Job Chapter 36:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. Pastor David McGee is internationally recognized for his unique conversational verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter teaching through the Word of God. Hundreds of his teachings through many books of the Bible are now online at crossthebridge.com for you to listen to and study the scriptures along with us. Before we get started with today's teaching, Pastor David wants to remind you of Hebrews 6-10 which says, For God is not unjust, he will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him in caring for other believers as you still do.

Remember, we thank God for you every day. So now, open your Bible to the book of Job and follow along for today's teaching. Job had a lot of troubles.

He's had his children killed, his crops ruined, his livestock killed, buildings destroyed, his wealth just evaporated. And he was a good man and he knew the Lord and all this happened. And there's three people that are supposed to be friends but they're not really. And they judge him and they condemn him and they slam him. All to make themselves feel better. These three guys, for the first 20 some chapters, some of the things they say are true but just not the right time, not the right place.

And then they say some very judgmental and harsh things and Job is affected by them because when you hear things you're affected by them. So Elihu comes, he's a man of God, from the get-go. Job is, well, he's begun to be deceived honestly. He's got to deal with this self-deception. And Elihu has to deal with that first before he can pour the compassion and the love out. Let's jump in. Let's read the chapter through.

Then we'll come back and comment. Chapter 36 of Job, verse 1, Elihu also proceeded in sin. Bear with me a little and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God's behalf. I will fetch my knowledge from afar. I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. Look at verse 3, I will fetch my knowledge from afar. I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker, for truly my words are not false.

One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. The whole God is mighty but despises no one. He is mighty in strength of understanding. Verse 6, he does not preserve the life of the wicked but gives justice to the oppressed. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous but they are on the throne with kings.

For he has seated them forever and they are exalted. And if they are bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction, then he tells them their work and their transgressions, that they have acted defiantly. He also opens their ear to instruction and commands that they turn from inequity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. But if they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword, for they shall not die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in the heart store up wrath. They do not cry for help when he puns them.

They die in youth and their life ends among the perverted persons. He delivers the poor in their affliction and opens their ears in oppression. Indeed, he would have brought you out of dire distress into a broad place where there is no restraint.

What you set on your table would be full of richness. But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked, judgment and justice take hold of you because there is wrath. Beware lest he take you away with one blow, for a large ransom would not help you avoid it. Verse 19. Will your riches or all the mighty forces keep you from distress?

Do not desire the night when people are cut off in their place. Take heed, do not turn to inequity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction. Behold, God is exalted by his power. Who teaches like him? Who has assigned him his way?

Or who has said you have done wrong? Remember to magnify his work, of which men have sung. Everyone has seen it. Man looks on it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we do not know him. Nor can the number of his years be discovered, for he draws up drops of water, which distill his rain from the midst, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, the thunder from his canopy? Look, he scatters his light upon it, and covers the depths of the sea. For by these he judges the peoples. He gives food and abundance.

He covers his hands with lightning and commands it to strike. His thunder declares it, the cattle also concerning the rising storm. Verse 11.

If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. Whoa! What? Why does it say that? Presbytery is bad. Pleasures are bad. I'm glad y'all didn't amen that. You know, as a believer, it's fine to own things. But don't let things own you. Amen? You know, if you're working and tithing and giving and God wants to bless you. That's different.

Things are different. Maybe it's an awesome fishing rod. Maybe it's an awesome motorcycle. Maybe it's an awesome car. Maybe you work on houses.

Buy a nice house and work on it. Fix it. Praise God. But the enemy wants us to believe that that does not describe the life of a believer. 1 John 3.8, part of the verses. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. What works of the devil?

The works of the devil in you and in me. It's not talking about him going out in the world. It's not talking about him working on unbelievers.

It's talking about him working on us. And one of the things he wants to clear out is this lie from the pit of hell that a Christian can't be blessed or have pleasures. Now, you don't want pleasures to own your life. But I tell you what, you put God first. You seek first the kingdom of God.

He will add all these things unto you. Here's a life lesson. It is a lie to think or believe that living as a Christian is worse than living as a non-Christian.

