My Sheep Know My Voice – 4

My Sheep Know My Voice – 4

Subject: Determining When God Is at Work 

by Rick Welborne

John 10:1-5 (NIV) 

1  "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 

2  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 

3  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

4  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 

5  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."

Job 2:1113 (NIV) 

11 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 

12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 

13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. 

–Review Job 1&2

–They were real friends to Job until this happened to him. This experience alienated them from Job, and the reason it did was that they did not know God very well nor did they know why God does certain things. 

–All of us have to admit we do not always understand God.  We surely do not have all the answers!

Isaiah 55:69 (NKJV)

6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 

7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 

8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 

9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

1. God is sovereign. 

--Can we really say with absolute clarity what God is up to in every situation?

–The obvious answer is no according to the verses in Isaiah.  We act like we do!

–This is a good reason why even today many of us should be very careful about trying to explain why certain things happen to other people. 

–We have no right to say that God has let something happen to soandso for suchandsuch a reason. We may think it is a good reason, but the problem is that we really don't know the reason. Super spiritual thinks so...

–These friends of Job were just as sure of their reasons as people are today. They thought they knew why certain things happen, but they were entirely wrong.

 –They appeared to be real friends to Job...came to mourn with him and for him.

 –And when they lifted up their eyes from far off, and did not recognize him, they lifted up their voices, and wept: and they tore their clothes, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven...all signs of friends who really cared.

–Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. 

2. The “Whys” must be left in God’s hands.

--Can we really know with absolute knowledge that we have the answer of “why” circumstances are happening the way they are?

–They had heard that their friend Job was in trouble, but they didn't dream it was as severe as it really was ...many make judgments without first-hand knowledge. Brownsville.

–More than likely, the last time they had seen Job he was in a beautiful home with his fine sons and daughters around him. They had seen the wealth of Job spread there across the landscape. Now they had come to visit him to see for themselves.

–They probably, at least, expected to find him in his luxurious home, but here they find him out at the city dump where they emptied the garbage, and he is scraping himself with an old broken piece of pottery. 

–He doesn't have anything at all. Everything is gone. Poor Job. What has happened?

–By the way...where is his sweet wife who told him to curse God and die?

 –These friends mourned and cried out because of his dilemma. For seven days they just sat there and didn't say a word. They sat with Job for seven days and seven nights! I would say they were friends...at least fair weather friends...appeared to be close! 

–As far as they knew how, they tried to comfort him by just sitting there with him for seven days...would have driven me crazy!

–Although they mourned for him during this full time, they were in no position to comfort him for three reasons: 

(A) They did not understand God; 

(B) They did not understand Job; and 

(C) They did not understand themselves. 

–Remember all this because it is very important!

3. We should not make judgments based on limited knowledge.

--Can we really come to an absolute conclusion based on our limited information?

 –As they sit for seven days of mourning, Job is under their critical eye, and they figured it all out, and shook their heads in a manner that said they knew what the problem was. 

–They all appeared to be very smart men. They are all philosophers, men who do a great deal of thinking...scary. During all those seven days they are thinking, and they all come to one conclusion. 

–They come to it from different angles, but the conclusion is the same: Job must be an awful sinner for these things to happen to him.  Sounds like us!

–God must be punishing him. He had better get his life straightened out. 

–This is the conclusion of each of them. Why his health is failing, why business is going south, why the church is declining, why his children are gone or not serving God...be careful!

J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible:   Finally Job just can't stand it any longer. They are beginning to shake their heads in a knowing way with smirks on their faces. They seem to say, "Aha, brother Job, it finally comes out. You've been living in sin, and you gave the impression that you were such a pious-holy individual. Now we know that this has come to you because your sin is out at last." Well, Job just can't take that. He can take everything else that has happened to him, but not a false accusation. So the conversation begins. Job is the first to speak.

An Overview:

–Job 3 - He says he really wishes that he had never been born...Don’t blame him for that!

Job 4:79 (NIV) Eliphaz

7 "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? 

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. 

9 At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish. 

Job 5:1718 (NIV) 

17 "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. 

18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. 

–Job 6 & 7 - Job defends himself.

Job 8:16 (NLT) 

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job: 

2 “How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind. 

3 Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right? 

4 Your children must have sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved. 

5 But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, 

6 and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home. 

–Job, your children died because of sin...yours and theirs…how hurtful this must be.

–Job 9-10 - I need a mediator...I am right with God but I am not totally righteous. Who is?

–Job 11 - Zophar urges Job to repent...

