God wasn't inactive during the delay. And we have to remember that, right? Because God is orchestrating something in the midst of that silence in that midst of that interim, we we have to remember God is always at work, and that work is necessary. I mean, what would we do if God actually, every time we prayed and immediately after we prayed, we had what we asked? We now treat God like a genie. We don't know what it's like to wait upon the Lord. We don't know what it's like to be content. God is always answering every single prayer. And what are the answers to our prayers, right? It's it's yes, no, wait, maybe. But but it's not always what we want. If we would have always received what we prayed for, I'm sure none of us would have been married to our current wives. None of us would have had our current jobs. Right? God, God answers, and in the midst of that, being silent, you know, God is still speaking. You know, we hear people say, Well, God hasn't spoken to me in years. Well, that's probably because you haven't read God's word in years, you haven't meditated through God's word because that's how God speaks to us.
SPEAKER_13I love singing that stuff.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, it's there's an interesting story behind that because you know he died on that little puddle jumper plane with uh the was it Ricky Ricardo did? Big Hopper. What's his name? The Big Hopper. Big Hopper?
SPEAKER_02Vance. What was his name?
SPEAKER_10Eddie Eddie Vallet.
SPEAKER_01But my my dad was at his concert in Sioux City, Iowa, where they were supposed to go and perform, but they never they they died on the way to Sioux City, Iowa.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Richie Vellants. Richie Vallins. We were close. And a big hopper. Yeah. I'm gonna look it up now. You guys missed me. Ray, don't sit there innocent. You know you rock to that jam.
SPEAKER_05No, no, I'm just thinking though, stinky little planes have killed so many people, including Keith Green, whom I loved.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's right. Just stupid little things. Stupid planes or high planes. Yeah. I'd love to hear. Ray, we should cut a a um whatever a cover of you doing La Bamba with your New Zealand accent. The big bar.
SPEAKER_04Parley parley bamba!
SPEAKER_05Every little plane should have a parachute. I like those planes with parachute. You know, they have some have them. Yeah, I don't know why they all should. They should be mandatory. And same with big planes, big parachutes. Same with helicopters. Yes. No, ejector seats for helicopters.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's what it was. It was uh Buddy Hawley, the big bopper, and Richie Vellens who died on that plane. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_05That's the day the music, the day the music died.
SPEAKER_02But listen, isn't it funny? Because like to us, let's say we didn't know Spanish was even a language, and someone someone was just like, you know, saying that I mean, it would be normal to us, but we're singing words we have absolutely no idea what they mean, but we're like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Don't even know if we're saying it correctly. Does that mean I'm an idiot?
SPEAKER_02What?
SPEAKER_01I'm an idiot.
SPEAKER_03I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot.
SPEAKER_01It's like those people that get like the Japanese writing on their like on their arm or something like a tattoo. Yeah. And it's like, I'm an idiot or something.
SPEAKER_10You know the intro, uh, the intro to Lion King, like that song. It's beautiful. Yeah. So there is my wife sent me a thing the other day. It was like these podcasters from South Africa, and they knew the original language, and the guy's like, what does that even mean? He goes, dude, it's the dumbest thing ever. It literally means, look, there's a lion.
SPEAKER_12How do you serious?
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_12You're like running like chariots of five.
SPEAKER_08Look, it's a lion.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. Seriously, though, like when you think about that with music and the influence and the impact it has on you. And again, you don't even have to know the words per se, but like this whole K-pop revolution. Mark, you're into K-pop. Don't lie.
SPEAKER_01I do not get it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, K-pop's Brad Snow. It's taken the world by storm. Like and again, no one has any idea what they're saying, but they can repeat the words like perfectly.
SPEAKER_10Okay, but but honestly, how many K-pop uh uh concerts have you been to?
SPEAKER_02Zero. You're right.
SPEAKER_05Brad's been to a lot, hasn't he? I've seen videos of him.
SPEAKER_02K-pop dad. K-pop dad's his license plate. K-pop dad is our own brand.
SPEAKER_05So he's a graphic genius. Everything nice that you see graphically, Brad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and he started uh a channel or something or uh social media and it blew up on Twitter. So he'd go to these things and people would recognize him. K-pop dad.
SPEAKER_05That's what it's called, K-pop dad. K-pop.
SPEAKER_02That's what Todd's Todd. What's it called? K pop. K-pop. Ah, K-pop. Korean. Korean pop music.
SPEAKER_05They had popcorn at K-pop.
unknownK-pop.
SPEAKER_02Popcorn K-pop. But yeah, just one last point on that. On what? On that whole thing. Very profound. I don't know. But again, artists that have accents and you don't know. Oh, do it, easy.
SPEAKER_05Can you do it or not?
SPEAKER_01Do the reporter do the Hispanic reporter at Disneyland reporting on a malfunctional.
SPEAKER_07Anaheim, California. Revino Cochantos Niro. Disneyland.
SPEAKER_10I will say that is one of the best things he does. It's invasive. It is actually very because it's not even Spanish.
SPEAKER_02How he says it, like meaning everything Easy does is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01But I didn't actually actually say anything when he says that all the time.
SPEAKER_12Come on. I have to be saying something.
SPEAKER_05You ain't nothing but a hound dog. Do you think you can do it?
SPEAKER_12Yeah.
SPEAKER_05You ain't laugh for yourself. Do Vietnamese. No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_06You ain't nothing but a hound dog sitting over there. What's the words, right? Crying all the time. You ain't nothing but a hound dog. Crying all the time.
SPEAKER_12Give me some more, please.
SPEAKER_05You ain't nothing but people sing without accents. They can have a really strong accent. Stop singing. There's no accent.
SPEAKER_02You know my first shocker with that? I believe? Boy George. Really?
SPEAKER_09Come a comma come a comma come a chameleon. You come and go.
SPEAKER_03You know, the hey, what are you doing? My yeah, boy.
SPEAKER_10Australian. I think for me it was Bono. Because he you're right. Like, but he has an Irish accent. I remember hearing him talk and I was like surprised, right?
SPEAKER_02And again, my point is everyone sings with a California accent. Because it's Can you sing Vietnamese? Whenever I had somebody coming. By the way, for context, I grew up in Little Saigon. My dude. Oh, we did. Oh, Dep Jai. What's Dep Jai mean, Mark? Handsome. Where did they say that to you at?
SPEAKER_01When I'd go get my hair cut.
SPEAKER_12When they play the oldies but goodies, it would pick up where it left off.
SPEAKER_10I just checked, and in Vietnam we are no longer trending.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. Love my Vietnamese friends. Um Little Saigon, man. Yeah. Mop high bat, bomb nam sao, by time, tien moi. I just sounded a ten in Vietnamese.
SPEAKER_05So a lot a lot of what you say in other languages is meaningless jumbo jumbo, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Mumbo jumbo?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. When you talk in like Spanish.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Yeah, it's all just, you know. Mambo jumbo.
