Job Chapter 38:5-33

Welcome to Cross the Bridge of the Bible.

And there's so many treasures in here. The Lord asks 74 questions. He knows Job can't answer them. He's trying to get Job to do a mental reset because Job had started thinking in the wrong way. When these bad things happened to him, he mistakenly assumed certain things.

His three friends showed up and they weren't the best of friends. I think it's important that when somebody's really hurting, our role as the church is not the police to figure out who's at fault. It's the EMTs to stop the bleeding. Once we stop the bleeding, we can figure out what happened and how not to do these things again.

But first things first, some of you are bleeding, not in a place we can see, but you've gotten hurt somewhere along the line and the wound never sealed. Well, tonight the Holy Spirit wants to heal you. And if you will open up and allow yourself, God will touch you tonight. Let's read Job 38 verse one. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Verse three, now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell, you see me as an italics if you have understanding. So in the Hebrew, it reads, tell if you have understanding. We all kind of have an inner voice that speaks with us, conscious or whatever you want to call it. God wants to influence that and the enemy has also figured out that if he influences that, that you can get in real trouble.

If he can get you saying something over and over and over and we get these things, these little vocal patterns. People don't like me. God doesn't like me.

God doesn't love me. God didn't create an accident. God didn't create us. We evolved. God didn't create us. You start running down evolution and remembering it's a theory and the other theories are really weak against creation. Seriously, man, there was nothing and then it exploded.

How many times has it happened to you in your life? Or we say, well, I believe in evolution, but I believe God influenced it. They call that theistic evolution. I call it compromise.

It doesn't fit. The days and the animals are out of order compared to the evolutionists. So it's either or. Now, I've looked at it scientifically and been convinced by people with PhDs that it is exactly as God said, that he created me. Now, if you're sitting there going, well, okay, so is this like a big deal? Yeah, it really is because we have a whole generation coming up that we've told they were a cosmic accident and we're wondering why they don't value life, why they're killing each other. Their cosmic accident was a matter. No, they're not a cosmic accident.

You're not a cosmic accident. God created you. And I have a real issue when people start saying, well, yeah, God created me, but you know, he did this wrong and that wrong. And so I have this issue and that issue. And God tell you that?

No. But God tell you, you're fearfully and wonderfully created. Fearfully and wonderfully created. That you're a masterpiece. We still can't figure out how the I works.

God knows. So if you've had a loop in your head where you compromised on creation, stop. You need to actually start saying in your prayers, thank you for creating me. We got parents in here and ask your question. How would you feel if your child came up to you and he said, well, I've decided I wasn't born that you had nothing to do with me being here. I just kind of evolved.

I just kind of walked down the street one day. How would you feel? Then you know how he's been feeling as you thought you were cosmic accident. If you compromise on the first few chapters, you can stop reading.

If you're going to rewrite the first part of the book, you're going to rewrite the rest of it. I believe we need to confess and say things. You've had those negative loops. God put that process that you could use when the psalmist says to his soul, bless the Lord. Oh my soul. He's talking to himself and everybody in here is talking to themselves before we just need to learn how to do it well. Amen. God loves us. God did create us. God does know us. God does care.

Make it more personal. God created me. Thank you God. God loves me. Thank you God for loving me. God has a special plan for my life. God thank you for having a special plan for my life. God thank you that I'm uniquely and wonderfully made. Verse four, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me. If you have understanding, who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what where its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Can you imagine what that sounded like? The morning stars singing. The sons of God has a phrase meaning angels. The angels singing with the stars. We got a lot to look forward to. Amen.

I mean I'm thinking that's pretty happy to inquire right there. And notice too that, and this is a Bible study too, the angels were created before the heavens and the earth. Says that here and mentions it in other places. And so that big angelic battle we believe happened in the first couple verses of Genesis. Let's keep reading. Or who shut in the sea with doors? When it burst forth and issued from the womb, when I made the cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, when I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, when I said, This far you may come, but no farther.

And here your proud waves must stop. Amazing to think about that. And the tides and the water lines all over the world are designed.

God designed them. Verse 12. Have you commanded the morning since your days begun and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?

This is an interesting thing. And it's a Hebrew thing that the picture here is of as dawn happens there's somebody that's removing a garment of darkness and that comes to dawn and they can shape the garment and the evil things that are clinging to it come out and there's a fresh start to the day again. So that's sort of a picture of the Hebrew belief that you take off because there's wrong things that are clinging to you.

So with the new dawn you take that off, which is a very interesting picture because that's not what we're told in the New Testament. In the New Testament we're not talking about taking off from it, we're talking about putting on. Putting on what? Putting on Christ. Putting on the robes of righteousness.

I want you to think about that. Taking off the old garments. Garments of self and selfishness. Take that off and put on Christ. That picture that God paints there is a strong one and once again it's a tool.

Here's the life lesson. Like garments we should take off the wrong and put on the right. Take off the bad thoughts. The bad or toxic emotions.

Envy, jealousy, hatred, fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, and any carnal personality traits. Take off. Take off sin and put on the white robe. The shining robe of righteousness. That's what Christ provides for us.

