Higher Ground

Broken But Still Blessed

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. E.C. Polite

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Series Code: HG

Program Code: HG000017


00:36 Simple as this...
00:37 Take my life
00:41 Lord, will You take my life?
00:46 As I surrender
00:50 To Your will
00:57 I confess
01:00 You are my righteousness
01:05 And until You move,
01:08 I'll be still
01:15 And know
01:17 That You
01:20 Are God
01:25 You hold my world in Your hands
01:29 You hold my world in Your hands
01:34 And I am amazed at Your love
01:39 I am amazed that You love me
01:43 You hold my world in Your hands
01:48 You hold my world in Your hands
01:52 And I'm not afraid
01:56 My world is safe In Your hands
01:59 Oh
02:02 In Your hands
02:10 We're gonna say take my life, will you take.
02:12 Take my life
02:16 Lord, will You take my life?
02:21 You are the reason
02:24 That I live
02:32 I believe
02:34 That You have forgiven me
02:39 And by Your grace I will
02:44 Forgive
02:49 And know
02:52 That You are God
02:59 And know
03:00 That You
03:02 Are God
03:08 You hold my world in Your hands
03:13 You hold my world in Your hands
03:17 And I am amazed at Your love
03:23 I am amazed that You love me
03:27 You hold my world in Your hands
03:32 You hold my world in Your hands
03:36 And I'm not afraid
03:39 My world is safe in your hands
03:42 Oh
03:45 In Your hands
03:56 You won't let go of me
04:01 You won't let go of me
04:04 Anybody know that
04:06 He won't let go of you
04:10 You won't let, never let go
04:15 You won't let go of me
04:20 You won't let go of me
04:24 You won't let go of me
04:29 You won't let go, never let go
04:34 You won't let go of me
04:38 You won't let go of me
04:43 You won't let go of me
04:47 You won't let go, never let go
04:53 You won't let go of me
04:57 You won't let go of me
05:01 No matter what I've done Lord
05:03 You won't let go of me
05:07 You won't let go, never let go
05:12 You won't let go of me
05:16 You won't let go of me
05:21 You won't let go of me
05:25 You won't let go, never let go
05:31 Say won't let go
05:36 Won't let go
05:41 Won't let go
05:43 Won't let go
06:06 There is a sound
06:10 That is pleasing to His ear
06:15 The sound of praises
06:19 Lifted into the atmosphere
06:24 Every time you lift your voice
06:29 You need to know
06:33 Jesus loves to hear the sound
06:38 Of praise
06:43 Jesus loves to hear the sound
06:47 Of praise
06:54 There is a sound
06:58 That is pleasing to His ear
07:03 The sound of praises
07:06 Lifted into the atmosphere
07:12 Every time you lift your voice
07:17 You need to know
07:21 Jesus loves to hear the sound
07:25 Of praise
07:30 Jesus loves to hear the sound
07:35 Of praise
07:40 A sweet symphony
07:45 A heart's melody
07:50 A song of praise to hear
07:55 Is music to His ear
07:58 Jesus loves to hear the sound
08:03 Of praise
08:08 Jesus loves to hear the sound
08:13 Of praise
08:18 A sweet symphony
08:23 A heart's melody
08:28 A song of praise to hear
08:33 Is music to His ear
08:36 Jesus loves to hear the sound
08:41 Of praise
08:46 Jesus loves to hear the sound
08:50 Of praise
08:55 Hallelujah
08:58 The sound
09:02 He loves to hear
09:05 Hallelujah
09:08 The sound
09:11 He loves to hear
09:14 Hallelujah
09:17 The sound
09:21 He loves to hear
09:23 Hallelujah
09:27 The sound
09:30 He loves to hear
09:32 Hallelujah
09:36 The sound
09:39 He loves to hear
09:42 Hallelujah
09:45 The sound
09:48 He loves to hear
09:51 Hallelujah
09:54 The sound
09:57 He loves to hear
10:00 Hallelujah
10:03 The sound
10:06 He loves to hear
10:09 Hallelujah
10:12 The sound
10:15 He loves to hear
10:18 Hallelujah
10:21 The sound
10:24 He loves to hear
10:27 Lord, You're worthy
10:30 The sound
10:33 He loves to hear
10:36 Lord, You're worthy
10:39 The sound
10:42 He loves to hear
10:45 Jesus loves to hear
10:48 The sound of praise
10:55 Jesus loves to hear
10:57 The sound of praise
11:03 Jesus loves to hear the sound
11:13 Jesus loves to hear the sound
11:22 Jesus loves to hear
11:31 Jesus loves to hear
11:40 Jesus loves to hear Hallelujah
11:48 Jesus loves to hear
11:53 I adore You
11:57 Jesus loves to hear
12:01 Lord, You're worthy
12:06 Jesus loves to hear
12:10 the praise Lord, You're worthy
12:15 Jesus loves to hear the sound of praise
12:23 Jesus loves to hear the sound of praise
12:32 Jesus loves to hear the sound of praise
12:45 I want to direct your attention
12:47 to the Book of Job...