SPEAKER_01Do it in French.
SPEAKER_03What is it like? Poor French people, man.
SPEAKER_02Anyway.
SPEAKER_10For those who don't know, he is saying nothing in all of those languages.
SPEAKER_02Well, I do sometimes I'll know words, I'll mix them in, but most of it is just Yeah, and it's the same throughout the podcast.
unknownOh man.
All right, friends. Time for a cool, classy comment. This is from Angela Golden. This is a this is physical, by the way, guys. Last time we got a card on the last podcast, this is an actual letter, handwritten. Look at that. That's cool. These are gonna be like extinct. Museum pieces. Yeah. All right. Hello, Easy Mark, Ray, Oscar, and the Living Waters team. My name is Angela, and I'm 13 years old. My family and I have been listening to your podcast for a while now. My mom found your podcast for an addition to our homeschool Bible time, and we love it. We enjoy the banter, the spiritual encouragement, and the length of the episodes are just the right amount of time for us. And of course, you can't forget Easy's funny inflections to make us all laugh. Haha. As we started listening to your podcast more, we know it was the one for us. In fact, my younger brother loved it so much, he put the evidence study Bible on his Christmas list. One of the things I especially love about your podcast is that you call us friends. Even though I haven't met you in person, it feels like I really am your friend, as well as your sister in Christ. Ray, I wanted to thank you for sharing about your street ministry. You've let me know that even just someone uh someone a Ten Commandments giving someone a Ten Commandments coin can make a difference. I used to not know what to do when it came to talking to others about Jesus, but it helps knowing that you've had the same worries as me. Another thing my family loves about you guys is your ending. We have no idea what we're doing. It's a joke, and yet it's also true. We love that.
unknownWe're glad when it ends.
SPEAKER_02We love that. We love that it shows uh your humility and a world puffed up and pride. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter, and I hope you have a very blessed day. Sincerely, Angela Golden. I didn't so mature.
SPEAKER_01Didn't Jesus call Judah's friend? I was gonna say that.
SPEAKER_05I thought I wouldn't say that on this program.
SPEAKER_02That's not how we mean it. Angela, thank you, sister. And uh guys, 13 years old. That's really cool.
SPEAKER_05I remember when I was 13.
SPEAKER_02Do you?
SPEAKER_05I can still smell my surf. I can still smell my surfboard with the just the smell of the bigger. Did you start that young, right? Yeah, yeah. I I got a job as a bricklayer on Saturday mornings, paid for my surfboard. And um yeah, the memories are still very vivid. Isn't it amazing how incredible is we've got a four-inch piece of sponge if you threw it to a dog or but eat it? But this brain remembers things happened so long ago in detail, and you can replay it. You can actually you don't just think the thoughts, the memory, you actually see it.
SPEAKER_10Do you know that not everybody sees their memories? They don't? I just learned that some people can visually picture memories and and and others like think through them. Like they're not they're not visual thinkers. I'm a visual thinker, so I can hear that out of the way. I can see the colors of everything.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. What are they what are they just see a blank screen? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_02Ray, you know, the other day you were talking about how sometimes you just think of like creation and it blows your mind. And when I think of of something, well, I think of two things, vision and memory, like all my heart can do is worship. Like, how can you deny the existence of a creator when you think of memory and and vision? Like, what in the world is that? You know? Like evolution just developed vision. Like, how is that? It did.
SPEAKER_13Oh, you didn't know get that string off your jacket.
SPEAKER_10That's my friend Larry.
SPEAKER_12Larry the string. And now, erratically revolutionary
resource. This podcast is brought to you by the ultimate USB. Thank you for joining us, friends!
SPEAKER_01Mark, the ultimate USB. Tell us about it, man. Uh, the ultimate USB.
SPEAKER_02You know, back in 2017, it's by the way, it's actually called the Mark Spence Ultimate USB. Because it is. You uh you assembled it.
SPEAKER_01You know, back in 2017, I lost a lot of material that I was working on. Our IT guy came to back up a lot of my material and he and he had lost it, and I was uh beyond sad with it.
SPEAKER_02Um my heart still aches, Mark, when I read for you, bro. That was rough.
SPEAKER_01You had written a book or two or something? Yeah, I'd written all kinds of sermons. Um, but you know, it really lit a fire underneath me to just keep on going and to have the right attitude. And and so really it's it's just filled with answers to the most common objections and how to utilize the law. It's got our sermons uh on there, it's got videos. The the content is really amazing. Every time I open it, I'm amazed, honestly, uh, because it's just filled with tremendous uh content. And we uh just started making it available through Living Waters.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So make sure to check it out, friends. The ultimate USB. Don't forget the Living Waters mug. Give it a hug. The Evidence Study Bible, which is liable to bring about revival. Living Waters TV, right?
SPEAKER_05Evidence study Bibles in leather.
SPEAKER_10I love it.
SPEAKER_02Say that again the exact way you just said it.
SPEAKER_05It's in opposite. The evidence study Bible is in leather. I think it was worse the second time.
unknownIn leather.
SPEAKER_02Leather. Why were you so passionate about that, right?
SPEAKER_05Oh, because it's a cow has given up his life.
SPEAKER_02A cow?
SPEAKER_05I can't. A cat.
SPEAKER_12You heard him. A cow. A cow said.
SPEAKER_05It's like a cow and a car had a channel. Cower.
SPEAKER_04Anyways, friends, make sure to check that all out at uh Living Waters. Do it.
SPEAKER_02And don't forget the podcast YouTube channel. Make sure to like it. Hit that little tiny bell.
SPEAKER_04All right,
friends.
SPEAKER_02Today, why it feels like God is silent. The theology of divine delays. It's interesting, right? Our last podcast, we talked about feelings, and uh this ties in. We're not um glorifying feelings in any sense, but yeah, that that season of life where it just it it appears like the Lord is nowhere to be found. We've all had them. We've all been there. And we want to figure out today what do we do to survive those times? No, better yet, what do we do to thrive in those times?
SPEAKER_05You don't do nothing while you're waiting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they that wait upon the Lord, it's it's actually it's active, or you're you're moving forward. They that wait upon the Lord, we think, well, that's just sitting on your hands, and it's not. You know, they that wait upon the Lord, there is movement. Uh it's kind of like that adage of uh it's easier to steer a moving semi than one that is parked. Wow. So if it's even moving just slightly, you begin to move that strain. Well, everything behind it is going to move. Yeah. That wasn't original.
SPEAKER_05So I can't take that. Well, you can it's the same with a bike. If the bike's stationary, you fall off, but if you're moving, you can steer it easier. Is that original? Just well, the bike is.
