Series A – Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, August 13, 2023 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough
| Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough: |
| Time Stamp | Transcript |
| 0:22 | The holy Gospel |
| 0:29 | According to Saint Matthew the 14th chapter good |
| 0:38 | immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds |
| 0:45 | and after he had dismissed the crowds he went up on the mountain by himself to pray when evening came he was there |
| 0:51 | alone but the boat by this time was a long way from the land beaten by the waves for the wind was against them and |
| 0:57 | the Fourth Watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea but when the disciples saw him walking on the sea |
| 1:03 | they were terrified and said it is a ghost and they cried out in fear but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying |
| 1:09 | take heart it is I do not be afraid and Peter answered him Lord if it is you command me to come to you on the water |
| 1:15 | he said come so Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus but when he saw the wind he was |
| 1:21 | afraid and beginning to sink he cried out Lord Save Me Jesus immediately |
| 1:26 | reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him o you of little faith why did you doubt and when they got into |
| 1:33 | the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worsted him worshiped him saying true you are the Son of God this |
| 1:39 | is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus all right so I just spent a week in |
| 1:46 | California I have Disney on the brain and you’ll know that Disney owns the Star Wars franchise but if you think |
| 1:52 | back to uh the uh the Star Wars prequels uh the Master Yoda was examining young |
| 2:01 | Anakin Skywalker considering him for the role of becoming a Jedi Padawan and he |
| 2:06 | detected in him a lot of fear and so do give me a little bit of leeway here |
| 2:13 | as I do my best Yoda in impersonation but listen to the quote we all know it fear is the path to the dark side fear |
| 2:21 | leads to anger anger leads to hate hate leads to suffering right we all can hear |
| 2:27 | Yoda speaking this way but here’s the thing um a lot of people consider Yoda’s quote |
| 2:33 | here to be full of wisdom you know something that actually has some spiritual value to it but we Christians |
| 2:40 | know that there’s more to the quote and suffering leads to perseverance |
| 2:46 | perseverance character and character hope you see there’s a reason why we suffer |
| 2:53 | in this world and the reason why we suffer is because of sin now as |
| 2:58 | Christians we must hold fast to the gospel when we experience suffering and |
| 3:04 | we do the suffering that even goes along with growing old and having to deal with |
| 3:11 | Achy bones and big black bruises from swimming in the ocean and things like |
| 3:16 | this right you know the way we as our bodies are falling apart we experience suffering but the one thing we can as |
| 3:24 | Christians must hold on to is this idea that the suffering that we go through is not as a result of God |
| 3:31 | deciding to punish us for our sins in the same way that God punishes evildoers |
| 3:38 | for their impenitance for their obstinacy for taking his words and casting them behind them scripture is |
| 3:44 | clear that because Christ has suffered note the emphasis on the word has suffered for our sins bled and died in |
| 3:52 | our place we have been reconciled to God we have been reconciled to him and as a |
| 3:57 | result of him we have been adopted into the family we have been forgiven of all of our trespasses Christ bleeding and |
| 4:04 | dying for any every one of our sins but she’ll note then that we as Christians |
| 4:09 | are still called to a life of suffering the one thing that we can take off the table is the idea that we are suffering |
| 4:15 | because God is punishing us that’s not correct instead God allows us to suffer |
| 4:23 | for our own good for the purpose of building our faith for the purpose of |
| 4:30 | helping us get to the end of ourselves think of it this way we’ve all run into that fellow and that |
| 4:37 | fellow the one I’m talking about is the fellow who is the one who is completely arrogant self-righteous knows it all and |
| 4:45 | never ever is ever wrong okay you usually call guys like this narcissists right but you’ll note is the narcissist |
| 4:52 | somebody who’s a good candidate for being a Christian no not at all because pride is the |
