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You Need a Middleman! - Job 9:32-35

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Most people think of a middleman as an unwanted and unnecessary part of a transaction. They promote, "We cut out the middleman", meaning you can save money by getting your product by buying direct and not paying a broker fee. But there are some situations that require a middleman. Salvation is one of them. What Job lacked—a mediator (one to represent him to God)—only Jesus could supply.

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9/13/2009
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You Need a Middleman!
Job 9:32-35
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
Most people think of a middleman as an unwanted and unnecessary part of a transaction. They promote, "We cut out the middleman", meaning you can save money by getting your product by buying direct and not paying a broker fee. But there are some situations that require a middleman. Salvation is one of them. What Job lacked—a mediator (one to represent him to God)—only Jesus could supply.
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Job Meets Jesus

Job Meets Jesus

Job suffered multiple losses—his riches, his health, his family, and his reputation. When his friends accused him of sin, Job asked, "How can a man be righteous before God?" (Job 9:2) and lamented that there was no mediator between God and man. When Jesus came to earth, that Mediator—the solution for man's unrighteousness—was revealed. In this series, Skip Heitzig encourages us to trust God's purpose in the midst of suffering and presents the hope voiced by Job: "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25).

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Detailed Notes

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I. Job: I Need a Helper (Job 9:33)

A. He Understood the Breach


B. No One Could Fix It


II. Jesus: Help Has Arrived (1 Timothy 2:5)

A. The Perfect Representative


B. The Perfect Ransom


Questions for Home Groups:

1. Think of someone who has helped you by representing you to another (a lawyer, a counselor, a translator, an advocate). How did you feel knowing that this person knew your situation and could help you resolve the problem?

