Best of Frenemies | Job series part 7

Job Series 


The book of job is broken down into 4 parts 

Prologue - Here we are introduced to the main character Job and then we’re transported to a divine council meeting where God is with his sons. The basis of this part of the book is key to understanding much of what is to come. (Chapters 1-2)
Discourse - Job and his friends get into it, they offer their opinions on why Job is in this condition, and Job reiterates his innocence and questions God. (Chapters 3-37)
The Response - After the 36th time and demanding that God answers him, God responds, sets examples and questions Jobs ability to comprehend the depth and capacity to manage creation. (Chapters 38-41)
Epilogue - Job humbled by the awesomeness of God apologises, God restores him, and gives him the choice to restore his friends. Job receives more than what he lost, trust and relationship wins over the uncertainty of doubt and crisis. 

What do we know - It’s set in the land of Uz which is away from Israel. All characters are non-Israelite, wealth is measured in livestock. The fact he had camels, and the tribal names of some of his friends suggest that regionally we’re looking at a man of great status and position within and among the Arabian tribes.
 
“Best of Friend-emies”

Round
Friend Speaks
Chapters
Round 1
Eliphaz
4–5
Bildad
8

Zophar
11

Round 2
Eliphaz
15
Bildad
18

Zophar
20

Round 3
Eliphaz
22
Bildad
25

Zophar
(missing/uncertain)


Eliphaz was convinced Job had done some mess and that he should humbly and sincerely go to God and ask for forgiveness. Job 4:1-11
Bildads true intention to job and how he truly sees him comes to the fore as he says to him that his Kids bought their death upon themselves. Job 8:1-14 
Zophar believed that jobs own wickedness is the only reason that he’s in this position, what’s really at the heart of this is jealousy, and now they see an opportunity to say and do and be as they’ve always felt. Job 11:1-8
Where does your confidence lay, where does your trust sit, to whom do you believe in or through. John 15:13