12:52 Job, the 23rd division, Job 23...
13:03 and I want to begin with verse 8.
13:08 Job, the 23rd division beginning with verse 8...
13:16 trusting that you haven't there,
13:18 you'll find these words recorded.
13:23 "Behold, I go forward,
13:26 but he is not there, and backward,
13:31 but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand,
13:36 where he doth work, but I cannot behold him:
13:42 he hideth himself on the right hand,
13:45 that I cannot see him..."
13:49 What's the next word?
13:52 "But he knoweth the way that I take:
13:56 when he hath tried me,
14:00 I shall come forth as gold."
14:05 I thought today, we would lift up the thought.
14:09 Broken, but still blessed.
14:14 Broken, but still blessed.
14:21 Imagine her incredulity,
14:24 as he walked home in the darkness
14:26 of a familiar alleyway,
14:29 only to be accosted by a gang of boys.
14:35 She had just prayed to God to give her an evening job,
14:39 so that her boy could be sent to college.
14:43 And now look at here,
14:46 what added insult to the injury,
14:49 was that when the last boy who came to assault her,
14:54 looked into her face,
14:55 she looked into the eyes of her own son.
15:03 Imagine her inconsolable grief.
15:12 She had prayed and asked God
15:14 to watch over her four children,
15:17 as she went out on a rare Friday evening party.
15:23 She was a good mother, she always stayed in home,
15:25 but this time, she felt like,
15:27 she wanted to do something different only to return home
15:31 and find her children still sleeping,
15:34 but shot and burned beyond recognition.
15:38 Her home had caught on fire, while she was out partying.
15:44 Imagine his disillusionment.
15:49 He had done the impossible and kept himself chaste
15:53 until the day of his marriage.
15:56 And now he's coming home from work,
15:59 and he finds his bride sitting
16:03 in a chair covered in a torrent of tears.
16:09 She had just come from the doctor
16:11 and discovered that she was HIV positive.
16:17 And yet he had waited all his life for her.
16:26 How do you reconcile yourself to experiences like this?
16:33 When you believe that God is in your corner,
16:37 when in fact it seems He's somewhere else.
16:40 Let me clear up something for you this morning.
16:43 Perhaps one of the greatest misnomers
16:46 in the Christian mind,
16:48 is the fact that when you become a Christian,
16:50 things get better.
16:54 Faith don't get better beloved.
16:57 In fact, if you're going to be a real Christian,
16:59 things are gonna get worse.
17:04 I want to expand a little further
17:07 on a subject that I broached
17:09 on this past Wednesday night.
17:10 A subject that is steeped in complexity
17:17 and drape in mystery.
17:18 It's a subject that I believe that unless we understand
17:25 what's going on with this
17:26 whole idea of the breaking process,
17:29 we might find ourselves eternally lost.
17:34 And so today, I want to look at the prospect, the process,
17:41 and the promise of the breaking process.
17:47 Let's go to Job 1:1, Job 1:1,
17:53 as we use Job as our official tour guide
17:59 in this journey called pain,
18:02 Job 1:1,
18:08 notice what the word of God says here,
18:11 there was a man in the land of Oz,
18:13 whose name was what?
18:15 And that man was what everybody, what else?
18:19 One that did what, and what else?
18:22 All ready, we got a peerless patriot right here.
18:26 We can preach a sermon just from Job 1:1.
18:30 There are four words that I just want to lift up for you.
18:32 The first one, what you think it is?
18:35 He was perfect.
18:36 He was perfect.
18:38 In the Hebrew it's 'tam', it means, he was complete,
18:42 completed together.
18:44 How can he be completed together?
18:46 We are talking about one person.
18:51 It's because you can never be perfect all by yourself.
18:55 If you're going to be perfect,
18:57 you have to be connected with somebody.
19:00 You got to be connected not with just anybody,
19:03 but with somebody who's perfect by themselves.
19:08 And so the Bible says, he was perfect.
19:11 What's the second word?
19:13 He was upright, upright, 'yashar', that translates,
19:19 he was straight.
19:25 That's important to know in a day like today, isn't it?
