Job Chapter 35:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with Pastor David chapter 35 verse 1 Do you accomplish against Him? Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him?

Or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you and your righteousness a son of man. Verse 9 And now, because he has not punished in his anger, nor taken much notice of folly, therefore Job opens his mouth in vain.

He multiplies words without knowledge. There's 42 chapters in the book of Job. I would encourage you to read through the rest of it and see what happens when God Himself begins to speak to Job in chapter 38 and speaks from the out of the whirlwind and asks Job, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? And then God blesses Job more than he was blessed before, except this time he was blessed and he didn't have the fear.

He wasn't walking in the fear. God had dealt with that. Jeremiah 29 and 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Listen to that, peace, a future and a hope. Run to Jesus. If you get worried, run to Jesus. You mess up, run to Jesus. Jeremiah 29 and 12, Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. John 14, 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

The world gives and takes away. Jesus doesn't do that. Let not your heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid. But pastor, I've been reading the book of Revelation and I see all these bad things going on. First of all, when you read the book of Revelation, if you notice from chapter 4 to 19, there's two tracks of people.

There's two groups of people. There's what's going on down here with the horses and the plagues and the seals and all that stuff. And then there's a group worshiping in heaven for seven years. If you know Jesus, you're in this group. They go around the throne and sing, you are worthy who has redeemed us in your blood. Who can sing that? The angels can't sing that.

They haven't been redeemed in his blood. Only born again Christians can sing that. So born again Christians are at the throne. And if some of them are at the throne, we know from the book of Thessalonians that the dead in Christ are going to rise. And then everybody else is alive. So if some of us are up there, guess what?

We're all up there. Now when the rapture happens, you know what? Some places, some churches, their attendance won't even change. They won't be missing anybody. And at that point they will say, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Something's wrong. None of us got raptured. They will realize they've never been born again. They will begin digging God's word. You know, one of the reasons we're memorizing God's word is everybody's talking about how they're going to take our guns, which is probably a legitimate concern. But what if they take our Bibles?

Well, if it's in here and here, they can take it. What if tomorrow the only Bible you had was what you had memorized? John 20, 21. So Jesus said to them, peace to you.

Listen to this. Jesus said this to the disciples, but it is applicable to us. He said, peace to you. As the Father has sent me, so do I send you. I also send you, just as the Father sent Jesus, Jesus now sends us. And he says, peace, shabom.

I send you. Where's he sending us? Wherever you are now, he sent you.

Go there with his intent. When you go to work, you're going with Jesus. You're going in the name of Jesus. You're building the kingdom of God. That's what your work is all about. That's the spiritual meaning in work. First of all, you're able to recognize, honor God with your first fruits financially.

You provide for your family. You're able to bless other people. But it also provides an atmosphere for you to share your faith.

So in work, schools, and places, tell us goodness. Tell about God offering his forgiveness. John 20, 21, 22. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. You'll be thankful to know we don't have to do that to people for them to receive the Holy Spirit. We don't have to do that.

As a matter of fact, this is the only place that that happens. We lay hands on people. I didn't say we smack them. I said we lay hands on people. No, we just lay hands on people and God does things. God stirs up gifts, the Bible says.

The Bible says that if there's any sick among you, let him come forward. Let the elders anoint him with all lay hands and pray and they will be healed. The oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit. So we need to often pray that God fills us with his Holy Spirit. Scriptures plainly teach that after salvation, there is another experience of asking God to fill us and him filling us to overflowing and then we receive the supernatural gifts that are in the Bible. And those supernatural gifts, they're supernatural gifts of faith, of healing, of prophecy, of tongues, of prayer language and also an unknown language that somebody can speak and somebody else can interpret that's speaking to man on behalf of God. We can look at 1 Corinthians 14 on how those gifts are to be used. And of course when you read that chapter, you realize the gifts are misused sometimes. The sad thing is, Romans 3.17, we have shalom through the prince of peace. The sar shalom, S-A-R. Sar shalom, the prince of peace.