It is a lie to think or believe that living as a Christian is worse than living as a non-Christian. We see in chapter 36, Job there, these three friends go to him. He probably shouldn't have listened to them at all, but he did. And he was lost. He was confused. When he was lost and confused, God sent Elihu to him. Do you realize when you're struggling, God will send somebody to you. God is not a fair-weather friend. And when you or I or any of us mess up, all we need to do is come to him, stop the behavior, ask God for strength to do that.

If it doesn't happen, get somebody else involved, become accountable. Remember this. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

And you and I were lost at one time. See, enemies like all these believers or anything, they got to make. They have this protection and God is blessing them. He hates that. You think God would want you to believe a statement like Christians don't enjoy life.

No. Now again, this life does not compare to the next life. Elihu was ministering to Job to deal with some of his misconceptions. God was dealing with Job over his deceptions.

Hey, we can use that word. We know the enemy is involved and we know Job started thinking his righteousness was more than God's, so that's self-righteousness. Enemy loves to get in on that. When you engage in self-seeking, wanting everything to be just right for you, forget everybody else, that's self-seeking. When you know it'll hurt somebody to say something, you say it anyway, that's self-seeking.

If you tear down people, especially Christian leaders, that's self-seeking. Again, there's certain things that you can be fuzzy about or even deceived and spiritually you'll be okay. You may miss out on some people that don't think God heals anymore. That's sad to me, but they'll still go to heaven. They'll miss out on some healings. They'll probably miss out on healing some people because when you believe God heals people, guess what He'll get you to do? He'll get you to pray for people.

Why? Because you believe God heals. God doesn't want somebody who doesn't believe in healing praying for somebody to be healed.

That makes sense, right? And incidentally, you do realize that if you are a believer, the Spirit of God can work through you to heal somebody. Amen? Amen.

Every one of you. Every one of you prays for God. Some people do walk in gifts, meaning they walk in them all the time, meaning they pray for people and they walk perhaps in the gift of healing. But anybody can be visited with the gift of healing. Let me encourage you. If you've got somebody sick, you don't have to stop and call somebody.

If you want to, that's great. And if we're needed, we'll come. But you can pray and then be healed. Amen? You don't have to say, oh, wait a minute, wait.

Oh, wait a minute. Let me get somebody to pray. No, you pray.

You pray. So you can be deceived about some things. There's a few things that if you're deceived about, it can really shipwreck your faith. And these are things the Bible talks about.

I would probably put them in three groups. Deceived about God, because you're deceived about God, you don't know who you're talking to or who you're approaching. God wants to take the blinders off them. Deceived about the Bible. A lot of people question the Bible because the enemy wants them to question the Bible. Because if you don't trust the Bible, you don't trust what's in it. And if you don't trust what's in it, it makes it much harder for God to speak to you. So deception about the Bible can be a spiritual shipwreck.

And I would tie two things together. Deceptions about church, deceptions about pastor or pastors combined can shipwreck your faith. First of all, before you came to Jesus, you were deceived about the church. You thought the church was whatever, you know, anywhere from a cult to – and I'm not talking about this church.

I'm talking about all churches. You know, you thought they were a bunch of cults. You thought they were ignorant. Isn't it interesting that people in the world would call a Christian ignorant who's read the entire Bible, and they've never read this historical bestseller, but they call themselves intelligent? If you've never read this book, I'm sorry, you're ignorant. This is a very important book. So don't say, well, I haven't read the Bible, but let me tell you about God and the Bible.

No, read it first. And then you'll know there's no contradiction there. Being deceived about church, being deceived about pastor or pastors.

Why is that in there? We need a Bible teacher. Now, God can speak to us, and we know that, but also God, He's the one that invented and set up the church, and then He's the one that invented and set up the whole thing of pastoring and teaching, because it says in Ephesians 4, 7, to each one of us – and this is important, because each one of us needs to play a role. If we don't, it will begin to fall apart. The people of the church are the ones who interact with people out there who aren't believers and don't know God and invite them in, wanting them to hear the gospel.

