to take his children home no
matter what way he takes them. I know nobody wants to lose a
loved one. Nobody wants to go through that. Nobody does. Nobody
does. But it's got to happen. And this world here is not even
comparable, not even comparable to the world we got to come.
Paul told, you know, I was reading tonight where Peter said to him,
this tabernacle is taken off, you know, and I'm dead like the
Lord showed me. He said, when my decease is accomplished,
when I'm dead, he said, I want you to remember these things.
I want you to remember these things. Well, you know, nobody
wants to lose a loved one, but the Lord's will be done.
All right, there's 22 verses in this chapter, and I'm gonna
read all 22 of them and then try to come back, say a few things
about them. So these three men ceased to
answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled
the wrath of Elihu, the son of Berechel, the busite of the kindred
of Ram. Against Job was his wrath kindled
because he justified himself rather than God. Also against
his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they found no
answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited till
he had spoken, because they were elder than he. When Elihu saw
that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, then
his wrath was kindled. And Elihu, the son of Barakel,
the Busite, answered and said, I am young, and you are very
old. Wherefore I was afraid, and durst
not show you my opinion. I said, days should speak, and
multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise,
neither do the aged understand judgment. Therefore I said, hearken
to me, I also will show mine opinion. Behold, I have waited
for your words. I gave ear to your reasons, whilst
you searched out in what to say. Yea, I attended unto you, and
behold, there was none of you that convinced Job or that answered
his words. Lest you should say, we have
found out wisdom, God thrusteth him down, not man. Now he hath
not directed his words against me, neither will I answer him
with your speeches. They were amazed, they answered
no more, they left off speaking. When I had waited, for they spake
not, but stood still and answered no more. I said, I will answer
also my part, also will show mine opinion, for I am full of
matter, the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly
is as wine which hath no vent. It is ready to burst like new
bottles. I will speak that I may be refreshed. I will open my
lips and answer. Let me not, I pray you, accept
any man's person. Neither let me give flattering
titles unto man, for I know not to give flattering titles. In
so doing, my Maker would soon take me away. We got a new person
here on the scene, somebody that's never been seen before, never
been heard from before. He's a young man, he's a gifted
man, he's a respectful man, and when Job had ended his sayings,
that's what we dealt with last week, when Job's sayings were
ended. Job said, I'm through, I'm through,
I'm not gonna say another word. And he talked about these three
friends of Job. And those three friends were
Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar. And Job said, you're all miserable
comforters. Miserable comforters. You're
physicians of no value. And he said, one time said, wisdom's
gonna die with you. You're all so smart and so wise
that when you die, wisdom's gonna go with you. When it's not gonna
even be left in the world, it's gonna die with you. So it's a
very, very simple outline to die in this passage here, Elihu's
a very man. Now these fellas had a controversy,
and it was over religion. It was over what God done and
what God didn't do. Over how a man's righteous, whether
a man, if God judges a man when he sins, and And that was their
natural way of thinking, that Job was in the shape he was in,
lost his family, lost his home, lost his health, lost his wealth,
lost everything, because he sinned some great sin, and God is punishing
him for that great sin. And Job refused to believe that.
He said, God's hand has turned against me. The Lord lifted his
hand on me. God took the crown off my head.
God put me down here. The Lord gave and the Lord take
it away. That's what he said. But they had these controversies,
went back and forth, went back and forth, went back and forth.
And they ended in failure. It ends in failure. When you're
going to argue with people, debate with people, it's going to end
in failure. It's going to end in failure.
Look what it says here in verse one, down through verse three. So these three men, Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar, ceased to answer Job. Why did they cease
to answer Job? Because they said he's righteous
in his own eyes. He's righteous in his own eyes.
Well, let me tell you something. He may have been righteous in
his own eyes, but I do know this, God said, if you consider my
servant Job a perfect and an upright man, God said he was
righteous. God said he was a perfect man.
God said he was an upright man. And Job understood his relationship
with God. That's what we dealt with last
week. He said, God is my hope. God sees everything. He takes
my steps. He takes my mind. He takes everything about me.
And my hope is not in gold. My hope's not in silver. My hope's
not in my wealth. My hope's not in anything that
I've ever looked at, touched, tasted, and handled in this life.