But the world, the people that don't know Jesus, Romans 3.17, and the way of peace, they have not known. Don't believe the lie. Oh, if only I had more stuff, I'd be happy. If only I had more things, if only I had more money. If you had more money, you'd have more bills.

Seems to be the way that it works. Oh, but if only... Oh, so and so has so much money and jaguar, lamborghini or whatever, big house... That doesn't satisfy anybody's soul. I've been in places where I had little or nothing and I've been places when God did just immensely bless me. I've been with and without with God and I've been with and without, without God. And even when I had everything this world had to offer, when I wasn't walking with God, I was miserable.

And let me let you in on a little secret. All those heroes that you watch on VH1 and MTV and all that stuff, they're not happy either. They don't have peace because they don't have Jesus. Don't envy them.

You have something they don't have that many of them sad to say will never have. Romans 3.14, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. That's unbelievers.

Don't let that be you. Don't let cursing and bitterness come out of your mouth. And as far as our righteousness being better than God's, Isaiah 64.6 says, But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

There's no good way to say this. That expression like filthy rags, in the Hebrew it's very obvious that it's talking about a used menstrual cloth that a woman had used during her time. That's our righteousness.

Not very impressive, is it? It does not compare to God's righteousness. But here's the awesome thing. 1 John chapter 1 verse 8, 9 and 10. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

See, that's the thing. You speak about somebody else's sin. You can't do anything about that, but you can ask forgiveness for your sin. And if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if we confess our sins. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Look at that. There's the choice. If you say you have no sin, I'm good. I don't need prayer. I don't need to go forward. I don't need to ask God for forgiveness. I don't need none. I don't need to go forward and give prayer.

No, no. If you say you have no sin, you deceive yourselves. The truth is not in you. You make God a liar and his word is not in you. Or you confess your sins, and he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Which do you want? It's pretty simple, isn't it? It's laid out right there. Well, pastor, you know what? I asked for forgiveness before, and I turned around and I did the same stinking thing. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes you have to come back, ask for forgiveness and power again. Sometimes you'll do it again, and then you come back again. Maybe you do it again, and you come back again, and you do it again, and you come back again, and maybe you have to come back again 500 times, but on the 501st time, you find freedom and deliverance. Keep coming. Keep coming until you receive that. Well, pastor, I know he's done it for somebody else. I know he's done wonderful things in your life and this person's life and heard those testimonies, but I'm just not sure. I'm going to really enjoy Ephesians 3 and 4, but Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20.

Some of you really ought to jot this one down. Now to him, capital H, talking about God. Now to him, it's not about your abilities. I want to pray for forgiveness, but I'm afraid I'll fall. You might.

It's not about you. You pray for God to forgive you. Maybe the Holy Spirit will hold you up. Now to him who's able to do, and I love these adjectives together, exceedingly, abundantly above all, all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

That's amazing. We can think of some pretty incredible things, some pretty incredible visions, and yet whatever you can think of, God wants to do more than that. Whatever you can envision, God wants to do more than that. I want to read these verses in Job in the New Living Translation.

Job 35, 9 through 16. People cry out when they're oppressed. They've grown beneath the power of the mighty, not almighty, mighty people, strong men, powerful men, people trying to control and manipulate. Do you know 62 individuals own half of the wealth in the world? They're having these little gatherings about what happens next in the world. I'd love to sit for a couple of hours and talk about some of the stuff that's going on, but dig around and look at that Trans-Pacific Partnership and some of the stuff that's going on.

It's amazing. People cry out when they're oppressed. They've grown beneath the power of the mighty, yet they don't ask, Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night? Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals and wiser than the birds of the sky? And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride. But it is wrong to say God doesn't listen, to say the almighty isn't concerned. You say you can't see him, but he will bring justice if you will only wait. You say he does not respond to sinners with anger and is not greatly concerned about wickedness, but you're talking nonsense, Job.

You've spoken like a fool. Pastor David will be back in less than one minute as he continues teaching in the Book of Job. A great way to start out each day is with a practical email devotional every morning from Pastor David. Visit crossthebridge.com to start receiving yours for free. If you have a cell phone, you can also text the word ENCOURAGE to 94253.

