Job 7

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We just kind of poked at it a little bit last week at the end of our time, but we'll get started on it again.
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So Job chapter 7, and remember now, this is Job's opening response to Eliphaz, who has come as one of the three friends to comfort Job, although the comfort that they give is, as Job says, worthless, and the accusations are going to continue.
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And so Job is going to continue to battle with them as he battles with the things that are set before him.
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So Job chapter 7, he says this, Is there not a hard service for man on earth? Are not his days like the days of a hired man? Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages? So I have been allotted months of futility, and wearisome nights have been appointed to me.
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When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be ended? For I've had my fill of tossing till dawn, and my flesh is caked with worms and dust.
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My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.
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My days are swifter than a weave is shuttled, and are spent without hope.
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Oh, remember that my life is a breath.
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My eye will never see good again.
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The eye of him who sees me will see me no more.
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While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be, as the clouds disappear and vanish away.
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So he who goes down into the grave does not come up.
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He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him any more.
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Therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
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I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
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I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
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Am I a sea or a sea serpent that you should set a god over me? When I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint.
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You scare me with dreams, and you terrify me with visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body.
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I loathe my life.
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I would not live forever.
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Leave me alone for my days are but a breath.
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What is man that you should magnify him, that you should set your heart on him, that you should visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to you, oh watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target so that I am a burden to myself? Why then do you not pardon my transgression? Take away my iniquity, for now I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be." So there we have the words of Job, and then after this, now Bildad's going to come in, who's the second of the three friends that come to comfort him, and we'll see at that point what he has to say about Job's situation.
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So, we started to think about it last week and kind of really didn't get into the text itself, we just made some opening comments, so I want to try to go back and think about the verses that are laid before us.
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He says, is there not a hard time, a hard service for men on the earth, and not his days like the days of a hired man, and like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, like a hired man who earnestly looks for his wages.
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And so, I wanted to kind of open it up this way.
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One of the themes of the book, at least in my understanding, one of the themes of the book is that Job cannot seem to understand why the things that have come upon him have come upon him.
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Certainly his friends don't have a right understanding, although they think they do, they don't, and so as Job continues his response to Eliphaz, he speaks of this hard service, and I think I said it last week that I believe that Job was a Calvinist.
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He might not have spoke about the tulip, but nevertheless Job had some real good basic doctrinal understandings, and one of them is right there in the first two verses, in that Job understands that life is bound up, if you will, captured by hard service, and just to think about that, that you and I would realize that we have been, why is that so? So I'll do it that way, because I'd rather pose the question than just make a statement.
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Why is that true? Why is it so hard to live in this life? I'm not just talking about specific trials and tribulations, but in the general way, what drives that whole idea of hard service and how we find ourselves, if you will, continually fighting? Sir? We're falling.
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We're falling.
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Okay, absolutely.
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And that's why I say that Job has a very good understanding of that.
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He doesn't have, he's not misguided in the basic truths, and the reason why that's so important for us to think is this.
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If we don't understand that we live in a fallen world, we're really going to struggle with the things that we see.
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Agree or disagree? In other words, the world has a very hard time understanding the perplexities and the complexity of life, and one of the reasons why is they do not understand that we live under what? What does that fallen state bring us? Yeah, absolutely, right.
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And because we live under a curse, right? And so Job understands, if you will, I'm going to say Job understands what total depravity is.
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He understands that we are in a fallen state, and because we're in a fallen state, what does that bring us continually to deal with? Anybody? Sin.
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Yeah, it causes us to deal with sin, absolutely.
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And how about this? Would you agree with me that because, so let's do it this way, just to think about it, so I'll be, no, I'm not going to do it that way, try this one, no, I'm not going to do it that way.
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There's already 42 of them up here, too.
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Let's try these, because I want us to think about it, because again, if we get these things down in our mind, it'll help us.
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So as Greg said, we are in a fallen state, right? And therefore, what does that lead to? What? A curse.
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Agree? Good so far? Okay.
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And then that yields to what? What does that mean for us in our lives every day? Hard labor? How about if I were to put this, that the fruit of that is this, would I be right for that? What do we mean by that? That this plus this yields that.