SPEAKER_02Well, what do you do, Ray, when you don't even pedal your bike? Electricity. I actually do it for one reason until you could tell me you pedal. That's exactly right. Is that right? He does one he gets on the bike mark, he does one pedal and then I pedal, my tail hazy on pedal.
SPEAKER_05Because I know I've got to have exercise, so I make myself pedal quite a lot. Do you really? Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02What percentage of your bike riding would you say is pedaling?
SPEAKER_05Probably uh 20%, 15, 20.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah. I'm unimpressed. Um I'm unimpressed. Wow, I'm unimpressed. Um so, but guys, look, this is man, this is that was just so stupid.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow. This is extremely ubiquitous.
SPEAKER_10New word.
SPEAKER_01I bet you can't spell it.
SPEAKER_02I can't.
SPEAKER_10He's all Y-O-U.
SPEAKER_02I am such a bad speller. Ubiquitous. I should have said IT. Ooh, that would have been the perfect.
SPEAKER_01I was waiting for you.
SPEAKER_02I was waiting for Ray to say that. But it is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. And it's common. And you know. What is you don't remember the art topic, right?
SPEAKER_11We're doing a podcast, actually. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We've been all over the place since you introduced it. Yeah, it's true. But no, that just that sense that um, you know, people don't sense the Lord. Like God is silent, like He's just kind of abandoned us, forgotten us. Um yeah, it's it's very real and it's very devastating and very painful to people. I mean, we get people that write into us and they they're telling us, man, I've been in, I've been bedridden for years. Or, you know, I I lost my husband, I lost some some of my children.
SPEAKER_05I'm I was thinking of the bedridden thing just last night when I was lying in bed. I thought I couldn't stand here 24 hours a day. I'd go crazy. Why are you standing on your bed? Yeah, what a what a what a difficult thing for the human mind to do nothing.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's true. Um you know we we uh one of my favorite sayings ubiquitous is I forgot the saying.
SPEAKER_05Guys, stop it! Can I just in the hand is with two in the book? Let me sort of talk to that though. I just remembered.
SPEAKER_02Oh, but go ahead. Okay, one of my favorite sayings is we know the end of the story. Yeah, we know the end of the story. So one of the I'll let you talk, Oscar, but what what I'd like to do is maybe we can popcorn and and throw in popcorn? I know exactly what you thought, right? He wasn't even paying attention. That's true. I was yeah, um, because sometimes we can go in and out of things.
SPEAKER_04In and out.
SPEAKER_02Oh that's funny. Um no, I'd love us to to kind of each jump in and maybe highlight some of the the different characters in the Bible that had to wait. Joseph. Yeah, okay. Well, we can get into that. So Oscar, go ahead, though. Oscar, you're gonna say something.
SPEAKER_10Well, I was gonna say something else, and I can answer your question. You mentioned being bedridden and uh going crazy. Um two people come to mind. First, J.I. Packer, when he went blind, there's this great interview that these young college students went and had with him. His wife had passed away, like all of his friends had moved away. He was, I don't know, in his late 80s, 90s. He's sitting in a rocking chair blind. And they're like, How are you doing? And he said, Um, mind you, you know, because they're like, Man, you had this affection for reading, it was your hobby. He's sitting in this library and his eyes can no longer be used to read books and to enjoy himself and keep himself busy, whatever the case, he can't move. And uh they're like, How's it going? And he's like, Man, I am so glad that I spent all those years memorizing scripture because now I get to sit here all day long and reminisce on God's word. Like in that season of life, he found something to do, which is to glorify God with his mind. Boy, amazing. Um let me tell you.
SPEAKER_05I would have got rid of the rocking chair.
SPEAKER_02I'll tell you, blindness is is like my biggest fear.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I'm What about suffocating? I'm terrified. I'd rather, I'd rather suffocate and die really than go blind. Oh Alzheimer's seriously? Oh yeah. I'd rather I'll go be with the Lord. I'm just being honest. Maybe I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_10That's why your eyes are so big.
SPEAKER_02I'm just saying like my absolute my absolute worst nightmare is to be in perpetual darkness and not see any more.
SPEAKER_01Interesting.
SPEAKER_02Oh really? I I don't know how blind people do.
SPEAKER_01I'd rather be blind than have Alzheimer's.
SPEAKER_02Where somebody I agree.
SPEAKER_01I you know and that's why I play chess. Yeah, because I want to do it.
SPEAKER_05I'd rather have Alzheimer's and be blind than be run over by a steamroller.
SPEAKER_02Let's keep going. Um, but no, like seriously, I I would I'd rather be paralyzed. I'd rather oh, than to be blind. No way. Hundreds of that's gotta be a phobia. Wait, wait, hold on. Are you you guys are serious right now?
SPEAKER_05You see, look, there's so many things to be and how blindness you can't read so many can you. No, no, no, you've got audiobooks.
SPEAKER_13Yeah. No, I understand, but that's I like you can't see your the face of your family. You can't walk around and you can feel the face of your family.
SPEAKER_10That'd be annoying. Have you?
SPEAKER_02Uh uh am I really like a unicorn?
SPEAKER_10Have you guys ever seen Racharl's wife?
SPEAKER_05Neither has he.
SPEAKER_10Oh boy.
SPEAKER_05That's terrible. Oscar's worse than the light was on. Mark said it. Yeah. Um, Mark.
SPEAKER_01I actually tried to give a gospel track to Stevie Wonder once. I was with you, right? Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_05That's right. Was it the ear pool?
SPEAKER_01It was. Yeah, he didn't see me coming. So he didn't take it. Stupid. That's true. However, however, Shaq went to get on an elevator. Remember the story? Shaq went to get on an elevator. Oh, okay. And Stevie Wonder was on the elevator. And when he got on, Stevie Wonder said, Hey Shaq. Oh, that's right. I heard that. That's what that's the way Shaq describes it. So somehow he knew that it was uh diesel, it was Superman.
SPEAKER_05I put a tract in um Shaq's song. Did you have a ladder? Yeah, I did. I had a ladder when I did it.
SPEAKER_02Um but yeah, whatever. I'm shocked. I'm really shocked you guys feel that way.
SPEAKER_10It must be a phobia. There's got to be some like blind phobia.
SPEAKER_01I would rather lose my hearing than my eyes. There's no way. I'd rather lose my eye. You'd rather use my hearing. Yeah, I'd rather lose your hearing and keep me. No, no, I'm sorry. I'd rather lose my eyes than my hearing. I'd rather lose my taste buds or my sight than my taste buds. Okay. You got I'm you wouldn't be able to see me anymore if you went blind.
SPEAKER_02It's just being annoying. Right? You would you would rather those other things that blind blindness doesn't terrify you?
SPEAKER_05Oh, everything terrifies me. You know? Not eating, starving to death. Being tickled to death.
SPEAKER_02You gotta say something else here again?
