Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Let me just say this before we pray. Notice how Job puts the pain that Job went through. But the story of Job is really a reminder that despite things that happen to you physically, nothing is harder to bear than that which happens to you emotionally and spiritually. You know, all the physical pain that Job went through, it paled in comparison to watching all of his children die, losing everything he had. And so he says here, my soul is weary.

Yeah, my body's hurting. My body is physically I'm sure almost at the point of death as we know Job was for a long period of time, yet God told Satan that you can't kill him. But Satan had free reign to come at Job and I can imagine whatever ground you give Satan, he takes every bit that he can.

And he still does that, by the way. But Job said this, my soul is weary of my life. It's not even the physical stuff Job said I'm going through. I think I've just about had it. And so Job begins this chapter saying this statement and then he proceeds with some questions for God. And I don't know if you've ever been at the point in your life where you had some questions for God.

Let's think about that this morning. Lord, I love you. I thank you for all that you've done. Thank you, Lord, for how your word reminds us of who we are and reminds us that you remember who we are. Lord, it reminds us that you love us in spite of ourselves. And it reminds us that we are to trust you despite whatever might happen. So Lord, I love you and I pray that you'd help us this morning in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Let me begin by prefacing it this way and if I could explain this. I don't know if in your life hearing preachers, if you've ever been told or at least taken what you were told to mean, that you should never question God. And I will tell you this, that that's just not true. God is okay with your questions. Are you okay this morning if I explain to you why? God is not insecure. God is not intimidated by you.

And God is not intimidated by me. Now it might be that if you come to me in a critical nature and question something I'm doing, pastoring, or whatever the case might be, I might be insecure enough that I'm gonna take that personal. I might be insecure enough that that bothers me, it intimidates me. I might be insecure enough that I would then begin to point out your faults. Have you ever done that to somebody that came and showed fault to you? Have you ever responded that way?

Why? Because we're insecure. What they said carried enough weight with us that it now put us in defense mode and we're somewhat felt that that put us in an insecure position so we must fight back and we sometimes don't like to be questioned and we sometimes that no matter what, if somebody comes at us with that kind of spirit that we can begin to kind of start wanting to point the finger back and take it personal and kind of get angry about it and different things but that's because we're flesh and we're humans and we don't like to be questioned and we don't like somebody to say something that would make us think that maybe we have not reached up to their expectation or our own potential or whatever the case might be but God is not like us.

There ought to be about a hundred amens to that this morning. God is not like us. Thank God he likes us and he loves us but he's not like us and you can come to God with your questions and that does not intimidate him. That does not make God insecure. That does not make God think well who are you? It doesn't change God one bit that you don't like what he's doing. God's not insecure.

So while there might be some people in your life that you think I'm not even going to question them because then they're just going to get all bent out of shape and they're going to take it this way and that way or whatever the case might be and before we judge people like that you're probably like that too. There always could be a button to push in that angle because all of us are a bit insecure in certain areas at least by certain people or certain circumstances but God is not insecure. And therefore because God is not insecure God is not offended by the fact that you have a question. And God is not bothered by the fact that you're questioning maybe some things that you think he has done or that he has allowed. So it is literally it's okay to ask God questions because he doesn't turn away from you and think now you're just a bad child because you're questioning him and questioning what he's doing and all those things. Now what does bother God is when he's not believed.

When he's not trusted. But it doesn't mean you can't question. It doesn't mean that you don't have some questions and I don't understand this and I don't see why this is happening and why you're allowing that or why you've done this in my life.

These things are made insecure by our questions. In fact as I started looking at this in a sense you begin to run down some things and Abraham he questioned God. He said God what are you going to give me? How are you going to do this? I'm childless. You say that my seed is going to proceed and then out of that is the stars of the sky and yet I'm at this age and I don't even have a child.

God how are you going to do that? He said God I want you to go to Pharaoh and Moses said why would Pharaoh possibly listen to me? Why would you send me to him? Joshua had some questions. In chapter 7 of Joshua he says this oh Lord God wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Joshua said God did you just do this to destroy us? I began to look down through some questions in the word of God and I was kind of surprised by all of that. Elijah God put him in the home of this widow woman and while he's there her son dies and Elijah says this oh Lord my God hast thou brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? Have you really just done this?

