I got a book this week that, that I found, I don’t know where this has been, but I just came across it.
It’s a book called a Grace Disguised.
And it’s written by a man named Gerald Stitzer who lost his wife, his mother and a daughter in a head on collision.
And he poignantly writes about what it felt like during that time.
This is so insightful and this is exactly where job is. Listen carefully.
He said loss creates a barren present as if one were sailing on a vast sea of nothingness.
Those who suffer loss live suspended between a past for which they long and a future for which they hope they want to return to the harbor of the familiar past and recover what was lost or they want to sail on and discover a meaningful future that promises to bring them life again.
But instead they find themselves stuck living in a barren present. That is absolutely empty of meaning.
That’s where job was. You know what Joe wanted, he wanted to go back to when his kids were alive when his wife was supportive, when he had his wealth, when he had a standing in the community when he was honored by everyone.
And if he couldn’t go back there, job says, let me go out into the future so that I don’t have to live in the present.
But job found himself where many people find themselves today.
Not able to go back to the past, not able to go to the future stuck in the barren present.
And that’s a tough place to be.
Can I get a witness stuck in the barren present from a devastated life to a discouraged heart?
From a discouraged heart to a distaste for living, from a distaste for living to despair of hope, from despair of hope, finally to desire for help.
As we enter this next section of job, we are about to be introduced to three of job’s friends.
And it’s interesting that while job withstood the collapse of his business and the death of his Children and the infliction of a terrible disease and the criticism of his wife, what comes closest to defeating job is the adverse influence of his friends.
These three associates are named Efa Bill Dad and Zoar.
One of my friends says this is a the eloquent build dad, the bruiser and so far the zealot.
And as we read about them in the book of Joel, we discover that they are the devil’s deadly instruments, they beat job down and they wear him out a prolonged series of dialogues between these three men and then, eh, who shows up later in the book encompasses the next chapters of the Book of Job.
And these dialogues are basically dialogues that begin as a discussion, continue to be a debate and end up as a dispute.
And in the end, God himself has to bring resolution to it because it gets out of hand.
Now, if you remember our last study job is suffering through this disease.
And the Bible tells us that his three friends, Efa and so far make an appointment to come and see job supposedly to encourage him.
And the Bible says that they came and they sat in job’s presence and they sat there for seven days and seven nights without saying one word.
Job will live to remember those days with fondness when his friends sat there without saying a word.
In fact, in the 13th chapter of Job, he actually verbalizes it.
He says all that you would be silent.
The first speaker that we’re going to meet today is the man.
He is evidently the oldest of the three, his speech to job is recorded in the 4th and 5th chapters of this book.
He has obviously witnessed job. He has watched him suffering and he has now come to some conclusions about job’s suffering, what it means and how he should instruct job because of it.
We might describe EFA like this, an elder statesman with a fine head of snowy white hair, a full matching snowy white beard together with an ample punch and a twinkle in his lively gray eyes, all reflecting a keen intellect and a dignified presence.
Certainly, he presents a fine appearance, well dressed, well fed, well spoken.
But eventually we discover he’s nothing but a pompous windbag.
Now, the best way for us to relate to Eliza’s speech and job’s response is to draw from these verses.
And this story, some principles that can help us when we are called upon to help those who are hurting.
So let me just stop for a moment and ask this question, how many of you here today have friends right now who are hurting?
Let me see your hands in all the services where I’ve asked that question, it’s been 80 to 90%.
We all have people right now who are hurting.
So this message is for all of us to help us understand how we can best be of service to our friends who are hurting in many respects.
We might call this lesson how not to counsel for EFA comes upon the hurting job.
And we began to understand something about his approach.
First of all, we are going to learn from Eli’s rebuke to job in chapters four and five.
And I want to give you some principles about how to help a hurting person that are derived from this story.
Principle. Number one, when you are hurting, you don’t need sarcasm, you need support.
Read in your Bibles.
As I read from mine, then a as the team and I answered and said to job.
If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary?
But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you have instructed many job.
You have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him. Who was stumbling?
You’ve straightened feeble knees, but now it comes upon you and you are weary, it touches you and you are troubled is not your reverence, your confidence and the integrity of your ways.
Your hope now is saying this job, it was one thing when you were called upon to counsel others who were hurting, you never missed an opportunity.
In fact, you help them face their own hurts. But now it’s you who are hurting job.
And now it’s a different story, isn’t it?