19:29 Oh, yeah, he wasn't some sort of closet Christian.
19:36 I remember when I was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
19:40 I just been assigned to that installation,
19:43 and I made it my business as a chaplain to go through
19:46 the personal rows,
19:48 and I wanted to discover who had placed
19:52 on their registration card
19:54 that they were Seventh-day Adventist.
19:56 And when I went to visit one of the manager's office,
19:59 and let him know, I was starting a Seventh-day
20:01 Adventist church in the community,
20:04 and wanted to know if he would come,
20:06 and be a part of this charter group.
20:08 He conceited and then I asked him a question,
20:11 "Do you happen to know who so and so is?"
20:14 And he looked at the name and started laughing.
20:19 Now, my name is Eddie Polite, not Murphy.
20:25 Why are you laughing?
20:28 The office was set up so that two desks face each other,
20:32 and the person on the opposite side
20:34 was the other Seventh-day Adventist
20:36 and neither one of them knew about it.
20:39 They were there working every day,
20:42 sitting on their faith,
20:46 not sharing it with anybody, but Job was straight.
20:52 He wasn't lukewarm, he wasn't nailed to sin.
20:56 You can tell what kind of person Job was.
21:00 And so the Bible says, he was upright.
21:03 What else was he?
21:05 He feared God, 'yare'.
21:09 He was reverent.
21:11 He respected God.
21:14 He held him in high esteem.
21:16 And what's the last word there?
21:18 He eschewed evil.
21:22 And you need to get this one.
21:24 In the Hebrew that word eschew translates sohar.
21:28 Sohar translates beheaded, beheaded.
21:34 What do you mean Job was beheaded.
21:39 It wasn't that Job was beheaded.
21:40 Perhaps if I share this Japanese legend with you,
21:43 you might understand little bit better.
21:45 I'm told there were two ninja warriors,
21:48 who came face to face with one another.
21:50 And as they stealthily moved about each other,
21:54 one of them pulled out his sword,
21:56 swung it and put it back in its holster,
22:00 while still moving around.
22:02 And the other ninja warrior was still moving around,
22:06 stealthily himself, and he replied,
22:09 responded to the man who had just swung his sword.
22:11 He said, "I'm gonna kill you."
22:13 he said, "No, you're not."
22:15 He said, "I'm gonna kill you."
22:16 He said, "No, you're not."
22:19 "Yes I am."
22:20 He said, "No, you're not.
22:22 Because I already cut your head off, shake your head."
22:28 Shook his head and it fell to the ground.
22:32 Chuuk was the kind of men that when the devil said,
22:35 "you're evil."
22:36 He said, "No, no, no...
22:38 I'm not."
22:39 "I'm gonna overcome you."
22:41 "No, you're not" "I'm gonna kick you to the floor."
22:43 "No, you not, shake your head devil."
22:46 "I've made it my point to beheaded,
22:50 every time evil gets in my way."
22:53 "Shake your head."
22:56 It sounds to me like
22:58 Job is already a pretty good Christian.
23:01 So then, why would he need to be broken?
23:06 Think about it for a moment.
23:08 Part of our problem, beloved,
23:10 is that we see ourselves one way,
23:13 while God sees us in other way.
23:15 When we look at ourselves,
23:17 we don't look too bad to ourselves.
23:19 But if we could ever see ourselves
23:21 to the living from God's law,
23:23 we would see how wretched, and defile,
23:27 and putrid and indeed unimpressed we really are.
23:31 If we can just pull our God's eyeglasses and look at us.
23:36 We would see a completely different individual.
23:40 We think we're fine
23:41 and God says you need to be refined.
23:45 We believe, we're ready for translation,
23:47 and God says, you're ready for self application.
23:51 I think sometimes,
23:53 because we memorize large passages of the word,
23:57 and read all the red books.
24:00 And we eat a vegan diet, and drink a whole lot of water,
24:04 and put our kids to swatch,
24:07 and because we have our ministry in the church,
24:10 and we give a few Bible studies,
24:12 and folk I've been won to the Lord.
24:15 We believe that now,
24:17 we must be a right with God for getting that fact
24:21 that Matthew screams out in Matthew 7.
24:24 Depart from me ye that work iniquity,
24:27 I never knew you.
24:35 The biggest reason,
24:38 the biggest reason, why Job, you and me,
24:44 why we need a breaking process is found in Jeremiah,
24:49 Jeremiah 17th chapter, turn there with me.
24:52 Keep your finger on Job, go to Jeremiah,
24:54 the 17th chapter.
24:56 Jeremiah 17.
