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Welcome. Come in and join us in the Word. Welcome to From House to House as we continue
in our 12 part series called Jobs Answer. Weve been going through Job 23 and listening
to his reply to his accusers that are condemning him, finding fault in him. Job had not done
anything wrong. But God allowed his life to be tested when Satan came before God and asked
permission to test him to see if he could prove Job only served God because of the blessings
God had given. God allowed that as long as he didnt take his life because God stated
He knew Job would be faithful to Him regardless. Do you serve the Lord just looking for blessings?
What if blessings didnt come? Would you still serve the Lord? The important thing is we
make our dedication to God sure. The Scripture says we need to bind the sacrifice even with
cords, to the horns of the altar. That typifies how they used to put the sacrifice on the
altar as they offered it to God. This was before Jesus came and made Himself a sacrifice.
They tied that sacrifice down. It might be a bullock, an ox, a lamb, so it wouldnt rear
up and get off of the altar because it was alive. They tied it down to the four corners
of that altar, to the horns on that altar that they tied it to. That symbolizes that
– when we give our life as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God which is but our
reasonable service it says in Romans – sometimes the flesh wants to get off of the altar. Weve
got to tie down our commitments to God. Weve got to make our calling and our election sure.
Tie it down because itll be like when Abraham made a sacrifice to God and all the vultures
swooped down to pick it apart and devour the sacrifice he gave to God. Those typify the
works of the enemy – the enemy comes in as we make a dedication, buzzards are there
to pick your dedication apart and to see if it can devour your dedication. Take heart
and be determined you will tie your sacrifice to the horns of the altar and it will be a
sure gift to God and not something that if things dont go well, you pack up and leave
– because its important that you give the Lord a solid dedication. Then you get the
fullness of joy of the Lord as your strength. Then you will get the fullness of His graces.
As the psalmist said Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits. There are
benefits. But a lot of us dont experience all the benefits. We didnt made our call,
commitment and election sure. We say, lets see how it goes, its contingent on this or
that. No, give it to God 100% and dont look back. Job was in a time of testing, awful
things took place. Kind of like Christ, in every point he was tested as we are, it would
almost appear that way. Yet he holds on to his trust and his claims to his relationship
to God. He wont turn back on God because things in the natural have dissolved around him.
One thing, he knows God is the boss. This is Lesson 11, next to the last one. And were
calling it Whos The Boss? Once you have dedicated your life to God, who becomes the boss? Its
no longer you. Paul said its not I, but Christ that liveth in me. The life I now live in
the flesh, I live by the Son of God. It comes to a place in your dedication to God where
you know who is the boss. You put the reins totally into His lap. Job is answering his
critics in chapter 23 and he states that God is the boss. Gods does what He does, because
Job signed over the rights and title to his life. Have you signed over the ownership, the rights and
deed to your life? K. J. Job 23:1, 10 is where we take our series title from. Then I want
to focus on verse 13-14. Then Job answered and said, But he knoweth the way that I take:
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Hes looking forward and has a goal.
What comes out of this – the gold – out of this trial? This is where we want to focus:
but he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
Whos he talking about, these people that criticize and condemn him, telling them his life is
in Gods hands – God will perform what He planned. It may look like theres not a plan
for Job, sitting on the ash-heap, with boils and everything disintegrated round about him.
But his hope and trust is in God and he knows Gods going to continue to perform what God
has appointed for him. God has appointed and planned things for your life. If you will
hang in there with God through thick and thin, you will find God will perform what He has
appointed. With that appointment Hes given an anointment . You have both when you abide
in His appointment. Hes saying Gods made up His mind. No one can turn God around. Hes
going to do His desire – not my desire, but Hes going to perform what He has appointed
for me. Because Job relinquished his rights and was willing to let God be the boss. Its
a good time, when you arrive at the place in your walk, when you recognize God is the
boss. Let Him make the decisions. The Living Bible, Job 23:13-14 says, Nevertheless, his
mind concerning me remains unchanged, and who can turn him from his purposes? Whatever
he wants to do, he does. So he will do to me all he has planned, and there is more ahead.