Let me say that again. Like garments we should take off the wrong and put on the right. Take off the bad thoughts, the bad emotions, unforgiveness, bitterness, and any carnal personality traits. Take off.

Take off sin. Put on the white robe. The shining robe of righteousness. Let's read on verse 14.

It takes on form like clay under a seal and stands out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld and the upraised arm is broken. Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the doors of the shadows of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?

Tell me if you know all this. What's verse 17? When I read through that, that left out.

Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Why is God asking him that? Because Job had bad thinking, had wrong thinking, and God wanted to correct it. Go back to Job 3.

Job chapter 3 verse 11. This is Job speaking early on and he's going through a lot and for a moment he thinks death is an alternative, suicide. It sure sounds like he thinks that's a way of escape. If you think that's a way of escape, that's wrong. If somebody around you or near you thinks that's a way of escape, that's wrong and you need to get that cleared up.

If that's you mentally, you got to get that cleared up. Well, I'm saved. I'd go to heaven, probably alone. Job 3.11 says, why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

And Job 3, go down to 16. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there and the servant is free from the master. Wrong. God had to correct that. He could not let that stand and so he directly asked, Joe, who are you to say about death? You don't know anything about death. And when you start saying there's peace after death, you're wrong. You haven't been there.

You don't know. What's good advice for Joe is good advice for us. So you start thinking that, that it's an alternative from the pain of life and that makes sense. That's the first step of a stairway.

You don't want to go down. And I said, you'd go to heaven by yourself. Think about this. What about the people you invite to church? Are you witness to? What if you weren't there? What if you weren't doing that?

Hopefully you've invited somebody, you brought them and maybe you met them outside, brought them in. You watched them get saved and come forward. What if you wouldn't have been here to do that? Because you not only got that person saved, but whoever that person then got saved, that's part of your rewards too. And if that person wouldn't have got saved, all those other people wouldn't have got saved. And you look, we never know what people are being saved from.

We don't know. Sunday, a guy came down, you know what? What if that guy wouldn't have got saved?

Maybe he was thinking about going home and killing himself and his family, but that didn't happen while he came forward while you invited him. But what if you hadn't? You're part of a wonderful, beautiful chain that we don't know. We can't figure it out, but we're part of it. It's mysterious.

It's awesome. It's beautiful, but he doesn't tell us everything, but he sure tells us enough, doesn't he? Listen to this, Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. In first John it says, if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart. If you're in here and you've asked God to forgive you, God has forgiven you. And you're saying, well, I don't feel forgiven. My heart keeps telling me I'm not forgiven. That's a lie. God's bigger than that.

You do not know your future. I heard about a guy who was a missionary, was on the field for a long time, and there wasn't a lot of fruit. He was here almost 10 years, and one 12-year-old boy got saved.

That's it. He got depressed, despondent, came home. This was a while back in the 80s. He got on psychological drugs, killed himself. A guy went over there recently to speak to a group in that same region. He spoke to a group of over 2,500 pastors from that area that all came from that one 12-year-old boy.

And he thought nothing happened. 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. Your future includes all the lives that could be influenced towards God and all the people that could get saved through you and what you do. And then all the people that get saved from the people you led to the Lord. And maybe you're sitting there going, Pastor, I'm not thinking about killing myself. Praise God. Praise God.

That's awesome. But maybe you're going to chill out from serving for a season. I just need some me time. I just need a break. I'm tired. And I understand being tired. I understand needing rest.

We all need rest. But you pull back from serving, the cycle stops. And while you're not serving, nothing's going to happen. Again, I am much more like God. I'm much more interested in you than anything you do around here. I love you. I appreciate the things you do.

I don't love them. I love you. It's not productivity I'm talking about here. But when you step out of this beautiful cycle, things aren't happening. Now, if the Lord tells you to rest for a season, go to a leader, talk to them, and set a date for coming back. Because I've watched too many people that took a break from serving and took a break from church.

And then I read out about them getting a DUI or something. So stay plugged in. Because God blinds us from what all He's accomplishing through us. Because if He showed us, we would get too stinking prideful.

But occasionally, you may need to stop and think about what God is accomplishing through you and thank Him for it. That He chose you. He doesn't need you.

He chose you because He wants you. You just never know. You pick up somebody to go to Life Group. Maybe if you didn't pick her up, she'd go out drinking again that night. Maybe she runs out of beer and goes back to the store. But while she's on the way to the store, she runs into somebody. And if you're sitting there going, oh, come on, pastor, those things don't happen.

I've been to way too many funerals. That does happen. Gang, the enemy wants you to think you're not important, that you're not worth anything. God wants you to know you are important. And you can tell what something is worth by the price that was paid for it. Jesus paid for you with His life. Somebody thinks a lot of you. And here's the thing. When you live with one foot in eternity, everything you do and say is important eternally.

When you live with one foot in eternity, which is what we do spiritually as Christians, everything you do and say is important eternally. Verse 19, where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place? I don't know. I know that when you flick on a light switch, darkness goes away. But I don't know where it goes.