My hope's not in it. My hope's in God. And he said,
so then my sayings are ended. I got nothing else to say about
the matter. And so these three men, and Job had argued for some
time, and that's why it goes on to say in verse 2 then, that
then was kindled the wrath of Eliju. He sat there and listed
these fellas, and the son of Barakel, the busad, the kindled
of ram, against Job was his wrath kindled, and listed this because
he justified himself rather than God. And I guess that was right. He did do that pretty often.
He always made himself come out on the best end most of the time. And then also against his three
fins in verse three was his wrath kindled because they found no
answer. They yet had condemned Job with no answer. They didn't
have no reason to condemn him. He said, you come up with all
these answers and you condemn Job. And you didn't have no reason
to do it. Answer me why in the world you
condemn Job and have no reason to do it. And here's the thing,
no matter who condemns a fellow, if they're in Christ, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. No
judgment, no wrath, no nothing. And now what was the result?
What was the result? All these men, these three men
and Job, they argued and they debated and they fussed and they
fought and they debated one another and used some, some, a lot of,
a lot of words, a lot of words. And what was the result? Neither
convinced the other. Job never convinced those fellas
that he was righteous. And those fellas never ever come
to the conclusion that Job was nothing but a sinner and a great
sinner and God was punishing him because of his great sin.
They fought that fight for time after time after time. And men
are still fighting that fight. But let me tell you something. And this is one of the things
that religion does. This is one of the things that
Arminianism does and religious people does. Whenever they get
sick, like somebody gets real sick, And you know, they're getting
ready to go. Old timers used to say, well,
God's purging the sin out of them. He's purging their sin,
and when He gets all their sin purged, then they'll die. Christ purged our sins by Himself
and sat down at the right hand of God. We're all gonna go the
way of the dust. And we're going to go because
of this old flesh. We know God ain't going to have
to purge no sins from us. We ain't got any to purge. He
said all their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. What
sins are you going to purge us from? They're already gone. Oh my, oh they neither convinced
each other, they sent forth their arguments and their opinions,
and they all believed that what they said was right, they believed
their word was law, and all they're in was, ended up disliking one
another, and not approving of one another and being hostile
to one another. Know what? That's why Job said,
you fellows are physicians of no value. You're miserable comforters. And they said, Job, you just
don't even know God because how can a man be just in the sight
of God? So they argued and argued and
argued. But let me tell you something. It's one thing to discuss something
to arrive at truth. for to discuss something and
to arrive at truth. But it's another thing when you're
trying to prove somebody else wrong. Now if all you want to
do is prove yourself right and somebody else wrong, you won't
have no problem doing that. You won't have no problem doing
that. Especially if you weigh them in your basket. If you put
them in your basket and weigh them in your basket, you're gonna
come out on the best end. That's just the way it is. But
oh my, it's another thing trying to prove somebody wrong. And
when our Lord Jesus stood before, when they come and got him in
the garden, our Lord said so few words when
they come and got him. They said, are you Jesus? I am. He fell backwards. They asked
him again, then they took him. And the only thing he said, if
you get me, let these go their way. They took him into the high
priest. It's the first place they took
him, to the high priest. And the Lord Jesus never said
a word. They took him to Pilate. He stood there. Our Lord said
so few words. They accused him of everything
you could imagine. They accused him of blaspheming,
having a devil, that he was an imposter. that he had deserved to die,
he made himself one with God, and I tell you, our Lord Jesus
stood before him, and he had asked him, said, did you say
that, or did somebody else tell you? But I tell you what, the
best thing to do is tell the truth. You know what our Lord
said? He said, swear not by heaven, for that's the Lord's throne. Swear not by earth, for that's
his footstool. He said, let your yea be yea,
and your nay be nay. In other words, always be truthful
and you won't have to cover your tracks. That's what our Lord
said. And there's no reason to swear. If you absolutely are
an honest person, and you tell the truth, and you're honest,
then nobody's gonna question what you say is true or not.
Ain't that right? You won't have to say, well I
swear on a stack of Bibles that that's true. If you just tell
the truth and be honest, be an honest person, then you won't
have to swear about anything. And that's what our Lord said.
There's no sense swearing. It ain't going to change God.
It ain't going to change your relationship. And that's what He's saying there.