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello everybody and welcome to Remo Reloaded with me, Sean Williams. It is an honor and a privilege and a pleasure. I enjoy this guys, I really do. Um, to be with you all today. And we are getting towards the end of our job series. I've absolutely loved it. I've absolutely loved it. And I hope that you all have enjoyed it as well. And also that the Bible study notes that we've put in the descriptions, they they are helping you with your own personal study. That's the most important thing. I don't want you just to sit here and take what I say and be like, that's the gospel. It's definitely not. There is no gospel according to Sean. There's only four of them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So I want you to use the information that I'm able to provide you in your own personal study so that you are developing your own personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. That is the most important thing to do. Now, very quickly before we carry on, if you could please like, subscribe, share. It's not hard. It's not hard. If you like what we're doing, just subscribe. It's just that little bell thing down there. Or like it. Just a thumb. Just a thumb. Anyway, I want to introduce you to today's Bible study, and the title of today's Bible study is called Best of Frenemies. Or if you kind of just want to, you know, uh abbreviate it down to its most simplest form, you could just call it frenemies, but I like best of frenemies. Um the reason I've called it the best of frenemies is because at this point that I'm going to take you into in the Bible study, Job has gone through so much, and he is at the point of well, he's gone past the point of breakdown, to be fair. And I think we all can um connect with moments where we've been going through something, something that has felt incredibly hard, incredibly difficult, something that has shaken our faith. They're the scariest things because your faith is an intangible thing that creates tangibility through belief and conviction. Hebrews 11 walks us through the whole process of that. So our faith is based on our hope and our trust in God. It is a very scary place when you're going through something, and that something causes you to question your faith, your trust, and your hope in God. This is where Job is at this point. Now, don't forget, in chapter 3, the Bible told us that Job had lost cattle and servants, and his his livelihood is basically gone. And then in in chapter 2, we see his family go through the worst things. He loses his children, he loses his servants, his wife turns around and just says, Yo, bro, like tell God, your mum, and diff out. And he's just like, You're crazy. I never tell God that. And then we are left with his three friends who um, and I love the way that the book of Job described it. They got together, had a little conversation, like, we should really go and see Job. Like, it's crazy. The stuff that he's going through. Have you heard? Have you heard? Yeah, we've all heard, and so they go to see him, and the Bible tells us that when they see him afar off, that they could not believe what they saw, right? And that they went into mourning, and there were things that would happen culturally of that time that would um signify and identify those that were in mourning either personally or with someone else in solidarity. However, as we get to chapter four, the friends start talking, right? And we've all got a couple of friends, we love them. But when these people start talking, it's just like sometimes we may not verbalize it, but we're thinking, why don't you just shut your pile? Do you know what I mean? Sometimes we say you talk too much, and the the craziest thing, and obviously I'm a very visual person, I try to I want to use your imagination because seeing is not an external thing, it's an internal thing. I could tell you all right now to close your eyes, picture something in your mind, and then raise your hand when you see it. Now, obviously, I wouldn't see you raise your hand, but you'd know you'll raise your hand, which would tell us what that seeing then isn't through the basis of having your eyes externally open, the projection of what you can see, your viewpoint, your vision. It's not about what happens without, it's really about what happens within, right? And so, on the basis of their relationship with their friend, you would expect them to have a little bit more empathy, a little bit more love, a little bit more sympathy. But isn't it interesting that when we sometimes find ourselves in positions of vulnerability, weakness, or if we're going through a moment of fragility, these are the moments that sometimes those closest to us they feel emboldened to tell us what they really think. Sometimes people will see you in your everyday, and you are dealing with you based on perspective, but they're dealing with you based on perception, and sometimes they can see in you things that you can't see in your face. We've all got a couple of friends that we go to. I call them um our panic go-tos or our in-trouble time go-tos. We've all got a couple of numbers that we like to go to and be like, oh, I'm having a horrible time, or uh, yeah, it's a bit difficult at the moment. And the reason we go to these people, why, is because there is a familiarity, and also