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And that Job understands that he is in the middle of a battle, and I wanted to think about that a little bit, and I wanted to think about do we understand that we have no choice but to, if you will, fight death, that you and I really are in a battle, not necessarily a physical battle, but what? There you go, spiritual battle.
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And that the labor that's involved, as he says, is there not a hard service for man on the earth? Was there a battle in the Garden of Eden? Huh? Okay.
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Was there a battle before the fall? Huh? Okay.
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We got a no and a yes, which is what I always like, to get a no and a yes, because that means we got to dig a little further.
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So, was there a battle in the garden? Was there warfare in the gardens? Well, how about if we think of it this way, pre-post, pre-post the fall, was there a battle here? Before Adam fell, Adam and Eve fell? No.
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No.
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That was an affirmative no.
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Potential for one.
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There was a potential for one.
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But was there? Was there hard labor here? Right.
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So, even now, we've got to make sure we understand what we're talking about over time.
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So, really, yes-no is the right answer, but we have to have an understanding of it, because if you remember, he had all that he needed, right? He had perfect harmony.
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And the reason why he had perfect harmony was why? Because he had fellowship with God, right? So, even that, this needs to be divided and thought out, and now we no longer live here, do we? No.
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We live here.
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And this is, again, this has to be understood in that sense.
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And so, I wonder sometimes if we lose sight of it.
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And so, what I wanted to do was just take a couple of verses about this whole idea of warfare and ask us to think about it.
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And we'll get to it, but in Chapter 14, Job will say this.
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He says, If a man dies, shall he live again? In all the days of my hard service, I will wait.
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And, again, we must...
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And another question.
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Is this choice? Or we have no choice in this? This warfare that we have to fight.
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Is it something we can opt out? Is there anybody that can opt out of that? Why not? Okay.
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And because all come underneath Adam, right? As the descendants of Adam.
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And so, there's no way to opt out of this warfare.
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You and I must fight the battles that are set before us whether we want to or not.
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Brother? Well, I'd say there's less warfare if you're not a believer.
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That's an interesting statement.
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Should we agree with Barry or should we throw rocks at him? My wife's always telling me, don't keep talking about throwing rocks.
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But, is that true? Yes.
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Why is that true then? Okay.
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Gregory, you going to say something? He didn't have the cross.
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He had no concept of the cross.
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He had to believe God, but he had no concept of the cross.
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And we think, which is the word of God, the unsaved, the unbelievers, like you were saying, the unbelievers, they don't know anything, right? Yeah.
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But we put on our armor.
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We're in warfare as Christians.
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Put on your armor.
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So, there's an awareness, is what I think you said, Barry, that the unbelievers don't have.
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He doesn't realize that, number one, first of all, he's captive, which he doesn't believe.
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He thinks he's a free agent, he'll do whatever he pleases.
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And then what was also said, and I wanted to, let me ask you to think about this.
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In Proverbs 24, I'll read it to you.
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It says, a wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increases strength, and for by wise counsel you will wage your own war.
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And then it says, and in the multitude of counsels there is safety.
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So, here's what I wanted to bring out of that verse.
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It says, by wise counsel you will wage your own war.
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So, this warfare is, well, let me ask you, would you agree that this is individual something? Thank you, sister.
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Always got to check with the English teacher.
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So, you would agree that you and I, what it says is that we have to wage our own warfare.
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Is there another aspect, would we be right to say that this warfare is also, would that be fair? And that would be true because we live in a world that is, has, I don't want to say opposing, because that almost makes it sound like God's fighting against another enemy, and that's not, God doesn't, God is always victorious.
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But, nevertheless, I think we sometimes think about this part, we say, well, the Christians are being persecuted all over the world, and those things we seem to have a good understanding of, but how about this? Do we realize that each one of us are fighting a warfare, and it's not something that can be handled with, and as was brought up, you can't handle it with any old kind of weapon.
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These weapons that we need in this warfare, and Job is fighting, you see, Job is fighting a number of battles, isn't he? He's fighting the internal battles that are waging, right? But he's also fighting outward battles, because he's being told by his friends that he's sowed and now he's reaping.