Job 13:1516 (NKJV)   Job resolves to trust in God.

15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. 

16 He also shall be my salvation, For a hypocrite could not come before Him.

Job 19:2527 (NLT) 

25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. 

26 And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! 

27 I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! 

Job 27:16 (NLT) - Job maintains his integrity...

1 Job continued speaking: 

2 “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, by the Almighty who has embittered my soul— 

3 As long as I live, while I have breath from God, 

4 my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies. 

5 I will never concede that you are right; I will defend my integrity until I die. 

6 I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

–Job is seeing God’s hand in this situation...this is a test.

Job 28:28 (NIV) - Job’s wisdom...

28 And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lordthat is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'" 

–Job 32-37 - Elihu tells Job that this is a trial and he needs to submit himself under the hand of God.

–Job 38-39 - God reveals that He is omniscient...

Col 1:1617 (NKJV)

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  

–Job’s 40-41 - God questions Job...He is the righteous judge...

Job 42:16 (NLT)

1 Then Job replied to the LORD: 

2 "I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. 

3 You ask, `Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?' It is I. And I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me. 

4 "You said, `Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.' 

5 "I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 

6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance." 

A. Job realizes God is sovereign and does what He deems necessary...One God and

you are not Him. 1-2

B. Job confesses he has questioned God’s wisdom...how ignorant that is! 3

C. Job realizes after God’s questions to him how futile was his reasoning and he

takes it all back...He repents!

D. Some tonight may have questioned God about your marriage, your business,

your family, your health...we may need to repent.

E. Repenting is much less complicated than trying to figure it all out...just repent!

Praying Circles Around Your Walls – 15

Praying Circles Around Your Walls – 15

Subject: Stop Beating Your Donkey

by Rick Welborne

Joshua 6:5 (NKJV)
⁵  It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him." 

Numbers 22:21-31 (NLT)
²¹  So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off with the Moabite officials.
²²  But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the LORD to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants were riding along,
²³  Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road.
²⁴  Then the angel of the LORD stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls.
²⁵  When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So Balaam beat the donkey again.
²⁶  Then the angel of the LORD moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all.
²⁷  This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.
²⁸  Then the LORD gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam.
²⁹  “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!”
³⁰  “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?” “No,” Balaam admitted.
³¹  Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him. 

--Some of our toughest moments as Christians is when you have prayed hard and believed God to do something in our lives and the answer is no and we don’t know why. Maybe God is just silent.

--We are all so excited when God answers our prayers and gives us exactly what we want, when we want it, in the way we want it, but that is not how our lives normally go.

1. The Litmus test of trust.

Mark Batterson – Do you trust that God is for you even when He doesn’t give you what you have asked for? Do you trust that He has reasons beyond your reason? Do you trust that His plan is better than yours?

--I am sure, if we will all be honest, that we have questions or unanswered prayers that we really do not know why God did not come through the way we thought He would or the way we thought He should.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)
²⁹  The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

--This verse tells us that there are certain mysteries that won’t be revealed until we cross over into eternity.

--When I played tournament tennis in Texas I played in many matches in Dallas at the Samuel Grand Prix Tennis center. As you played and did well, you accumulated points.

--I worked hard, I practiced every day and I won enough matches to get me to a goal that I had wanted for a couple of years…to play in the tournament of champions, and finally I made it in.

--This tournament was for the top eight players from the previous year…I knew God was going to be glorified because I had been faithful to prepare and train. I had never been so ready in my life to compete.

--About two weeks before the tournament I started feeling bad and began to cough more and more. I kept pushing myself to train but found it more and more difficult…I was a sick puppy.

--I finally went to the doctor and he said I had pneumonia. What? You need bed rest for a couple of weeks and absolutely no tennis or any other strenuous activity. This couldn’t be true. 

--Being the compliant and non-competitive person that I am…I did exactly what the doctor told me…not! I played in the tournament thinking God would touch me and come through. He didn’t.

--I thought for sure I would die that day. I lost and I lost to a guy who was arrogant and he was a jerk (my humble opinion). I couldn’t stop coughing and, of course, playing made me more sick.

--We don’t understand when God does not come through. We don’t understand when people die pre-maturely, we don’t understand when we lose a job, we don’t understand so many things.

--One of the hardest things for us as we pray hard and believe God to come through is enduring unanswered prayers. You have to guard your heart because unresolved anger can affect your faith in God.   

--Hear me, there will be times as you follow God that trusting Him will be your only option. If you can trust God when the answer is no, you are more than likely going to give Him praise when the answer is yes. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
⁵  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 

--When you don’t know what to do, you have to press into God and press on…by definition, praying hard is praying when it is hard to pray. 

Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV)
¹²  Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
¹³  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
¹⁴  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

--Our District Superintendent reminded us at Council that the only reason we can press toward the prize and hang in there when times are tough, is because Jesus has first laid hold of us.

--Because Jesus has initiated this relationship…I can lay hold of Jesus, I can lay hold of His promises, I can forget those things behind me and press forward. Can you let it go for Him?

--Sometimes what we perceive to be unanswered prayers are often God’s greatest answers for us. Our heavenly Father loves us way too much to give us everything we ask for

2. Stop beating your donkey.

--Sometimes God gets in the way to show us the way. He sends or creates divine detours to get us going the right direction. This is absolutely His mercy to us.

--Many people think that one of the craziest miracles in the Bible was a talking donkey but I must admit that I have heard talking jack…I mean donkeys for years. Dab!

--A prophet named Balaam is on his way to Moab because he has been offered money to curse the Israelites. On his way, an Angel of the Lord gets in the way. 

--Balaam does not see the angel but the donkey does. Three times the donkey saves his life by running a different direction. Balaam’s response is to beat the donkey. Stop beating your donkey.

--Let me throw in here, if you are on your way to curse God’s people, the church, or even the pastor and someone is trying to stop you (you may consider them to be a donkey) listen to them!

--They are smarter than you think (obviously smarter than you are) and they are saving your life because God does not take it lightly when you curse or speak against his people. 

1 Chronicles 16:22 (NKJV)
²²  Saying, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm." 

--We pastors love to use this verse to encourage people not to speak against us but if you read this verse in its context, it is talking about God’s people. We are all His anointed ones if we belong to Him.

1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV)
⁹  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
¹⁰  who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

--Balaam’s donkey opens his mouth and says, what have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? Balaam’s response was that you made a fool of me, if I had a sword I would kill you!

--Wow! What would we do if our donkey or in our case, our horses, started talking to us? My girls love America’s Got Talent and I am sure they would be standing in line to get a million dollars.

--You know you are not thinking right or headed in the right direction when a jack…I mean a donkey, has to reason with you. I am your donkey and I have not done this before…open your eyes goofball!

--Finally, God opens Balaam’s eyes to see the angel of the Lord and reveals He would have killed him if it hadn’t been for his donkey. 

--Sometimes we get ticked off as much as Balaam when we can’t get where we want to go. We hate detours! They are frustrating. They are confusing to us.

Batterson: But the divine detours often get us where God wants us to go. The real miracle in this story isn’t the talking donkey; the real miracle is a God Who loves us enough to get in the way when we’re going the wrong way. These are the miracles we don’t want, but these are the miracles we need.

--I am so glad, when I look back on my own life when God got in the way of my own plans and rerouted me. What seemed like an unanswered prayer meant that God had a better answer. 

--My story of begging God to let me be a missionary is such an example. I loved Mexico and the beautiful people there so much. I just knew God was going to give me the desire of my heart.

--When I was on the backside of that mountain in Mexico begging God to let me stay in that town and pastor the little church where there was no pastor or missionary…His re-direction was not easy.

--When I look at our Mission’s program now and realize that there was no way I could have influenced so many by staying in that village but now, only eternity will record the souls impacted by our missionaries.

3. Sometimes we need to just stand still.

--Have you ever had your back up against the wall with nowhere to go and there seemed to be no good options. Time was running out. It is almost like God is wanting to play the game of flinch. Israel knew this:

Exodus 14:13-14 (NLT)
¹³  But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.
¹⁴  The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

--I have used a phrase for most of my life…Do something even if it is wrong! When I said that to someone, it was to motivate them to not be passive but make a decision and go with it! Bad choice…oh well!

--I must confess that my phrase is not biblical…many times just doing something is exactly what God does not want us to do. He tells us to not be afraid and to stand still. 

--When the children of Israel were at the Red Sea they were completely hemmed in…no place to go and nothing left to do but pray.

--All of us love miracles. We just don’t like being in a situation where we need one. We don’t like being between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. 

--It is bad enough to be able to see the dust rising from the chariots and the horses who are in hot pursuit of you but now you can hear the sound of hoofs…when Stephanie rides or the horses run…sounds like thunder. 

--God loves to lead us into places where there are no options or no way of retreat…He becomes our only way of escape. Why does He do this? He sets us up so He can be glorified!

--Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today… The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Just stay calm and trust Me!

Psalm 46:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!