we have an expectation of empathy, sympathy, love, support. And what happens when these people don't give these things to us? Sometimes the effect is so negative that we isolate ourselves, that sometimes these moments of friendship cause isolation instead of insulation. Right? We saw this even with Jesus and his disciples. Right before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane to go and pray, right before he was going to be crucified. Who was he with? He was with his disciples, and what did he do? He broke down the group of 12, well, 11 at that time, because we know that Judas, the little traitor, was off doing he was off to be fair. Judas was also a part of the plan. He just was a part of the plan from the wrong side, right? But we saw Jesus break down the group of 11 down to how many? Three. He said to the other disciples, I tell you what, you guys, you just wait out here. Um, Peter, James, and John, you guys, we're gonna go a little bit deeper in, right? So, friendship is a massive part of how what we use as a tool to survive, to endure, to go through moments, but yet there is a very, very, very key lesson being taught here. That there are some things that you cannot rely on your friends to tell you. There are some things that you cannot rely on those that have been there in moments to tell you when you need to know it. David said, he asked a question in the summer, he said, Soul, why are you disquieted within me? He was basically saying to his mind, his will and his emotions, he was like, Guys, what's going on? I feel like you're sending me to the depths of my soul. I feel like I'm being covered in a cloud of darkness. I feel like I can't get myself up, right? So these are why we sometimes attach ourselves to people, places, or things, so that when we're having moments of indecision, when we're going through things that don't feel good, we almost have an anchor. Imagine in this moment, Job has no anchor. The Bible says that the reason Job was in this situation was because I shouldn't laugh. I shouldn't laugh. As my dad would say, it's not a good laugh. The Bible said to us that God is having a private conversation with the executive board in heaven, and that little punk Satan rolls up into the meeting, and God's like, Where on earth have you been? And he's like walking up and down. Remember, I said I did the whole I acted this out in the last Bible study, and God is saying to Satan, because they they get into it a little bit, and God's like, You've seen Job. And the premise of God even bringing up Job was this basis that Job was righteous, blameless, and without sin. Cool, go. Job is not privy to a conversation that has been had about him, and now Job finds himself visually and environmentally in a situation that doesn't make sense. Nothing that is happening in Job's life makes sense, right? We've all been we've all been through. I was laughing at something that I went through recently, and it's just anyway, back to where we were. There are sometimes things that we go through that doesn't make sense. When it doesn't make sense, it's because it's not meant to, and the only thing you're supposed to do is not try and understand it, endure it. Stop trying to understand what you're supposed to endure. It is not your job to understand because Job was not privy to an infinite conversation. God wasn't having this conversation in time. The Bible doesn't say, and at 7 a.m., God was there having an executive meeting and da da da da da. God is having a meeting outside of time about a person that is restricted by this very thing and is living outside of the understanding of the conversation that is happening. So when it starts going wrong, Jove has a set of protocols that he will go to to help him get through it. We all have some protocols that we go through to get through some stuff. Okay, so I work in the music and entertainments industry. Anytime I'm feeling ill, listen to me. Lemon, ginger, spicy honey, Vicks Vapor rub rolled on the soles of my feet before I go to bed. Oh yeah, oh yes, I'm going to the gym, I'm steaming because these are the protocols that I go through in order to ensure that I can be better. Imagine now that if I got ill, they'd stop making lemon, they'd stop making ginger, they don't produce any spicy honey, my gym's closed down, they don't do VIX Vaporub. All of a sudden, my anchoring, the thing that I know will get me through this hard moment, evaporates and disappears. This is what Job is going through right now. The one person that he knows he can always go to, even when he doesn't understand it, has decided to stop speaking to him. And the only thing that God allows to invade his atmosphere, his environmental periphery, are the voices of people that should be loving him, supporting him, strengthening him. But yet these frenemies, and they don't stay as frenemies, because that's the other thing. Some of you will listen to the Bible and be like, I'm gonna cut off so-and-so, and I'm not gonna talk to someone. Nobody's here to do all that. I don't remember Jesus when he showed himself to Mary Magdalene saying, Oh, tell my disciples, but you know that little rat bag Peter, you tell him when I see him, it's on site. Jesus didn't say that. He was just like, listen. Tell my disciples over there, yeah, yeah, the little scaredy ones. I'm coming. And the one that