Why would you possibly do this? I've had a lot of questions. In Psalm 10 David said God why are you standing thou afar off? Why standest thou afar off?

Why are you so far from me? And he says this why hidest thou thyself in time of trouble? David said God I'm in trouble. Why are you hiding now? Why don't you hide God when you're coming after me and disciplining me? Why do you hide it seems when I'm in trouble?

And yet all of a sudden you show up to let me have it. He said well that's not fair. Yeah but that's how David felt. He had questions. Isaiah had questions. Isaiah comes to God in chapter six. He said God how long am I supposed to keep preaching? This isn't doing any good.

They're not listening. Isaiah said wilt thou refrain thyself for these things oh Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore? He said God are you just picking on us? Ezekiel had some questions. He said God are you just going to destroy all the residue of Israel he calls it by pouring out thy fury upon us?

May I say this? None of you or us have ever had God's fury poured out on us. If you had you wouldn't be here. You think Satan can cause some damage unleashing everything he has.

Wait till God unleashes everything he has. Paul had some questions. He had a thorn in the flesh and he comes to God on three different occasions.

I said God would you please remove this? God didn't. You say well yeah there's a lot of yeah but do you know in the Bible Jesus had some questions? Jesus even looked to his father and said my God my God why? Hast thou forsaken me?

Anybody feel like you're better than Jesus? As I looked I realized that Jacob had questions. Gideon had questions. Manoah had questions. Samson had questions. Solomon had questions.

Habakkuk had questions. Amos had questions and can I tell you something? This morning Daniel has some questions. Any of you ever get to a point in your life where you got some questions? And maybe we think that you know maybe I'm just a horrible Christian and a rotten child of God that I even question him but let's be honest he certainly knows our heart.

We're not hiding anything from him. We sometimes have questions. So in Job chapter 10 Job brings a list and if anybody I think had the right to ask some questions.

I'm going to turn to it. The verse is going to be on the screen but once the initial blow of everything that Satan threw at Job he begins this process which is a difficult one almost as bad as all the stuff that happened to him in literally two days time. I mean his friends come so-called friends and they're so judgmental and condescending and telling him all that you know why God did this it's because you've done this and all these things. But in Job chapter 7 verse 20 and this verse will be on the screen I want you to see first that Job brings the question of removing. He says this why hast thou set me as a mark against thee? In other words God why have you put almost pitted me against you?

I mean even God said he was a perfect man Job eschewed evil and now Job says really I don't think that I've done a lot of wrong here and yet it seems now we're against each other. Notice what he says here so that I am a burden to myself. You see Job's very existence was a burden to him. He was in so much pain and suffering and mental anguish that being alive was a burden to him.

It would almost have been less of a burden to Job if he just could have died. He says this and why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity? Job questions God why won't you remove this? In other words God if you've done this like my friends say because I've done wrong and I've sinned God I've apologized and I've asked you to forgive me so why are you not pardoning me from what I'm going through?

Why are you not taking this away? Have you ever questioned maybe why God didn't take something away from your life that was such a burden to you? Look at verse one that I'm just my soul's weary of my own life.

He brings up secondly the question of method. Look if you would at verse three. Job comes to God and he says this is it good unto thee that thou should its depressed that thou should its despise the work of thine hands?

Look at me I want you to get this. Job says God I don't know that you have the right methods here. Is it good unto you? In other words Job is almost saying this is do you think this is a good thing to do to me?

What's happened? God I don't understand this method that literally that you are taking the work of your hands which was me. I'm the work of your hands God and you're taking it away. You're literally taking what you've created and you're destroying it. I don't understand that method.

I don't understand why. Why is this good to you? I mean God do you really think you're doing a good thing here? In verse eight of Job chapter 10 he brings up the question of motive.

Why are you doing this? See first he says I don't really agree with what you're doing and then he says I don't even agree with why you're doing it. Look at verse eight of Job chapter 10 verses are on the screen. He says thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about yet thou dost destroy me. What is your motive if you've built me up just to destroy me? What is your motive if you've made me into the person I am just so that you can judge the person I am? Verse nine he says remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Job gives God glory the fact that hey we're all the work of your hand as the Bible says but now you almost are getting pleasure by just destroying the work of your hand.

I don't understand your motive here. Why would you just make me to break me? How many of you know that God does both things? God can make you and God can break you. Verse 15 number four he brings up the question of confusion.