| 4:59 | devil’s sin and so what does God allow to happen to the narcissist the one who |
| 5:04 | is most like the devil in his great love and care for the narcissist and his |
| 5:10 | desire that the narcissist be forgiven and saved of his sins God will allow the narcissists to go to the School of Hard |
| 5:17 | Knocks and boy is it tough to graduate from that place but when you are graduated from the School of Hard Knocks |
| 5:24 | you’ve had all of the self-righteous wind knocked out of your chest all of |
| 5:29 | your arrogance knocked down and you basically no longer see yourselves as the top of the world the king of the |
| 5:35 | world and things like this instead you see yourself rightly as somebody who is a sinner in need of forgiveness and Grace and |
| 5:43 | suffering was part of the way in which God prepared you to hear the gospel so as Christians then |
| 5:49 | we must not go to Deuteronomy 28 in the curses section of the Mosaic Covenant |
| 5:55 | for looking at whether or not our suffering is because God is trying to Smite us that’s off the table instead we |
| 6:02 | must look to the Book of Job the job is the place to go in fact there’s a bigger |
| 6:07 | context to our Old Testament text you’ll note in Job 38 our our Old Testament |
| 6:13 | text God shows up and decides that he’s going to ask some very tough fatherly |
| 6:18 | questions of job but we’ve missed the whole story we kind of miss the context |
| 6:23 | of what’s going on what makes God come barreling down the highway in a supercell thunderstorm that’s dropped a |
| 6:31 | tornado and decides to speak with such firmness against job well we all know |
| 6:38 | this the story let me give you a quick flight over the job Battlefield if you if you will we all know how the story |
| 6:44 | goes there’s Satan he’s presented himself before God with the Holy Angels and and and God asked him where he’s |
| 6:51 | been where he’s what he’s been up to and then God I kid you not God is the one who starts off by saying have you |
| 6:57 | considered my servant job all right Satan wasn’t there to talk about job |
| 7:03 | that wasn’t necessarily on his agenda docket for the day but since God brought |
| 7:08 | it up he knows all about him and says yeah listen the reason why job loves you God is because you’ve made his life |
| 7:14 | cushy okay the guy lives in the top one percentile of richest people on planet |
| 7:21 | Earth and he’s got so much money and goods and things like this he’s the most powerful influential person on the |
| 7:27 | planet but if you God take all of that away from him he’ll curse you to your face |
| 7:33 | and God says bet and it’s on and God puts one limit on |
| 7:39 | Satan you can’t kill him well can’t kill job but what does Satan end up doing |
| 7:45 | killing all of his children taking all of his Goods his assets his |
| 7:50 | flocks they’re all gone and then strikes his body to the point where he’s in so |
| 7:55 | much Agony and pain from boils that have broken out on his skin that he wishes he |
| 8:00 | could die but death is not anywhere near him and he so he is made to suffer |
| 8:06 | horribly and then in the midst of all of this he has given three |
| 8:12 | three comforters and I like to think of his three comforters as Satan the world |
| 8:18 | and the flesh they’ve done Holy Trinity it’s a terrible group and boy you listen |
| 8:24 | to their theology it is completely Wacker doodle in fact one of the guys sounds so much like a Word of Faith |
| 8:31 | Prosperity heretic that I cannot read the book of Job without hearing Joel Osteen’s voice when I read him right |
| 8:37 | it’s fascinating to read but then in the midst of all of this in his dialogue |
| 8:44 | with his comforters job goes too far to the point where he claims basically |
| 8:51 | for himself sinless righteousness oh no that’s not at all something that |
| 8:57 | job can claim for himself and or something you or I can claim for him and so God begins the pre-rebuking work with |
| 9:03 | job by a young fellow younger than job a guy by the name of elihu and a Lee who |
| 9:09 | comes and he rebukes job and this guy is speaking good theological sense and |
| 9:15 | listen to a portion of alihu’s rebukes in chapter 33 of job which will help us set the context for our Old Testament |
| 9:22 | text so here now my speech oh job listen to all my words Behold I open my |
| 9:28 | mouth the tongue in my mouth speaks my words declare the uprightness of my |
| 9:34 | heart and what my lips know they speak sincerely the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me |