SPEAKER_10Uh oh, to answer your question, to get back
on topic. Yeah. Um ASIF, Psalm 73 is one of my ASAF. ASIF. If you're from Israel 2,000 years ago, it would have been ASIF. You actually might be right. I've no idea.
SPEAKER_02Augustine, yeah.
SPEAKER_10No, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_05But it's it's a wonderful psalm. Just something beautiful.
SPEAKER_10Psalm 73, it he's mind you, ASAP. I'm gonna give this one to you for now. But if you're wrong, you'll answer to the Lord. ASAP in Psalm 73, he's this musician, he's working at the core, and some he sees some sort of hypocrisy, whether it's a religious leader, political leader, whatever the case, and he goes through this uh season of the dark night of the soul. And in the opening stanza, he says, uh, you know, he he paints this metaphor as like he's climbing a mountain and his feet almost slip and he's falling. And in the midst of all of that, he's sort of asking, where are you, O Lord? How can evil people, how could good things come to evil people? And I mean he's he's asking really deep. Could bad things happen to how could people come to the evil? Oh, got it. Which is a way that like the psalmist asks that question more than they ask the other one. Uh and so he's just questioning, he's asking, he's seeking, he's searching. And then in the midst of that, he he makes an he makes an observation. He observes that his struggle with the Lord is not the sin in others, but the sin he discovers in his own heart. Right. That that's the thing that's causing him to slip. And then what's amazing is that like he says, like, ah, now I see that it's actually their feet that are slipping.
SPEAKER_05And he went into the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_10He went, yep. He found the Lord in the sanctuary, which I think a calling to read God's word, to church membership, like it's I I preached a sermon on this, and that's a really important pivot point in in the psalm. But one of the things that I said in the end, uh, and I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but since I'm bringing ASF up, he says that he his feet almost slipped, and you almost have to imagine, like, he reached out and and he's like begging for the hand of God to be there. And he finds it in the sanctuary. And the question is to those who are in that season, that their feet have slipped, that they're asking the questions, that the presence of God doesn't feel near, which is something David, Asaf, uh, Spurgeon, many others have experienced before. How can you have confidence that the Lord won't abandon you? You can have confidence because there is one person the Lord has abandoned. On the cross, Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God has abandoned Christ in that moment so that you would know that you would never be abandoned. That's the confidence that we have when we can't hear God, hear him. Amen.
SPEAKER_02That's good, Oscar.
SPEAKER_05You know, there's one man that very it comes to mind straight away that had the experience of a divine delay, and that was Lazarus, but it didn't worry him.
SPEAKER_13That's good.
SPEAKER_01If you had, if you would have been here, right? I mean, how many times have we thought that, heard that, done that? Like I I faithfully, I mean the prodigal, I I faithfully served you, and now this is my allotment.
SPEAKER_06Right?
SPEAKER_01We think of in Genesis 37 where the dream uh that Joseph first gets the dream that he's gonna rise to power, he's gonna rise to leadership, he's gonna rise to be the one. And then what ends up coming? Slavery, persecution, prison. It's like anything other than God, you said that this was going to happen. Yeah, and now I find myself inside of a predicament that that shouldn't happen. God, God wasn't inactive during the delay. And we have to remember that, right? Because God is orchestrating something in the midst of that silence, in that midst of that interim, we we have to remember God is always at work, and that work is necessary. I mean, what would we do if God actually, every time we prayed and immediately after we prayed, we had what we asked? We now treat God like a genie. We don't know what it's like to wait upon the Lord. We don't know what it's like to be content. God is always answering every single prayer, and what are the answers to our prayers, right? It's it's yes, no, wait, maybe, but but it's not always what we want. If we would have always received what we prayed for, I'm sure none of us would have been married to our current wives. None of us would have had our current jobs, right? God, God answers, and in the midst of that, being silent, you know, God is still speaking. You know, we hear people say, Well, God hasn't spoken to me in years. Well, that's probably because you haven't read God's word in years, you haven't meditated through God's word, because that's how God speaks to us.
Amen. You know, it's interesting, Mark, you bring up uh Martha and Mary regarding Lazarus. So that's well, we'll start with them. Um and and what they said to Jesus, if you had been here, if you had come, right? But but that listen to what the text says. It says that um now Jesus, John 11, 5 through 6. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Like that is humorous to me. Like when I read that. Because you you know, you have expectation. So he went there right away and no, so oh, Lazarus is dying? Okay, let's stay two more days. What? Because he had a purpose.
SPEAKER_05He stinketh. Yeah, right. Speaking of that, I'd like to know if Lazarus was bitter that Martha said in the greatest book ever written for 2,000 years, Lazarus stinketh.
SPEAKER_02Stinketh. And there's something about the King James English for that word. He's he stinks, but he stinketh really at some.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there was no neglect. We have to remember that. That silence is not neglect, it's intentional from God. Well, it's 13 years for Joseph.
SPEAKER_0513 years in prison. That's a long time.
SPEAKER_02What is it? His delays are not necessarily his denials or something like that. Yeah, so Joseph, that's another one, a good one. So just lead us into that, right? Joseph.
SPEAKER_05Oh, Joseph, uh, he what a wonderful plan God had for his life. You think about it, he was, and there's so many biblical types in there that are so exciting. He had the favors of his father. You know, and he was given a coat of many colours. And we have the favor of the father, and we've been given a robe of righteousness, and the world hates us because it hates that righteousness and the fact that God favors us. And so Joseph, when he had his brothers, he took him food, they dropped him down a well. They were gonna kill them. That was the intent. They so hated him, there's so much jealousy there. And then he was rescued and he was sold into slavery. So you think I'm getting out of this well, but it gets worse, and then it gets better, and then it gets worse when part of his lusty wife gets her eyes on handsome Joseph and tries to pull him into the sack, and he says no, and that made her mad. And then he was uh he was um accused of sexual harassment in those days, thrown into prison now for 13 years. You think, what is God doing? It just goes on and on, getting worse and worse, more and more wells as Joseph went along, until you see how all things worked out well. In the end, he made a big splash where he was exalted to that right hand, and like that's that's the whole life of Christ, dropped into the pit of um our sin, suffered for us.
SPEAKER_01And what was it the baker that got released?
SPEAKER_05Yes, yeah, and the the those two, the baker and the butler, is a type of right self-righteousness and the grace of God. One said the the the wine, and the other one was um the bread of self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_01But what do you think was happening inside the the mind of Joseph when he's like, hey, all right, so God's obviously not doing something. I don't think he went there, but was there an element of well, maybe God needs help?
SPEAKER_05Well, I I I you brought up the point that I real I feel really sorry for that baker because the other guy gets his dream interpreted and he says, it's really good news. That was a good interpretation. Give me mine. Well, you're gonna be hung by the neck in three days. Oh, thanks a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, yeah, and you look at man, Joseph's attitude, it's gotta be one of the most epic responses. Well, he's almost without I was reading I was reading Genesis recently, and and I started, I started to cry when I when I read that he he had to turn away from his brothers that he couldn't no longer contain himself.