24:58 And I want you to look at verses 9 and 10 with me.
25:02 "The heart is deceitful above all things..."
25:07 And what else is it?
25:09 Desperately, not just wicked,
25:14 but it's an emphatic intensive,
25:18 desperately wicked, "Who can know it?"
25:23 "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins,
25:28 even to give every man according to his ways,
25:31 and according to the fruit of his doings.
25:34 Maybe we don't understand what's going on with us,
25:37 but God certainly understands what's going on with us.
25:41 Look here, somewhere within us,
25:45 is a dioxide ribonucleic acidic threat.
25:55 It's moving and stitched
25:58 throughout our myotonic composition.
26:03 And so what lead us to well stop,
26:05 we don't even know about.
26:08 We become the subtotal of all of the ancestors
26:11 who have lippy for us,
26:12 so then, if you're gonna lie in the family, guess what?
26:18 If you're gonna profligate in the family, guess what?
26:23 If you got a thief in the family, guess what?
26:28 If you've caught somebody
26:29 who's acquainted in the family, guess what?
26:33 All of the genetic material that make in who they are,
26:38 now take residence in you and me.
26:46 And so, because we don't know everybody before us,
26:48 you don't know everything that's in us.
26:52 If you knew all your family, may be you would be
26:54 a little more aware of what you're capable of.
26:56 But since you don't know everybody,
26:58 since I don't know everybody,
26:59 we can't be aware of everything that we...
27:03 You ever done something and it surprised you?
27:10 Maybe you did, or maybe you weren't surprised.
27:14 Maybe you expected to do it.
27:17 But that petty things, things
27:22 that we have involved ourselves in,
27:25 that should have made
27:26 our own half stand uh just because we did it.
27:30 Here's the big point.
27:32 Here' the big point about the prospect.
27:34 When we follow Christ,
27:38 we give him permission
27:41 to place us in the breaking process.
27:47 We'll say that again.
27:48 When we follow Christ,
27:50 we give Him permission to break us.
27:59 What do you mean, pastor, we give Him permission?
28:02 Do you not recall what 1 Peter 4:12-14 says,
28:07 think it not strange concerning
28:08 the fiery trial which is to try you,
28:10 as though some strange thing happened.
28:12 Rejoice and be exceeding that, because
28:15 we are partakers of Christ own suffering.
28:17 Have you forgotten what the words
28:18 of the 2 Timothy 3:12 said,
28:20 "Yea, and all that shall live in Christ Jesus
28:22 shall suffer persecution. "
28:25 Have you forgotten what Matthew 10:38 says, that,
28:28 "If you're gonna follow me, you got to take up your cross."
28:31 You can't follow me walking in a high heel shoes.
28:39 It's an arduous journey.
28:43 I can remember walking down the road,
28:45 sometime I'm getting a rock in my shoe,
28:49 and not being able to get that little pebble out,
28:52 that's the kind of charity we're on.
28:54 Think about how it is to walk with a rock in your shoe
28:58 and you'll understand better
28:59 how the journey is for the believer.
29:05 Now let me just say this.
29:08 If you're really not ready...
29:14 to be a follower of Christ
29:19 then don't accept Him,
29:21 because the moment you'll accept him,
29:24 He's gonna start the process.
29:26 He's going to start the breaking process,
29:29 because your acceptance of Him
29:31 becomes His permission to start.
29:36 So if you're not ready, don't accept Him.
29:40 Leave Him alone.
29:42 Now, we just hope He is there when you're ready,
29:45 'cause tomorrow is not promised,
29:47 but God takes this thing seriously.
29:51 I want to look at the process. Go back there to Job 1, Job 1.
29:56 Go back there to Job 1,
29:58 I want to look at the process now.
30:00 Pastor got me stirred now.
30:01 I need to look at the process, see what's going on here.
30:05 Job 1:8, "And the Lord said unto Satan,
30:08 Hast thou considered my servant Job,
30:10 that there is none like him in the earth,
30:12 a perfect and an upright man,
30:13 one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
30:15 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,
30:17 Doth Job fear God for nought?
30:19 Hast not thou made an hedge about him,
30:21 and about his house,
30:22 and about all that he hath on every side?
30:24 thou hast blessed the work of his hands,
30:26 and the substance is increased in the land.
30:29 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath,
30:34 and he will do what, curse thee thou,
30:37 to thy face and the Lord said unto Satan,
30:40 Behold, all that he hath is in thy power,
30:44 only upon himself put not forth thine hand.
30:47 So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord".
30:52 I'm getting to background here.
