LIVE DISCUSSION: (Job 15:21-23) "WICKED MAN'S DEMISE" Part 3/4

What if the blessings you envy are the very things starving your soul? We dig into the hard gap between worldly success and true blessing, using the story of Job to expose how comfort can blind us and how affliction can open us to God’s richest work. From there, we center our identity as joint heirs with Christ—a status that reframes money, status, and ambition—and ask what it looks like to steward gifts for God’s glory rather than self.

The conversation gets personal as we talk about real inheritance. One listener shares how open-handed generosity freed their heart, while another reminds parents that the greatest legacy is leading children to Jesus. We draw a powerful line from Augustine to his mother Monica, whose gracious toughness guarded his doctrine and, through him, strengthened the church for centuries. That same calling sits with every household today: teach, guard, and guide with love and conviction.

We also face the weight of judgment and the mercy of delay. Pharaoh’s confidence at the Red Sea becomes a warning against pride, and the image of the “sword” ready to fall calls for urgency without panic. God’s patience is a window, not permission. We explore election and the relentless pursuit of God, not to spark debates but to anchor hope: the Shepherd knows his own and will not let them go. It all culminates in a simple, searching image—the wicked wandering for bread while the Bread of Life stands ready to satisfy. If success has felt empty and striving has left you restless, this conversation points to the only food that lasts.

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Transcript

Envying The Wicked And Worldly Success

SPEAKER_06 0:00

And they don't even know it. They have been too busy suppressing the truth of God by their unrighteousness that they miss the opportunity to be blessed by the very thing they have been suppressing. And so and then the problem is so many Christians, so many of us get caught up in this whirlwind of chaotic foolishness, thinking that there's some kind of way that we can have a part of that. We should be able to have a part of that because we have come to a conclusion that success and wealth in this world is somehow indicative of having God's blessing. I gotta tell you something. Of all the people that you can read about in the Bible, Job is probably one of the most blessed men that there ever was. And it all stemmed from the affliction that he's going through that we're reading about right now. And if you think that it's getting boring reading this story, going over these verses, understanding this narrative, understanding these conversations, try to imagine yourself being in his situation, his situation, waiting to hear from God. We need to get our eyes off of the world. Christ told us to get our eyes off the world. Come out from among them and be ye separate. I know how enticing the world is. But we also know how unfulfilling it is. Because every time we get caught up in a worldly thing, we we are desperately anxious over a period of time to get away from it. And we start asking ourselves, how do we ever do that? We have to stay separate from that. We have to trust and know that the Lord is good and the Lord will deliver everything he says. And remember, first and foremost, we are joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs. Not like in an inferior position or an elevated position, but it calls us joint heirs with Christ. Hopefully, one day the Lord will give me an opportunity to talk about what that really means in an expanded sense. But it is a powerful statement to be called a joint heir with Christ. A joint heir with the Son of God, the one who spoke the world into existence. Joint heirs with him, that Lord. And yet we still find ourselves envying the wicked who we're reading about right here. They are fraught internally with echoes of terror, tormented conscience. We don't want that. Brother Jeffrey, encourage and serving.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

I want to have a street named after me up in heaven, not here on earth, you know. We'll all live on Eubanks Avenue, you know. We'll put a street sign up there that has your name on it as they go.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

I'll tell you this much, brother. If you get there before me, when I move in, when I move in, you're gonna be the one saying, There goes the neighborhood.

Set Your Mind On Things Above

SPEAKER_05 4:04

No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna say the real estate value just went up. Okay. It's gonna be an awesome day, man. It'll be an awesome day.