You were great when you were giving advice, but now it’s your turn to take it and you are weary and troubled.
A was literally accusing job of not practicing what he preached. He was saying job.
You can dish it out. You just can’t take it in verse six.
He says, I don’t even know why you’re complaining job. Shouldn’t your godliness be your answer?
Shouldn’t your integrity be all that you need?
Why are you talking about your problem referring to what happened in chapter three job.
If you’re living a godly life of integrity, you have nothing to worry about.
The insinuations are very subtle, but they’re very clear. And let me tell you something, friends.
When you’re going through a hurting time, you don’t need somebody’s sarcasm.
There’s never a place for that in helping the hurting sarcasm is a mean tool that should never be used any time in my estimation.
But certainly not when someone is hurting. When you’re hurting, you don’t need sarcasm. You need support.
Number two, when you’re hurting, you don’t need logic.
You need love Verses 7 to 9, listen to as he spews out his logic about job’s situation.
He says, remember now whoever perished being innocent or where were the upright ever cut off?
Even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and so trouble are the same by the blast of God, they perish and by the breath of His anger, they are consumed.
Now, here’s the logic that he lays out. He says, job.
If you do what is right, things will go well for you.
If you do what is wrong, God will send judgment for God is a righteous judge.
So here is job sitting before efa stripped of everything. His heart is torn and exposed.
His words are desperate. His eyes are wild and probing and pleading for comfort.
And what does the genteel Eli have to offer amidst all of his smoothly eloquent talk?
Perhaps the gist of his entire speech is wrapped up in verse eight where he says, job as I have observed it, those who sow trouble end up reaping trouble.
You see, Eliz came to job to make theological points rather than to comfort him.
And how many of you know, that in order to be a friend to those who are hurting, we must come alongside that person to comfort and console not to correct and chastise, we need to be a friend and put our arm around the person, not stick our finger in their face.
When you are going through difficult times, you need your friends to pick you up, not put you down.
Proverbs 17, 17 is a good proverb here.
It says a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity.
I can tell you the truth. You find out who your friends are. When you go through tough times.
A real brother, a real friend is born for adversity.
He comes to you at that time and you discover what a rich person you are to have such a friend.
Paul put it this way in the great chapter we know it’s the love chapter.
He said though I speak with tongues of men and of angels and have not love.
I am becoming a sounding brass or a clanging symbol. The day EFA came to see job.
He was a sounding brass and a clanging symbol. It wasn’t what job needed at all.
He didn’t need sarcasm, he needed support. He didn’t need EFA logic. He needed his love.
Thirdly, he didn’t need Eliza’s experiences. He needed his encouragement.
Now in job 4, 12 to 21 tells job this story about the dream that he had the night before.
And here are his words beginning at verse 12 is now a word was secretly brought to me.
And my ear received a whisper of it in this quieting thoughts from the visions of the night.
When deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me and trembling which made all my bones shake and the spirit pass before my face and the hair on my body stood up.
It, it stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes.
There was silence and I heard a voice saying now this is a chilling passage just to read.
This is enough to send shivers down your spine.
Eli tells us being visited the night before by some spirit that fills him with terror.
He says it’s a hair raising event and he sees all of this and somehow as you read this, you almost get the impression that kind of enjoyed the whole deal.
He’s kind of excited about telling this thing. He leaves no doubt.
Despite his terror that he thinks this message that he got in his vision the night before was from God.
You know, God gets blamed for a lot of stuff. He never did.
He gets accused of a lot of speeches he never made.
And here’s one of those instances, it’s pretty certain that this dream didn’t come from God.
Warren Wisby puts it this way.
He says, the whole experience does not seem to fit God’s pattern for revealing truth.
First of all, for one thing, it lacks the authority of the word of the.
Lord came to me saying or thus says, the Lord that’s not there.
And then he goes on to say, and God doesn’t usually sneak up on people and scare them, just listen to his words and ask yourself if you would like to be.
At the other end of these words, when you’re going through a trouble, verse 17, he says, can I mortal be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his master? If he puts no trust in his servants?
If he charges his angels with air, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth are broken in pieces from morning till evening, they perish forever with no one regarding does not their own excellence go away.
They die even without wisdom. Here’s what EFA has learned from his night vision that he’s sharing with job.
He’s saying job. Let’s just face it, son, let’s face it.
Man’s life is brief and it’s frail and he can never be righteous enough to please God while there’s some truth in this message, it’s not the whole picture.