30:54 You notice there in verse 6,
30:56 there was a day when the sons of God
30:58 came before God.
31:01 There's a little meeting,
31:03 a family meeting, of the sons of God.
31:07 And Satan shows up.
31:11 Now remember this is after he's been pull out.
31:15 And he's been cast out to the earth.
31:18 But he shows up to this meeting as the ambassador of earth.
31:24 I represent earth,
31:28 and the God has to get him straight the said,
31:33 when did I invite you?
31:40 Where you been, walking to and falter out.
31:43 It says the earth but it really says
31:45 in the Hebrew my earth.
31:49 Walking up and down my earth, and here is what the Lord says,
31:54 "Oh, yeah, have you consider?"
31:58 My servant Job, he acts like my representative.
32:04 He acts like my son.
32:07 If anybody ought of be here, he ought to be here.
32:11 And Satan takes umbrage with God,
32:13 because he has thrown him, and here's what Lucifer say,
32:19 seem to say us, you know, the only reason
32:21 why Job is serving you at all is because you blessed him
32:27 and you put a hedge about him,
32:28 but if you take everything away and remove your hedge,
32:32 he will curse you.
32:35 And God gives the devil the permission.
32:40 What did I say?
32:42 The permission to touch his possessions.
32:50 The Bible goes on to say in one day
32:54 he loses 7,000 sheep,
32:57 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen,
33:01 and 500 donkeys, he lose his seven sons,
33:06 and three daughters all in the same day.
33:13 you can imagine the grief that would come
33:15 if he just lost one child, but 10 children?
33:21 A man's fame,
33:23 his celebrity was measured by his possessions,
33:27 he lost all his wealth in one day.
33:33 I guess I am more fascinated with his response to that.
33:37 The Chapter 1:20, "Then Job arose,
33:41 and rent his mantel, shaved his head,
33:45 fell down upon the ground and did what?
33:48 Worshiped.
33:49 And said "Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
33:54 and naked shall I return there, for Lord gave,
33:58 and the Lord has taken away,
34:00 Blessed be the name of the Lord. "
34:08 Now you know if that was me...
34:15 I wouldn't be saying blessed being nothing.
34:24 The pre-ministry days would come out...
34:30 and I would describe God in very cloud up
34:32 very flowery and picturesque language,
34:37 that would be very flattering,
34:40 because of my own internal pain.
34:45 The reason we don't respond like
34:47 Job did, is because of this.
34:49 When we look at the stuff that we have,
34:52 we say this is my house, this is my car,
34:57 this is my money, this is my job,
35:01 these are my children, this is my husband,
35:05 this is my wife and so we take ownership
35:09 for every thing we had
35:11 as if we got it hold by ourselves
35:14 but Job recognize, I came here with nothing
35:18 and if he takes away everything,
35:20 I am not living here with nothing
35:22 because I didn't bring in here myself,
35:25 he gave it to me in the first place.
35:27 If he wants it back, He can have it back
35:30 because it belongs to Him in the first place.
35:39 We got to get to the place, well we understand
35:42 where all our blessings come from.
35:47 It is God who had given me the powers to get wealth.
35:52 And the reason they become so dramatic for us,
35:57 is because we think of what we did together.
36:01 All the hours we slaved,
36:04 all the jobs we worked to get this
36:09 and that only to have it gone in a moment.
36:18 Let's not get it twisted.
36:23 If that wasn't enough, look at Job 2:3-6,
36:27 Satan comes back again,
36:29 they have another meeting of the sons of God.
36:31 He shows up again and he says "Skin for skin!
36:37 Yea, all that a man has will he give for his life,
36:41 but put forth mine hand now,
36:43 touch his bone and his flesh and you do what
36:47 cursed thee to thy face!"
36:48 And the Lord said unto Satan, "Behold, he is in thine hands,
36:53 but do what?
36:55 Save his life."
36:57 If that wasn't enough verse 10 says, verse 9 says,
37:02 "Then said his wife unto him,
37:06 "Dost thou still retain thine integrity?
37:09 curse God, and die!''
37:12 ''Now even though the brother is hurting, in pain,
37:16 he still got to keep her in check.
37:21 And so verse 10, he said to her "Thou speakest
37:24 as one of the foolish women speaketh.
37:27 What?
37:28 Shall we receive good at the hand of God,
37:31 and shall we not receive evil?
37:33 In all this did not Job sin with his lips."
37:39 Isn't it easy for us to thank God and praise God
37:43 when things are going well.
37:48 Let a little calamity,
37:50 walk in the room,
37:53 things change.