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There's got to be some hidden sin, Job, there's got to be something that we don't know about, and therefore God is judging you.
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But you and I have to realize, and by the way, in that scripture that I read you where it says, by wise counsel you will wage your own war, that word wage is a verb.
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What is a verb? Action, absolutely.
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So, we have to be aware and ready to act against the battle that is being waged, and it's being waged by what? Principalities, agree? Powers, things that are visible and things that are invisible.
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Paul told Timothy that, he said this, he said, this charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage a good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, and again, that word there is a verb.
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So what is Paul telling Timothy? He's telling Timothy, Timothy, if you're going to fight this battle from a corporate, if you're going to fight it from a corporate standpoint, in other words, the things of this world, you first have to, if you don't, if we're not focused here, friends, we're never going to be able to deal here.
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So, let me ask us to think about a scripture.
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And we'll get through the chapter this morning, I think, but I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 10 a minute.
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Let's look at this verse.
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Familiar, I hope, to all of us, but sometimes the things that are most familiar to us are the things sometimes that we neglect.
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So, look at this verse, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, what he says.
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For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
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For the weapons, and this is what I think Greg was alluding to, right? The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
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But don't stop there.
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He says, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
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And look what to me, what he now says is the end game.
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He says, we don't fight against the flesh, but we are to cast down imagination, arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
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And here it is, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
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In other words, how are we doing, friends, with that battle? And if we recognize the battle, do we recognize the goal in that battle? And to me, the goal of the battle is to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
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To bring every situation of my life and every thought of my life into line with the word of God and into line with the Lord Jesus.
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Now, does anybody want to publicly lie and say that they have accomplished that? No.
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We struggle.
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Listen.
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This warfare is immense, isn't it? There's warfare that goes on externally, but I really wanted to just focus a minute on the warfare that goes on internally, in our minds, in our thoughts.
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And our thoughts will do what? They'll result in action, right? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
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So, where are we in that understanding that we, because of the fall, redeemed, amen? Praise God.
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But at the same time, the battle is not over.
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Is the battle won? Yes or no? Maybe so.
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Which one? Yes.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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It's won if you believe in the cross.
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And we understand that it's finished, right? The greatest three words to me in all the Bible, it is finished.
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But at the same time, does that exempt us from the warfare? No.
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See, that's the thought.
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The thought is the battle is victorious in Christ.
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But that doesn't mean that the battle doesn't need to be fought, right? The battle has to be fought day by day.
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In other words, God is with us in the warfare.
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So you and I have to ask ourselves, where are we in that warfare? And as we look at what Job is saying in chapter 7, he realizes, I think he realizes, does he have New Testament understanding? No.
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It's not possible for him to have New Testament understanding, is it? No, because the Spirit has not yet come as Jesus said in John 7.
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And when the Spirit comes, he'll bring all things into remembrance.
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Although they have the Spirit of God in them in the Old Testament because there's no other way to have life but by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God.
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But that's a different subject for a different time.
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So I wanted to bring that out because I wanted us to really think about where we are day by day.
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In other words, if we get up this morning and say, man, I gotta fight the battle today.
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And that battle is, I don't know, that battle is full of, how's that? Agreed? Does anybody not have to battle with the words they use every day? No? Does anybody have not to battle with the actions that they take every day? Does anybody have to not battle with lust every day? I mean, I could use about 42 whiteboards if we want and just keep going around.
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Just think about it.
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When you get up in the morning and I get up in the morning, as was said about putting on the armor of God, we've got to realize if you're in the middle of a battle, you can't just say time out.
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Right? That would be a career-ending move in that sense.
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So, as we go through our lives, do we really realize that the battle is being waged against us and that we have to wage that warfare? And again, it could be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the mind, and the pride of life.
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We could delineate it down even further to, like I said, words, actions, lust.
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How about this one? Motives.
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Why we do what we do, why we won't do what we do.
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What's behind it? What's driving us into this, that, and the other thing? Yeah, and certainly this is something that goes on every day inside of us because many times, if you don't want to do battle with the world, what's the easiest thing to do? Stay home.