Man does live in a house of clay and that house of clay will one day turn to dust and yes, sometimes life can be snuffed out like the swatting of a moth or the pulling down of a tent.
But ladies and gentlemen, man is made up of a whole lot more than that man is created in the image of God and the God who made him is the God of grace and mercy as well as the God of justice has left that all out.
He comes with his judgmental experience and lays it on job’s heavy heart.
Let me just say this friends, half truths are never helpful, especially to those who are already struggling with reality in their despair and hopelessness.
So we don’t need sarcasm. We need support. We don’t need logic, we need love.
We don’t need experiences, we need encouragement. And number four, we don’t need assumptions. We need assurances.
Read with me from the fifth chapter of jo verse three.
I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his dwelling place.
His sons are far from safety and they are crushed at the gate. Remember those two words?
And there is no deliverer because the hungry eat up the harvest, taking it even from thorns and a snare snatches their substance.
Efa says that he has seen sinners prosper only to lose everything in the end.
And if you listen carefully, he is actually saying to job that the death of his Children are the result of his sin the message paraphrases verses six and seven like this, don’t blame fate when things go wrong, trouble doesn’t come from nowhere.
It’s human. Mortals are born and bred for trouble as certainly as the sparks fly upward.
Obviously, Faa’s speech is filled with assumptions. How could he know any of the things he is saying?
He’s not omniscient. He is assuming things, assumptions are always wrong.
And especially so when you’re dealing with hurting people, here’s the fifth one. We don’t need advice.
We need affirmation. Now listen to Job and Job 58 through 11.
And once again, I’m reading the paraphrase from Eugene Peterson’s the message because it’s very contemporary and it really grabs hold of this section.
Listen to this job. If I were in your shoes, I just go straight to God.
I’d throw my on his mercy after all.
He’s famous for great and unexpected acts and there’s no end to his surprises.
He gives aid for instance, across the whole earth and he sends water to irrigate the fields.
He raises up the down and out and gives firm footing to those who are sinking in grief.
Now, Eli takes the role of the spiritual advisor, he’s already told job why is suffering?
Now, he’s gonna tell job what he’s supposed to do about it.
He said, job, what you need to do is just go cast yourself on the mercy of God, tell God all the sins that you’ve committed and maybe he’ll surprise you and bail you out of the mess you’re in.
We don’t need advice.
How many of, you know, when a person comes to you in a time when you’re hurting and they start telling you everything you should do and, and here’s, here’s the great word.
I know just how you feel and you know, when, when you, when you’re going through cancer and somebody comes and tells you that and you know, they haven’t cancer, you just want to say, would you go away?
You don’t know what I feel. You haven’t got a clue. I don’t need your advice.
I need your affirmation and your encouragement. It’s amazing how people miss that.
One of my favorite problems was people would come up and they’d say Doctor Jeremiah did I understand right.
You’ve had a large cell, non hodgkin’s lymphoma. Is that right? That’s right.
Well, you know, my mother had that and she died. Well, thank you very much.
I’m so blessed that you came to see me today.
It got so bad there for a while that when people started to tell me a story, I’d put up my hands and say, hey, if this doesn’t have a happy ending, I don’t want to hear it.
You know, just don’t tell me. Your words are so critical when you’re trying to help someone.
And if you’re not sure of your words, your silence will be far more eloquent.
Your silence and your prayers will be far more eloquent. So here’s the last one.
We don’t need sarcasm. We need support. We don’t need logic. We need love. We don’t need experiences.
We need encouragement. We don’t need assumptions. We need assurances. We don’t need advice. We need affirmation. Last.
We don’t need pious platitudes. We need powerful principles. Do you all know what a pious platitude is?
It is a tired saying that somebody heard somebody else say that sounds like it’s the right thing you should say at a time like this.
Now, I want you to listen to this next speech that Eli gives and see if you can’t pick up the pious platitudes in his council.
It begins in chapter five at verse 17 here is trying to encourage job.
He says, job happy is the man whom God corrects.
Therefore, don’t despise the chastening of the Almighty for he bruises, but he always binds up, he wounds, but his hands make whole.
He’ll deliver you in six troubles. Yes. In seven, no evil shall touch you in famine.
He’ll redeem you from death in war, from the power of the sword.
You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue. You shall not be afraid of destruction.
When it comes, you shall laugh at destruction and famine.
You shall not be afraid of the beast of the earth.