37:55 I heard once
37:58 that we can judge a person's character
38:00 not in the times of prosperity, but the time of adversity.
38:05 That's when we really see what somebody is made of.
38:07 If that wasn't enough verses 11-13, says
38:11 his friends showed up,
38:15 they came over, sat with him for seven days
38:18 and seven nights.
38:21 It was customary, It was customary
38:23 when someone was going through deep guilt
38:26 for your friends to come and support you
38:29 and they couldn't say anything until you spoke first.
38:34 And so Job had gone through so much calamity
38:38 that it took him about week before he could talk.
38:42 And so verse 1 in chapter 3 says,
38:44 and then Job open his mouth and he does what?
38:48 Curses the day he was born.
38:50 You know, we love to quote Job,
38:53 when things are going wrong.
38:56 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,
39:03 skin worms destroy this body,
39:06 yet in my flesh shall I see the Lord.
39:08 The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away
39:12 but we forget about the fact
39:14 that Job was a human being just like you and I.
39:19 He had no strength,
39:21 this is not fun, this is not pleasant,
39:24 this is painful and I don't had anything to say
39:29 at this moment except I wished I had never been born.
39:32 Ever anybody ever felt like that?
39:35 You wished you have never been born.
39:40 If you haven't, there will come an experience
39:42 when you're going to get there.
39:45 Because the breaking process is for anyone,
39:48 who has decided to follow Christ.
39:50 If that wasn't enough, when his friends finally spoke,
39:53 look at chapter 4:8, his friend Eliphaz says,
39:57 my experience shows me that those who plant trouble
40:01 and cultivate evil, will harvest the same,
40:04 that's what his friend told.
40:06 In chapter 8:3 and 4, his friend Bildad says,
40:10 does the almighty twists what is right,
40:12 your children obviously sinned against him
40:15 so their punishment was well deserved.
40:18 This is the man who just lost 10 kids,
40:21 and this is his best friend talking to him,
40:22 supposingly consoling him.
40:28 Look at his friend Zophar, chapter 11:6,
40:31 God is doubtless punishing you far less, than you deserve.
40:40 With friends like this.
40:45 If you know anybody like this, keep them away from me,
40:51 just keep them away.
40:56 They did better by just being quiet.
41:00 If you don't know what to say, don't say anything at all.
41:05 But notice the progression of Job's calamities,
41:08 Job's trail, Job's breaking process.
41:12 First of all, first of all, they took his possession,
41:15 they took his family, they took his health,
41:18 they took his wife's support, hey took his friend's support,
41:22 what does he have left?
41:28 There is only one thing left, that's God.
41:34 That is the objective of the breaking process,
41:38 to strip you of everything you hold dear,
41:42 everything you depend on,
41:45 until you get to the place where you got nothing left
41:49 but God.
41:52 If when you reach that point,
41:55 then God can really do something for you.
41:59 You need to understand, when we follow Christ,
42:02 we give Him permission to choose
42:05 how He's going to break us.
42:09 Tell me what I just said.
42:12 When we follow Christ,
42:13 we give Him permission to do what?
42:16 Choose how He's going to break us.
42:20 We can't, we can't determine for God
42:23 how to handle us,
42:25 because we can't see what's in us.
42:29 And so we would let ourselves off easily.
42:33 And wild up missing something that needs to come out of us,
42:38 and so we got to trust Him
42:40 enough to turn everything over to Him.
42:45 Breaking is not pleasant, it's painful,
42:48 yet it's necessary in order to save us.
42:51 Sometimes we see the breaking process as a punishment.
42:58 How many times?
43:00 How many times have we been
43:03 in the midnight of circumstances?
43:06 And we believe we're there, because we did something wrong.
43:12 And we forget that
43:13 what's really going on is God is bragging on us.
43:17 Have you considered my servant?
43:22 Have we not considered that there is a big difference
43:26 between punishment and chastisement?
43:31 Look here, look here in Hebrews,
43:32 I want you to see something here in Hebrews,
43:35 Hebrews 12:6.
43:37 Go there with me quickly, Hebrews 12:6.
43:43 Trying to help my folk today,
43:46 Hebrews 12: 6.
43:52 Notice what the word of God says here,
43:55 "For whom the Lord loveth, he does what?
44:00 Chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receives."
44:12 I love Donna.
44:15 Yeah, I'm going somewhere already, don't you?
44:17 I love Donna and I watch her as she raised our children.
44:27 Donna had an approach to chastising our children,
44:31 that was little different from mine.
44:36 When the children did something wrong,
44:38 Donna would bring them in and sit down with them,
44:41 and explain Jesus is not pleased.