If y'all quit inviting, people quit coming. If people don't support the work of the ministry, then we can't do the things we do. So everything is tied together in Ephesians 4, 7. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

And in Ephesians 4, 11, and he himself, God – capital letters – he himself, God, gave him some – gave how many? Some, Paul? Some – to be apostles, prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Not everybody's pastor, not everybody's teacher. Some are.

Who are? The ones he gifted. Granted, you may have seen a pastor that wasn't gifted by God, and you probably could tell. If you've ever listened to somebody teach a Bible and you were a believer and thought, wait, what did he say? I didn't get this.

What's the chances are he may have not been called or gifted. So why does he give the fivefold ministry? Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And that just makes great strategic sense. Because if you just have the people who work at the church full-time doing all the work of the ministry, this thing would fall apart in a hurry.

It just wouldn't happen. We need you guys to help and to interact. Because look, if we're impacting the world, do we want to take 15, 20 people and go impact the world? Or do we want to take hundreds and go impact the world?

Hundreds. Amen. It's not you look at a few and go, hey, y'all go do that.

No, it's let's all go do it. And that's part of discipling, is ministering to others. Here's the life lesson. Do not be deceived in key areas, knowing at one time you were completely deceived and God is revealing all of these areas to you in truth.

That is a deep life lesson. Pastor David will be back in less than a minute as he continues teaching in Job chapter 36. This week, we reflect on the birth of Christ and how thankful we are for Jesus and all He's done for us. As a ministry, we want to thank each one of you who continue to listen to the radio program, who are praying for others listening at the same time as you and who have opened your hearts to receive the word of God to make a difference in your life. Please remember to continue to pray daily for Cross the Bridge and Pastor David McGee.

And now back to the teaching. Do not be deceived in key areas, knowing at one time you were completely deceived and God is revealing all of these areas to you in truth. So if you understand that the church is here to bless you, to teach you the word, to encourage you, to give a platform to a whole lot of ministry goes on, that's a good thing.

So you're seeing it clearly. If you're deceived, oh, the church is just about whatever, all about money. I love when people say that and I'm talking to them, saying, oh, really? Why don't you come to our church? We don't pass a plate at our church. We trust God.

People come to you and they go, you know, if you pass a plate, your income will go up. So that's not what we're doing. That's not what we're about. If it costs us money every week not to pass a plate and God has told us not to pass a plate, we're not passing a plate. Amen? Praise God. And then, of course, pastors, oh, pastors are all about the money.

Everybody knows that, right? Well, you know, I was pastoring full-time for two years. I wasn't paid at all.

When we started this for 22 months, I didn't receive any money, any salary from the church. I was trusting God. We had a garden. We had some savings.

We cut everything down to the bone, moved in with our father-in-law, my father-in-law, her dad, saved money. And God blessed him. God blessed him.

And even today, if God wouldn't have blessed it so much, I would be working a full-time job so I could teach law. I was willing to do that. My heart's to share the Word of God with you, to help you blow the winds of deception away and walk in this life that LSU is talking about, spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures.

That sounds good, doesn't it? Praise God. Well, let's obey and serve Him. You see that first if, right? If you obey and serve Him, then you get this.

That's a big carrot. Spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. Plus, you had a relationship with God eternally. It's worth obeying and serving Him. So the question becomes, are you obeying and are you serving? Now, if you're serving, pray that God will raise up workers in the harvest. But if you're not serving, you need to begin to serve.

That's part of growing up, is thinking about others and helping others. And as you serve others and serve God, again, look how He blesses you. And again, as we're clearing our minds from these deceptions, let's continue to follow God.

Be in the Word. Verse 21 here says, Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, for you've chosen this rather than affliction. In the New Living Translation, in Job chapter 36, 21, Be on guard, turn back from evil, for God sent the suffering to keep you from a life of evil. We just got a big answer into this book, didn't we? Why did all these things happen? Well, that verse said, God sent the suffering to keep you from a life of evil.