That's why these fellas, you know, trying to prove somebody
wrong, that's a very easy thing to do. But, boy, to sit down
and discuss and come up with the truth, that's another story
altogether. And then look, he got righteous
indignation. Elihu is, he's a young man, zealous
man, respectful man. Look what he says here now. And then verse three, again,
he said, he said, now I guess his three friends also was his
wrath kindled because they found no answer and yet had condemned
Job. Now Eli, you waited till Job had spoken because they were
elder. And when Eli who saw that there
was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath
was kindled. He had a righteous indignation.
He was angry at these men. He was angry at them. He had
a burning desire to express to them all the things that they
said and done wrong. And he had this righteous indignation
as a zeal for God. He was angry. He was angry at
their words. He was angry at the way they
dealt with their arguments. He was angry at the things they
accused God of. He was angry at the way the things
they said about God and the things they said about Job. And then
he was indignant with Job for not justifying God. And his three
friends had condemned Job and never did come up with one answer
of why Job was in this condition he was in. Not one time did they
come up with an answer. And that's what this young man
listened. He listened intently to what they had said. And then
let me show you something else about this young fellow. He had
respect. He had reverence and respect
for his elders. Look what he says now in verse Verse four. Now Elihu had waited
till Job had spoken because, listen to what it said, they
were older than him. They were elder than him. They
was much older. So he waited till everybody got
through talking. He said, I'm a young man. I got no business
butting in on these old men, these old folks and what they've
got to say. Huh? Then look what he said down
there. And then Elihu In verse 6, Elihu
the son of Barakel the Busite said, I am young. I'm a young
man. And then Marge said, a few days.
And you're very old. All you fellas are old. And so
I was afraid. I didn't want to interrupt you
all. Y'all was talking. You're much
older than I am. I wouldn't dare interrupt you.
I wouldn't dare voice my opinion. I was afraid. And I dared not
show you my opinion. Oh my. He said, because I'm so
young and you're so old. He had respect for them. He had
respect for what they had to say. He had respect for their
arguments. And then look what he said in verse 7. I said, days
should speak and multitude of words should teach wisdom. He
said, when you're old and you got a lot of years behind you,
that should teach you some wisdom. And he felt inferior. He had
reverence and respect for these men because of their age. And he felt inferior in knowledge
of God. He felt inferior in spiritual
matters. He was afraid to voice his opinion until everybody else
was through talking. The sayings of Job was ended,
and it says these three men refused to answer him anymore. Didn't
have anything else to say either. And he deferred to the judgment
of these elders. He deferred to them and their
judgment. He said, I said, you fellows
are old and you ought not to speak. You got a lot of years
behind you and you got a lot of wisdom. And I tell you, age
ought to teach some men some things. Age ought to teach us
some things. But I've said this so many times,
we're too soon old and too late wise. How many of us have said,
if I knew then what I know now, Things would be different. But
that's why you didn't know then what you know now. Because you
couldn't get from there to here without learning. And that's
what he's talking about. Aged men should teach some things.
You know, age should teach some things. Experience should teach
people things. And they've had years and years
to observe. They had years to observe what's
going on in this world. Years to observe God. Years to
observe nature. Years to observe their own nature.
Years to observe what goes on in this world. And these men
have seen the consequences of certain kinds of conduct. They
come to the conclusion that Job was a sinner because of what
had happened to him. And they're old enough to look
at the reality of things. But yet they did not look at
the reality of things. They used words, and yet the
words leads to actions. And I tell you that's what happened.
