is here he's like marking every evil thing that i do and then look at verse 12 behold in this you are not just i will answer you that god is greater than man so what is the summary of the book of jobe and it's sort of like once we get something in our vocabulary in our minds it's almost impossible to expunge growing up we always said highway patrol there's a highway patrolman up there and today when we see in texas they have state trooper written on the car well there's a highway patrol it's just always highway patrol so once we get something in our minds oftentimes it's like that's what it is we can't get it out but there is a way to get it out then they lie you ask jobe in verse 13 why do you strive against him for he gives not account of any of his matters god doesn't have to answer to us so the bottom line what's bottom line in the book of joe god must be justified in other words god is just in everything he does and i must be judged so that i might be justified and god wants us to judge ourselves and when we have all of these feelings that we talked about up front and when we become pawns on satan's great chess board of life then we need to really examine ourselves and understand what we need to do for god speaks once yes twice yet man perceives it not in a dream and a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men and slumberings upon the bed when he opens the ears of men and sees seals their instruction that he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man he keeps back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword see god does all of these things as it were in the behind the scenes that we're not aware of and we don't even realize it he he is chasing also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain many of us been there we're there now so that his life had hoarsed bread at his soul dainty meat his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen in his bones that were not seen stick out yes his soul draws near under the grave in his life to the destroyers but then here comes the messenger the messenger from god brother and i hope that i'm a messenger today of encouragement and strength to all of you and every time that i speak i try to speak to myself first and foremost because it comes from the very depth of my being if there be a messenger with him an interpreter one among the thousands showing to man his uprightness then he is gracious unto him and says deliver him from going down to the pit i have found a ransom and of course jesus christ is the ransom who brought us back from the pit from sin and death his flesh shall be fresher than a child he shall return to the days of his youth he shall pray unto god and he will be favorable unto him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render unto man his righteousness he looks upon men and if any say i have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profits me not he will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light lo all these things works god oftentimes with man say god either we believe that god is at work in our lives or we don't believe it at times i i have to ask the question father in heaven are you at work in my life and what do you think about me and at times i think god says i'm really disappointed in you but we have to keep on because god is a merciful god a long-suffering god lo all these things works god oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightened with the light of the living mark well oh jobe hearken unto me hold your peace and i will speak if you have anything to say answer me speak for i desire to justify you if not hearken into me hold your peace and i shall teach you wisdom and so elihu gets jobe's attention then god speaks to jobe out of the whirlwind and then finally jobe in chapter 42 he says i've heard of god with a hearing of the ear but now mine i seize him and that's what god is doing with each one of us is bringing us to the point to where not only have we heard of him by the hearing of the ear but we see him i used to marvel at students who would come to ambassador college and many of them thinking that they really knew a lot and they had heard of him by the hearing of the ear but then hopefully they came to the point that their eye would see him and do you know even as we left ambassador university college in 95 ninety something percent of the graduating students for the last several years had been baptized by that fourth year come to see god as he really is there are so many reasons why a person might be dissatisfied with themselves but god is not an unreasonable god he's fair he's just the whole goal is that we might be justified and be in the kingdom of god by allowing us to live in the flesh and experience the pains of sin we come to deeply desire the kingdom of god you know one of the parts of the model prayer thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven we come to desire god's character in mind and we stand in hope of the resurrection look at first peter chapter four i call peter and surely it is correct to say peter was the apostle of hope remember that peter the last chapter of john where jesus was talking to peter and asking him if he loved him these those three times and finally peter got around to asking about the the end of life and his days and peter's and christ said well peter you know when you're old someone's going to take you up and carry you where you don't want to go speaking of what manner of life death he would suffer see the apostle peter lived his life the one who stood on the day of pentecost and preached that inspiring sermon when the holy spirit was sent to men he lived his life knowing that he would die a martyr he was to me the apostle the epitome of the apostle of hope first peter four verse one for as much then as christ has suffered for us in the flesh arm yourselves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin you come to the point to where you say hey i just don't want this anymore that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men but to the will of god or the time pass of our life may suffice us for to have wrought the will of the nations when we walked in lasciviousness lust lasciviousness has to do with lawlessness no law excise excess of wine revelings banqueting's abominable idolatries wherein they think it strains that we were that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you who shall give account him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead and of course as i said there is a price to be paid and everyone will stand before the judgment seat of christ so brethren as we live in this world today and we fight the battles that are before us today the wars and the fighting that are literal among men all over the face of the earth as they're killing one another some in warfare some out of a demented mind and all the various other reasons and motives of lust and greed and whatever you can name in a world that is going mad in which it is very difficult to escape all of these things yet we can and we can live that kind of life that god intended for us to live and i hope that that's the kind of family environment atmosphere church family that we'll be able to to create and sustain it's already here to a large degree as mr.

hagner talked about in his sermon at last week to a large degree we have that already we want to build on it perhaps we need to remember that jesus and the early church were birthed in the middle of world government rome dominated the world the western world and in the midst of that and the fact that the the jews rejected jesus christ and persecuted the early church and the romans and all the various atrocities that they wrought against true christians and in spite of all the forces that satan and this world could throw against him the church thrived and survived and we here we are today continuing that satan and this world could throw and we here we are today continuing that same fight so brethren let's be comforted and let's know that if god be for us who can be against us