You shall have a covenant with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your dwelling and find nothing amiss.
You shall know that your descendants shall be many and your offspring like the grass of the earth and you shall come to the grave at an old age.
Whoa, what a pick me?
A powerful mental attitude endorsement seem to be saying to Joe Son just buck up, dig your heels in, just hang in there.
It’s all gonna turn out great.
It sounds like the positive mental attitude stuff that you see today trying to pass for the preaching of the word of God.
The rosy picture of life that EFA paints for job adds up to what we now call today.
The health and wealth gospel in this twisted theology, material and physical well being are viewed as rewards for faith, not as holy, unmerited blessings, more as promised entitlements than gracious gifts.
How many of you are thankful today for God’s goodness and graciousness to you?
Are, aren’t you thankful that it isn’t because you’ve been such a hot candidate for it.
God blesses us in spite of ourselves.
He blesses us out of his grace and mercy and there’s nothing you can do to earn God’s favor.
You’ve got nothing in your hands to bring to Him.
Everything you have is because He gave it to you and because of Jesus Christ does it do good to be obedient to the Lord.
Absolutely. But this is not a trading game that we have with the Almighty says Joe try to do your best and it’s all gonna turn job.
You’re gonna be an old man. How in the world would you know that? How would you know it?
Well, it sounds good and it feels good. It’s the warm fuzzies.
God save us from that.
We need to be compassionate, but we need to be men and women of compassionate truth.
not make up stuff just because it sounds good. Pious platitudes remind me of a Proverb.
I read this week. Have you ever read this one?
Proverbs 25 20 like one who takes away a garment in cold weather is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
Wow, that’s really picturesque. Here’s a guy out in the middle of nowhere.
He’s freezing and the Bible says going up and taking away his coat has the same effect as going up and singing songs to him when he’s hurting.
Don’t do it. Somebody has said there’s two kinds of friends in this world.
Some friends bright in the room when they enter and others bright in the room when they leave.
Shit fits the second.
So there you have it folks two ways to help a hurting friend with sarcasm, logic, experiences, assumptions, advice, and pious platitudes or with support and love and encouragement and assurances and affirmation and positive principles.
Frankly. If I, if I’m hurting again and you need to comfort me choose the second list, will you?
That’s what I need. That’s what we all need. That’s what your friends need.
So that’s what we learned from Eli Az’s rebuke in chapters four and five.
Now, let’s take just a moment and see what we can learn from. Job’s response to EFA.
In chapter six. Job gets to answer some of the stuff that Eliza said.
And here’s what we can learn from job’s response.
He’s going to tell what Eli obviously hasn’t picked up on.
He’s going to try to help understand what it’s like to be in the shoes of job.
He begins the sixth chapter by taking us through the cycle of despair. That has been his experience.
If you’ve ever been where job is, you will understand his words completely.
It starts from a devastated life and goes to a discouraged heart notice verses 1 to 3 in job six.
Job answered and said all that my grief were fully weighed and my calamity laid with it on the scales for then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.
Therefore, my words have been rash.
Job is speaking of weighing his grief and putting his calamities on the scales and he’s saying to Eliz Efa, yes.
My words were really strong referring to chapter three and chapter four.
My words were really strong and I probably said some that I shouldn’t have said but, but you don’t understand the heaviness of my hurting, right?
Now from a devastated life to a discouraged heart, from a discouraged heart to a distaste for life.
This is incredibly insightful. Listen to this verses four through seven for the arrows of the Almighty are within me.
My spirit drinks in their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass or does the ox low over its fodder can flavorless food be eaten without salt or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
My soul refuses to touch them. They are loathsome food to me. Put out all together.
And what job is saying is he’s lost his taste for life. Life has lost all of its flavor.
How many of you have ever tasted the white of an egg? No, you haven’t.
There isn’t any taste to the white of an egg. You know what?
There’s no taste in the white of an egg and that’s job’s point.
He said my life has come to the place where it has no flavor to it.
There’s no taste in my life.
If you’ve ever known somebody who’s come to this place in their walk with God as a hurting person, you will understand it completely.
It comes to pass in life.
Sometimes when the pressure is on so heavy that you life just loses all of its taste from a devastated life to a discouraged heart, from a discouraged heart to a distaste for life from a distaste for life to a despair of hope.
Oh, then I might have my request that God would grant me.
The thing that I long for that, it would please God to crush me, that he would lose his hand and cut me off.