Boy this is a big one and I don't know if you've been able to kind of insert yourself in any of these questions this morning. Have you ever questioned why God didn't remove something that was hurting you so deeply? Have you ever questioned why God was was doing something? Have you ever questioned why God didn't remove something that was hurting you so deeply? Have you ever questioned what he was allowing in your life? Verse 15 Job says this if I be wicked woe unto me and if I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head?

Did you hear that? Job said hey if I just go out and sin God's going to judge me but if I'm righteous I won't even be able to lift up my head. In other words I'm getting judged no matter what I do. If I do this I get trouble.

If I do that I get in trouble. Any of you ever felt like that? Whether you might know it or not preachers feel that way a lot. Whatever I do whatever decision I make this person don't like it this person's mad at this I don't like this I don't like that you can't win.

You can't win. Some of you are like that with your family whatever I do whatever I say I don't do this enough for them and I haven't I've done too much of this for them. Job says God whatever I do if I do right I get in trouble if I do wrong I get in trouble. Notice what he says here in verse 15 I am full of confusion.

I'm just confused God have you ever been confused with God? Number 5 he brings up the question of love now he's questioning does God really love me? Look at verse 16 Job says for it increaseth he's talking about his affliction thou huntest me as a fierce lion and again thou showest thyself marvelous this isn't a good word here show Showest thyself marvelous upon me means you're coming down strong on me. Verse 17, thou renewest thy witness against me.

And notice this, increases thine indignation. He says you're hunting me like a lion. Lions don't hunt animals because they love them.

They hunt them because they love to eat them. Now Job says that God literally has indignation against him and notice at the end, changes and war are against me. He's like God you've literally just gone to war against me. You must not even love me. You're hunting me down like a lion hunts down something that he wants to destroy.

You're literally pouring your indignation out on me like you hate me and you've claimed war against me. Do you even love me? Now I know that we're all very spiritual. And I will say yes brother but I've always known that God is a God of love and God loves me. Well God bless your pee-picking heart. Some of us aren't as spiritual as apparently some of us aren't as spiritual as apparently you may be.

Good for you. But there's been some times in my life I knew God loved me but I didn't feel loved. Notice next he brings up the question of existence. Why am I even existing? Look at verse 18, wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?

In other words, God why did you even let me be born? Oh that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me. Job said it would have been better if I could have died in the womb. If I could have just died before anyone ever saw me and this verse proves that life begins at conception because Job is saying I was a person before I even came out of the womb.

Notice what he says here in verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb straight to the grave. I don't even know why I'm existing. I don't even know why you even gave me life if this is what's going to happen. Any of you ever felt God I don't even know why you saved me if this is what I was gonna go through as a Christian? God why'd you tell me to go to church if this is what I'm gonna face when I get to church? Don't look at me with your judgmental eyeballs. You can be honest, maybe you haven't, but if you've ever felt questions like this would you say amen? Thank you. Even kids have questions.

Okay. Seventh, and we're not really far from being done here, but Job brings up the question of process. Verse 10, Job has something interesting to say. He said hast thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? Now when I read this verse I had a little bit of a question. I guess it was a question I'd kind of always had I didn't know. I'd always thought sometimes did they have cheese back in Jesus' day? Interesting question, isn't it? Did they have cheese?

I mean I know they didn't have spam. They could have, but they didn't quite know how to ruin life like that, you know. Or bologna for those in the back that might enjoy bologna.

Interesting question. You know you hear about wine and bread and olive oil and grapes and feasting and all these things, but do they have cheese? I mean that could really change life for them instead of that old bread and water. Hey let's melt some cheese on that baby. Did they have cheese? And Job is the oldest chronological book in the Bible and yet Job brings up cheese here and he literally gives us the process. Job says God this is how I feel and Job must have known everything about this process and I'll tell you why in a minute. He said God you have curdled me like cheese. That got me thinking. All right, is cheese in the Bible?

And it's in three areas. It's right here, then as David was a young man and his dad Jesse sent him into battle to take food to his brothers that were fighting and here's Goliath sitting there in the valley, the list of items that the Bible says that Jesse told David to take, it says cheese. Then years later David is now king and one of his men and David's running from those that now he's running from his own son and one of his men knew where he was hiding and he was gonna bring David supplies and the Bible says in the list of supplies that this person brought David was cheese of kind. It was literally like a roll or a brick of cheese. And the only other time is right here in Job chapter 10 verse 10 where Job says God what you're doing to me feels like you're curdling me like cheese. So I didn't know anything about it.