That's 94253 to receive a short encouraging text from us each day. And now back to the teaching. Strong words. Here's what we need to understand. It looks like things are happening and we call these times, the end times, the last days.

But let's be real clear. It's not our end times. It's not our last days.

These are going to be the most glorious days that lead us into the awesome, beautiful millennial reign of Christ where somehow justice and love join together and God leads the world. See, we're not there yet, but that's coming. See, we're in the middle and go, oh, where's the love, where's the joy? You're getting a little taste of it. Well, where's heaven? You've gotten a little taste of it. Maybe during a time of worship, you say, oh, man, just over. That's a little taste of heaven, but there's a whole lot more coming.

That's a life lesson. We need to realize that we are in the middle or really the early part of our internal lives. So we should live for God and run to the city of refuge. Now, let me go down a list. Now, I want you to be honest with yourself. Listen to this and be honest with yourself, honest with God. In Proverbs 6, there's a list of things that God hates. Now, there's not a whole lot of things that God hates. Count them on both hands.

They're listed. Why does God tell us what He hates? Because He wants us to be far from those things. And if we say we love Him, we can't be messing with the stuff He hates. Chewing the back of an eating cake or the top of the list, right?

No, no, no, no. It goes much deeper than that, gang. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19, there's these six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to Him. And Job's friends engaged in these.

It's probably why we're looking at these. But be honest. Listen to this.

Do inventory. Check yourself. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and run into evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. Brethren, they're being used as a spiritual gathering.

It's the one who sows discord among a spiritual group. Have you, don't answer all that, but have you done these things? Have you engaged in these things? Have you in any way been filled with bitterness or unforgiveness or consumed to the point now what's wrong with other people or complaining or not being thankful? And when God comes, the Holy Spirit comes, He says, look, this is what I don't like. I don't want you doing this. And then we're like, okay, well, I did that, but it's time to stop. And then what we decide now is do we cling to our Messiah or do we cling to our sin?

Drop the sin, cling to the Messiah. Now look, you may get confused and mess up. You may pick it up again, put it down again. One might pick it up again, put it down again.

That's the life line. We each need to decide to cling to our Messiah and not cling to our sin. If you've been doing those things, stop. The next time you get ready to do something, the bells and buzzers, the Holy Spirit says, what are you doing? Stop.

Well, I don't know if I can stop. You need to write those words down, Ephesians 3.20. Now to Him who is able. It doesn't say now to you who's able.

It says now to Him who's able. It's not your power, it's His power. How powerful is He? He blasted a rock out of a grave.

He didn't stay dead. That's pretty powerful, isn't it? Ephesians 3.20. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. 1 John 1, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to 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 now we choose. You know, we need to have discernment, especially in these days. And the way we sharpen our discernment is reading the Word, studying the Word, going to Bible studies, fellowshiping together, serving, giving, being obedient, because as you're filled with the Word, you need to do the Word. Bible study has to lead to Bible doing. Every one of us needs to be encouraging people to serve, to give, to attend.

And when they hit a rough patch, don't bail, don't run. That doesn't say anything about the church. It says something about you. Because we, the body, we're sharing the gospel here and around the world. So we get attacked. I get attacked. But when I get attacked and you pray, things happen. We are constantly almost, it seems, under attack.

Now, if you're new, maybe, well, I don't want to be involved with somebody whose stuff is getting attacked. This is where the Holy Spirit's moving. This is where people are getting saved. This is where people are being discipled. This is where people are getting filled with the Spirit.

This is where people are getting healed, healed from stage four cancer and back deformities, all sorts of stuff. And we serve a big God. Don't stop in the middle of the book of Revelation. That's not where the story ends. We're reading in the book of Job, but that's not where the story ends. Jesus died and was crucified and buried, but that's not where the story ends. You may be slipping, and sliding, and falling, and hurting, but that's not where the story ends. You may be messing up, but that's not where the story ends. You may be hurting in pain, sick, But that's not where the story ends. We should talk about heaven more, friend. That's our destination, that's where we're going. And yeah, between now and then there's probably going to be a couple of rough days, some rough patches. But that's not where we stop.