SPEAKER_01Always emotional with that.
SPEAKER_13Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Man, it just like hit me. And when and then when he revealed it, it's me, Joseph, like, oh, I was just like, and they just stood there stunned, you know. And but what he says to them, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. And you guys remember after Jacob died and they were worried, oh no, now that our father's died, and it says he comforted them, spoke to them kindly, like, oh man, that's just like oh, if anyone was justified to roast someone, it would have been exactly.
SPEAKER_05Well, up in his position, he could have, he could have just said, kill him. Oh, because he had that authority.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and but but that heart and mindset, you know, an attitude. It's a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_01Where did that come from? Where did that, I mean, who was he leaning upon? Who did he think through before him? Who went before him to think, oh, this is the way it's gonna work out?
SPEAKER_05You know, Joseph's faith isn't even really evident. Obviously, he had faith in God as a as a Hebrew, but until um he said to part of his wife, how can I do this thing?
SPEAKER_02Sin against God and sin against God.
SPEAKER_05So there was a double double dagger in there. Uh part of her had entrusted him with everything in his home. So he said, How can I do this thing? And sin against God.
SPEAKER_01And do you think there was a part of Potiphar that was just thinking, no, she's lying. There's no way.
SPEAKER_05It gotta be because she's yeah, she was a deceitful, she was a Jezebel.
SPEAKER_13Well, and you think of you think of again and again, and all of this the real name was Rotunda.
SPEAKER_02400 pounds. Yeah. But you have to remember, like, we look at Joseph in that predicament, right? He's in a kind of uh elevated place in that, you know, he's he's Potiphar's uh servant, but he had authority, and obviously he was in a nice place, but he was still a slave, still cut off from his family, his people, his so, but in that there was still that, like, yeah, that sense of like God, where are you still? But then all of a sudden he's in this predicament. You guys, for a year she pestered him, some believe it. For she kept going after him, yeah. Some believe it was like because she persisted after he resisted her, it said day after day.
SPEAKER_13And so So when he ran from him, why didn't he just get on a camel and go back to Israel? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But the fact that that he he persevered and and what it what's that come down to? Like, yeah, God, where are you? Are you silent? Why am I here? What did I do? But but he he pressed on, persevered.
SPEAKER_03He's still on Romans 8 28. That's what he did. Oh, yeah. Oh, right, puta, yeah, fine.
SPEAKER_10It's uh it's also amazing to look at it from a typological and covenantal sense because Joseph, Jose, Joe, the reason why Joseph is so great is uh it because it reminds us of the greatest Joseph ever, right? The true and great Joseph, because we are the ones that sell Jesus down the line. We are the ones that enslaved him to a cross. And yet, in the midst of all that, Jesus is the one that sits at the right hand of the king like Joseph did, and Jesus is the one that provides for us in our deepest needs and our deepest deepest famines. Amen. Amen. Well put.
SPEAKER_05Well, I'd be interested to see how much they sold. I think it says how much they sold Joseph for into slavery. Do you remember? Was it 30? Wasn't it 20 pieces of silver? Yeah, was that equivalent in inflation of 30 pieces of silver?
SPEAKER_02Um, yeah, and look, I I mentioned earlier, right, we know the end of the story. Yeah. So we can, like, you know, with Ray watching the end of rugby games before he was watching Mark Spence going to the end of a movie or a book or whatever. Whatever. Always it's crazy to me. So, but but Joseph didn't have that luxury. We have it, which so we can chill. Oh, yeah, he's he's good. But he was living it. I mean, he was like creating the narrative that was gonna be written. And and so we have to remember that. But as I was thinking about that, I thought, but wait a minute. Joseph didn't need to know the end of the story because he knew the author of the story and he knew his heart. And so he knew that whatever the story was gonna be, it can't deviate from God's heart toward his children.
SPEAKER_01You know, you know, in 1 Samuel 16, King, well, little David uh was anointed king.
SPEAKER_02So I was about to say David next.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, all right. Yeah, no, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02I no, no, I was gonna say now let's talk about David.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so he so here's King David, he he's anointed as king. Uh he's going to be the king, but listen to what he says in Psalm 13:1. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? Because he didn't sit on the throne for many years. A lot of time has gone by. He's being chased by Saul. There's long seasons where he's wondering to himself, he's thinking, but what about the promises of God? No, God, God said this. This is not happening. What is taking place? And to where we see now we just see the genuineness. Well, are you gonna forget me forever? This is the beautiful thing that we have in the in in the new covenant here. We're able to look back and see all the promises of God. All right, yes, and amen. We read the final the final chapter, but these people in the old testament, they didn't have this. And I'm like, Well, what took place? Obviously, there was a special grace that came down upon them. Obviously, God gave them the ability to to see what other people were not able to see. But I would be so curious to to know the mindset, to get into the mindset of these people who had the promise of God who still didn't wave, uh waver from it. And Hebrews 11 is filled with these people who by faith were able to accomplish.
SPEAKER_05It's just thinking so many of the Psalms are written out of pain, yeah, and that's why they're so comforting to us. It's not all, you know, roses, there's thorns everywhere for the Christian. And so you can find comfort in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Spurgeon often talked about how shallow we would be had every one of our wishes been fulfilled every time. Everything, you know, we want to arrive. No struggles, no trials, no challenges. You'd be a rap artist.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, what's up? I'm gonna rap, I'm gonna rhyme. If I'm gonna do it all the time. Time here I've go, flow, flow. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rap about him and her and them and you. Oh. Yeah, that's what you'd be doing instead of doing this.
SPEAKER_12Mark, I love how you got into your DJ pose.
SPEAKER_01I got that from Oscar. Oscar taught me that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's funny.
SPEAKER_05Oh, that's hilarious. Um, yeah. I lost. I mean, seriously, you you you would probably, if you had your own way, sign a contract. Thank you, Lord, or take this contract and I'll just ask your blessing on my rap ministry.
SPEAKER_02That's where I was headed.
SPEAKER_05But you you you had your Gethsemane experience. Not my will, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I'm thankful for that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, praise God, man. You know, I mean, we have our own, you know, we have so many of our own ends of stories to look at in our own lives in chapters and divisions of this situation, that scenario, that, you know.
SPEAKER_05Could you imagine if Joseph was chose all that that path and he went? So this is what I'd like. I'd like to go to prison for 13 years, and I'd like to be dropped down a well. It would have been kind of different.
SPEAKER_02And that's why God doesn't leave us in charge of our trials. Because if we were, we'd never become who we end up becoming because we would never put ourselves through that stuff.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and not that we're asking God to put us through trials or anymore.