I got a book this week that, that I found, I don’t know where this has been, but I just came across it.
It’s a book called A Grace Disguised And it’s written by a man named Gerald Stitzer who lost his wife, his mother and a daughter in a head on collision.
And he poignantly writes about what it felt like during that time.
This is so insightful and this is exactly where job is. Listen carefully.
He said loss creates a barren present as if one were sailing on a vast sea of nothingness.
Those who suffer loss live suspended between a past for which they long and a future for which they hope they want to return to the harbor of the familiar past and recover what was lost or they want to sail on and discover a meaningful future that promises to bring them life again.
But instead they find themselves stuck living in a barren present. That is absolutely empty of meaning.
That’s where job was. You know what Joe wanted, he wanted to go back to when his kids were alive when his wife was supportive, when he had his wealth, when he had a standing in the community when he was honored by everyone.
And if he couldn’t go back there, job says, let me go out into the future so that I don’t have to live in the present.
But job found himself where many people find themselves today.
Not able to go back to the past, not able to go to the future stuck in the barren present.
And that’s a tough place to be.
Can I get a witness stuck in the barren present from a devastated life to a discouraged heart?
From a discouraged heart to a distaste for living?
From a distaste for living to despair of hope, from despair of hope. Finally to desire for help.
He finally comes to the place where he needs help and he’s willing to ask for it.
Notice verse 14 to him, his afflicted kindness should be shown by his friend even though he forsakes the fear of the almighty verses 24 25 teach me and I will hold my tongue cause me to understand when I have aired how forceful are right words verse 28.
Now, therefore, be pleased to look at me for, I would never lie to your face.
What is job doing here? He’s saying, listen, you came and you gave me all your speeches.
I heard them all. What I really need for you to do is to look at me and see me in the midst of my pain.
And I’m anxious to hear your heart but I want you to see me.
Will you just look at me. Did you hear what he said? He says, would you just look at me?
Would you not go off on your pious platitudes and your planned and tired speeches?
See me in the midst of my pain and then speak to me, words of encouragement. Wow.
Some of you could step forward and give testimony to the fact that you’ve been there and done that literally.
Job was saying to Elis. He was saying, sir, if you know something about my life that I don’t know, please reveal it to me.
I’m not afraid to face life, but you need to be honest and they wouldn’t even look him in the face.
If you read this carefully, they would not look job in the face.
They were with job physically, but they were actually far away emotionally.
And my friends, I want to say this, you’re better off not to go try to help your friend.
If you’re gonna go like that, they don’t need another sermon. They hear enough of those.
So that’s what we learned from job’s response to his friends.
And now we’re almost finished what we can learn from job’s response to his God.
When people are in the anguish of despair and suffering.
Job wants us to understand that certain things happen to them that he describes to the Lord.
In his response, I love this chapter because here’s a man of God who has decided that he can unload his heart on God himself.
This is different than chapter three where job is angry.
This is job just saying, Lord, I want you to understand what I’m going through and I wanna encourage you.
That’s a good kind of praying. If you read the psalms, you’ll find it everywhere.
David was fond of telling the Lord what you say? Well, doesn’t God already know what we’re going through? Absolutely.
But tell him anyway, it’s important for you to say it because it’s good for you to say it and good to know that you’ve said it to God.
So job is now going to not restrain his mouth. Look at verse 11 in chapter seven.
He says, I will not restrain my mouth.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit and I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
I want you to listen to how job describes what it’s like to go through what he’s going through and I promise you it will resonate with your life because many of you have been there and done it.
First thing he says is this when you’re going through something like this, your nights are long and they’re sleepless.
Read verses three and four of job seven.
He says, I’ve been allotted months of futility and worrisome nights have been appointed to me when I lay down.
I say, when shall I arise?
And when will the night be ended, I can only remember in my life two nights when I didn’t sleep at all through the whole night because of challenges that I was facing.
It says at the end of this verse, he said, I had my fill of tossing until dawn.
Do you remember what it’s like?
If you’ve ever been through that, you, you’re trying to sleep and you have a clock in the room or you have a watch that glows in the dark and you look at your watch and it’s three o’clock and you think time must surely have passed and you look at your watch again and it’s a quarter after three and it goes on all night and you think this night will never end.
It seems like an eternity. God, where is the sunlight? Where will morning come job?
Says that’s where I’m at. I go to bed at night and I toss all night long, turning, whatever sleep is so, so lost and the night seems like it’s forever.