That's not where the story ends. And tonight, once again, we each need to decide which group we're in. Unbelievers who are freaked out, who say they have no sin, or the believers who are following the Prince of Peace, who say, yes, we do have sin and we want you to wash us.

Wash us as white as snow. The only people that remain in their sin is those who clung to it and said, no thank you, I don't need forgiveness. You must be honest, you can be honest here, you can be real here. If you've sinned and you want forgiveness, do me a favor, just right where you are, just stand up. If you have sinned and you want forgiveness, just stand up. Hallelujah.

God, you see each person standing. Each person saying, you know, I need forgiveness from you, God. And we need strength to not mess up. God, we don't want to do the things that you don't like, and we especially don't want to do those things that you tell us you hate. Just take a moment and ask God to forgive you. Whatever is on your heart, whatever God is pointing out right now, and you can hear the keys of give thanks in the background.

Maybe you've been complaining and haven't been thankful. In the five-fold ministry, God gives gifts to us to bless us, and we have been blessed. And we will continue to be blessed. Take a moment and go to God. Whatever is on your heart, whatever sin has stained you, go to God and ask for forgiveness. And again, maybe, maybe it's something you did, maybe it's something you didn't do. You didn't do a good deed, or you didn't share the Lord, or you, or you didn't give, or you didn't serve when God invited you. Whatever it is, go to God right now, ask Him for forgiveness. It's only through His blood. It's only by the cross.

Go to Him now. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you that your grace is flowing and falling like rain, washing us clean as white as snow.

Lord, thank you. We ask for your Spirit to fill us afresh, so that we can follow you more closely, God. Hallelujah. And Lord, now that we have been forgiven, we come boldly before the throne of grace, asking, thanking.

The Bible says that when two or three agree in prayer, incredible things happen. Maybe you want to just spend some time with the Lord. Maybe you want to get more specific in your confessions. And you don't have to confess to a man, unless God leads you. If you hurt them, and maybe there needs to be restitution or something, that's one thing.

But God is the one we sin against. You know, one of the things that happens when people come forward, honestly, it's the breaking of pride, because there's something in us that we don't want to come down here. We don't want people to think there's something wrong.

We don't want people to wonder about what's wrong with us. All that's pride. That's pride. Don't let pride keep you from being blessed. You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge, Weekend Edition.

Tune in again next Saturday afternoon at 4 30 Eastern and 1 30 Pacific Time as Pastor David continues teaching Lessons from the Life of Job on most radio stations. Friends, God loves you and wants you to experience his peace, forgiveness, and life. The Bible says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How do you receive this gift of everlasting life from God? First, acknowledge you're a sinner in need of forgiveness. Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died for you on the cross, taking your sin upon himself to provide forgiveness for you. Then ask for him to enter your heart in life, turning away from your sins, that is your own selfish desires, and then open your heart to follow God's plan for your life. You can start your new life by praying something like this from your heart, Dear Jesus, I believe that you died for me, that I could be forgiven.

I believe you are resurrected, that I could have a new life. Lord, I have done wrong things, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me for all of those things, and please give me the power to live for you the rest of my life. In Jesus' name.

Amen. My friend, if you prayed that prayer today for the first time or are coming back to God after wandering away, please let us know. Email PastorDavid at CrossTheBridge.com and share your good news. That's a great first step to growing in your new faith. We'd love to email you back some more ways to continue in this wonderful adventure of faith. Remember that you are not alone and you are loved. Also, don't forget to visit CrossTheBridge.com to discover more resources provided at no charge to help you learn more about the Bible. If you'd like to help us share God's word with others, please click on the donate button and support this program with your regular gifts and tune in to Cross the Bridge weekend editions each Saturday and Sunday on this station or on the CrossTheBridge.com website. God bless you and have a great day.