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Right? I mean, think about it.
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If you don't want to deal with the world, you can almost, in many ways, shut off the world.
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Can you shut off the internal battles? Because it's a spiritual warfare, right? And it's principalities, as I said, powers, things unseen.
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Victorious? Yes, we are.
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We are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.
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Sir? Yeah.
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Job, like us, who believed, doing the will of God, like Job here, in his day, believed God, Satan was going to come up against him.
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I mean, we're told that Satan went against Job.
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Yes.
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Satan is, right now, for any believer, Satan is going to cause problems for a believer.
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He's the great adversary.
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Because we believe because we're trusting him.
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Imperfect, yes, but we're dealing with it, right.
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Satan is going to come up against everybody, the Christian.
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Yep.
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And even like it says in 1 Peter, he goes about as a roaring lion, who we might devour.
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And certainly, to Barry's point, at least I think what he was saying, to those that belong to the captivity of the evil one, the devil already has them captive.
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And in many ways, as long as he could just keep them captive, then the battle doesn't necessarily be waged in the same way.
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It's a spiritual battle.
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Right.
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I think the cross between, it's not an earthly battle.
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You know, we see rich people all the time who are on the other side, who are walking with Satan.
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Yeah.
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They live pretty nice lives, it seems sometimes.
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People see that, and there's a lot of money out there.
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You don't have to be, you know, just over Holstein, who's got it all wrong.
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Yeah, I mean.
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You're not going to get the prettiest wife and the best job.
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Oh, I got the prettiest wife, dude.
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I've got the prettiest wife.
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I got that one.
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But I'm just saying, you know, selling that notion.
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That's one for me, man.
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I got the gold star this morning.
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Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
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And yet, at the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be poor, broke, destitute, and hungry either.
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Well, Paul was that.
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Paul was that.
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But in that sense, listen, and I say this, and I hope you'll understand it.
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If I had a choice of dying as a poor Christian or dying as a rich Christian, I'd rather die as a rich Christian, as long as I die as a Christian.
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See, it's not, again, it goes back to what? Motives, actions, thoughts, words, lusts? You know, I mean, so anyway.
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But yeah, good observation.
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All right, go back to Job, because I've got to get through a little bit more.
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I just wanted to highlight that whole idea of, because Job is fighting battles on two fronts.
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Remember where he is now in chapter 7.
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He's sitting in an ash heap.
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He's lost his kids.
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He's lost his wealth.
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He's lost his honor.
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And basically, he's lost his friends, because they're just wailing away at him.
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And so Job is not just sitting in an ivory tower thinking about philosophical thoughts and spiritual walking.
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He even says that, I mean, didn't he say, my flesh is, in verse 5, my flesh is caked with worms and dust, and my skin is cracked and breaks out afresh? I don't know about you, but that's not the best situation to be in.
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Man, you get sunburned sometimes, and you feel like you've got to go hide somewhere.
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Never mind having all that.
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So, he goes on and he says, in verse 3, I'm back in Job.
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He says, I've been allotted months of futility, and weary some nights have been appointed me.
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When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be ended? For I've had my fill of tossing till dawn, and my flesh is caked with worms and dust, my skin is cracked, and it breaks out afresh.
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So, two things, at least.
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One, this is a time stamp, agree? He says, I've had months of this.
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Again, I said this before, Job didn't just lose everything day one, on a Monday, and his friends come on a Tuesday, and God comes on a Wednesday to restore him.
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Didn't work that way, right? He has been sitting there for months.
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I don't know about you, but when we don't, when we can't recover, sometimes the very thought of the time lapse becomes a great hindrance, doesn't it? Like, in other words, if you don't feel good today, our hope is we'll feel better, what? Tomorrow.
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If you don't feel good next Sunday, you say, man, this is really knocking me out.
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How about if you're there in a condition for months and months and months? Does that not work against both mind and body? Sure does.
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And so Job, he understands that, and so there's a time stamp for his complaining, if you will.
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Please don't misunderstand me.
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I am not condoning Job's complaining, and I do believe Job complains.
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So I'm not excusing it.