| 9:41 | gives me life love that statement by the way the the spirit of God has made me |
| 9:47 | the breath of the almighty gives me life that’s an interesting thing for alihu to say considering that he was obviously |
| 9:53 | like the rest of us conceived in his mother’s womb but that’s very true and so something we should embrace here a |
| 9:59 | little aside and that is is that God is the one who has made each and every one of us through his own breath even though |
| 10:06 | we were not there in the garden we were there if you were in the proverbial loins of Adam and as a result of it we |
| 10:14 | can all rightly say along with alihu that God Almighty is the one who gives us life and has breathed us into |
| 10:20 | existence so he then says to Job answer me if you can set your words in order to before me and take your stance and |
| 10:25 | behold I am toward God as you are I too was pinched off from a piece of clay behold |
| 10:33 | no fear of me need terrify you my pressure will not be heavy upon you sounds like Jesus my yoke is easy my |
| 10:39 | burden is light there’s an interesting connection between elihu and Jesus so |
| 10:44 | surely you have spoken in my ears and I have heard the sound of your words you say job I am pure without transgression |
| 10:53 | I am clean there is no iniquity in me here’s the issue when you claim that |
| 11:01 | what does Scripture say if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the |
| 11:07 | truth is not in us but if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all |
| 11:13 | unrighteousness if we say we have no sin we make God to be a liar so it makes me wonder here you’ll note |
| 11:22 | that God is the one who first brought job up to Satan makes me wonder if the reason why he did |
| 11:28 | is because job needed a good knocking down isn’t it always the case with us we |
| 11:34 | as human beings as sinful human beings we struggle with our sin and then when |
| 11:40 | we have those Seasons where it feels like we’ve got our acts together our spiritual egos inflate to the point |
| 11:47 | where we suck all the oxygen out of the room and we finally think that we’ve we’ve figured it out we’ve achieved it |
| 11:54 | we’ve done it and all we’ve done is just feed our ego and God has to come in and |
| 11:59 | just take the needle and pop the whole thing and bring us back down to size and |
| 12:06 | so we learn here that job has got a problem and that is is that he thinks |
| 12:12 | he’s achieved sinless perfection in his life and he hasn’t |
| 12:19 | so that being the case by saying these words he’s now making |
| 12:24 | God out to be the one who’s transgressed him he’s made God out to be the sinner |
| 12:30 | he’s made God out to be the evil one because obviously if if job is sinless |
| 12:36 | then God has done him Evil by making him suffer at least that’s how logic thinks |
| 12:43 | about such things but I would note something here we got to be careful when we start thinking this way because how |
| 12:48 | many sins did Jesus commit again yeah I’m not a single one of them and yet he was made to suffer horribly |
| 12:55 | for your sins and mine the suffering is no indicator of God’s love because God truly loves the son and yet Christ |
| 13:02 | suffered horribly in order to save you and me so elihu continues and I’ll back |
| 13:08 | up to you job you say I’m pure without transgression I’m clean there is no iniquity in me behold he finds occasion |
| 13:14 | against me he counts me as his enemy he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all of my paths in other words he’s |
| 13:21 | blaming God behold in this you are not right Illy who rebukes him I will answer |
| 13:28 | you for God is greater than man why do you contend against God saying he |
| 13:34 | will answer none of man’s words for God speaks in one way and in two though man |
| 13:41 | does not perceive it in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls on men while they Slumber on their |
| 13:47 | beds then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings that he may |
| 13:53 | turn man aside from his deed and conceal Pride from a man he keeps back his soul |
| 14:00 | from the pit his life from perishing By The Sword let me give you a quick paraphrase of what elihu just said Ali |
| 14:08 | who basically said God when he acts and he speaks he does so in order to turn us aside from hell in order to keep us back |
| 14:16 | from falling into the Lake of Fire so that we do not perish eternally when God |