I have embraced these promises. Its a confession of faith as Job expresses this, but its inspired
by the Holy Spirit, in Timothy we are told all Scripture is inspired by the Spirit of
God. And its profitable for us. At this time in our lives, in my family, we dont know the
outcome of some of the trials coming against us in our senior years and the physical things
that took place are precarious at this time. But I embrace this – God has made up His
mind. God isnt fickle; He wont change His mind. He will fulfill His purpose, not mine
but His. And whatever He wants, Hes going to do it. Because I relinquished my life into
His hands. Job said Hes going to do all He has planned. Im banking on that – God will
do all He planned because He has a plan for your life. Will you submit and let God work
His plan. He will take us through to the other side of our tests and hardships. Hell bring
us out to His glory. Hell refine the gold. Scripture says we are to partake of His divine
nature and gold symbolizes that. That will be expressed more and more through our lives
as dross is melted away in the flames of trials we go through. We need to
be careful in the midst of those trials and tests, that we dont question Gods hand and
rebel against God, not allowing a work to be done in us, because some-where in the past
you asked God to do this work in you. Hes taken you up on your commitment. He is beginning
to do this work. So now recognize Hes the boss, dont question His hand, or be argumentative
with the hand of God. Scripture exhorts us to be careful concerning rebelling against
the hand of God. He is the boss. The Amplified of Romans 9:20-21 says But who are you, a
mere man, to criticize and contradict and answer back to God? Will what is formed say
to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?Has the potter no right over the clay,
to make out of the same mass (lump) one vessel for beauty and distinction and honorable use,
and another for menial or ignoble and dishonorable use? Who are we that we criticize and contradict
God, He that formed us? Can we say to Him: Why have You made me like this? In my youth,
it was pressed on me there was a call of God on my life. God had a plan and it wasnt what
I would have chosen but what He had chosen. I found myself often saying, Lord if thats
so, then why did You make me timid, shy, feeling very inferior? Why didnt You make me smart?
Many ttimes I said to the Lord, How come You didnt make me different? I found out why since
then, if He does a work, He gets the credit, because Hes working with negatives. If theres
something positive, we have to give Him glory and praise because He picks the weak and feeble.
But, when we come to understanding – we dont say, God why have You made me like this?
I used to say, If Youve called me to give your Word, why did You make me a woman or
call a girl instead of a man? A long time ago, it wasnt acceptable for a woman to share
the Word of God. There were many things that seemed contradictory. But I came on this Scripture
in Romans that exhorts us to not answer back to God. Were not to say Why have You made
me like this, Lord? And boy, that brought me up short and I knew Id better not say that
to God. That isnt pleasing to Him, Hes the boss. Amplified Isaiah 45:9-11, going hand-in-hand
with these verses, says, Woe to him who strives with his Maker! – a worthless piece of broken
pottery among other pieces equally worthless and yet presuming to strive with his Maker!
Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your
work has no handles? Woe to him who complains against his parents that they have begotten
him who says to a father, What are you begetting? or to a woman, With what are you in travail?
Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Would you question Me about
things to come concerning My children and concerning the work of My hands would you
command Me? The Lord puts us back in our place. If we give our life to God, Hes the boss and
were dont tell God what, when, or how to do. Hes the maker and would we question Him or
command Him concerning His handy work? Ive heard people preach and teach the opposite
– to command the hands of the Lord. Be careful when it comes to that, if you read in its
original text, you find its opposite – we are not to command God. God is in charge.
The Lord told Jeremiah to go to the potters house. There are valuable clues in this text
that spiritually we can apply. Jeremiah 18:1-6, K. J. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying, Arise, and go down to the potters house, and there I will cause thee to hear
my words. Then I went down to the potters house, and , behold, he wrought a work on
the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:
so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word
of the Lord came to me, saying O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?
saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in mine hand,
O house of Israel. Yes, that literally happened to Jeremiah. God told him to go get an illustration
of what God wanted to do with Israel. He wanted to re-shape, re-mold them into something better.
The first command was: Get up! Get ready to move. Sometimes we need to arise. Maybe weve
been sitting in self-pity or fear or condemnation. But were not moving forward, on our feet and
ready to move forward. He said get up. If youre listening and you are seated – Im
talking about your spiritual walk – you have sat down to ponder, to probe, half-heartedly
saying Im not going any farther. The Spirit of the Lord says Get up! Shake the dust off!
Another Scripture says Arise, shake the dust off. Its time your light is come. If youre
sitting instead of on your feet moving forward spiritually in God, get up ready to move.
Then Go to the potters house. To me, this means humbling your heart before God. The
Scripture says Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due season.
Theres a place and time when you need to go down instead of haveing an exalted, self-righteous,
prideful spirit, but realize you need to humble yourself in the presence of God. John the
Baptist said he had to decrease so Christ could increase. The self-life has to decrease,
to go down so Christ can increase. Theres a place to humble yourself before God. Go
down to the potters house, submit yourself again to Him, the One in charge who can re-make.
The Lord said to Jeremiah – if he would go down to the potters house, He would cause
him to hear. Sometimes our attitude is in the wrong place, weve got an attitude that
hinders us hearing what God really wants to say. Are you hearing from God? There is a
place where you can, after youve gotten up out of your laziness or unwillingness and
humbled your heart. Go down in the spirit before God, humble yourself even on your knees.
It only matters that youre on your knees in your heart before God, submit yourself to
the potter as clay must submit to the hands of the potter. And there I will cause thee
to hear My Words. God will speak to us afresh as we submit in the presence of God. There
is a there, an attitude, a place as you come to God where you can hear what the Lord wants.
He went down and he began to see a working, on the wheel, of change - that wheel was spinning
and the potter worked with this clay and shaped it. That is a wheel of change that the Lord
wants to do in our life. Scripture speaks of Him changing us from glory to glory. Conforming
us more to the image of Christ. Were on His wheel, and Hes changing us there. And the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. It was a vessel. You
are a vessel, a container for the Holy Spirit the Lord wants to fill and not only fill but
overflow out through for others, for His names and for His glory. We are vessels in this
great house of God of different types of materials, of clay, wood, silver, gold. But Job was refined
to be a vessel of gold, a more perfect vessel of gold. If youre in the heat of the fire,
it might be youre being refined as silver or even gold. But you are a vessel and the
potter wants to work on you. And the potter was going to remake this vessel all over because
it had mars. He was going to rework and make it more perfect. He was going to do what was
good to the potter. Do you see in Jeremiah 18:4 it says, And the vessel that he made
of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again. The potter made it into
another vessel as it seemed good. It wasnt up to the vessel to say I want you to make
out of me this or that. Some people come to the Lord with an attitude of, Lord, I want
you to make me an evangelist, a preacher, a soloist or a pianist. We need to submit
to the Lord and let Him make what is good in His eyes, as it seems good to the potter,
the Scripture says. We are in the hand of God. Now, back to Job, having tied those verses
in with what Job was saying about himself. Job 23:14 Amplified . And Job answers, For
He performs that which He has planned for me, and of many such matters He is mindful.
Oh, Im thankful that I can claim and believe God will do it. I cant do it. He will perform
what He has planned for me. No matter what happens or hits my life, no matter what happens
to you, my sisters in Christ or hits your life – you can hold on to this, God will
perform what He has planned and nothing can alter that, except yourself when you get in
the way or refuse to go with God. K. J. Philippians 2:13 says For it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God both works and wills, both, to do what?
To do His good pleasure in our life. Its God thats doing the work according to His will
and pleasure. Philippians 1:6 Amplified says And I am convinced and sure of this very thing,
that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ right
up to the time of His return, developing that good work and perfecting and bringing it to
full completion in you. Have confidence the Lord will complete that work. He is the boss.
Let Him remain the boss. Join us next time as we continue in Job 23 and conclude with
the last verses. Were calling it When Not Spared. Until then, God bless you. Amen