These old fellas, they just, they used words. And words didn't
convince Job, and Job used words, and they didn't convince those
three men. And they was old fellas. You'd
think that they'd learn something, but they didn't. But they never
did. And I tell you, but here's, Here's a picture of a young man,
a young preacher, a young preacher, let's put it that way, a young
preacher, justifying what he's going to do. He said, I was afraid
of you. I was afraid to speak. I'm angry
at you. I'm indignant at you for what
you said about Job. You could not convince him. And
Job, I'm upset with you because you just didn't justify God. You didn't say God to him. And
he said he was upset at him. And here's the preacher of a
young man justifying what he's doing. And you know, most people regard a young preacher
as somebody who don't know much. But now Timothy was a young preacher. And Paul told Timothy, he said, you know, you instruct
the elders. You instruct the elders. You
know, Charles Spurgeon started preaching when he was 17 years
old, and a year and a half later, he was preaching to thousands
of people when he was 19 years old. So age don't have anything
to do with it. It's whether God teaches a man
the gospel. Job was an old, old man. These three elders, these
men that come to him, they were old men. And their age did not
teach them nothing. They didn't have no wisdom. That's
why Elihu said, listen, I'll get my mouth shut till you fellas
shut up. Now I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to preach a little while. That's what he said. He
said, I'm going to preach a little while. Oh my. And they say, you
know, they regard young preachers as different. But oh my. But it's what he's going to say
about God and man. That's all that makes the difference
is. But he knew, Elihu, this young preacher knew, that he
had things in common with all men. Look what he says down in
verse eight. He said, for there is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. He knew that he had this in common
with all men. There's a spirit in man. Every
man's got this spirit in him. We're all, God made us rational,
Undying personalities. He made us a living soul. And
this spirit that we have, this life that we have, this living
soul that we have, it comes from God Almighty. It comes from God. That's why abortion is so bad. But you know, a soul comes into
being when God wills for it to come into being. And only God
can put a living soul in a child, whether it's a day old, or whether
it's a year old, or whether it's in the womb. John the Baptist
had a living soul in his mother's womb. He lived in his mother's
womb when he heard about Christ, his Savior. But there's a spirit
in man. This spirit comes from God. Ecclesiastes
12 says, God gives the spirit. And then He takes man upward.
And then look what He says, the Almighty, the inspiration of
the Almighty gives understanding. Oh, God alone can give this spirit
in a man, give this soul in a man, give him some understanding.
God alone can do that. You know how many people in this
world don't have any understanding about anything? Shirley and I was talking about
it on the way home today. Some people don't have no interest
in God. They'll sit and look at you, look straight at you
while you're preaching, and they don't get nothing. But I'll tell you, if you have
understanding, it comes from the Almighty. God gives it to
you. If you have understanding enough
to stay in out of the rain, God gives you that understanding.
If you got sense enough to get out of bed and put your clothes
on, God gave you that understanding. You could be an idiot somewhere.
All it takes to make an idiot out of anybody and put them in
a bad shape, as John Newton said, is a rock hitting you in the
right spot in your head, and you don't even have nothing left
in your brain whatsoever. You don't even know who you are
or what you're doing. And that's what he says here. He said, the
Almighty's the one that gives me this spirit, gives me understanding.
Look over in Job 35 and verse 11. Oh my, that's a, if any man's
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, give it to all men. And he don't
upbraid, he don't make one, no difference in people. Talking about God here, our maker,
in verse 11. Who teaches us more than the
beast of the earth? Who teaches us more than these
animals out here in the earth? The beast, when we look at the
beast, who teaches us more than them? And who makes us wiser
than the birds that fly through the air? Who makes us smarter
than a beast? Who makes us better than a flying
bird? And he said, who does that? Who
does that? God does that. And no matter
who we are, where we are, or what we are, only the Lord, only
God can inspire the understanding. And since God alone gives understanding,
and that's why Elihu said, God give me this understanding. God
gave me what I understand, gave me what I know. And so I'm gonna
speak what God taught me. I'm gonna speak what God put
in my understanding. That's what I'm gonna speak.
And I tell you, God's a fountain of all truth. A fountain of all
truth. And I'll tell you something else
he knew. He was so respectful. Look what he said in verse 9.
He said, great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand
judgment. That's plain enough. Great men
are not always wise. There's some great men in this
world, as the world counts great. But they don't have any understanding,
they don't have any wisdom. They're not always wise, and
the aged don't always understand judgment. Everybody in my family, on my
side of my family, they're worldly wise, worldly wise, but they
got no wisdom, got no wisdom. They don't have any understanding. There's people in this world
and in their 70s and their 80s that have no understanding whatsoever. They live like a fool all the
days of their lives and they're going to die like a fool. They
live like God doesn't exist and they're going to die like God
doesn't exist. They think that they've got all
the answers and they don't even have a clue what the question
is. I'll never forget my father-in-law
saying, you know, for years and years and years, he had this
great big Bible, and he had always, you know, when I got converted,
I'd talk to him, talk to him, talk to him, pray for him, and
he got to, we'd come to meet some, and boy, and I'd mention
scriptures to him, tell him things, and he said, oh, I know it, I
know it, I understand that, I got that, I know that, I know the
Bible, I understand that. And then one day, God gave him
that spiritual understanding. You know what he said? I'm a
baby. I'm a baby. I don't know nothing.