| 14:22 | acts although we do not understand our ways God understands them and although |
| 14:28 | we do not understand God’s ways God knows exactly what he’s doing and he |
| 14:33 | legitimately has your best in mind even when you are made to suffer God is |
| 14:39 | doing this to keep your soul back from perishing in the pit elihu continues man is also rebuked with |
| 14:48 | pain on his bed and with continual Strife in his bones so that his life |
| 14:55 | loathes bread and his appetite the choicest food his flesh is so wasted |
| 15:01 | away that it cannot be seen in his bones that were not seen stick out his soul |
| 15:06 | draws near to the pit and his life to those who bring death if there be for |
| 15:11 | him an angel a mediator one of the Thousand to declare to man what is right for him and he is merciful to him and |
| 15:18 | says deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransom beautiful |
| 15:23 | picture when you consider what job is preaching here Lee who is right on the money when he talks about how it lasts |
| 15:30 | if there was only a mediator an angel you know maybe like the angel of the Lord himself who can declare over you or |
| 15:38 | I that we are will well that we are to be delivered from going down to the pit |
| 15:43 | why because because he’s found a ransom for us in saying this Ali who is making |
| 15:49 | it very clear that even job as righteous as he was and rich in good works and he |
| 15:54 | truly was still even he needed to be ransomed from the pit even he needed to |
| 16:00 | be forgiven of his sins and here you get a great allusion to a connection to the |
| 16:06 | Gospel of Jesus Christ because Jesus is the ransom for job he’s also the ransom |
| 16:12 | for you and I and so when we are rebuked by God with pain to the point where we |
| 16:17 | even loathe what we’re eating note then that God is still at work in delivering |
| 16:22 | us from the pit itself because he has found a ransom for us in Christ let his |
| 16:28 | flesh become fresh with youth God says of him let him return to the days of his |
| 16:33 | youthful vigor and here’s where the Christian hope must come into play Because as Christians we look at this |
| 16:39 | life and we look at what’s happening to us we look at our suffering we look at our bodies and recognize that thing things are going derelict quick |
| 16:46 | yet there is a day coming and we know this is true because Christ has risen from the dead where God will declare to |
| 16:53 | each and every one of us even though our bodies Decay and molder in a grave God |
| 16:59 | will say to us let his or her flesh become fresh with youth let him return to the days of his youthful vigor I |
| 17:06 | cannot wait to be 18 Again none of you will recognize me it’s going |
| 17:13 | to be tough unless you’ve seen my cheesy photos and porches from when I was young with a cheesy grin that I had and the |
| 17:20 | great body that has disappeared a long time ago none of you are going to recognize me but that’s kind of the |
| 17:26 | point that youthful vigor is coming back to us and so no that plays into our |
| 17:31 | suffering our hope is not in the complete alleviation of our suffering in this life because that may not ever |
| 17:37 | happen our hope is in the alleviation of our suffering and the renewal of our youth |
| 17:42 | and the resurrection job is Rich with true sound theology if you listen to the |
| 17:48 | right person Ali who is one you should listen to so his soul draws near to the pit a |
| 17:55 | mediator uh LED his soul his soul draws near the pit his life to those who bring death if there be for him an angel a |
| 18:01 | mediator one of the Thousand to declare to man what is right for him he is merciful to him and says deliver him |
| 18:06 | from going down to the pit I have found a ransom let us flesh become fresh with |
| 18:11 | youth and let him return to the days of his youthful vigor then man prays to God and he accepts him he sees his face with |
| 18:19 | a shout of joy and he restores to man his righteousness he sings before men |
| 18:24 | and says I sinned and perverted what is right and it was not repaid to me he has |
| 18:29 | redeemed my soul from going down into the pit and my life shall look upon the light behold God does all these things |
| 18:36 | twice three times with the man to bring him back to bring back his soul from the |
| 18:42 | pit that he may be lighted with the light of life so pay attention o job |