SPEAKER_06 4:15

It is. Sister Candy, go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 4:22

I'm just gonna say, like Colossians 3.2 says, man, keep your eyes on the things above and not of the world. And with that being said, what's he tell? What's he say to the to the guy that asked about following him, take and sell all your things, and the guy can't do it? Because he was of the world, it wasn't of him. So what's he tell us? What does he tell his people who are in him to go to go do? He tells us to go sell all our belongings and share that, disperse it, dispense it with amongst your brethren and those of in need. That's what we're to do. Yep. And if anyone heard me whenever I I did my testimony on your on your live, yeah, I learned that way back in when I was 21. And and I'll I'll never forget it because I made the comment that I didn't need anything else. And two weeks later, God showed me, Oh, yeah, you do. You need to and that's all I need. And that's why nothing that we have is ours. It is all blessings, yes, while we're here on earth, because he knows our hearts' desires, and he says he will give that to us. But when he gives it to us, what do we do with it? Where does our mind and heart go after we receive it? Do we use it for his glory, or do we use it for self-seeking, self-serving? That's right. That's the problem with it. Those are self-serving. None of it's gonna last. They're gonna lose it before they ever end up dying anyway.

SPEAKER_06 5:51

Yep. For sure, for sure. Sister Mariah, go ahead.

Using God’s Gifts For His Glory

SPEAKER_00 5:57

So, um, my dad, he hasn't, um, he's always been uh kind of sad here and there when he's like, I didn't uh set up um an inheritance for my kids. The Bible talks about leaving an inheritance, and I'm like, the greatest inheritance that you could give your kids is Christ. The greatest thing that you can do is uh train them up in the way that you should they should go, and we all know Christ. So that you have accomplished, and I think that you should be very proud because we have an inheritance that is greater than anything that we could ever even think of on this earth, you know.