SPEAKER_03Raise one. Night, Lord, please don't give me trials now.
SPEAKER_01Why is it that we evaluate God's faithfulness by how fast he responds to our prayer? But why is that?
Yeah, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_05But that's human nature, isn't it? If I talk to you, I want it done now. Answer me. You know?
SPEAKER_02This is true. I was talking to a friend. See? Huh? Mark, how many times has Ray hit you over the course of his life?
SPEAKER_01He's caused many a bleeding.
SPEAKER_02There's a lawsuit there. I was talking to a friend the other day, and we were talking about the ways of the Lord and trials and struggles and challenges. And I said, bro, can you just please, real quickly, you know, just explain to me quantum physics? And he laughed. He's like, uh I said, just think about that. I said, and then think about like what we say about how much how how badly we're able to decimate the planet with our nuclear power. You guys know there are like, I think two, three thousand nuclear bombs. That's comforting. Okay. The Zarbamba. Okay. Zarbamba is the largest nuclear bomb.
SPEAKER_05I thought you were reached out that song.
SPEAKER_02You thought that was gonna be your uncle. So anyway, it's uh it's it's own, you know, Russia has it. It can kill about 20 million people.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02One bomb. Okay. So think about two, and you know, the bombs that we have today, like they make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like a firecracker, you know. So imagine, I I was saying, I told him, imagine all the bombs, all the nuclear bombs we have, all two, three thousand of them going off at the same time on the planet, right? I mean, whatever. Okay, but you guys, if you guys have a lot of people. Wait, wait, so you think it's gonna sound like this? No, Oscar. I said, Come on, man, represent me properly. But you guys, you guys have watched Horton Here's a Who, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't remember it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Mars. And read the book. Okay, Horton Here's a Who, Dr. Seuss, right? So it's this whole little world, but it's on it's on a dandelion that an elephant's holding or whatever, right? So it's like, what is our planet? Man, Oscar, you're really yawning it up today. What is our planet being decimated with all the nuclear power that's like to us like, whoa, we see a mushroom cloud, one mushroom, and we're like, whoa. That's like, imagine that in the in the expanse of space. Like not even that.
SPEAKER_05I'd just like to say, seriously, if the nuclear bombs are so big, why don't they drop it into a come oncoming hurricane right in the middle of the eye, just to see what would happen.
SPEAKER_02That's your next book, right? How we overcame hurricanes and killed 20 million people. But my whole point is, guys, like like we we can't even fathom that. It's not this earth is nothing, right? Um, and quantum physics, like we can't even begin to say the first word to even try to describe it.
SPEAKER_05Um could space engineer at camera man's time. Quantum physics.
SPEAKER_01I can explain it. Quantum physics shows this level of solid machine.
SPEAKER_10I like that he said quantum physics and race at space. Space.
SPEAKER_02Quantum physics. So listen, um, we can't even grasp those things. And we expect to grasp the ways of the God who spans the universe with his hand.
SPEAKER_05Are you gonna do that thing on the sitting on the lightning running?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So the point is that they have no idea what you're referring to. It's actually, you know, you you've gone through something. It's something that I wrote for you.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. If we hopped on a beam of light, flew through space at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, and a second and a half we'd be at the moon, nine minutes would be at the sun, 93 million miles away. Four years we'd reach Alpha Centauri, the star closest to our solar system. So 186,000 miles, not per hour, not per minute, per second, nonstop. Second and a half to the moon, nine minutes to the sun, four years Alpha Centauri. But if we started that journey at the beginning of our galaxy and crossed it non-stop, 186,000 miles per second, it'd take us 100,000 years to complete our journey.
SPEAKER_05I'm not going. Yeah, I'm not going.
SPEAKER_02Over hundreds, you know, hundreds of billions of galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy, and God spans the universe with his hand. And we expect to fully understand his ways. Right. Like, again, it's like it's our our struggle is is we can't we can't imagine that we can't know. And so that's what our problem is. Like, well, it has we have it makes it has to be like this and like that. And like, again, try to explain to a one-year-old why in the world you're pulling it away from those beautiful red, orange, yellow, dancing, you know, warm things as it's screaming its head off.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yeah, fine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's like because that's why is the baby crying as you pull it away? Because it thinks what do you mean how in its mind it can't even begin to fathom? Why would you take that nice, you know, triangular-shaped, shiny, sharp thing away from me that I'm trying to put in my mouth that looks amazing. It's gonna taste good. Right. It can't even fathom why. And that's how we have to accept that's who we are.
SPEAKER_05The other thing, human nature, not not your will, but mine be done. Is it like a click of the fingers? God, you're a butler, do what I tell you.
SPEAKER_02That's good, that's really good. Yeah, demandingness, that's good. Divine butler. Yeah. Um, yeah, Oscar.
SPEAKER_10I was just gonna I want to comment on that. What if that's just a complete paradigm shift? To to go from um my will be done to thy will be done radically changes the way we pray, radically changes our expectations uh of this world and and and how God will answer us. And I mean that that is a radical mind shift for so many people to go from my will be done to thy will be done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, well, again, and excuse me.
SPEAKER_05It's so contrary to human nature, we sweat drops of blood at the thought of giving up our will to God's will.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, there's no greater freedom. Yeah, absolutely. It's um it's like, you know, being well, I experienced that, I told you I was about it, being in a foreign country and and like someone else knows what to do. It's it was a joy for me to let Ken Ham drive me in Australia because he's an Aussie, he knows how to drive on the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car, mind you. And so it's like, so God comes in and says, Hey, let me take over here. And but we know we won't it's stupid to to try to do something that we're not good at anyway. You know. Uh Moses. Let's talk about Moses.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03What about Moses? My mom my mother didn't even know who Moses was, and she was a Jew.
SPEAKER_05That's exactly right. Moses couldn't enter the promised land, and that's a type of the law not entering into grace. The law can only chase a man to Calvary no further. And it's a wonderful thought where you think Moses wasn't allowed to go into the promised land, but Calvary stops the law, satisfies the law so that we're saved by grace alone. But he was wandering in the wilderness for 40 years with a pack of wine. That's a long time.
SPEAKER_0240 years and well remember too, 40 years after he fled That's right. He fled Egypt as well. Just hurting his livestock on the backside of a desert. Like, you know, that's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_05That was 40 years doing that. Yeah, preparing for God to use them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then 40 years wandering with these children of Israel. And here's what blows me away about Moses. And and this is, I think, really key. What's that? It sounds like a song title.
SPEAKER_03This is what blows me away about Moses. Oh, that was actually a good tune.
SPEAKER_13No, it wasn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05No, it was off key. This is what blows me away about Moses.
SPEAKER_10Maybe the reason why he's so afraid of losing his sight is he's already lost his hearing.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna develop that song. Um, but yeah, I'm just saying the thing that blows me away about Moses.