| 18:47 | listen to me be silent and I will speak if you have any words answer me speak for I desire to justify you if not |
| 18:54 | listen to me be silent and I will teach you wisdom Ali who says if you haven’t read job lately it’s worth the read it’s |
| 19:02 | a good read one to consider especially in light of our suffering but that forms then the big context |
| 19:08 | of our Old Testament text because after Ali who does kind of the pre-work in |
| 19:14 | rebuking job God decides to show up because God has been wronged by job |
| 19:21 | by job’s self-righteousness by him declaring himself innocent and somehow |
| 19:26 | Beyond God’s rebuke or even that God has caused him to suffer in ways that was |
| 19:33 | unjust he’s rebuked God and God now is going to set the record straight and by |
| 19:39 | second setting the record straight with job he sets the record straight with all of us |
| 19:44 | so we ask these tough questions where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth uh I wasn’t there tell me if |
| 19:51 | you have understanding who determined its measurements surely you know was it Jesus or you who stretched the line upon |
| 19:58 | it on what words bases sunk who laid its Cornerstone when the morning Stars sang |
| 20:03 | together in all the sons of God shouted for Joy ah there’s a picture here of the creation that even Genesis doesn’t give |
| 20:10 | us somewhere along the days of creation God also created the angels these are |
| 20:16 | the sons of God that are referred to here in Job 38 7. they and you’ll note that they were the eyewitnesses of the |
| 20:23 | creation itself and as God was doing his work on the six days of creation these |
| 20:29 | Angels were shouting for Joy cheering God on excited by what was taking place |
| 20:35 | and rejoicing and praising God as he con concluded each and every step of the way |
| 20:41 | in making the heavens and the Earth he notes then who shut in the sea with |
| 20:46 | its doors when it burst out from the womb when I made clouds its garment and thick Darkness it’s swaddling band and I |
| 20:52 | prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far you shall come and no farther and hear shall your |
| 20:59 | proud waves be stayed and here you can see a connection to Our Gospel text because in our gospel text Jesus is able |
| 21:06 | to command the sea he’s able to give orders to it and the Sea obeys if you |
| 21:12 | see anybody claiming to be a Christian today claiming that they have authority over weather like hurricanes and things |
| 21:18 | like this ignore them they’re whacker Doodles they’ve lost their mind their brains have been baked in the sun too |
| 21:24 | much and the glory is clearly stunted their mental capacity as a result of it |
| 21:30 | these people are whack I think of Cat Kerr in every single Hurricane Season she Parks herself on the Atlantic |
| 21:36 | Seaboard when a hurricane is heading towards the United States and she takes a stick that looks like something a |
| 21:41 | wizard would wield from The Lord of the Rings and she tries to bat those things off the coast and every single Hurricane |
| 21:48 | that she’s barked orders to in the name of Jesus every single one of them have ignored her and the things that she said |
| 21:55 | will not happen have happened even worse than before so if you’re living in |
| 22:00 | Florida and the Cat Kerr is speaking to hurricanes flee the state you’re about to lose your home is the best way I can |
| 22:07 | put it but not so with Christ not so with God God truly when he |
| 22:13 | commands the creation and gives orders to storms and other things they obey |
| 22:21 | have you commanded the mornings since your days began God asks job and caused the dawn to know its |
| 22:28 | place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it it has changed like |
| 22:34 | clay Under the Sea as features stand out like a garment from the wicked their light is withheld and their uplifted arm |
| 22:40 | is broken have you entered into the Springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep nope have the gates |
| 22:46 | of death been revealed to you nope have you seen the gates of the deep Darkness nope have you comprehended the expanse |
| 22:53 | of the earth nope declare it if you know all of this and you see the point that God is making |
| 23:00 | and the point that God is making is this you are of such finite knowledge |
| 23:07 | you know about this much if you know anything at all about how the world |
| 23:12 | really operates but how many people have you run into how many times have you done it acted like you knew it all you |