doesn't think he's my disciple anymore, the one that did something to himself that was so heinous that he would never forgive himself for. Tell him as well. There was the there was the understanding in what Jesus' mission was, that although he loved his friends, and don't forget the book of St. John chapter 15, verse 13, Jesus gives this discourse to his disciples where he says, Greater love hath no man than this, and that a man lay down his life for his who, not his wife, or if it was a woman, not her husband, neither of their children, not their parents, not their co-worker, not their neighbour, not their granny, their friend. So then what does that tell you? That to God, friendship is the greatest relationship that you can engage with on this earth. Friendship is the greatest relationship you can engage with on this earth. Why? Because it requires nothing other than what you are. The people that you have in your life that you call friends are because there is a knitting together of souls of hearts within uh characteristics, ideas, um, and personalities, and you do not require your friends to perform for you. Everybody else in your life, okay, has to perform to some degree. What do you mean? Parents, there is a performance of what love, care, stability, wisdom, advice, partners, love, support, empathy, uh, partnership. With your friends, your friends are the people you tell the truth to. Unfiltered. I'm telling you, and if some of you listen to this and and you're married or you have a partner, I'm telling you, there are things that your partner does not know that your best friend does. And probably for good reason. On both sides of the aisle. So, what does it tell you that we trust our friends never to judge us based on who we are, and those closest to us, we almost completely trust them to judge us based off who we sometimes project ourselves to be. And here Job finds himself in his most sensitive and fragile state, and he's expecting, even if it's not kindness, actually, even if it's not a good word, he's expecting kindness and friendship. Why? Because that's all he's ever given. But as I said to you before, there are moments where people will wait for us to be in a situation of vulnerability, fragility, or uncertainty, and at that point they become emboldened to say what they really think. So, very quickly, because I've done a lot of talking, but I'm just loving the series. I am, I can't lie, I love it. I'm just learning so much. Go with me very quickly to the book of Saint Job. Saint Job, forgive me. Job isn't a saint. I mean, I know he could be in heaven on some saint stuff, uh, but he's not a saint here. So let's just go to the book of Job. We're gonna go to chapter four. Um, now what I want to explain to you because I can't go through all of this, otherwise, guys. Honestly, I'll be doing this series until Christmas, probably, and you'll be like, bruh, like, really. Um, I need you to understand, and I've broken down some information so you have this and you can kind of carry this on with your reading. There were basically throughout the book of Job, there are three rounds of conversations where Job's boys do some talking. Now, um, take down their names, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. Okay, these are the three friends. Um, and there are, I would almost call three rounds of speaking. Okay, there are three rounds of conversation, but the basis of what they're saying is actually administrated in the first round of conversations because they set out their argument, and everything after that is almost um to read it off of the to read it without context, it would come across as almost like poetic writing. Um, and it is poetry to a certain degree, in course, but what it is is it's a conversation that's happening and going backwards and forwards, okay. So I feel like we'll be able to set the basis of the conversation of the first rounds of talks, and then if you're all doing what I think you should be doing, which is doing your own personal study, you will be able to go into rounds two and three of the talks and be like, Okay, yeah, yeah, the thread follows. Okay, so the the basis of um elephant, and we will read um chapter four or a little excerpt from chapter four, so you can understand what the basis is. But um Eliphaz, he basically was convinced that Job had been doing some some some mess on the side, yeah, like for all Job's righteousness, right? Now imagine God saying that Job is 100, but Job's boys, they were like, He's up to some stuff. He ain't as he ain't as holy as he makes out, he ain't as saved as he wants the world to believe, and he really was, but they never had the opportunity, or Eliphaz never had the opportunity to say what he really thought. Now he does. Let's jump into this. Chapter 4, verse 1. Then Eliphaz, the Temonite, replied, If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? He's talking to his mate, you know, who's scraping himself and is just on the floor and in pieces. If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? Think how you have instructed many, Job, how you have strengthened feeble hands, your words have supported those who stumbled, you have strengthened faltering knees, but now trouble comes to you and you are discouraged. It strikes you and you are dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence?