There’s a certain kind of pain and suffering that happens. I don’t know how to describe it for you.
I’ve been through the store a couple of times and it’s an awful existence.
Secondly, nights are long and sleepless. Number two, he says, life feels short and hopeless.
Verses 6 to 11. He says my days are swifter than a weaver shuttle and are spent without hope.
Oh, remember that my life is a breath and my eye will never see good.
The eye of him who sees me will see me no more while your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be as the cloud disappears and vanishes away.
So he goes down to the grave does not come up. Here’s what job is saying.
He’s saying my nights last forever, but it feels like my life is slipping through my fingers and it’s as quick as the vapor that comes when you blow out your breath on a cold morning and then it’s gone.
He says, that’s what it feels like.
He says, I feel like I can’t sleep at night, my nights drag on and it, then I realized my life is slipping through my fingers and I’m, I’m gonna lose it.
Thirdly, dreams are frightening and threatening.
Notice verses 13 to 16 job says, when I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint.
Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body.
I loathe my life. I would not live forever.
Let me alone for my days are but a breath, nights long and sleepless days short and hopeless dreams, frightening and threatening.
And then in the last part of the chapter, he actually says, God, you seem cruel and uncaring.
Verses 19 through 21. Once again, reading from the message, here’s job. I love the honesty of his speech.
Listen to this He says, God, you’re responsible for every human being, don’t you think you have better things to do than pick on me?
I mean, why make a federal case out of me?
This is from the message, why don’t you just forgive my sins? Start me off with a clean slate.
The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.
You look high and low for me and I won’t be around. I mean, that’s kind of funny.
God’s looking for job, but he can’t find him. Right?
And what job is just saying is Lord, where are you in the midst of all of this?
Why, why is this happening to me? Why am I in the center of all this?
So you see, Efa comes and he leaves job is job better off at the end of chapter seven than he was at the beginning of chapter four.
No, he’s worse. His despair has deepened. His hopelessness has grown. Eliz has not helped him.
I want to just bring this all together and help you understand why Efa couldn’t accomplish the goal of helping job.
He made two mistakes, two huge mistakes.
And if you will listen to me carefully, you will prevent yourself from going down a dead end street.
And you will know when someone who comes to counsel you is on the wrong track, two things he did wrong.
Here’s the first one he made all suffering the result of sin. Now it is true.
That all suffering is the result of sin.
If you go all the way back to the Garden of Eden, there would be no suffering today.
If Adam and Eve had not sinned. Isn’t that true? So, yes, suffering is the result of sin.
But listen carefully, all particular suffering is not the result of particular sin. That’s the critical thing.
And that’s what Eli has missed.
Joe was suffering but it wasn’t because of some particular sin that he had committed was he suffering because of sin?
Yes, because sin is a part of the, of the world that was introduced in the Garden of Eden.
It is true to say that all suffering is the result of sin.
It is totally untrue to say that any particular suffering is the result of some particular sin.
And what Eli was saying to job was job.
If you’ll comb through your history, you’ll find the awful things that you did that made it necessary for God to make you suffer like you are suffering and that was wrong.
Don’t ever go there. First of all, it demands an omniscience.
You couldn’t have known unto God are the secret things and you don’t know those secret things.
First mistake that Eliz made was he made all suffering, the result of sin. Here’s the second one.
He said that all righteousness is rewarded and that all sin is judged. Will you say pastor?
Isn’t that true? Yes, this truth is true. But it’s out of context.
Listen, it’s true that someday God will balance the scales and all righteousness will be rewarded and all sin will be judged.
But the problem with EFA presentation was that his timing was way off.
He gave the impression that all rewards would be immediately executed for righteousness and that all judgment would be immediately meted out for all sin.
And that’s just not true. God’s on a different time schedule than we are one day.
He will set it all straight. But how many of you know that isn’t today?
Just look out at what goes on in the world today and see people who do wrong and they don’t get punished.
And you say, well, they got away with it.
No, be sure your sin will find you out some day, some way the scales will be balanced and all will be made, right?
But when you try to press God into the small box of your judgment of a sufferer, you do that sufferer, great harm for you say something, you have no authority to say.
Years ago, the president of our nation was coming back from a trip abroad and it was when they traveled across the ocean in these huge ocean liners on the same ship with this president was a missionary couple that had served over 30 years in the same country.