| 23:20 | knew exactly how everything operated and how the world and the universe behaves and all this kind of stuff |
| 23:26 | you don’t know anything you don’t know nothing and so when you come along and you get a hangnail and |
| 23:32 | you curse God because you’re in pain and Agony over your hangnail you don’t know a thing |
| 23:39 | consider that then in light of Our Gospel text you’ll note that Jesus has just fed the five thousand and Jesus is |
| 23:47 | now going to make his disciples get into a boat as it’s getting dark he’s sending |
| 23:54 | them out on the Sea of Galilee and he’s God in human flesh so he knows full well |
| 23:59 | what the weather report is he doesn’t even have to check the app on his iPhone he knows what the forecast is and you |
| 24:06 | know what he did he sent all of his disciples |
| 24:12 | in that boat into Danger those in Peril on the sea indeed and |
| 24:19 | Jesus is the one who put them in peril does he not care about them |
| 24:27 | does Jesus is he just so so reckless that he would endanger their lives |
| 24:34 | so recklessly yeah you think about it this way if this |
| 24:40 | happened today and these fishermen worked for you know Jesus Corp right |
| 24:46 | this would be an OSHA violation you know do you ever take off you know in your |
| 24:53 | plane when there’s a big old storm in the Horizon no you don’t you stay on the ground you wait for that thing to pass |
| 24:58 | Jesus didn’t follow any of the safety rules none of them I mean we’re talking like hundreds of thousand dollars of |
| 25:05 | worth of fines and violations for what has occurred here does he not care for his disciples |
| 25:12 | absolutely he does the thing is is that the worst thing that can happen to his disciples is not |
| 25:19 | that they die the worst thing that can happen to the disciples is they perish eternally worst |
| 25:25 | thing that can happen to you is that you perish eternally and believe me when I tell you God has no problem steering you into suffering |
| 25:32 | or even into danger in order to open your eyes to the fact that you just |
| 25:38 | really don’t understand how everything operates and he does and you can trust him but you shouldn’t trust yourself |
| 25:45 | that’s a hard thing for us Christians to learn so immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat go before |
| 25:51 | him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds after he had dismissed the crowds he went up on the mountain by |
| 25:56 | himself to pray and when evening came he was there all along but the boat by this time was a long way from Land beaten by |
| 26:03 | the waves the wind was against them and then the Fourth Watch of the night this is a tough night these guys are |
| 26:10 | exhausted at this point they were their boat was beaten by the |
| 26:15 | waves the wind was against them and so Jesus in The Fourth Watch of the night came walking on the sea we learned from |
| 26:22 | a cross-reference to this text look it up in one of the cross references it says that Jesus is in intent here was to |
| 26:30 | keep on walking by them let that one sink in check the cross |
| 26:35 | references I think it’s either Mark or Luke Jesus is his full intent was to just keep on walking by them but they |
| 26:41 | saw him right they freaked out they freaked out they said oh my goodness |
| 26:47 | it’s a ghost basically thinking they’re about to perish and Jesus spoke to them and he said |
| 26:53 | these words take heart ego Amy it is he doesn’t say it is I he |
| 27:00 | says I am Jesus is speaking here his identity as |
| 27:06 | God he is the I am of Exodus 3. he’s the one who spoke to Moses from the burning |
| 27:13 | bush take heart it is I I am may fobus they do not be afraid of course Peter |
| 27:21 | is basically gone all you know Different Strokes on him he says what you talking about |
| 27:27 | Willis right if that’s really you Jesus in great doubt Peter says Lord if it’s |
| 27:33 | really you you tell me to come to you isn’t that |
| 27:38 | the same kind of language that Satan used with Jesus if you’re really the son of God then command these things to do |
| 27:45 | these things right you’ll note that Peter here in a sense you can almost argue as putting Jesus to the test is |
| 27:52 | that really you prove it you know same kind of Temptation so he’s putting |
| 27:57 | Christ to the test here and he doesn’t get rebuked for doing so Jesus says all right come why because in this case |
