Notes from Ps Yang Tuck Yoong’s sermon on June 26, 2023 (Cornerstone Community Church Singapore) [TITLE: The Perplexity and Affliction of Job]
Apart from our Lord Jesus Christ, there are very few people in the world who have suffered as much as Job, who had to endure pain, humiliation and much suffering in the Old Testament.
He lost everything he loved, cherished and honour - all in one fell swoop. He lost all his children (his future); he lost all his wealth, his health, all his friends and he lost his dignity. The story of Job is a story that is replayed in every generation.
Now, God is drawn to the most righteous person on this planet, and so is the devil.
And this battle between God and Satan is fought over every single generation. The contested issue is always an issue of integrity and righteousness.
Will the righteous still love God even when the hand of blessing is removed? Will the righteous still praise him in the midst of the fiery trial?
The book of Job begins with an amazing description of Job, as the most righteous man in his generation. The Bible says there was no one like him on the earth. The Scriptures described him as blameless, righteous and upright; one who feared God and shunned evil.
Note: Job, Noah and Daniel were singled out as the three most righteous men who ever lived in the Bible.
This is important because their righteousness did not immune them from being tested. In fact, it was the outstanding righteousness that got them into hot soup in the first place. In other words, the godly will face this and trials.
Why? To prove to Satan that they love God more than their own lives.
Noah had to endure the ridicule of humanity for 120 years as he patiently built the ark. Daniel, that righteous prophet, was unjustly thrown into a lion’s den for his righteousness and outstanding devotion to God. But Job went through the greatest suffering of them all.
The question is can you find the God of mercy in the book of Job? The short short answer is yes.
God could have just left Job alone in his smallness. Initially, all that Job was is that he was a very righteous man, who was extremely wealthy, but he had a bickering wife and 10 pretty wayward children that loved to party. And he was in the safety of a protective bubble. God hedged him around in comfort and prosperity. And he was the wealthiest man in the East.
And if God did not interfere, if God did not intervene and interrupt Job’s comfortable life, we would have never heard of him. He would have just been a rich man who lived and faded into obscurity, and no one would be the wiser.
But God loved Job too much to leave him in his smallness. So, He intervened; and because He did, we all know Job today as one of the most outstanding and righteous men in the entire Bible. A man who did not sin even when everything was yanked under his feet.
As in the case of Job, God loves us too much to leave us in our smallness. He loves us too much to leave us to our foolishness. So, He will come and interrupt and disrupt our lives because He has a greater plan for our lives.
We should not ever complain when He does that, because He will not leave us in our smallness.
Psalm 11:5 (AMPC)
The Lord tests and proves the [unyieldingly] righteous, but His soul abhors the wicked and him who loves violence.
If you're righteous, the Lord will test you. But the wicked He leaves alone. So, the last thing you want is for God to leave you alone.
Whatever we do, pray that God will never leave us alone in our smallness and in our foolishness.
Now, God is drawn to the righteous, and so is the devil. But the devil is not just drawn to the righteous, but he is also drawn to those that God is going to use.
For example, Satan knew Simon Peter was the chosen vessel to lead the early church. So he sought to sift him. The good thing was he had to ask permission from the Lord Jesus.
This simply means if the devil is on to you, he has got to get past Jesus.
Jesus permitted Satan to sift Simon, knowing that Simon would deny him and betray him. He prayed for Simon that the whole experience would make him even stronger and Peter would emerge from that whole episode stronger and become the leader of the Apostolic band.
Similarly, with David, Satan knew that David was going to inherit the throne. He came against David, taking all David had. The enemy took away David’s family and everything he owned; as well as all the things that David's men owned and their families. This was Ziklag - probably the greatest and darkest moment in David's life (1 Samuel 30).
The Bible said they wept so hard that they had no more tears left. What do you do when you've lost everything? What do you do when everything has been taken and yanked from under your feet?
The Bible tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord. The word encourage means to pour courage into you. But sometimes you don't have people around you to pour courage. You don't have people around to encourage you. In those times, you got to learn how to encourage yourself in the Lord.
There are times where we have got to learn how to encourage ourselves. We've got to learn how to pray in the Spirit, and worship God.
In the midst of a terrible trial, David put on a linen ephod, which is a prayer ministry. He got into prayer to seek the Lord. He said: Lord, what do I do? Should I pursue them? Will you give me victory?
God pulled David out of that fiery furnace, and the next thing we know, David was sitting on the throne of Judah.
These trials and testing are just a shortcut to the throne, in David’s case. In our case, trials and testing can be a shortcut for us to enter into the promises that God has given to us for many years.
Many believers are probably going through tough trials today - so much contradiction; prayers have gone unanswered; prayed for provision but find oneself in a position of being broke and bankrupt; some have been asking for healing for a long time only to find that their sickness and diseases have deteriorated; some prayed for their children, but they seem to fall into greater depravity. And what makes this all so deeply painful is that it's all happening at a time when you are trying to serve God the best you can and there's so much prayer being lifted up.