44:47 You hurt His heart.
44:53 He is wounded by your behavior.
44:58 And so I have no choice, but to spank you.
45:06 Because you're not living the way
45:07 the Lord would have you to.
45:12 I'll be in the next room, listening to this.
45:19 Thinking to myself, why don't you beat them.
45:25 That's just gonna antagonize the children,
45:28 beat them.
45:30 Don't give them a sermon first, that's gonna make them angry.
45:38 And so when it came my turn to deal with them,
45:42 I saw something different
45:43 after Donna had dealt with them,
45:45 they coming all back to her, not more than a hour later,
45:48 hugging her neck to, mommy, I love you,
45:51 I really love you, I whip them
45:54 and they don't talk to me the rest of the day...
46:01 because I took the shortcut.
46:05 I didn't prolong on their misery.
46:07 I didn't give my sermon and let them know
46:09 they were about to get spanked.
46:11 I got to it.
46:13 And they shunned me, but they loved her.
46:20 Whom the Lord loveth, He chastises.
46:23 I recognize now,
46:25 that they translated my form of discipline
46:28 as punishment and hers as chastisement.
46:34 See, punishment flows out of wrath,
46:37 but chastisement flows out of love.
46:41 There is a difference between the two.
46:43 God's method of disciplining us is when we try to go one way,
46:50 and he pushes us back in place.
46:53 That's disciplining us.
46:57 And they got that, that's how God deals with that,
47:01 that's why we got to get
47:02 a proper prospective of who God is.
47:06 1 Corinthians 10:13 says,
47:08 He won't put more on us than we can bear.
47:15 We got to trust Him with that.
47:17 I shared with the folk on Wednesday night,
47:19 that the reason why God has the right,
47:23 He has the right to discipline us
47:26 is because He's sovereign.
47:29 What does sovereign mean?
47:31 He has the right to rule, and to do what's best for me.
47:36 There are two dimensions of His sovereignty.
47:39 The first one is existential.
47:41 It's found in Exodus 20:11.
47:44 Six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
47:47 the sea, and all that in it, but the...
47:52 is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
47:55 He is the creator. He is the creator.
48:00 That's His existential role. He has the right.
48:04 He has the right to chastise us any way He chooses.
48:12 The other one is experiential.
48:13 For God so loved the world,
48:15 John 3:16, that He gave his only begotten Son.
48:20 He is also our redeemer. He is our creator,
48:25 and our redeemer, and so He has the right because
48:28 we're doubling his to put us in a breaking process
48:34 that will do its best
48:35 to get us save in our scripture reading today.
48:39 Job said in Job 23, he says,
48:41 He knows the way that I take and when I shall come forth,
48:45 I'll come forth how? As gold.
48:49 As gold, in Job's days there was a kind of gold
48:53 that was very valuable, it came from the city of Ophir.
48:57 And the Ophir goldsmiths were known
49:00 because of their process for gold's melting.
49:02 What they would do
49:04 is in order to get the impurities
49:06 out of the gold ore, they would,
49:08 first of all put it on low heat.
49:12 And skim off some of the surface impurities.
49:16 Then they would turn it up little more,
49:18 and then they get the next level of impurities.
49:22 And they were pulling after the hardcore stuff,
49:25 they would turn it up to the highest temperature possible
49:28 and then take all the dross out of it,
49:30 so that they came up with pure gold.
49:33 And when the gold was cool, they would take a hammer
49:37 and they would beat plates of gold
49:40 so thinly that they could be see they can see
49:43 their own image in the gold plates.
49:48 It was their desire
49:51 to make sure that the gold was so pure
49:54 that when they looked in it,
49:55 they can see a pure image of themselves.
50:00 And so Job says, he knows the way that I take it
50:03 that when he strike me out come forth as pure gold.
50:07 He understood that he wasn't want to take
50:10 the best things out of him all at once,
50:13 he was going to deal with him gradually,
50:15 as he was able and when the process was over,
50:19 he wanted to be able to see the reflection of Christ
50:24 in the gold.
50:25 I want to look at this last part of promise,
50:28 Job 42, Job 42.
50:33 Let's look at this last part, Job 42.
50:40 I want to consider verses 10-12, Job 42:10-12.
50:49 I am fascinated by the life of Job,
50:53 because it challenges me as a Christian.
50:58 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job,
51:00 when he prayed for his friends.
51:02 Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
51:06 "Then came there unto him all his brethren,
51:08 all his sisters, all they that had been
51:10 of his acquaintances before,
51:12 did eat bread with him in his house.