So as we grow, we got to be careful. And a few weeks ago, we talked about some of those things that are spirit of Antichrist things of Balaam, Korah and Cain. Book of Jude talks about that. Of course, Cain gave a poor offering to him, envied, and then killed his brother. So you got envy, murder, not giving to God first fruits.

Then you got Balaam who compromised, and partly for money. Then you got Korah who rebelled against spiritual authority. We're not heavy handed with spiritual authority. We're passionate about helping people follow God.

We're passionate about discipling. Romans 13 2 says, Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. So when you resist authority or you rebel, and look, every one of us wants to rebel and walk in rebellion to whatever authority, police, government, church authority. But that's an ungodly part of you that wants to rebel. You have to die out of that and trust God. James 4 7 says, Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Boom, boom, boom. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Part of doing these course corrections is our spiritual growth, checking our hearts, rebellion and envy, self-seeking. We're called sheep in the Bible. I know a lot of people think, oh, sheep. That's just so sweet, isn't it? It's not a compliment, really. If you've been around sheep, or we get a book in the bookstore.

The shepherd looks at Psalm 23. It's a great book. Sheep can be completely cared for. You have to do a lot of stuff. You have to dip them in pesticide stuff every six weeks because they're so prone to bugs, and they can have their food, be cared for, get the dips, the whole bit. And you know what they still do? Endlessly walk the edge of the fence, looking for holes. They will go out of the pen and starve themselves to death because they want to wander. If one of them gets in a tight spot, they'll push each other over a cliff trying to see something. In a way, I mean, gang, we're called sheep. Let's be willing to be honest that our hearts are deep. They want to wander, and we have to die to that. We have to die to that.

Here's life lesson. Our hearts seem to want to wander. We must prefer or submit. Our spirit, not our flesh, must be in charge and keep us on point. Our hearts seem to want to wander.

We must prefer or submit. Our spirit, not our flesh, must be in charge and keep us on point. So we need to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. The flesh is the old nature, what our body wants to do. This is what our spirit wants to do, to be fed, to follow God, to obey and serve Him.

And you know what? If you wander off, if you get through the fence, God will come looking for you. At some point, gang, you have to die to the wandering heart. You know, it's just something in us that's always looking, oh, look, dirt grass is greener over there. It must be better over there. What may be greener?

Because they have a septic tank, and it's nasty and smells horrible, but you don't know that. It's greener. And praise God, if we allow Him, He'll keep our hearts from wandering. Luke 19, verse 9 and 10.

Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because He also is the Son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. You know, friend, either the world is going to change you or you're going to change the world. And we want to change the world together.

It starts with you, starts with me. We submit our hearts to God. Even in times when we feel like wandering off, we don't. And yeah, even the pastor, he wants to wander off sometimes.

But he too has to submit. This is God, wherever you want me, whatever you want me to do. Lord, thank you for your word and your Holy Spirit that will keep us from being deceived, even in these times. Lord, you warn us that deception is going to be everywhere in end times, and we see it. We even see believers buying into deceptions.

The rising storm, God help us to be ready. Help us to see these things we talked about. Help us to see you clearly in the Bible more clearly. And help us to see the church pastor or pastors clearly believe in the best, but trusting you, God. Not just in man with man, but just in God with all of us. And Lord, we thank you that you came to seek and save that which was lost.

Lord, there's a lot of lost people out there. God, give us a fresh boldness to invite them here, here, where we teach the Bible, here, where we share salvation, here, where people get saved, here, where people become disciples. God give us a fresh boldness to invite and to share the Gospel with people. And Lord, continue to help us see these things clearly so we're not deceived. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Maybe tonight the Holy Spirit blew some cobwebs out, blew some deceptions away. Whenever you see truth in the Bible that you're not walking in, begin to walk in it because God just showed it to you. God is revealing things to you tonight.

Let the deception end. Let the Holy Spirit blow and receive. Come to God.

Taste and see that He is good. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord's face shine upon you. May God's face turn toward you. May He give you His peace, His shalom. In Hashem Yahshua, the name of Jesus.

Everybody said, Amen. Love you guys. God love you. Lord children, let us love one another.

You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge Weekend Edition. 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 are 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 am 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.

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