| 28:04 | Jesus his identity wasn’t being challenged in a way that Jesus doubted |
| 28:09 | his identity his identity was being challenged in a way where Peter questioned his identity so to make it |
| 28:15 | perfectly clear who he was Peter then comes out of the boat and walks on the |
| 28:20 | water but that doesn’t last long he ends up sinking and then saying that through wonderful three-word prayer that we all |
| 28:27 | should be praying every day Lord save me Lord save me we need to pray this in in |
| 28:35 | the midst of our difficulties and trouble so Jesus immediately reached out his hand took him out took him saying oh |
| 28:41 | you of little faith why did you doubt and when they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped |
| 28:47 | him saying truly you are the Son of God so Christ sends them into danger and at |
| 28:52 | the end of all of this they now confess who Jesus truly is they recognize that |
| 28:58 | he is God of God light of light very God of very God and the text says that they |
| 29:04 | all worshiped Christ at the end of this |
| 29:11 | but are we supposed to then look at this and say well God you know you could have |
| 29:16 | done this differently why’d you have to put them in danger to get them to worship and Obey you |
| 29:22 | God knows what he’s doing why’d you have to strict strike me with a terminal disease to knock me on my |
| 29:30 | butt and take away all of my hope of having a great life and the only thing I |
| 29:36 | can look forward to is death why did you have to do that God so that you’ll worship Him |
| 29:44 | why did you make it so difficult for me in this life in order to take away your |
| 29:49 | self-sufficiency you can kind of see how this goes and |
| 29:56 | this goes a million different ways and believe me when I tell you each and every one of us because we are so sinful |
| 30:01 | sinful Beyond even what we comprehend in ourselves that when God causes us to |
| 30:07 | suffer it becomes more than an annoyance and when God causes us to suffer in a way where the solution is nowhere in |
| 30:15 | sight you have to just look down the calendar each day ahead you can say is going to |
| 30:22 | be filled with pain and difficulty and problems you know when that happens you are left |
| 30:28 | with no choice but to despair or to trust |
| 30:37 | these are hard choices but at the end of the day God knows what he is doing |
| 30:43 | so brothers and sisters when we are made to suffer and if it hasn’t happened to you yet |
| 30:50 | give it five minutes when you are made to suffer do not despise God and what he’s doing he knows |
| 30:58 | exactly what he’s doing and his methods and his means are his to choose and there ain’t nobody who can rob God of |
| 31:06 | his glory or rebuke God for what he has done and say who are you to be doing |
| 31:11 | this these things to these people God knows what he’s doing and he’s working all things together for good for those |
| 31:18 | who love him so let us rejoice in this that God also knows exactly what it means to suffer |
| 31:25 | because that’s what Christ did for us on the cross God doesn’t cause us to Suffer |
| 31:30 | Without himself knowing exactly what it is that we’re going through in fact I would argue we haven’t even begun to |
| 31:38 | suffer as greatly as Christ did because Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world for your sins and mind so |
| 31:45 | much so that even the father had to turn his face away from Christ and Christ in |
| 31:51 | the Cry of dereliction cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me and yet |
| 31:57 | in the midst of all of that Christ knew that what was about to take place was for the good of you and I and so for the |
| 32:04 | joy set before him despise the cross in its shame so that he can have the joy of |
| 32:09 | finally seeing us face to face when he renews our strength and renews our youth |
| 32:15 | and we can join him in a World Without End that he is creating a in a world |
| 32:20 | where our righteousness will be restored to us and sin will be no more the disease is horrible The Cure is |
| 32:27 | difficult there’s nothing easy about it do not despise Dr Jesus when he |
| 32:34 | prescribes for you a bitter pill of suffering because when you receive that bitter pill it’s difficult to go through |
| 32:40 | but it’s necessary so that you can continue to rely on him and have all of |
| 32:46 | your self-reliance and self-righteousness Fall Away In The Name of Jesus Amen |
| 32:52 | [Music] |
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