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We can no more excuse Job's complaining than we can excuse our own complaining, right? Just because he's in the Bible doesn't mean he's not a man, and he's not filled with issues because everyone is filled with issues save Christ.
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But I want us to think about what he's saying here.
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He's basically saying, I can't get any sleep.
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I can't find a place to find rest.
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I thought about this.
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Job doesn't have any NyQuil in his medicine cabinet.
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He don't have any Tynolol.
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He don't have any Excedrin.
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He don't have any of those things.
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He can't take whatever people take, gummy things at night to fall asleep.
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He is really wracked moment by moment by this affliction that's come upon him.
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And again, you and I, sometimes we take for granted, like if you get up in the morning and you got a headache, you can go to the...
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Is there anybody here that don't have a single medicine in their cabinet? I'm talking about Tylenol.
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I don't care if you call it anything you want, Equate.
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Nor shall we, sweetie.
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You get my point? In other words, Job has to deal with this moment by moment and it's just wailing away at him.
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And I don't know about you, but when...
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I'll pose it again as a question.
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When you don't get enough sleep, does anyone function better with less sleep when they can't find rest? I don't think there's a single one of us would say, I've been up for 72 hours and I feel great.
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Some of us, we can't stay up for 12 hours.
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And now that I've retired, I truly enjoy my little nap, whether it be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or...
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Thank you.
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But it's true.
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And again, if you think about this and you think about what he's saying here, he's basically saying, I'm a mess and I can't find no rest.
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And you know what the scriptures say, it says hope deferred makes the heart sick.
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Sister? Yeah, I said this a few weeks back and I'll say it again, this is exactly how it is when you have lack of sleep, the idea that this is going to go away.
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Yeah, and I think we all have like in other words, we all have certain levels that we are able to maintain and others have a different level.
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It's almost to me like a tolerance for pain.
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And so everybody has a many people have a different tolerance of pain.
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Right? I think of it my wife can tolerate a lot of pain because she tolerates me.
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But I mean think about it.
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Some people, I don't like you sticking needles in my arms.
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I don't want that.
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No.
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I can't handle that.
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Other people can, yeah, go ahead, jab it again.
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Not me.
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We all have different things and depression, which is it possible for a Christian, let me just ask that real quick.
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Does anybody not think that a Christian can be depressed? Just thinking that makes you depressed.
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Right, in the warfare, then what happens? The devil comes and he whispers, you shouldn't be like this.
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What's wrong with you? Don't we have a blessed hope as Christians? Sure we do.
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I mean we have a blessed hope.
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We have the hope that Christ is going to come and take us out of here.
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Isn't that something we should, I mean the Bible says we should encourage one.
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Any Christian that's battling the world to teach or to uplift or encourage Christians that we have a blessed hope.
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But does that mean, and that would be the thing, does that mean that a Christian could never be depressed? I could show that Paul himself and I'll just mention this, in Paul's opening of the second Corinthians, Paul says that he despaired even of life.
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Everybody's warfare is different.
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Yeah, and it's and yet it all falls under the if you will, the overall reality that we're in a warfare and yet as we said, just like it says that we have to wage our own warfare, there is certain things that affect one person that don't affect another person.
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And so again, I mean, do we have a blessed hope? Absolutely.
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At the same time, that doesn't mean we're not impacted, right? Let me put it to you this way.
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How many of us, if we woke up tomorrow morning and we were caked with worms and dust and our skin was cracked, would get up and say Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, this is fantastic! I don't think too many of us would jump in that boat.
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So, it is possible because Job is at one point, Job understands his sinfulness as he opened up the chapter and he said that and we'll see as we go further.
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But at the other side of it, Job retains his integrity throughout this whole thing.
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Remember that's what it says in James about Job.
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He persevered against everything and everyone who came against him, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't moan, groan.
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Remember what Paul says? We are to do all things without what? Murmuring and disputing.
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Well, if we're murmuring and we're disputing, then we've got to ask ourselves where's our blessed hope? There's a lot of ways to try to destroy that hope, isn't there? And isn't that what the evil one did when he came up before God? The only reason why God serves you is what? You put a hedge around him.
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Look what you've given him.