I'm just a baby. And that's what we do. We come in here like we're a
bunch of babies. Houston told me this wonderful
story the other day. And that's what we was talking
about. You know, the scripture says
that Christ reveals the truth unto babes. We're like babies. We really truly are. God has
to take care of us from start to finish. He has to carry us. He has to clean us up. He has
to teach us how to walk. He has to teach us how to talk.
He has to teach us how to understand His Word. Teach us how to trust
Him. He, I mean, he takes care, all
we do is make a, we make a mess out of something and he comes
and cleans it up. And Houston told me, he said,
how's holding the baby the other day? And said, he was just crying
and crying and he said, and he was trying to kick his feet against
me trying to get out of my hands. And I said, son, he told me,
I said, son, he said, why do you want to get away from me?
He said, I love you and I want what's best for you. Why do you
want to kick out of my hands? And that's the way we are. Christ
reaches for us and we try to kick out of His hands sometimes. And He won't let us out of His
hands. You know why? Because He loves
us too much. He's got a hold on us and we
can kick all we want to, but He's not going to let us go. Because He loves us. Not going
to let it happen. That's the way God is with us. But he said, age doesn't necessarily
learn, verse 9, great men are not always wise due to their
age understanding. Wouldn't it be wonderful that
a man's wisdom and understanding were in proportion to their age?
Wouldn't it be wonderful to do that? Oh, we got smarter and wiser
as we got older in proportion to our age. If it was so, it
would be presumptuous for a young man to speak in their presence. But they're all fools. They're
all fools. They pass through life as fools,
never learning. never building on their, their
character never changes. They're mean when they're old
as they was when they was young. They never learn any lessons
from life. So they get worse and worse as
the years go by. Worse and worse as the years
go by. I certainly hope that's not my case. But Elihu was a
young man, but he felt he must speak. These great ones weren't
always wise, That's why Paul had to encourage Timothy to preach
and instruct the elders. So he says in verse 10, he says
here in verse 10. Therefore I said, hearken to
me, listen to what I've got to say. Listen. I'm going to show
you my opinion. I'm going to tell you what I
think. I'm going to tell you my opinion. And that's all it was. That's what he said. I'm going
to show you my opinion. And so he knew that religious
teachers didn't always say what needs to be said or must be said. Look what he says in verse 11.
He said, I waited for your words. I waited for you to say something,
something worth listening to. I gave ear to your reasons and
then word reasons means your understanding. I gave ear to
what you, your arguments and what you understand. I listened
to what you had to say. While you were searching out
what to say, while you're searching out words, he said, I listened
to what you said. I listened to the things that
you said. You're searching out words to argue with Job and prove
Job wrong. I listened. Now you listen to
me. You listen to me. He had heard
all these three men. He had heard Job and all they
had to say. And he said in verse 12, yea, I tended unto you, and
behold, there was none of you, listen to this, that convinced
Job. You didn't convince Job of nothing.
You spent all these years trying to convince Job, or that answered
his words. When he gave you words and he
gave you his heart, you didn't answer him. You had nothing to
answer him. You couldn't prove anything.
Couldn't prove anything. And then look what he says here.