Let's keep reading. That you may take it to its territory, that you may know the path to its home. Do you know it because you were born then or because the number of your days is great? Have you entered the treasury of snow or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle and war? What in the world? Have you seen the treasury of snow? Are you aware when it snows? I mean, when there's a big snow over several states, that's got to be what? A billion snowflakes?

They put them under microscopes and everyone else is different. There's never the same snowflake. Now we look at that and that's cool.

Well, that is cool. But that snowflake is not nearly as unique as you are. Everybody's different. Kind of similar, but everybody's different. What a world it would be if we all looked the same.

How would we know what each other's name was? Praise God that we're different. But Job didn't know that. God did. The treasury of hail, which I reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle. What in the world? Well, there's a lot of things I could spend an hour on those two verses, but I don't have an hour, do I?

Okay, here's a couple things. First of all, when they discovered TNT, an explosive that they could use in battles and wars, but it was unstable. And the problem was they would be taking it to a battle and it would blow up and sink a ship. And they kept having these problems until a Jewish man who knew these scriptures said, what would happen if we put ice on it?

Guess what? It became stable. It was a long time till we really understood what it did, but the ice would keep the TNT stable. He's reserved snow and hail for the day of battle and war. Not only that, but I could give you about five different examples of different battles that were changed because of the weather.

I mean, changed at just the right time and changed history. The Spanish Armada in World War II, with the Germans, it was cloudy. We couldn't get our planes in to restock. The Allies were getting hammered because of the tanks of the Germans, the soldier movements, but clouds, we couldn't do anything. Prayed, prayed, prayed, prayed for one day for God to clear the clouds.

Bam, cleared them. The Allies won a huge battle, but they were losing because they prayed. You start thinking about snow. How do you know how it's made? I mean, I know moisture comes down and it changes to ice.

I mean, if I wanted to know, I would study it more, but God knows. Here's the interesting thing. I was thinking, we can't even make it snow. Well, we kind of can. We have these little snow machines. That's making snow, but that's not making it snow. So there's the life lesson. We can make snow, but we cannot make it snow. Amen.

We can make snow, but we cannot make it snow. Let me read a few more verses, and we're going to close. We're going to have to do this in two parts.

There's just stuff that I can't pass over. Let's read a little bit more. Verse 25, who has divided a channel for the overflowing water or path for the thunderbolt to cause it to rain on the land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man, to satisfy the desolate waste and cause spraying earth, the growth of tender grass? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice and the frost of heaven? Who gives it birth?

The waters harden the stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen. Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Maseroth in its season? Or can you guide the great bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you set their dominion over the earth? In verses 31, 32, 33, it's talking about the stars. Now, Maseroth is actually a Hebrew zodiac. It's not tied to a horoscope, okay?

This is different. There's a problem with horoscopes. The problem is you look to the horoscope for your future, and that's wrong. God doesn't want you to do that. He wants you to look to Him. So if you're doing horoscopes, stop.

They're not that accurate anyway. Get into the Bible. God is very accurate. You may be surprised at the origins of the zodiac. I was in Israel, and we went to a very unusual site that not many people went to because you had to go through a cow pasture with a lot of cows. But then when we got to this little barn area, which had been a synagogue, it had a big zodiac thing on the floor. And I was like, well, that looks very Greek or Romanesque. But then I began to study, and I began to understand. Twelve seasons to the stars. How did the wise men know something was different if they hadn't been looking at it?

Next time we get together, we'll get into this. But two things. In the horoscope thing, there's Leo the lion. It's not Leo the lion.

It's the lion of the tribe of Judah. And there's a season to that. The one after that is Virgo or the virgin, which is a constellation in the stars. Here's an interesting thing.

Again, we'll get into this more next week. The virgin is holding a baby. How can a virgin be holding a baby? I know.

There was one virgin who was a virgin but had a baby, and her name was Mary. I can do this with all twelve. We obviously don't have time to do that. I am going to challenge you to begin cleaning up, clearing up your mind.

Watch for these negative little tracks and fix them. It talks about our mind being fixed. Our mind being fixed on God. Now, Jesus went through everything that we've gone through.

He intentionally went through everything we could possibly go through so He could minister to us, so He could understand us. The book of Hebrews puts it like this. Hebrews 4, 14. It's a scene then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And in the New Living Translation it says, So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. It says He faced all of the same testings we do. Now we're in Job, so I started thinking, well, Job was tested by three friends that weren't there for Job. And Job was hurt and betrayed and wounded and didn't feel like people cared about him. So then I asked myself the question, well, Jesus is supposed to go through everything we go through. He went through everything we went through, and Job went through having three friends really let him down. I mean, when did Jesus have three friends that let him down? When he chose you, he chose the garden. He wanted to go through everything we went through, including being let down by three friends who, when you were about to be executed, couldn't even pray with you. I was blown away to think that Job didn't choose this.

He chose it for you. And not just once in the garden did these guys fall asleep. And this wasn't like the 70 or the 12.

This was the three. The guys he took to the Mount of Transfiguration, the guys he took in to see somebody raised from the dead. But he goes and he prays and he comes back and they're asleep. Guys, wake up. Please pray with me. And he says, well, it's too late now, guys.

They're coming to get me. For the times we fell asleep, Lord, we're sorry. 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 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'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.

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