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Take it away and see what he does.
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He'll curse you to your face.
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If you can really see in the book of Job that Job never is complaining or murmuring, then I need to be corrected and if you can show that to me, but I don't think you can.
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Because Job is no different than you and I in that sense.
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And then he says in verse 6, my days are swifted and a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope.
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Remember my life is a breath.
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My eye will never again see good.
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See how he's thinking? He thinks he's in a hopeless situation.
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You ever feel hopeless? But Job didn't have Christ, though.
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As opposed to us now.
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That's the difference.
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Well, I'm not so sure that we can make that great a dichotomy in the sense of to say that Job didn't know and understand God.
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Because he did.
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But at the same time again, that would almost mean that anyone on this side of the cross, post-cross should never complain, never murmur, never have a disputing, never be depressed, never have any anxiousness, never have any fear, right? Because perfect love is cast out fear.
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Those things, those are true and I believe that's what Paul is saying that we have to fight the warfare to do what? To bring every thought into captivity to Christ.
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And the more we bring those thoughts into captivity to Christ, the less we will be what? Affected by those other things that would seek to come against us.
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So I agree that he doesn't have the cross in the understanding as we do because he would go on in chapter 9 and say, oh, if I only had a mediator.
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But at the same time friends, unless you really have such a spiritual state of mind and heart that you never get anxious, you never get depressed, and you never feel lonely or you never feel this.
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Those things work at us, don't they? Come on, I'm not the only one.
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We all fight those battles and some of those battles are hard.
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Some of those battles are very difficult and as was said, and I agree, they're very individualistic because they're tailor made by that roaring lion.
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Do not think that he doesn't evaluate because that's exactly what he did.
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He evaluated Job.
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He knew, had a good idea of what God, if God did this, what Job would do.
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He just didn't understand the grace of God.
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He didn't understand the power of God.
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And he didn't understand the purpose of God.
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And so he's still, he's continuing on and as he says these things, basically he says, I'm here today and I'm gone tomorrow.
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In verse 9, as the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up, he shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore.
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Again, Job doesn't think he's ever going to recover from this mess.
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Have we not all felt ourselves in situations that we thought, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to overcome this? Now, when we think by faith, what do we say? I've already overcome.
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That's what Paul says.
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We are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave himself.
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That doesn't mean that we still don't have issues in the battles.
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Again, the warfare is over.
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That's even what God says in Isaiah to the children of Israel.
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He says, your warfare is over.
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That doesn't mean we don't have to get in the mud and fight it out.
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Again, we fight against all these things and a thousand times a thousand other things, don't we? Job is pretty much going downhill in his understanding.
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I know we've got to stop.
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Let me just finish it this way.
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He says, I'll get to verse 12.
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He says, therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
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I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
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I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
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Basically, he says, am I like a sea serpent that you've got to set a god over me? Am I such a sinner? Am I so bad? Whether he's addressing this to his friends in their thinking or God, that's something we could think about.
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Is he saying, am I so bad that I deserve this? Or I've got to be hedged in like this? You mean to tell me none of us have ever said to ourselves, why me? I think we all have.
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Why me? And the answer to that is, why not? Nevertheless, we say, why me? We'll pick it up again next week and we'll kind of work through the remainder of the chapter.
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I wasn't positive that we'd get through it this morning.
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I just hope you guys, as well as myself, that we can begin to understand the reality of the warfare and that the warfare is intense and it's, as was said, and I agree totally, it's individual warfare.
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What you fight over might not be what I fight over.
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What you are worried about might not be what I'm worried about.
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And yet the reality is, we shouldn't be worried about what? Anything.
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Be not anxious for tomorrow, tomorrow be anxious for itself, sufficient unto this day is its own evil thereof.
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Alright, let me just close with a word of prayer.
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Our Father, my God, thank you again for your word, Lord.
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Help us to understand it more and more.
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Help us to understand, Lord, the battle we're in, the victory that's been brought for us in Christ, and Lord, that we would truly bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
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And now, Lord, may we sing with joyful spirits and may all that we say and do be pleasing to you in Jesus' name.
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Amen.