He said, lest you should say. He said, you didn't convince
Job or answer his words, lest you should say. Oh boy, we found
out some wisdom. God thrust him down, not man. He said, oh, he said, you're
saying God done this, not man. And Job said that God had did
it. Now listen to what he says here now. Job did not direct
his words against me. Job did not argue with me. He
never said anything to me or against me or for me. He was
not talking to me. And I'm not going to answer him
with your speeches. I'm not going to answer him with
the words you used. I'm not going to use the same
words. He didn't talk to me. He wasn't directing his words
to me. And I'm not going to answer him the way you would answer
him. I'm not going to do that, as you did. And he said in verse
16, so verse 15 said, they were amazed. They were amazed at what
Elihu said. They just shut up. They left
off speaking. He said, when I'd waited, he
waited for us for him to say something, waited for him to
answer, waited for him to have something to say. But they didn't
speak. They just stood still and they
answered no more. I'll not say anything what you
said, and I'll not speak. And I will not speak what you
know. I'm going to speak what God gives
me to speak. Look what he says now when he
goes down through here. In verse 17, he said, I will
answer also my part. I will show mine opinion. And
that's what he's saying here. He said, I'm not going to make
no arguments. I'm just going to give you my
opinion. give you what I think this situation's
about. Not many men are like this, and
he says there in verse 18, for I'm full of matter. And you look
in the margin and say, I'm full of words. I'm full of words. Words is just busting out of
my heart. I'm full of words. And the Spirit within me constrains
me. Not many men like this, full
of words, feel like they have to speak, feel like they do. Jeremiah said, he said one time,
every time he preached, he got in trouble. Every time he preached,
he got in trouble. God told him to write down some
things in a book, and he wrote down things in a book. And he
said, take it over, show it to the king. Took it, showed it
to the king. King got out his knife and said, this is what
I think about you and what you got to say, Jeremiah. Just took
his knife to it and cut it all to pieces. Every time Job opened
his mouth, he got in trouble. He said, God, I said, I'm not
opening my mouth ever again. I'm not gonna say nothing. And
you know what he said? He said, when I said that then,
my word was as a fire shut up in my bones. It had to come out,
had to come out. Oh my, and this is the only way
of peace. Look what he says down in verse
20. I will speak that I may be refreshed
and I will open my lips and answer. This is the only way of peace,
that you'll be refreshed. The only way of refreshing. The
only way. And that's what he meant. That's
what Paul meant when he said, Peter said, necessity was laid
upon me. I'm full of matter within me.
He said, my belly in verse 19 is like wine, which has no vent. It's going to burst out of me
like new bottles. I've got to get these words out.
I got to deal with you fellas. I got to do it. And listen to
this now in verse 21. Oh, may God teach us all this
right here. Let me not, I pray you, accept
any man's person. Don't let me accept any man's
person because of who they are, what they've accomplished, what
they've done, anything. Don't let me accept a man's person. Listen to this, neither let me
give flattering titles unto men. He was indifferent to the frowns
or favors of men. When he says, may I never give
flattering titles. You know, a man that flatters
another spreads a net for his feet. And he says, may I never flatter
men, for in a little while my maker, that's what he said in
verse 9 to 22, said, for I know not to give flattering titles,
in so doing, my maker would soon take me away. my maker would
soon take me away. He said, may I never ever give
flattering titles for a little while, my maker's gonna take
me away. He said, I make no distinction in men, great or small. And that's
why God said, God accepteth no man's person. He said that about
our Lord. We know that thou acceptest no
man's person. And they was just flattering
him to try to make a net for his feet. And the word flatter
means this, it means to lick. It means to lick. It means to
praise excessively for motives of self-interest.
It means to soothe, to beguile, to assure that what that person's
saying is right. But oh my, God help us to never
accept anybody's person. and help us never to flatter
people and, you know, tell the truth. If you tell the truth
to people about what they are and why they act and what they
are to you, you know what it'd be like if we everyone, everyone,
everyone, you know, didn't flatter people, never
tried to impress people by saying things about them and good things
to them or good things about them and flatter them. It's wonderful
if somebody's really some way, and you say that, you tell the
truth about them. But it's another thing to, you
know, say, well, come up and start bragging on somebody and
all that, you know, and then you come around and say, but,
you know, making a slick spot for them. You don't want to do
that. But that young man, Looked at
all these old men and said, I took all I can take. I just got to
say something. I got to say something. I pray that as a blessing. Our Father, oh God, our God,
our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord, we thank you. Oh, how we
bless you, how we praise you, Lord. Can't praise you enough. These lips can't honor you enough.
These hearts can't be taken up with you enough. This mind can't
be engaged with you enough. But Lord, we have this old rotten,
corrupt, stinking flesh to deal with. And it keeps us from being
what we would spiritually. But it also keeps us from what
we would be in our flesh. And Lord, we thank you that often
when we kick against you, that you hold on to us and you
won't let us go. When we kick and cry and scream
and want our ways to be done, Lord, you hold on to us. You
won't let us go. And so Lord, help us. to do as
the psalmist said, be still and know that you're God. God bless
these dear saints. Again, we pray for Barb. We pray
for Rick and Helen and their families. We pray for others
who are very sick in their bodies. With this sickness that's going
around, please restore their health, bring them to worship
with us again, and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. All right, I'll see you Wednesday
night, God willing. Good night and God bless you.