2. Why is God so exclusive about coming through Jesus Christ?

3. Why is Jesus’ death so important? Why is His life and example not enough?

Transcript

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And now would you turn in your Bibles, that you brought I trust to Job chapter 9. The book of Job, Old Testament, chapter 9. We're in a series and the series title is displayed behind me, "Job Meets Jesus." It's a very unique way of approaching things because we are taking an issue raised in the Old Testament book of Job and see how Jesus answers that, in fact gives the only full and satisfactory answer to it tonight in Job chapter 9.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven we pray that our minds would be tuned and our hearts would be ready to process and to apply, to apply and implement those things that we understand are true. Our lives wil never be changed unless we decide to take the principles that you graciously give us and put them into practice, coming up with a plan and strategy to do that. We pray that you'd not only broaden our understanding and appreciation of Jesus and what he has done but also to more fully submit to his care and his work in our livs, as difficult as that might be from time to time. And so we're here to worship you and submit to you. And part of our worship is to tell you, you are important enough to listen to when it comes to a Bible study. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I heard a story about Billy Graham who flew back to Charlotte, North Carolina close to his home. And his plane landed and there was a limousine out front to pick him up. And Billy Graham as he was getting in the car turned to the limo driver and said, "You know what? I'm almost ninety years old and I've never driven a limousine. Do you think I could drive?" The guy said, "Oh sure, go for it." So off they went and not far away was a state trooper, a young rookie state trooper who was setting up his first speed trap. And this long black limousine was doing 70 in a 55-mile-an-hour zone. The state trooper pulls over the limousine, he's getting ready to do his procedure, the window rolls down and he notices who's driving the car. He turns red and says to the driver, Dr. Graham, "Excuse me for just a moment," goes back to his car, calls his supervisor and says, "I know we're supposed to do everything to uphold the law but I also know we give special courtesies from time to time to very important people. I need help, I've got somebody here very important." And the supervisor said, "What? Is it the governor?" And the man said, "Oh no, somebody more important than that." He said, "Huh, is it the President?" And the guy said, "Nope, far more important than that." And so the man, the supervisor said, "Well who could it be?" And the young state trooper said, "I think it's Jesus because he's got Billy Graham as his chauffeur." Let me tell you that's how I feel about the book of Job. The book of Job is far more important than most people have made it out to be. I've read what they have written. Some people say the book of Job is a great piece of literature. George Moore of Harvard said, "The book of Job is the greatest work of Hebrew literature that has come down to us." Nope, it's more important than that. Others have said, "It's wonderful poetry," like Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate of England said, "The book of Job is the greatest poem of ancient or modern times." Nope, it's far more important than that. Some like to rank it with the classics, like the writings of William Shakespeare or Homer or Milton or Dante but it's far more important than any of those. For two reasons: Number one because it is divinely inspired and secondly, because the deepest issues of life emerge in this book. And as we listen to and watch these men banter back and forth about life and God and the meaning of suffering, and as we hear Job cry out on issue after issue and question after question, we are watching humanity struggling with divinity. We are hearing the deepest heartfelt cries of a man suffering, struggling to get answers to these deep issues, they be for an answer. And the book reveals something more important than even Job in his suffering, that's where most people stop their study in this book. The book perhaps more than any other book in the Old Testament reveals the need for Jesus Christ.
Now, Job in chapter 9, we've already looked at a couple of the verses up front but we're going to look at a few more toward the end of the chapter; Job is crying out for a very special, a very particular kind of person; a certain kind of a helper. He knows he needs this special kind of a person, he doesn't know where to find him, and this heartcry of Job does not get answered, it is left unanswered in the Old Testament and it's not til we get to the New Testament. So, tonight we want to look at Job and Jesus. Job saying, "I need help, I need a helper." And Jesus saying, "Help has arrived." So we're going to look at Job chapter 9 and I Timothy chapter 2, it might be good to just put a marker there in advance, I Timothy chapter 2.
Let's go to Job chapter 9 and see his cry. Verse 32, this is Job speaking, "For he (God) is not a man as I am that I may answer him and that we should go to court together, nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me and do not let the dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak and not hear him. But it is not so with me." Now Job cries for that special kind of a person, he calls him in verse 33, "a mediator." I'll explain why in a minute. Here is Job in the middle of his suffering and he realizes something: There is a breach going on, there is a chasm, there is a gap between God and between himself. He knows it now more than ever before. Listen to verse 33 in the Living Bible, at least that part, "There is no umpire between us, no middleman, no mediator to bring us together." And I went to zero in on that word, used the Living Bible and it's used in the title, middleman. The title of this message "You Need a Middleman." Now typically when we hear the word middleman it's not used as a good thing. Our advertisements say, "Cut out the middleman, buy direct." And that is because cutting out the middleman in any transaction will be a savings to anyone. So you might have the manufacturer and the retailer and then the customer. Well if you could cut out the middleman, the retailer, and the customer could go directly to the manufacturer, that's a good thing, you'll save some money. So an example, a pound of butter: the farmer makes the butter, neighbor Bob buys the pound of butter from the farmer for two dollars a pound. Neighbor Bob sells it to the local store for three dollars a pound, the local store sells it to the customer for five dollars a pound. But what if you could cut out Neighbor Bob and the local store? What if you as a customer could buy directly from the farmer? You'd save three dollars a pound on butter. So the more levels in distribution, the more people get paid, the higher price. If you can cut out the middlemen you'll have fewer stages of the transaction. Now, why would Job ask for that? Why does he want a middleman? Why does he say, ‘I want a mediator.' There's two reasons and both of them form the one reason. Number one, he sees how great God is, how transcendent and magnificent and powerful and huge God is. And he sees how puny and unimportant, especially now that he is in this condition and small that he is. I want you to see this for yourself. Let's red a few verses in this chapter. Go back to verse 5, we did not read that last week. Verse 5, "He removes (that's God) removes the mountains and they do not know when he overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble. He commands the sun and it does not rise. He seals off the stars, he alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He made the bear, Orion, and the Pleaides, (those stars in the heavens) and the chambers of the south. He does great things past finding out, yes wonders without number. If he goes by me, I do not see him. If he moves past, I do not perceive him. If he takes away, who can hinder him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?' God will not withdraw his anger, the allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath him. How then can I answer him and choose my words to reason with him? For though I were righteous I could not answer him. I would beg mercy of my judge." Here's Job realizing there's a great gulf between deity and humanity, between heaven and earth, between spirit and flesh. He realizes that gulf, that gap, that chasm that is between he and God. These are the words of a man made humble by suffering. He was brought low. He was once wealthy, prominent, powerful, rich, a man of status. He has lost it all, he is brought low. And because of that he sees who God is, he sees who he is and he is humble. And I'll tell you suffering brings humility, perhaps like nothing else. It's amazing, isn't it, how a single virus or bacteria or just a few growing cells can reduce a person and grab a hold of that person's future and dictate what they will do in months and weeks and years to come. They can take a person hostage and a person is made low and realize, ‘I am at the mercy of the medical profession, or if you're a believer at the mercy of God. It humbles you. Now, people and I'm just going to say, all people generically, are trying to reach God. I can prove that, watch them in a crisis. Oh, they may not talk about God until there is a crisis, but I remember because of what happened eight years ago yesterday, at 9/11, I watched people once so proud, once not talking about God, coming to prayer meetings saying, "Pray for me, pray for us." People are crying out. But again, the question, why would Job be asking for a go-between, a mediator, a middleman? Verse 33, look at it carefully, the second part. He asks for a "mediator, who may lay his hand on both." That's what a mediator does. A mediator stands between two parties, laying one hand here and one hand here and brings those two estranged parties together. That person is the bridge, or the bridge builder. Lawyers do that. They know the legal procedure and they are equipped to stand in the courtroom and bridge the gap, be the middleman between the defendant and the judge, to lay hands on both parties so to speak and to represent one before the other. Counselors are middlemen. If you have two people who are in a fight or they are at an impasse, the counselor can help bring them together. I've heard in counseling rooms things like, from the woman, "I don't understand this guy. For that matter, I don't get men in general." And the men say, "Man I couldn't figure out women if my life depended on it." That's where a mediator comes in. A mediator helps both parties get together. An interpreter can do that as well for people who are divided by language or culture, if that person knows both cultures and both languages, he's the perfect mediator. Here's an example: Several years ago I was in Iraq, in Baghdad. I was there during the reign of Saddam Hussein and I met with, I met with the Minister of Religious Affairs for the nation of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and the Minister of Health, a few different politicians. Now you could not have more polar opposites in that room than me and these guys. I am an American Christian clergyman and there sits a Muslim under Saddam Hussein Religious Affairs Minister. I didn't speak Arabic, he wasn't great at English. I didn't understand the Arab Iraqi Muslim customs. But I was with a mediator, his name is Sammie Dagger. He lives in Lebanon, he's a pastor there. He knows the language, he knows the custom, he knows the culture. And in the course of the conversation he did something, he'd lay his hand on my hand and lay his hand on his hand. And he would bring us together by that gesture. And you know what that Minister of Religious Affairs said, at the very end of our conversation, we were bringing in those Operation Christmas Child shoebox presents over to Iraq, when he understood what we were doing he said, this, "Up to this point I believed Americans and especially Christians hated us. But now I realize it is the Christians in the West who love us." That would have been impossible without a mediator, someone who knew both parties and could bring us together.
Well, that's what Job cries out for, that's what he needed. And that is exactly the same need today. You know, if you talk to any thinking person who looks out at this magnificent world in which we live in, this wonderful world, or looks out into space. Any thinking person is going to come to the rational observation there must be a God. There must be a God. It's the teleological argument. As I look around at the world, at the cosmos, it seems as if it were designed and it's such an ordered place, as if it anticipated us being here. So if it's designed so well as if it anticipated human life, there must be a designer behind it. That's what rational people think. Like Dr. Antony Flew who before 2004 was probably the world's most famous intellectual atheist. But said shockingly in 2004, " god must exist for the universe must be the work of an intelligent designer. And as people look around and discover, "There's a God and he must be magnificent because this world is so magnificent. The next issue that arises is "How can we connect? How can I as a human being connect with this transcendent magnificent designer, god?" Is there a bridge to connect us? What do I do, just pray into thin air anything I feel? Will that connect us? Do I choose any number of religious paths and spiritual journeys? Who will take me to him?" So Job asks for that.
And there's something else: He realized that he had no one. He had no one to fix it. And he says, "Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both." Now I want you to keep something in mind, this is implying something about Job's friends. These three friends came from a long distance to be his friend, to be his comforter, and they were at first, then they spoke. And you know what they spoke. They didn't help him, they didn't comfort him, they offered their opinion for his disaster, for his disillusionment, for his disappointment, for this horrible situation. "God is just. You must be a sinner. You're getting what you deserve." Far form being someone to represent Job before God, they accused Job.
Now that's the same problem we face today, the world is full of would-be mediators, they offer advice, they offer enlightenment, they say, ‘I'm a spiritual guide. I'll sell you your horoscope reading for such-and-such an amount." "I'll read your palm." Or, "I'll speak your future." There are religious priests who say, "I'll represent you before God, you can't go on your own but I can do it for you." Or, preachers who say, "I alone interpret the truth the right way," and they promise to be that. And all of them fall short.
There's a great Bob Dylan song years ago that addressed this. They lyrics are, "Spiritual advisors and gurus to guide your every move. Instant inner peace and every step you take's got to be approved." He saw that on our landscape we are not short of a number of would-be advisors and gurus and mediators that will represent you before God. But what Job is saying is, "This what I need and no one I know can fill that need." No one in the entire Old Testament could do it. Now this is way before the priesthood but even when the priesthood was flawed for the priests were men who sinned like everybody else. Moses couldn't do it, Aaron couldn't do it. They were all imperfect. Prophets couldn't do it, in fact what prophets did is they only spoke for God, they couldn't represent a person to God. In fact, listen to what one prophet Isaiah lamented about how bad it is. This is Isaiah 59 verse 1, "Surely the ar m of the Lord is not too short to save nor his ear too dull to hear but your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so he will not hear." Look, God can do anything he wants and he's certainly powerful but the reason he won't hear is because our sins have caused separation. That's a problem. So over here is Job saying, "I need a broker, man. I need a spiritual broker. I need a middleman, I need a rep, somebody who will represent me before God and bring us together because he's so far out there and I'm so much down here, I need a helper. In steps Jesus. And he says, "Help has arrived." Look at I Timothy chapter 2 with me. I Timothy chapter 2 and we'll start in verse 4. Speaking of God and it says, "Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Here it is, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Now just put those two verses together and see how the answer fits the cry. Job chapter 9, "Nor is there any mediator between us, between me and God. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' The cry is answered, the middleman has stepped forward. It's Jesus Christ, the mediator, the perfect mediator, the go-between, one who's going to lay his hand on God, lay his hand on us and say, "I'm going to bring you two parties together."
Now I want to offer a little background in I Timothy if I may. When Paul wrote this to young Timothy, there was a prevailing belief system known as gnosticism. Have any of you every heard of gnosticism, anybody at all? One, two, okay a few of you have. Gnosticism believed in a dualistic universe. That is, dualistic universe was there's spirit and there's matter. "Spirit is good," said the Gnostics, "matter is good," said the Gnostics; "matter is evil," said the Gnostics. So the Gnostics said, "Since God is spirit, he could not have created a material universe because it is evil and evil can't come out of good." And so the Gnostics a series of emanations, sub-gods went out from God. And one went out from God, one being went out from God so far that he was able to touch matter. He went out so far from God he didn't even know God. And it was that sub-God that created the material universe, that's what their belief system was. So can you get it? Here's Paul going, "Nope, there's only one God, not a series of emanations, not a bunch of go-betweens, there's only one God and one mediator between God and man. One middleman, the man Christ Jesus. Now that's great news for us. One of the things it tells me is I don't have to go through any angels, I don't have to go through any saints, I don't have to go through Mary, I don't have to go through a preacher. I can go directly to god through one man, one mediator, Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way." I am the way. Remember the disciples said, "Well we don't know where you're going and how can we know the way?" "I am the way." "I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." That is a mediator and he is the perfect mediator, the perfect representative because he is God and man in the same package. He is theanthropos, fully God, fully man.
Now I want you to notice in the text something and I'll just cover it briefly: In my Bible it says, ‘The man Christ Jesus,' in verse 5. And the word the is italicized. Is it in yours? That's because it's not in the original Greek. There is the absence of the article. And the absence of the article before the word anthropos would be best translated "Christ Jesus himself man." Here's somebody representing mankind, Christ Jesus himself man. Again, the Gnostics believe that everything in the material world was evil, therefore Jesus could not have had a fleshly body. And Paul is saying, "You're wrong, he's the God man, fully God, but he himself was man, fully man."
Now go back to that one little statement he makes in verse 5, "There is one God." Boy, that's exclusive. One God, a fundamental teaching of scripture is there's not two, three, four, twenty, a hundred, a billion, three hundred billion (like there are in Hinduism) there's one God. Manifest in three persons but one God. Monotheism, and that was taught by the Jewish nation in the midst of nations that were polytheistic. Okay. Our culture in modern times is pluralistic. And what that basically says is that the God of the Christians, the God of the Jews, the God of the Muslims, the God of the Buddhists, the God of the Hindus, it's all really the same God. That's pluralism. Now that may be P. C., politically correct, it is not theologically correct and it is self contradictory, because if you were to follow the definition of God according to the Muslims or according to the Hindus or according to the Hindus or according to the Buddhists, and match that up with the biblical god, the definitions are contradictory. You can't have a limited God and an unlimited god at the same time. They both can't be correct. You can't have many, millions of Gods, and one God all at the same time. So there's one God, he says. One God. And since there's one God, one true God, he's the only God we have to deal with. So how do we deal with that one true God? We're not going to deal with the God of the Hindus, we're not going to stand before the God of the Buddhists or the God of the Muslims, we're going to stand before the one true God. How do we do that? This way. The man Christ Jesus. Listen to Acts 4 verse 12, "Nor is there salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
I am not an ant lover. I don't love ants. When I was a kid in fact, true confession, I would get out my dad's magnifying glass, I told you I was a scoundrel, if I was a bored and there was a lot of ants in the summer I'd hold that magnifying glass just so and I'd see how many I could burn with that huge magnifying glass. And I watched them just fizzle, sizzle, _________, loved it. I don't do that any more. Now they have RAID, I use that. But I know that not all of you are scoundrels like me, maybe we have some who love all of sublife and all animal and insect life, you're kind-hearted to all of God's creatures. And so it's a Saturday morning and you know what I'm about to do so you rush over to my house early to find the ants. And you find a bunch of them and you say to the ants, "Run. Flee. The bad man with the big can is coming out soon. Run now." It won't do you any good, will it? You can't help them. The only hope that you could help them with is if you were to somehow become an ant, at their level and tell them what's coming down and how to help them. If you could do that, you would be the ant savior. You would be the mediator between ants and Skip in my backyard. Here's Job, little Job, suffering Job, crying out because he realizes God is so big and unrelatable. I need a mediator. Only God who would become man in the incarnation could help. That is the answer. He bridges the gap. You've heard about the bridge to nowhere? He's the bridge to somewhere, to someone, you and God can now come together.
And let's close on this verse, verse 6, I Timothy chapter 2, here's the reason he's the perfect representative is because he's the perfect ransom. "Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." He's the ransom. A ransom is somebody who pays a price. Somebody who pays a price pays a ransom. There's an interesting word here: the typical word in the New Testament for ransom used by Jesus, "The Son of Man has come to give his life a ransom for many," is the word lutron. Lutron. Paul uses a word that is found nowhere else in classical Greek and nowhere else in the bible, here for the word ransom. Antelutron, it is a preposition before the word to intensify it. What he's saying is this: Jesus didn't just come to pay the ransom, he became the ransom. He became the ransom. The one who died in your place is the one now who lives to represent you before the Father, to bridge that gap. The ransom has become the representative. And folks that's why we preach the cross, that's why we preach repentance, that's why we preach the necessity of the blood of Christ as Savior. There was a preacher named Dr. D. L. Stearns, he was preaching in Philadelphia. After his sermon somebody came up to him, this well-tailored man and said, "I wish you wouldn't speak so much about the death of Jesus Christ and the cross that way. I wish you would speak about Jesus as a good teacher and a good example." And Dr. Stearn said, "Really? If I presented Jesus that way would you follow him?" "I most certainly would," said the gentleman. Dr. Stearn said, "Okay, let's take the first step. Jesus never sinned. Can you claim that?" The man said, "Of course not, I can't claim that, I know that I have sinned." And Dr. Stearn said, "Then your greatest need is not an example but a Savior." So, that's why Paul here says, "The representative is the best representative because he is the ransom for us." I think the heartcry of every individual is "How can I connect with God?" They may not articulate it that way. Deep inside people are saying, "How can I make a connection with God if he is that great and I believe him to be, how can I make a connection with him?"
Nicholas Cage was right, the actor said, "There's a hole in the soul of my generation." That's absolutely right. There's a hole in the soul of everyone. You know the Bible says we were made that way. Romans chapter 8 says we were made subject to futility or vanity or emptiness. God put a hole in the soul of everyone. So we would cry out and so the heartcry of every individual would be met in Christ.
Philosopher Blaise Pascal was right, "There's a God-shaped vacuum," he said, "in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God the creator made known through Jesus Christ." St. Augustin was right, he said, "We are restless until we find our rest in thee." Solomon was right, "God has put eternity in our hearts." It's the way we're built. We're built to cry out and say, "How can I ever contact God? I need a mediator." And that mediator is Jesus Christ because the gap, the chasm is too great between earth and heaven, between flesh and spirit. And Jesus is that bridge. Jesus is that mediator. Jesus is that middleman. You can't get to god through any other belief system. You can't get to God by your own devotion. You can't get to God by joining any institution. You must come through the narrow gate of a relationship with the Savior who died for your sins and rose from the grave for your justification. It's the only way, only way. I want you to hear that because I want to be free from the blood of all men. One day you'll stand before God and you'll either be in heaven or not. And you have heard the truth and it is up to all of us to respond to it one way or the other.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, there's one God, that's you. There is no other God. There are not many gods, the Bible calls all of them false gods, demonically inspired gods. There is one god. And there is one middleman, one umpire, one go-between, one mediator between that one true God and mankind: the man Christ Jesus. There is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. And we must, we must be saved. And we must come through Jesus because as Job said, "There's no one and there really was no one until Jesus said, "I am that someone, I am that mediator." Who at the cross, with those arms stretched out, dying for us, could lay one hand on God and one hand on humanity. And by that death as ransom bring us together. How glorious. And so Father, my final prayer tonight is for anyone who is here in this auditorium or outside in the amphitheater or listening on the internet or radio, who is standing in their own goodness, righteousness, religion, their own good intentions; maybe representing their own case before heaven. Maybe those who have trusted in a religious system they have joined and they believed if they adhere to that system, that priest, that pastor, that group; that that's all they need. Jesus you're all that we need because you're the only one sent from God to save. And so Lord, I pray that all, all hope in anything or anyone else would be stripped away tonight and we would ask ourselves, "Am I trusting Jesus Christ alone as my middleman, the one who stood in the gap, became the price, the ransom for me. By his death. And now since he rose from the dead, by his life represents me to God. I pray we would not trust in Mary or saints or angels but in Jesus alone when we are invited, yeay commanded to.
Pause for just a quiet moment. Pause and just do a little hart searching. As you pause and as you think about your heart, your life, your choices, your belief system, your worldview; can you honestly say, "I trust in no one else but Jesus Christ alone, the historic Jesus who stepped out of heaven as God yet became man and stood in that gap and paid that price. And I place my faith in him. Have you done that? Are you in Christ tonight? Because if you're not in Christ in that position, you're out of Christ and you're out of the realm of salvation. Friend, there's no other way, there's no other hope. If you want hope and you want life, it's given to you freely, Jesus paid that price, it cost him everything. You need to acknowledge that you need him. And you must receive him as savior and as Lord. If you are willing to do that tonight, I'd like you to raise your hand up. Just keep it up for a moment. God bless you, both in the middle. Anybody else? IT's your acknowledgement, "I need this." God bless you and you, all three of you right over there on the side in the middle, in the back. Anyone else? Those of you who have come forward, I'm so glad you're standing right there right now. I'm so glad you did this. (applause)
It doesn't matter your past, your background, doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter how bad you are. God knows everything about you and loves you so deeply. And I'm going to ask you to pray right now. I'm going to pray out loud, I'd like you to pray out loud after me. As you do this, pray it from your heart. This is you giving Jesus control, giving him your life.
Let's pray. Lord I believe in you and I give you my life. I know I need you. I'm a sinner, please forgive me. I believe in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose from the dead. I turn form my sin and I turn to you as savior and as Lord. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. And give me your power to live for you, to live with you, until heaven. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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Date Title   Watch Listen Notes Share Save Buy
8/9/2009
completed
resume  
The Guy No One Wants to Be
Job 1:1-5
Skip Heitzig