SPEAKER_13Now it's in Susan every time it's the thing that blows me away.
SPEAKER_02It's that it's that he after he found, I mean, imagine that. You're you're nothing but enduring. I mean, he's standing in the gap. God's gonna destroy all these people. He's crying out to them, Lord, don't do it. You know, he's he's oh, and then God, and then he he you know, strikes the rock twice, he gets frustrated, doesn't hallow God. You know, I don't know exactly what all that means, but God says, You're not going in. Like the fact that he didn't blaspheme God and just commit suicide, like blows, he he he still honored God in it all, and he recounted the law to the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_05But didn't something happen that we don't know about, disputed about the body of Moses? Do you think he was translated or something like that?
SPEAKER_02Well, he says when uh uh when Marco Archangel disputed about the body of Moses.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so what happened? They couldn't find the body of Moses or something.
SPEAKER_01Well, but here's the thing several years later, Moses did enter into the promised land uh with on the Mount of Transfiguration.
SPEAKER_05Ah, and that's where Peter tried to start a building building program. That's right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, three times. Um, but you know what I'm saying, like that heart that just says, because there is that, those aspects too, of those that are waiting in it. What where's the Lord? And and maybe even at the end, something permanent happens that is opposite of what they want. Because often we talk about hope, and you know, but but the hope is, and I was saying this to this brother I was talking to the other day, our hope is not that the trial will end, our hope is not that something will change, whether it's our husband or our wife, or our circumstance or situation. Our hope is the Lord who never changes. That's right. And that's our hope. He never changes, and so you know, we can rest in him. But but there are some who don't get the that answer, or something permanent. It's a loss of a child, it's it's an opportunity that it's permanently gone forever. How do we stay faithful to the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_05You know, I say this reverently. It's I find it a little frustrating to know that God is the God who can intervene in the midst of lightning. He's that fast. He can just go straight into that flash of lightning and split it in two and tiny and not. But he's the one that makes us wait for so long, and and yet he's so fast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's because he's more interested in shaping our soul than speeding up our timeline. That's right.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I was just thinking, like, there's in many ways, there's no such thing as a season of waiting, there's just the season of shaping. In that way, like the Lord is shaping you through this thing, not causing you to have a waiting room until you get to the other side.
SPEAKER_05Like the Potter's vessel.
SPEAKER_10Like the Potter's vessel, that's exactly right. I was also thinking you mentioned like the loss of a child, and it reminded me that uh when we were in Australia for season, it was in Thessaloniki for season 11. Oh, you're we were in Thessaloniki season 11 talking to this guy, and he grew up in the church, and he he started saying, you know, I've I um trying to think of like a god that would allow suffering, children to die. He had somebody in his family, I think it might have been a sister or something, that passed away. And uh this is what I said to him. I I was like, Do you do you guys know who Boo Radley is? Uh from the book To Kill a Mockingbird?
SPEAKER_05Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_10So in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, there's this character, Boo Radley, and the the children are absolutely petrified of this man because he there's rumors about him being dangerous. They walk by his house and like they see, like, you know, the the like blinds bin as though he's watching them. I mean, they're afraid of this man. In addition to that, they have to walk by his house because there's this tree trunk, and somebody is putting toys in the tree trunk for them to play with. And so the fear, of course, is like we got to get past Boo Radley's house to get to this tree trunk to play with the thing. And later on at the end of the story, when they're being attacked by an older man, who is it that comes and saves them? It's Boo Radley. And so the person that they feared the most was actually the person that was looking after them the whole time, providing them joy and protecting them from the enemy. If we can make that kind of a mistake with a person, how much more can we mistake the character of God? He is the great one who desires our joy, who looks after us and seeks our protection through the cross. You ever see that reminded me of Audacity?
SPEAKER_05Gregory Pick starred in that movie. Oh, really? Oh, I've never seen the movie. It's a great movie.
SPEAKER_02Ray, what what he was talking about reminded me of Audacity.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Oh, with the breaking of the window.
SPEAKER_02Remember the guy? He wrote the movie.
SPEAKER_05The movie that you wrote and produced. Yeah, well, I need specifics to get my brain into gear. There was no specifics, just these eyeballs looked like. That was the that's the highlight of the movie because filming that we filmed it at two o'clock in the morning. Yeah. And it was uh somewhat.
SPEAKER_13Tell the scene.
SPEAKER_05Um there's a train coming, and this girl in the doesn't realize she's parked on the railway line, and the train's coming closer and closer. And this big, ugly-looking guy, if I may say that, is trying to warn her and he's banging on the window to try and get her to move, and she's screaming and calling the police and whatever. And he's speaking in Spanish, and he's speaking in Spanish, and the train's getting closer and closer, she's gonna get killed, and suddenly he smashes the window and pulls her out, and that was a a token of love. And uh and then he ran off with her.
SPEAKER_01I actually ate some of that window. You did? Yeah, it was sugar water.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's how they do it for movies. They do. Yeah. Um, yeah, uh I love this. Uh hang with already. I love this quote by Matthew Henry. God sometimes delays in answering prayer because he loves to hear the voice of prayer.
SPEAKER_05Oh, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_02Imagine, you know, the the delight that the Lord gets from his children crying out to him. There's such beauty in that, you know. It's like that's why I was talking about before about how I want my my prayer life to be constant. You know, the Lord delights to hear from his children. Again, we uh we understand it in a microcosm of us being fathers and how much we delight to hear from our kids, you know. Um but yeah, and and again, we don't know exactly what God is doing at the same time. And you know, it's like it's like getting mad at God for not making the weather be what you want it to be. But God, I asked for a sunny day today. What about the farmer whose family is is like starving because he's not getting any any rain, you know? So it's like we're always thinking about us, we're always the center of the city.
SPEAKER_05Can I just say, Lord, rain on the farmer, but give me the sunshine.
SPEAKER_03Lord, send one cloud to the farmer.
SPEAKER_05Can I just say something here? Um, people can watch Audacity on fully freefilms.com. That's right, I was gonna say that. And there's no charge to watch fully free films.
SPEAKER_10How much of the film do you get to watch?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, fully free. And that just reminded me of the time when I was trying to go to the market, he went into a dollar store and kept saying to the guy, how much is this? And the guy would say, It's just a dollar. So, what about this over here? And he'd say, That's a dollar. But if I bought this and this, this is what happens when you're trying to fill in time between meetings. Yes, he's the he's the director of the department of annoyance.
SPEAKER_13That's a good thing. Smart. Director.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you know, Paul. Yes,
um you know Paul, right? Uh Paul. Thorn in the flesh.
SPEAKER_05Yes, he was.
SPEAKER_02Three times coming to the Lord, a buffeter from Satan. And what does the Lord say to him?
SPEAKER_05My grace is sufficient for least I be exalted above measure, Paul says. He knew what was going on. This was to keep him humble. Often that's why God doesn't come running to answer our prayers, because he wants us to walk in humility and in faith.
SPEAKER_01You know, the the silence from God, it forces a deeper question, right? Do I trust him when I don't understand him? You know, am I believing that he's really on his throne orchestrating? Yeah. Well, that silence, it'll tell you where where things are at between you and him.
SPEAKER_10Reminds me of the story of Job, which we haven't really talked about.
SPEAKER_02I was just about to say Job. Did you look on the screen?
SPEAKER_10I didn't, uh, yeah, no. Uh, you know, I mean, Job's wife and children, his entire life falls apart. And he's struggling to understand, though being faithful. And at the end, God answers him. He doesn't answer him by bringing back from the dead his wife, his children. Instead, he brings Job comfort by reminding him of his character. God points to his own character that provides comfort to Job.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's interesting. Instead of answering Job's many questions, God gave him 70 rhetorical questions that Job couldn't answer. And then Job says, I've heard of you by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye has seen you. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and in ashes. That is so foreign to the world, would say what a disgusting attitude to have. To think your heart is wicked, and but that's what happens when you get in the presence of God, you see a contrast between yourself and his holiness.
SPEAKER_02You know, friends, those of you listening, I I think this is to all of us here. We we would be wise to dwell in those chapters where where God is speaking to Job.
SPEAKER_13Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Epic is such a stupid small word. Like this is God speaking and putting his grandeur on display. And it's beautiful because it it does to us what it did to Job. It puts our hand on our mouth, and we just like, what can we say? Like, wow, Lord, you know, and and look, Job definitely got demanding in his pain. Who could I mean who could blame the guy, right? I mean, he was struggling. But I I love his initial response after all those terrible things happened. His wife, his kids, you know, everything. He he tore his robe, he shaved his head, and he fell on his face, and he he said, The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And it says, and then all this, Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with wrong. I mean, that that friends is what we're talking about. You know, it's having that hardened attitude that just says, Lord, you know. And and and and Job knew even more at the end because yeah, he dealt with that pain, that confusion, that struggle, but he came to that place where he he he realized the goodness of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05When I read the book of Job, I go straight to where Job tells us what the problem was, so I didn't have to go through all the problems of Job to Lightly answer us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, we count them blessed who endured. You've heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
SPEAKER_01I I boy, it would do us well to have the end in mind and not the steps. We pray for the steps to fall into place, but in reality, what we really need is the end. And I'm gonna give you a quick example of that.
Uh recently, I was on my way to work and I hit a train. Uh I didn't hit a train. Did you die? Waiting for that. No, so the train was coming through, but as soon as the the arm started coming down, I was looking in the mirror to the person behind me, and he started hitting his steering wheel non-stop. Why? Because he was late.
SPEAKER_05Oh. So he was late and moved out and let him through so he could get by the train.
SPEAKER_01So he's thinking, all right, I'm late. This is what's gonna stop me. But in reality, what did he really need? Wherever he was going needed to be taken care of. Maybe he's thinking to himself, if I don't get to work on time, I'm gonna be fired. Or if I don't get here on time, well, then I'm gonna lose this opportunity, whatever it may be. But in reality, we're praying for the steps. We do the same thing, right? Help me to hit every green light before I get to this place so odd that I can be on time. But in reality, we're praying for the steps, but it's the outcome that we need. So, what does that mean? What does that look like? Lord, I know that if I'm late to work one more time, that I've been told that I'm gonna be written up. Mark, you don't have to share a real life story. I just I have to. Yeah, right. So I have to. The prayer should be something different. Instead of let me hit every green light instead of every red light. Will you take care of that, whatever that is? Amen. So therefore, I'm not praying for these little individual circumstances, and we can cast all of our cares on him because he cares for us. It's just to have a bigger picture of God. Amen. A bigger picture that God is in control. That's it. So we don't have to worry about the little circumstances to get us to where we need to be. I love that what you just said about the train.
SPEAKER_05The train and the arms coming down. Thank you. So you know, when when when we're when as a vehicle, a train can injure us and the arms coming down, the Christian should remember that underneath are the everlasting arms that come down to protect us. Oh, that's good. It's a picture of God's protection.
SPEAKER_10You know what we you know what actually? The arms? The arms are kind of like God's arms protecting you.
SPEAKER_05Oh, that's good. What I would do is I would put gloves on those. Like ski gloves. Yeah, and then then the little scripture each side of it so driving.
SPEAKER_02But I was I was thinking as you guys were talking, it's like the arms of God. We take refuge. Um But you know, I I want to close it out with with this um this hymn.
Please sing it. That I've that I've shared before. And friends, you know, listen, sometimes you'll hear us share stuff that we've shared before. If if you're one who listens a lot, there's some that just will listen here or there, or maybe they'll come across one. And so sometimes we we repeat for for good reason. But I I talked about the dark night of the soul that I went through way back when, and and I had with me in my worst time J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God. And he had in there the hymn by John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace. And it it impacted me beyond words. Even to this day, when I recite it, it just kind of refreshes my soul in the reminder of what the Lord is up to and what what really the end game is for him, what he has in mind for us. And it goes like this: I asked the Lord that I might grow in love and faith in every grace, might more of his salvation know, and seek more earnestly his face. I hope that in some favored hour at once he'd answer my request, and by his love's constraining power subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart, and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair designs I schemed, blasted my gourds, and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling, cried. Will you pursue your worm to death? 'Tis in this way, the Lord replied, I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ from self and pride to set you free and break your schemes of earthly joy, that you may seek your all in me. And guys, that's what it comes down to. That's what the Lord is up to. He wants us to seek our all in him. And so it may seem that he's quiet, but like I've shared before, beneath the surface of the ocean, when you look at this glass ocean that's barely moving, beneath that surface are billions of creatures that are reproducing and eating and swimming, and there's things that are growing, and there's currents. So God is never silent, He's always working, He's always near, nearer to you than the very skin and flesh on your bones. Recognize that and dive deep into Him. Amen.
SPEAKER_05You're not gonna do a thank God.
SPEAKER_02No, Ray, I would never do that. Thank you for joining us, friends. Oh, what a joy it is. Yeah, truly, thank you all for joining us. Those of you that have been with us for a long time, remember this is still one of the top podcasts in the world. And uh, what a joy and an honor and a delight to have you along for the journey. Don't forget the ultimate USB. Like, subscribe, share on whatever platform you're listening on. Podcast at LivingWaters.com. Podcast at LivingWaters.com. What, Ray?
SPEAKER_05The pain you get from this podcast is driving you closer to God.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So keep the pain going. Welcome. Podcast at LivingWaters.com with your thoughts, questions, suggestions, and insults from Mark Arsker and Ray.
SPEAKER_13Thank you for joining us. We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea what we're doing.