True Inheritance And Training Children

Monica And Augustine’s Tough Love

The Destroyer Comes At Peak Pride

Red Sea Confidence And Collapse

SPEAKER_06 6:40

You know, it's funny. Um, I was I was um because as you go, I'm so I'm doing this study on the on the Trinity, and you know, and I'm reading about uh, you know, because the two best guys on the Trinity to read are Tertullian and Augustine. And if you know anything about the history of Augustine, he was born in, you know, with a with in a mixed race, from a mixed race parents, parentage, and his faith, what he would what he learned about God, he learned from his mother, Monica. She was his mother. And so his mom was a staunch believer. And Augustine had a concubine, basically, for many, many years. Many, many years. And his mother, Monica, didn't really, she didn't really get on him too much about him being with this woman in an unmarried relationship. But when she found out that he had abandoned his his, you know, what she had taught him and had joined up with the with the Manichaeans, then she told him he was no longer welcome in her house. And she she was this is a woman who didn't play. She was like, You get your you get your your relationship with the Lord right before you come back into my house. And when she when she settled on the fact that he had that he had uh been out of the woods theologically, she allowed him back in. But she was not letting him get any idea that she would be comfortable with him talking all this nonsense. And see, I think it's a great lesson. And it's funny because Mariah, when I was thinking about this, about your kids and you and your kids when I was going over this today. And you know, and I was just thinking about how much of a blessing it is to have your kids, you know, they how they sat with us so long, and then suddenly in recent weeks or months, whatever it's been, to have them sort of close with us at the end and saying, Amen, hallelujah, what a moving thing it is. And then as they get older, they may end up sitting down here listening or sitting with you in church in a church pew somewhere, and then they grow up and somebody becomes a minister and a preacher or a missionary or an evangelist, whatever. And it just and it gives you that inspiration. But but but um Augustine was probably the most important figure in in church history between the apostle Paul and Luther. Augustine was a significant figure, and and uh, and so important to what we understand, because right now, he and Tertullian, these are the reasons why we understand the nature of God, the triune nature of God. This is why we understand the will. But everyone here, all of you, and all your kids, any one of you, any one of your children, any of them, could be that next person who is responsible for having a significant impact on reforming the church and getting it back to its roots. You never know. It can be any one of you, it could be any one of your children or grandchildren, it could be anyone. But we all have this calling, and we have to submit to this to these callings and see what the Lord does for us. But yeah, Augustine's mother, you read about Monica, she didn't play around. And so I got a little winded on that one, but I just wanted to tell you that because it was in keeping with what Sister Mariah was saying. So, anyway, finishing up verse 21, the wicked man travails with pain all his days, and the number of his days, the number of his years are hidden to the oppressor. So, but one thing, another thing interesting here before I move on to verse 22, is that that the destroyer, he will come at a time when it is least expected, when it is least expected. And he often comes when the wicked man, the oppressor, man of power, the rich man, he will often come, the destroyer, that is, when the wicked man is at his highest uh condition in terms of his confidence, in terms of his achievements. When he is most satiated and drunken by his greed, this is when he is often overcome. Think about Pharaoh, for example. Think about Pharaoh. I can begin to imagine what he was thinking and what his his military was thinking when they went into that Red Sea after the Israelites. Now, I don't know, and I can't validate this, but what I what I what it's what it feels like is that they believed they were looking at some kind of a natural phenomenon, nothing that had anything to do with God. I don't think that even though all these things, all these plagues that had happened, they had nine plagues that had happened, and they kept being told that it was God. They kept being told it was God, the ten plagues, and so the Red Sea part, the Israelites walk into that Red Sea on dry ground, and I'm sure that the the uh Egyptians were thinking, well, this is a natural phenomenon. This isn't a miracle, this isn't miraculous. They're walking through on dry ground, so there's no reason why we can't walk through on dry ground. But we know what happens, and I think that Pharaoh believed that he had them. I think he believed that he had them. And he didn't. And when that last foot, that ad that last Israelite foot stepped out of that dry ground, the water caved in, fell on that army in Egypt, was done. They were done. Verse 22. He that he believes not that he shall return out of darkness, the wicked man. And he is waited for the sword. Verse 22. He doesn't believe that he will return out of darkness. What is darkness here? Well, what is darkness always? It symbolizes calamity, it symbolizes the anger of God or the divine wrath, the divine displeasure. Darkness also symbolizes death. Death. The wicked man expects no true deliverance. They don't expect anything. Whether it be through despair or hardened unbelief, they live on without any hope of restoration or the desire for restoration. They live in darkness. They live in darkness. But what's interesting here to me is when it says, and he is waited, W-A-I-T-E-D. Waited for of the sword. He is waited for of the sword. In other words, in other words, it emphasizes that there is a a day of certainty, of certainty, that they are going to have with the sword of God. The day is coming, and the sword of God will fall. It will fall. Judgment is not random, it is ready. It's not random. God's judgment is ready and waiting. And the the most blessed thing about one of the most blessed words in the scriptures. In whatever, in whatever way is being used, waiting, or God's, you know, God waiting, God's promise, God's patience, whatever it is. It's a great expression, excuse me. It's a great expression because when God is waiting, that means that there is a window of opportunity to repent and to close in with God and to resolve the issues that your sin has put between you and the sovereign Lord. As long as God is waiting, as long as he is patient, don't consider his waiting and patience as him being slack concerning his promise. But he is waiting and he is exercising patience in order to be able, in order to extend the window of opportunity to turn from sin and to turn to him. And people misjudge and they mistake and they do err in not understanding that his patience, his long awaiting, knowing that there is an appointed time and being able to have that benefit of knowing that ought to trigger something within the souls of created beings who in them, God tells us they know that he is God. This should be a time where you should be seeking his face and begging, begging for his salvation, begging to be made righteous, begging to have him have your sin laid upon him. Our Savior. God's delay in punishment should never be mistaken for the absence of punishment and torment and wrath to come. It should never be mistaken. And people don't like to hear those words. They don't want to talk about wrath and punishment, they don't want to talk about it. But we need to talk about it. It is God's divine patience that restrains the sword from falling. If God did not restrain his sword from falling, we would have already perished, all of us. So just because he's patient doesn't mean he's going to remove that sword from falling down. Brother Jeffrey, encouraging servant. Go ahead.