unknown 18:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

You see your friend in the condition like this, and this is what you have to say. He says, Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless weighs your hope. Consider now. Here comes the flip in the conversation. Who being patient? Oh, sorry, wrong. Who being innocent has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? So he's saying he's sitting and he's going, Joe, anybody that's innocent doesn't find themselves in positions like this. He also says, Um, when has an upright person ever been destroyed? And then this is where it gets good. Verse 8, as I have observed, those who plough, right? So they're basically those who who who sow evil and those who sow trouble, this is his friend, he goes, That's what they reap. At the breath of God, they perish. At the blast of his anger, they are no more. The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones to shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair of my body stood on end. His pig is saying he got goosebumps. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice. Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his maker? Most of us would expect somebody came to see us when we're ill. A card? And if you ain't got nothing to say, maybe just stay a couple of minutes. He's saying to Job, he's like, Job, listen, mate, like, I see the condition you're in. But um, this isn't how God works. He's like, when has ever a good person found themselves in bad situations? He's like, when has a person who does completely right ever been the recipient of just wickedness, evil, and tragedy? This is what his friend is saying to his already traumatized soul. So, what does this tell you? Eliphaz had been thinking this for a minute. Because it's almost like it came up like toothpaste, right? There are moments where we all think things, and actually, let me let you let me let you into how my brain works. There's a lot of time where I'll be in a situation or a place, and someone will say something, and I've got so much better at not necessarily delivering what I call the director's understanding. Filtered cut of the production. Um, but my face, I'm trying to get it to come along with the rest of me, but my face will let you know what on earth are you talking about? Or I want to get out of here, or I'm really enjoying this, or I wish I could put my hands on you. I'm not gonna because that's not the right thing to do, but I really wish I could. He has waited for the perfect opportunity, right? And I want you right now, if you can, to take a couple minutes and think about when you've been in a situation and you've expected somebody that you've been there for, right? Because this is one of the first things that he accuses Job of. He's just like, well, you lift up the feeble hands and and you've been there for people when you know they've been going through a moment, and look where you are. We've all dealt with people that have said things in moments that cut far deeper than maybe they realized. And the beauty of what I love about Job is that Job didn't shout at anybody, he got righteously angry about the situation, about what he was hearing, but he did not render what I would call evil for evil, he did not give back what he was getting. Why? Because even in the absence of the person that justified and authenticated Job to be in this situation, Job didn't need to hear God or be in the perfect situation with God in order to be faithful. There's a lot of us that we're only faithful as long as it looks like we should be faithful to it. That's why my generation, I ain't trying to chat people's business, but that's why we're a mess. Because we're faithful to what we've committed to on the basis that it keeps working for me. The minute it stops working for me, I'm out. What kind of a foundation is that to build on? And we wonder why our structures and buildings of love and partnership and our visions do not come to being, to mind, or to place. Because our faithfulness to a thing goes as long as it looks like it's working for us, but yet he is this guy, Job. And he was just like, okay, this isn't what I expected, this wasn't what I was uh planning for, but yet this is where I find myself, and yet he's still maintaining his integrity. So Job has to listen to what Eliphaz has to say, and if that wasn't hard enough, we then get ourselves to um chapter 8. So Job and Eliphaz have gone backwards and forwards with each other, and they're giving each other different bits of information. Well, Eliphaz is basically putting his point across as why Job is in this horrendous situation, and they're going backwards and forwards, and then we see Bildad and Zophar, they come into the situation. But Bildad is the first one to speak, and Bildad, you can tell from the the place he goes. You see, kids are a real blessing because what they enable you to do, they they enable you to see a part of the future that you'll never or you potentially may not be there to experience yourself, and they then become the legacy of who you were, and hopefully what you would become over time. Job has lost that legacy, and at this point in history and culturally of this time, children were a massive thing. Women were looked at negatively on the basis if they couldn't have kids. Men were so desirous of male heirs because they wanted their name to last. And here, Bildad, he sits here and he goes, Well, um, chapter 8, verse 1. How long will you say such things, Joe? Your words are a blustering wind. Then he says, Does God pervert justice? He said, Does your mighty pervert what is right? And here it comes. When your children sinned against him. Now, this is a man is in an horrendous situation. He's lost everything. Even his children. And the thing that you'll remember in our first Bible study, Job made sacrifices on behalf of his children, he covered them. So to know that you covered