51:14 They bemoaned him, and comforted him over
51:16 all the evil that the Lord had brought unto him:
51:17 every man also gave him a piece of money,
51:20 and every one an earring of gold.
51:22 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job
51:25 more than his beginning:
51:29 for he had fourteen thousand sheep,
51:31 and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen
51:34 and a thousand she asses.
51:38 "It's my last and final point.
51:41 When we follow Christ,
51:43 we give Him permission to bless us better than
51:49 we were before.
51:54 We give Him permission to bless us better
51:58 than we were before.
51:59 Charles Stanley once said,
52:03 "Brokenness can be a path toward great blessing,
52:08 but only when we allow God
52:10 to do the breaking and the blessing."
52:14 Job's possession went up.
52:17 He even got a new family of 10 children
52:19 and guess what?
52:22 He got them with Mrs. Job.
52:27 Listen to me, even though
52:29 she wasn't there at his time of need,
52:33 even though she wouldn't standby him
52:35 when he needed the most comfortest support,
52:38 Job stayed there,
52:40 he didn't leave the relationship
52:42 when it got hacked.
52:48 It was because of his example that she was able to see
52:54 what God really needed in a man,
52:58 in a believer to stay though the heavens fall.
53:01 And it was because of his example that she did not
53:04 leave him.
53:05 Remember now, that there are some commentators
53:08 that summarize that when Job was on his back sick,
53:12 one of the reasons why it was so despicable and heinous
53:15 was because it was believed that
53:17 he had some sort of a neural disease,
53:20 and yet he was tell her how he had been with nobody.
53:24 I've only been with you.
53:28 And she stayed because beyond his sickness
53:34 she knew the life that he had earlier.
53:36 She knew, he had to be telling her the truth
53:39 and so his example kept her home,
53:41 they had ten more children.
53:45 They were five blessings, I am gonna end with this.
53:48 Five blessings that come to us.
53:50 Common musicians as a result of being broken.
53:52 The first one is this.
53:54 It's the blessing of understanding God better.
53:59 The blessing of understanding God better.
54:02 We get an opportunity to enter into His sufferings.
54:06 We get an opportunity to understand first hand
54:11 what God went through to try to save us.
54:14 See, He never asks us to do anything
54:16 that He has it already done Himself.
54:21 Come with me to the God, see Him on his knees,
54:25 broken by the conflict, sweating as it were
54:28 great drops of blood, see Him fall over,
54:32 watch his dribbling hands say,
54:33 father, if father would be willing,
54:36 remove this cup from me, until he comes
54:39 full circle with the word.
54:41 Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
54:47 We get the blessing of understanding
54:49 a little bit better.
54:51 What the breaking process is through His suffering.
54:54 Secondly, we get the blessing of greater faith.
54:59 The blessing of greater faith.
55:01 You got to understand something,
55:03 our understanding is limited.
55:05 At some point when we in the breaking process,
55:08 our understanding is going to run out.
55:11 And we're not going to be able to make sense out of anything
55:14 that's going on around us.
55:16 And it's in that moment in that synapse of time
55:20 when our understanding ends, that faith has to begin.
55:25 We got to trust Him even when we can't trace Him.
55:28 Even though we don't understand what He's doing to us,
55:32 we still need a believe that He's doing something for us.
55:35 For all things work together for good,
55:39 to them that love the Lord,
55:40 and are called according to his purpose.
55:42 The third blessing
55:44 we get is that of increase compassion.
55:47 Increase compassion.
55:50 Maybe now we'll be a little bit
55:51 more understanding of one another.
55:54 When we see our brother,
55:56 and we see our sister going through something,
55:59 instead of criticizing them, instead of talking about them,
56:03 instead of sharing gossip about them,
56:05 instead I'm looking down our noses at them.
56:08 Perhaps, will understand better what it is to walk
56:11 the walk like they are walking, to cry like they are crying.
56:15 It will help us to become more passionate
56:17 to our brothers and our sisters.
56:19 The fourth blessing is the blessing
56:21 of a more fulfilled life.
56:25 A more fulfilled life.
56:29 You think things are good now.
56:34 You got no idea I have not seen nor hear or heard.
56:39 Neither had entered into the heart of men,
56:42 the things that God has prepared for...
56:46 If you can describe to me what heaven is like,
56:50 I automatically know that that's not what it's like.
56:55 Because it can't enter into our human comprehension
57:00 what's really prepared for us. And finally,
57:05 there's the blessing of God's presence.
57:13 He's never gonna leave us.
57:16 He's never going to forsake us.


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Revised 2016-05-09