Darkness, Judgment, And The Waiting Sword

SPEAKER_05 18:37

Well, we better be talking about it now because when eternity gets here, it's going to be too late to talk about it then. And see, Jonathan, there is the simple point that for whatever reason, people just don't want to get, or humanity, I'll say that, don't want to get their head and their heart around. They think that whatever they do, God's going to be merciful. Even when if I do stand before him someday, he's going to give me mercy. He knows that I really meant well, even though I didn't receive him as savior, I didn't uh have salvation, none of that occurred. He knows that I meant to, I intended to, God's going to save me anyway. And of course, we know that's not going to happen. And so, Jonathan, I tell you what, if the earth and time right now was an hourglass, Jonathan, there are but a few grains of sand left to go through that glass before God says, enough. Get my children home. Like that, brother. I know, I know. It's awesome. Anyway, uh, thanks for letting me calm, man, man. Brother, love you.

SPEAKER_06 19:50

Brother Jeff, man, I go ahead, brother.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

Well, you know, as I'm sitting here, uh, it's never far from my mind, but when you think about this, yeah, God's judgment is coming. It's coming, but he knows, and I'm gonna touch a subject that people don't like to hear about. And he knows who his elect are and who are his not-elect. And the not-elect will never come to Christ, ever. They're gonna receive the judgment, it's gonna happen. He knows it. We don't know it, but he knows it. But he also waits for the rest of us for his elect to come because he doesn't want, he may not judge us in in the sense of sending us to hell on earth, but he does do things to get our attention. And I I firmly believe that you know, the further you resist, the more he's gonna tug, and he's gonna make it to a point where he may have to put you at the bottom of a well so you'll look up and finally see him. Oh, yes. And so, you know, it's like from our perspective, we're seeing all this, all this, you know, impending judgment and everything, but from his perspective, he knows who's coming and who is it, who is it? But but like like a like we just talked about. You know, I mean, if if if I was supposed to be saved at 15 and I wait till I'm 50, well, those 35 years are probably gonna be some tough years. Right. Because God is gonna he the the the Irish call him the Hound of Heaven. The Hound of Heaven. Have you ever read that? I haven't read it. Is it I didn't know that was a book, is it? There is. The Hounds of Heaven.

SPEAKER_06 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

I'll have to check it out. But uh yeah, yeah, he's not gonna let you go. But anyway, that's what I wanted to add.

SPEAKER_06 21:36

Thanks, brother. Uh Rod and then Pat.

Patience As A Window To Repent

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Oh man, this is just uh so convicting. This is just so like you guys just run on run on around the circle here with that. I mean, I guess I just thank God for his grace because, you know, like like our brother Jeff just said, you know, that the 35 years in between. And I guess that's me being, you know, like like he said, David. But that's the part, I guess I don't want to say scary, that's the wrong word, but it's just so like I think everybody touched on it. Probably goes to everybody. Remember when we I hear I think Sister Lisa, if you don't mind, you know, you said when you used to, you know, do things in the past, you know, and that's kind of how, you know, here recently I had to let go. And Brother John, you know, of the videography stuff with like the contract work, you know, because it was just like, I remember times where I was just so smitten on well, I was in the midst of losing my job, but due to the pandemic, and you know, I guess the devil crept in. He knew what I would love to have right now, you know, like a videography job. This is what I want fresh out of college. They gave it to me. And I remember, you know, telling new, you know, contractors, oh no, you'll be fine, you know. And they're like, oh, well, I heard that they take money. You know, the whole thing. You know, I can I don't need to open it up, but like they haven't done it to me, they haven't done it to me. So year on year after year, getting all these jobs, 50-60 weddings, but it just didn't feel right. You know, something was convicting, and then even counting what you guys are hitting on, you know, just the grace that he didn't kind of bring me to Job's level or even put me at the bottom of the well, but he made me open my eyes up to realize like I can't just keep doing this, you know what I mean? And I had to figure it all out. And here I am now, just able to speak about it. But I remember a day when I was just so like, well, what does this all mean? Is it gonna stop? You know, so just his grace is just freeing me to focus on self and do my own thing. That's where I'm at now, you know what I mean? So yeah, that's just my little piece of it.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Brother Pat, go ahead. You know, um I just want to say that if that election, we need to remember that um is by grace, and it's not because we're better than anyone else. Like we born just as wicked as anybody else, you know, and um that's why we need to be born again because um our old our first birth would never choose God, you know, and um it so I just want people to remember God's not looking down the corridor of time and choosing the people that are have it all together and are uh world beaters, you know. He's uh he saves people by his grace and nothing else, nothing in us.

Few Grains Of Sand Left

Election, Resistance, And Pursuit

SPEAKER_06 24:28

Amen, brother. Amen. So in this in this last verse, um in this section, because this this was I grouped these together this way, he says, talking about this wicked man again, still, the prosperous man, usually, he says, he wanders abroad for bread. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand. So you get this picture now of man who concludes his life with destitution. And I don't know that it's real from a monetary standpoint, but to me it sort of feels like a spiritual poverty, spiritually destitute. Now I could be wrong or it could be a combination of the two, but but but it is clear that he is painting this picture of this wicked man as being poverty in poverty now and in anxiety, and he's asking for bread. He's asking for bread, like this or see this sister Lisa says, yes, lacking the bread of life. Yeah, that's what it is. That's what it is, I think. I think that he's he's he's he's he's not full, he's not satisfied, he had power, he has money, he has stuff, he has things, he has influence. He's a he's he has conducted himself, as we see re-read earlier, as one who oppresses others, and now asking for bread. It could be both, it could be physical, you know, material loss, but I think that the significance here to be understood is that is it is a spiritual loss, and let me explain my reasoning, right? Let me explain my reasoning because what does Job have? What does Job have at this moment? Now remember, he's talking to Job. Job has lost everything, and now he's telling Job about the wicked man who was wealthy, that he wanders abroad looking for bread, saying, Where is it? Where is it? I don't have it. So it is very possible that he's speaking about the loss that Job has already incurred, and that Job is the person in this position wandering around asking for bread. That that's the state, that's the condition, that's the that's the those are his next approaches to be seeking for bread, to be seeking for satisfaction, whether it be material or whether it be spiritual. But I think the overriding issue here is spiritual. Where is it? And it says he knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand. Well, if the day of darkness is ready at hand, there is nothing material, food-wise, that's gonna help it. And this is why I put a bigger emphasis in my understanding of this on the spiritual aspect of it. Sister Lisa, go ahead.

Grace In Conviction And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Um, well, I was just gonna add, um, I agree with you 100%. And what I the first thing I thought of when I saw he wanders abroad abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? The first thing I came that that came to my mind was those who are lost searching for this bread of life that you and I all speak about all the time. I mean, that's the first thing. And I mean, how cool is it that in the word of God the writer writes this? And just like you said it, he could be speaking of uh food, possibly, but he knows that day of darkness is already at hand. So what do we know as believers? We we don't fear the day that our life ends here, right? And I feel like this guy's thinking, or he's saying, yeah, the the wicked, they um at the very end they realize, you know, they're looking for this bread of life and it's too late now for them. It's you know, as almost though Eliphaz is is reiterating what you just said earlier. There is a, you know, God is patient, but they somehow know the door is going to close at some point. I mean, we have the gospel is gone out as we speak all the time. And how many people will just turn away from it? They won't hear it. Right. But I guarantee you, if they were diagnosed, let's say with cancer or something the next day, they'd be trying hard. They'd be thinking, where is it? Like, why don't I believe, you know, they'd be searching even though it's not there within them. You know what I mean? But I think it's just incredible that that's the first thing that came to my mind and having you kind of say that. Uh I'm like, wow, you know, I I just think that's amazing in God's word to be in this book so far back, we know what bread that's what sustains us. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_06 30:21

Amen. And and and you know, it's it's uh and I like how you you made that connection because these are the kind of connections that I think we should all make when we read the scriptures, because I don't think, you know, I don't believe in con in coincidences, especially when it comes to the word of God. I mean, when you read John chapter 6, and you talk and Christ is referred to as the bread of life, and he talks about eat me and have life. And then you read something like this that the that the wicked man wanders abroad.