something, and yet you have someone that you think should know better telling you firstly, your covering didn't work. And secondly, your kids were wicked. Evil. That's why they did. This is Job's friend. He said it to him. Verse 4 When your children sinned against him, God, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. But if you will seek God earnestly, this Joker, and plead with the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state. I'll tell you what, Joe, come on, you just admit to us, come on, tell us how terrible your kids were. And trust me, listen to me, listen to me. I am the son of a father that was in that's been in ministry for over four decades. And I promise you, I have heard everything. I have heard everything that a person could possibly have to say about me and my brothers. To the point of why we're not married, to the point of why we haven't had kids. I'm telling you, these are the things that sometimes people will draw their mind to and attach themselves to in order to justify a narrative in their mind that they think they have. They will not have any idea. No. About times in our childhood when we would happily get out of our bed for people that didn't have one, that would be staying in our home for moments in time where we did not have access to our parents because our parents were aligned with ministry in a way that meant that sometimes we didn't get to have them in that way. That the breakages and the the traumas that we had to live through privately and yet still remain steady publicly, and yet here you have a person based on their understanding of what they think is happening is now delivering judgment to a person that is righteous. I'm gonna do a little spoiler alert. When you get to the conversation between God and Job, God tells Job, you see your friends, I got a little something for them. Job's like, and this is why God is uh He is a judge of the intents of your heart because you see, in your heart you can't lie, God knows what's really happening in there, and because of Job's heart, God spared his friends, but he also allowed his friends to see that he'd never forsaken Joe. Okay, but like I said, that's a spoiler alert. So Bildad right now is saying, but Joe, if you seek God and plead with the Almighty, so he's basically saying, confess to us, Joe. You you you tell us what type of debauchery them kids were up to. You tell us, you tell us what they were doing, Job, and we will sit here with you and we'll pray with you and you know we'll support you as you plead to God. He then goes on to say, because if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state. Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. Do you know what I love about this more? It's very clear to me that Job's friends weren't engaging in an effective prayer life. Not once does the Bible say that Job and his friends, or Job's friends, either one of Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, none of them thought. Let me let me inquire of God about what's happening where Joe where my friends are concerned. Sometimes we're going to people about things that we need to be going to God about. Hoping that the limited thing can give you greater understanding about the unlimited thing, and yet your relationship is with the unlimited thing. Make it make sense. Please make it make sense. That's like me going to Sainsbury's expecting Sainsbury Sainsbury's to be like the garden centre. Not possible. There will be elements of Sainsbury's because they sell some foliage and some plant stuff. So there will be an essence and an element of that within the wider framework and structure. But if I want a garden centre, I need to go to a garden center. Which tells me that Job's friend's understanding and ideas of God went nowhere near beyond culturally what they'd been taught, and also the envy of seeing their friend have a relationship with the creator that they did not know how to have. So here he's saying, well, you know, if you just confess and you know, you tell us all, you know, what's going on, we'll we can all we can help you, Joe. Help me. How can you help me when you don't even understand what's happening to me? How can you help me when the one thing you need to give me you refuse to? Love. Love doesn't require judgment. Love doesn't require opinion. Love is consistent. It's fair or it's just peaceful. It brings joy, it brings hope. So here, Bildad is saying to him, Job, if you've really done not done any of these things, this shouldn't be happening. And what's worse is he doesn't just make his point, he over-emphasizes the point. Because we get down to verse 8, and he says, Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned. Verse 9, for we were born only yesterday and know nothing. The patronizing would just send me loopy. Honestly, Job is so good. And our days on earth are but a shadow. Verse 10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding? Then he says, Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water while still growing and uncut? They wither more quickly than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God. This would be maddening to me because we see very clearly in chapters one and two that this, the person they're describing, is not the friend that they have. That their idea of their friend has come from their own distorted images and versions based on their own inadequacy. How many times have you allowed people's distorted image of you to become the version of yourself that you subscribe to yourself? Their images. Distorted, compromised, subjective, and yet you will leave and forget everything that God has made you so you can fit into a suit somebody else made for you that doesn't know who you are. If I was God, I'd be honest with you, I'd be like, I'm out. I'm out. I'm telling you, say to your partner, whoever your partner, right? Turn to your partner and go, Did you love me before the foundations of