So I found out and it really opened my eyes. You see the first step in the curdling process, number one is the process of shocking. You see to curdle milk in order to make cheese you take milk but you have to shock it with something and there are two ways to curdle milk. You can do it with acids. You could do it with lemon juice.

You could do it with vinegar but there's an enzyme called rennet, R-E-N-N-E-T and guess where you get that? It's in the stomach lining of cows or calves. Job had cattle, Job had access to milk. Probably one of the things that Job did and he was a wealthy man. He had cattle and oxen and he had donkeys and he had goats and he had sheep and he had all kinds of things and he had a great household. Probably much of what Job did even as a living was making cheese.

He had access to every ingredient in Bible days and in Bible days rennet was what they would use to curdle cheese and sometimes they would use lemon juice or vinegar and I'll get into that in a minute. But it's a bitter agent. Lemon juice, vinegar, you put it into milk and this enzyme rennet, it's acidic, it's bitter. It's a shock to the milk when it's introduced to it and that's what you have to do to begin the next process. It must be shocked with something that agitates it. You see if you're ever gonna get cheese the milk has to be shocked, has to be agitated.

See sometimes for God to make us what we need to be and to do in our lives what we need to do he has to shock or agitate our system. You and I get mad when bitter things are entered into our life but very well just might be part of the process. Secondly there's the process of separating. You see once you shock that milk with something that's bitter or acidic then all of a sudden what that does it begins to separate the fat and the protein from the whey protein and the water. You see milk has a lot of water in it and in order to get cheese you've gotta get that moisture out of it. So they put this acidic agent, this bitter agent and when it hits the milk it agitates it but it's used to begin to separate the good from the bad. What is usable from what is not usable. And God curdling Job like milk meant that there was some separation that needed to happen in his life. That there was some good things that God wanted to use but he had to introduce a bitter agent to be able to separate that in Job's life. I'm not saying I've always enjoyed the process. In fact I don't know that I've ever enjoyed the process but as I look back there's been a lot of unusable things that were in my life shouldn't have been there and God had to separate that.

And he's still doing it. Third is the process of scalding. You see when you introduce a bitter agent into milk it begins that process but it can't ever fully separate until heat is applied. They have to heat that milk with that enzyme in it and as that heat begins to generate that small bit of separation that has taken place as they heat that milk that now has that bitter agent that has just begun to build curdles. When that heat is applied to it then it begins to rapidly separate. It can't happen unless the heat is applied. Job is saying God you've shocked me by what you've done. You're pulling things out of me that are killing me. You've applied the heat and it hurts.

Fourth is the process of stretching. You see this enzyme rennet which is probably what Job used because obviously that's what he had. He had cows to get the milk and he would use the stomach lining of those calves to get this enzyme and this enzyme rennet it's multiplied, it's produced in bulk now in our day and they still use this rennet enzyme in many of our cheeses.

You see there are certain cheeses that lemon juice or vinegar are better for. It produces a different texture but the majority of cheeses that we use that would melt or be meltable they're used with this enzyme and what happens here is that literally by this enzyme as it hits that milk and it begins to separate it is what literally and I didn't come up with this, it denatures the protein in milk. It changes the very nature of that milk.

Interesting. You see curds are then formed from this enzyme rennet and it makes them have a gel-like consistency and I'm telling you exactly what National Cheesemakers Society tells you has to happen. Allowing them to be stretched and molded. See, nothing wrong with milk. Milk has its purpose. And God had a very high opinion of Job but God saw something that could be even more usable in Job. God began to stretch and as these cheeses are stretched and molded these curds it makes them into cheeses that melt good like mozzarella cheeses made like this stretching.

Last in the process is the process of sitting. Now all this stuff is hard when you apply it to your life and Job said God you've done this, you've shocked my life, you've separated literally my life and you've gone through all these stages, you've brought the heat, you've scalded my life and you're stretching me and molding me but see when this process is done for cheese it'll sit and age and the longer cheese ages the stronger it becomes. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you in the next one, God bless you, God bless you.