They were now old and feeble and too feeble to stay on in their country and they were coming home back to the United States for the last time as the ship pulled into the harbor in New York, they were standing out on the deck and they noticed that there was a huge band out there and a whole host of people in the military.
And when the ship docked and they offloaded the president and his entourage, this band broke into great beautiful music and the people cheered and he was brought home to the United States with fanfare and pomp and circumstance and all the rest and they stood there and watched the whole thing until everybody had left.
And sort of almost as the last people off the ship, this old man and his wife came sort of stumbling off the runway back to the ground.
When they got back on the ground, his wife turned to the veteran missionary and she said, honey, this isn’t fair.
She says we’ve served God for 30 years. We’ve given our lives blood.
We even buried our Children there and we come home and there’s nobody here and the president comes home.
He’s just in an office for a short period of time and he’s welcomed like this and her husband with incredible insight, looked into her eyes and said, we are not home yet.
We are not home yet. And I want to tell you something, friends.
That’s how you get perspective on what happens in life. We’re not home yet.
One day God’s gonna take it all in perspective and he’ll put it all right in the meantime, we are where we are, we are who we are and he is who he is.
Amen. If you have a friend in your life, you are a rich person.
In fact, how many of you say I’ve got a friend who’s just great.
Let me just how many of you got a real great friend.
Let’s give our friends a good hand this morning. Should we? It?
You know, probably everyone in this room, we have a friend who would never embarrass themselves like Efa did and yet let’s face it, man.
Our friends are mortals and they all have their flaws and they’re not perfect.
And somewhere along the way, if you live long enough, your friend will disappoint you a little bit.
I want to tell you about a friend you can have that never disappoints.
Proverbs says in Proverbs 18 24 there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and I wanna tell you about that friend because he happens to be my friend.
His name is Jesus.
And over the years that I’ve been your pastor, I’ve told you a lot about Jesus because he’s the core of our life and of our faith.
I’ve told you what a great savior he is and he is.
But I probably haven’t told you as much about the fact that he’s also a great friend.
He’s my savior, but he’s my friend.
You know, I tell things to Jesus that I can’t tell anyone else.
I pour out my heart to him in ways I can’t ever pour out my heart to anyone else.
I sit in my office some days with my little journal and I say things to the Lord and I know he’s there like he’s almost there physically and I know he hears me.
I am so thankful that Jesus is my friend and I wanna tell you something in these days we’re facing right now.
You need a friend like Jesus, not just your human friends.
Those are great, but you need a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
The Bible says that this friend will never leave you nor forsake you.
And if you mess up in the relationship, it won’t change anything.
The Bible says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful and he won’t change every day.
Like some of your other friends, the Bible says he’s the same yesterday today and forever.
And the Bible says that this friend has proven his love to you so much that he sent the message, not in his own words, but in his own blood.
He’s the friend you really need. But before he can be your friend, he’s got to be your savior.
If you have never trusted him as your personal Lord and savior, there could never be a better time than today.
Just open your heart and say, Lord God, I’ve been trying to do this whole life thing on my own and I need your help.
I need to know first of all that my sins are forgiven. Lord. Would you forgive my sin?
And then Lord Jesus come not only as my forgiver, but come as my friend live within my heart.
I need somebody that I can be with all the time who will always hear me and will understand the things I can even express with my mouth.
And Lord God, you’re the friend I need.
I want to ask you today, do you know Him like that?
And if you don’t, is there any reason why you would want to face the uncertainty of the days in which we live on your own when he offers himself to you?
And all you have to do is say Lord Jesus, I accept you.
I accept your forgiveness for my sin and I want you to be my savior.
If you will do that today, he will change your life from the inside out.
You will never be the same. If you don’t get a pass that keeps you from all the trouble.
You get a friend who goes through the trouble with you and gives you strength and wisdom.
I have been so aware in these last few weeks, perhaps even more.
So in this last week of the incredible wonderful privilege of having Jesus Christ as my best friend.
He is always there and what he has done for me.
He will do for any of you who will put your life in his hands.
Thank you for joining us today.
On Turning Point. If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today.
If you will allow us, Dr Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
And the second is our monthly devotional magazine. Turning points to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning point today.
Next time on turning point, when you feel like job all frustrated when you feel forsaken and you wonder, does anybody even care?
You can go to your advocate in heaven and know He cares and he represents you before the father join Dr Jeremiah.
Next time for his message, God, my enemy here on turning point.