the world? If they say yes, they're a liar, they're a liar. They don't even know what they were doing before the foundations of the world, they don't even really know what they were doing yesterday. And here you have a God that sits here and tells you before I framed the world, before I laid its foundations, and we'll get to um chapter 38 where God starts talking to Job and talking about some of these mysteries of the cosmos. God is saying that you were never an afterthought, you were a pre-thought, you were intentional in everything I was doing. So why are you allowing people that were not consulted in your divine blueprints and schematics to shape you and turn you into what makes sense to them? Lord have mercy. So we get down to Zophar now, and Zophar believed that Job's own wickedness, so and I sometimes Zophar takes the cake for me a little bit because it it Job's friends progressively get worse. I'm being honest. If I was Job after Eliphaz, I would have been like, listen, man, then if what you've got to say is no better than him, thanks for coming. Big up yourself, appreciate it. I'll send word. Well, no, um, we get to Zophar, and Zophar's really just like, yeah, Job, it's your own wickedness. Um, and you've bought this on yourself, and Zophar is convinced that Job is not telling the truth. I mean, like the others, but he's really convinced that Job isn't telling the truth. Um, and he gets annoyed with Job's kind of answering back. He really does. He gets so angry that Job is defending himself because, as far as they're concerned, they're convinced, they're like, You are guilty, mate. And this is what he says. Then Zophar the namite replied, are all these words to go unanswered? His mate, right? He goes, Is this talker to be vindicated? Take a minute, right, and take that in. Job's lost everything, okay? He is in a terrible situation, and his friend is so, or friend of me, is so annoyed. That he turns around and he goes, Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your idle talk reduce others to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock? You say to God, my beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight. Oh, how I wish that God would speak. This is his friend. His friend's like, Oh, I wish God would give you some more. Like, listen to you. He then says, He says, Oh, that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secret of wisdom. For true wisdom has two sides. Know this, God has even forgotten some of some of your sin. He says, Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above. What can you do? They are deeper than the depths below. What can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and the and wider than the sea. If he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him? Surely he recognizes deceivers. And when he sees evil, does he not take note? But the witless can no more become wise than a wild donkey's colt can be born a human. He leaves his friend exposed. A satisfaction with Job's situation on the basis that sometimes when God is doing something in you that hasn't been seen or done before, it's not gonna make everybody happy. And when you live outside of the realms and the boundaries that they use to insulate what we know as normal. Anybody that seeks to do, or anybody that is inspired to do, or anybody that is anointed to do what they don't understand, you're gonna become a target. Do you know why the Bible said greater love have no man than this, and that he lays life down for his friends? Now, firstly, when the Bible says greater love hath no man than this, God isn't talking about gender. We're the ones obsessed with gender. Let me let me get this honestly, and I want to break this now. We're the ones obsessed with gender. When God looks at humanity, he just sees what he made, he doesn't see the ideas we tell ourselves. Honestly, I'm gonna break this today, or I'm or I like this, I'm gonna break this today. How you can sit in a position not having uh completed the period that you're here for because time isn't something God needs, God lives outside of time, time is merely a matrix that God uses to measure moments. That's all this is, and you've convinced yourself that this moment is the only moment that there is in eternity. Does that make sense? Hello, does that make sense? Otherwise, the ancient Egyptians would have believed that time was merely their period. The Roman Empire would believe that time is just merely a construct of their period. The made a Persian army would believe that time is just a construct made for their period of dominance. The British Empire would believe that time is merely a construct built for their period. Right now, the leaders of the free world are in a race against time because we are watching right before our eyes, the landscape and the power shift happen. So then why would you convince yourself that the temporary information you have is better than the permanent information God has always had? Oh, don't worry. Oh wait. Countdown clock inside here. Trust the one that made the thing that you don't understand, but keeps you in the centre and the palm of his hand. Why? Because there's nothing that he's gonna walk you through that he hasn't already predestined, purposed, good planned, and laid out. And we've all got some friends that say some stupid stuff. Don't blame them. Just be a light, a model, and a reflection of his love, grace to them. Because you then become the firm foundation upon which their idea of relationship is born, so that they too can lean into a relationship with an everlasting saviour that means nothing but good for them. So I leave you with this thought. St. John chapter 15, 13. Greater love have no person than that that person chooses to lay down their life for their friends. Guys, I hope you've had a wonderful study with us today. We will see you next week for the conclusion of our job series. Have a great rest of your day, guys.