This is called perplexity. It is a state of confusion and a state of uncertainty. But it's also a state of transition. It simply means you're moving from one place to another place.
Make an internal decision: That our default behavior when we hit turbulence is to praise and thank God.
Even if we don't understand, we know that we know that all things will work together for good, for those that love Him. This is not only to prove the devil wrong, but to fill the celestial space with praise for God.
James 1:2-4 (AMPC)
2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.
3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.
4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
How do we react as believers when we fall into contradiction is the test.
So, let our default behaviour be according to what James wrote, and that is, to count it all joy. In other words, the moment you hit turbulence, rejoice. Why?
Because the trial is going to do for you what all the money in this world cannot.
Count it all joy. Why? Because the testing of your faith produces endurance.
This verse has nothing to do with our feelings. It has everything to do with how we think, how we process and how we respond.
Oftentimes, God doesn't change our situations because He's seeking to change us.
When contradictions or trials come our way what God is seeking to do is to develop something in us that is eternal and it can only be produced under great duress, under great pressure. They are helping us build a reserve for the last days.
So what we need to know is that when trouble strikes, regardless of what it is, we need to see it as a thing of joy.
We may not feel joy, but this has nothing to do with our feelings.
It is about what you're thinking. The moment you start thinking right, the feelings will follow in line, and your situation changes.
God wants to break us out from our smallness.
The moment we change our thinking to align with the Scriptures, everything in our life will start to align with the Scriptures.
God wants to perform a “surgery” in our lives. This may involve inconvenience, discomfort and pain. But if we voluntarily put ourselves in the process, there would be good results. It is in this “knowing” that will help us endure the pain of the “surgery”.
We can count it all joy when the Lord wants to do a surgery on us.
He is the Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. So, we know we are in good hands. Just trust the process, and let endurance have its perfect work.
There are many treasures in the darkness that we have to acquire.
When you're going through a trial, take your time to go through the process because there are things that you can acquire when you're going to the trials of life that you can never acquire anywhere else.
Job suffered about six months before God delivered him from his adversity.
And if you will endure the process, He will bring you out of the trial and He will perfect His work in your life (Romans 8:28).
The greatest test in a test is the lack of perspective.
For example, when Job was going through a trial, he lost all the ability to be objective. He lost his perspective because the fire was so hot.
As for Joseph, he was sent to prison for doing something right with Potiphar’s wife. The Bible tells us two things about Joseph when he was in prison in Psalm 115:22 and Psalm 105:22.
When Joseph came out of prison, he came out with wisdom that far surpassed others. So, there's something about a prison experience that when you come out of it, God gives you wisdom. The prison experience can form the nature of Christ in us.
The second thing as Joseph yielded to the prison experience was that he could bound the princes at his pleasure. This means Joseph gained a position of authority as he came out of that prison experience.
These lessons tell us that every time we come out of a “prison” experience, we gain a position of authority.
If you came out from a “financial prison” and God has delivered you, then you have the authority to help people come out from a “financial prison”.
If you came out from a long-standing sickness and God has healed you, then you have the authority to pray for people and to deliver those who have long-standing sicknesses.
The prison experience gives you authority.
So, whenever God puts you through a trial (or prison experience), embrace the experience because when you come out of that experience, God is going to give you a position of authority.
God has got more for our lives than we could ever imagine. Don't allow our small thinking rob us of eternal greatness.
God has a dream and a plan for our lives. Sometimes we have to go into the wilderness or prison sentence because it is in these tough moments that God forms us, and puts His nature in us. And sometimes, that's the only way that the Lord can change us.
Whatever we're going through, if we will learn to change our disposition and start praising God, giving Him the glory and learning to count it all joy, something will shift in us. Something will change and God will bring us out of that prison.
In Ziklag, when David lost everything, he responded by praising the Lord.
Let our default behaviour when we hit turbulence is to first praise the Lord. No more complaining, no more murmuring. Give God praise and thanks.
No more asking why me, why You do this to my family. We have to stop saying that.
We should instead say to God: I praise You for Who You are. My life is in Your hands. My times are in Your hands and I'll praise You.
Just bless the Lord and praise the Lord. The Bible says bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless His Holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever.
Break the power of the enemy by praising the Lord and giving the Lord glory.
The Lord has a breakthrough for us, but it has to start with us praising Him.
That prison experience is to accelerate the Lord’s grace upon our lives, and we will come out of it with such grace, beauty, strength and much purity.
When Job came out from his trials, the Lord blessed him and doubled everything that he had before. God prospered Job, and made him a greater man than he ever was. We all know Job’s name today, because God did not leave Job in a smallness.
VIDEO LINK: 25 June | The Perplexity & Affliction of Job | Ps Yang | Cornerstone Community Church | CSCC Online - YouTube
Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash