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This book of Scripture is largely avoided by people, except for the first two chapters (and maybe the last one). Job is the one person that no one would ever want to be! He has become the quintessential example of the sufferer in despair. He stands against everything you've ever been told about the Victorious Christian Life! This guy had issues that perplexed him, issues of the deepest kind, issues that people have struggled with since the beginning of time, and issues that the book of Job doesn't provide answers for.
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8/16/2009
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The Man Behind the Curtain
Job 1:1-2:13; Revelation 12:1-17
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Behind our visible world is an invisible world just as real—the realm of the supernatural. Though we can’t see into this world, we can see the effects of its activities all around us, both good and bad. It’s like the difference between a visible picture on your television set and the invisible picture waves that are transmitted through the air. The invisible waves produce visible pictures. Behind the curtain of the supernatural a conversation between God and Satan was going on. Let’s listen in to what Job couldn’t listen to and learn how to triumph in this invisible battle.
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8/23/2009
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From Riches to Rags - Part 1
Job 1-2
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For the next two weeks we will examine Job’s pain. Clearly his is an extreme example, but eventually everyone will pass through such waters of affliction. So, why does evil seem to dominate our world? How can anyone believe in a good and loving God while bad and unloving things happen all around us? Not only is this a major “deal breaker” for many people believing in God; this is also a quandary for believers who want to “make sense” out of everything in life. Today we’ll see how Job suffered and how Jesus meets the deepest cry of the suffering heart.
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8/30/2009
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From Riches to Rags - Part 2
Job 1-2
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William Sangster, a London cleric, was dying from muscular disease. When he discovered his fate, he made four resolutions that he kept: "1) I will never complain; 2) I will keep the home bright; 3) I will count my blessings; 4) I will try to turn it to gain." Although Job wanted to keep his life and home bright, there were some around him that just wouldn’t let that happen. How should people treat sufferers? And how should sufferers live through their suffering times?
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9/6/2009
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Are You and God OK?
Job 9:2
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"How can a man be righteous before God" Job asks! This is the age-old dilemma of all mankind. How can any person, fraught with personal failure and innate sin, make peace with God who is perfect? Does God just wink at all our sins and mistakes? Can He just arbitrarily overlook and override them? Or is there some necessary condition that must be met first? Let’s find out today how this can happen and how you can have deep and lasting peace because of it.
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9/27/2009
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Is Death the Final Word?
Job 14:14
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"A grave, wherever found, reaches a short and pithy sermon to the soul." These words, penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are right! Cemeteries remind us of our future on this earth - the only real estate we’ll hold onto for awhile! Job was keenly aware of his own mortality but unsure about his immortality. How can mortal man penetrate beyond the grave and find assurance and peace for his own heart? He can’t without Christ!
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10/4/2009
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Epiphany!
Job 19:23-27
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If you were reading through the book of Job and came to this chapter, you might remark, "What happened to Job? He got religion!" It’s as if Job received a sudden and most amazing insight. When you consider how little God had revealed in Job’s day about the future and about life after death, these words are a remarkable testimony of faith. It’s nothing short of an epiphany of hope.
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10/11/2009
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When God Can't be Found
Job 23:1-12
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Sometimes in our Christian experience God seems afar off—silent and imperceptible. We diligently seek Him and call on Him but the heavens seem like impenetrable brass. Even more disturbing is when it seems like we’re suffering in the furnace of affliction—the very time we need God the most and yet it feels like He can’t be found. Where is He then? Why don’t we hear from Him? What should our attitude be?
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10/18/2009
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The Ultimate Discovery
Job 42:1-6
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Finally, after Job and his friendly neighborhood philosophers debated back and forth, God comes to shed His penetrating light of truth on Job’s situation. This allowed Job to make some amazing findings about God and himself. As we close our series today we see how revelation leads to repentance and how this is not a one-time-for-all-time decision, but rather a way of life. Let’s peer over Job’s shoulder as he encounters the God he’s been crying out for throughout the book.
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There are 9 additional messages in this series.
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