Job 26 Exhortation In The Church

Exhortation in the Church

Job responds to Bildad’s comments, saying in essence, how can a man be just in God’s sight? We saw God speak to us about transformation through salvation. It is Jesus who saves us and His Spirit who transforms us into something completely new. It has been amazing to see what the Lord would draw out of these chapters for such a time as this, hasn’t it saints? I for one am in complete awe of the Most High – how about you? Each day that we sit before Him to see what He wants to show us, we come knowing so little don’t we? In our chapter today we see Job responding to his friend telling him about the greatness of God. Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for another day in Your presence and in Your word. Lord, You are so great – beyond our human comprehension. What little we know about You and compared to You and all that You are. Father, I ask You to speak to me and through me today so that we can all receive what You want to draw out for this moment Sir. May Your will be administered through me unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. I ask You in faith to give me the utterance to speak Your word boldly as You give it to me. I thank You in advance in Jesus name. Amen!

In verses 2-4 Job is asking his friend some significant questions.

“How have you helped him who is without power?

How have you saved the arm that has no strength?

How have you counseled one who has no wisdom?

And how have you declared sound advice to many?

To whom have you uttered words?

And whose spirit came from you?

He was asking his friend if he had helped anyone who was weak, needing wisdom or advice. In our previous chapter and in this one, both men seem to agree on one thing – the greatness and awesome power of Almighty God. Both agree that God is so big and so great. The things He does is far beyond human understanding no matter how intelligent God has made someone.

But Job wants to know who Bildad has helped in their time of need. Isn’t this the question to the church today? Who are we helping really? Who is out there in our realm of influence who needs some help? Who needs to be strengthened? Who needs to be encouraged and given wisdom? After all, what good is the church if we are not reaching out to help others, right? 

Everyone needs to have help at some time or another, amen? What fruit comes from just running to and from church every week and taking care of our own business? What about the people around us? Our families, friends and our neighbors? Who do we know that needs to have a chunk of our time? Who does God want to speak to through us if we will open ourselves up and make ourselves available?

That is a barrage of questions, I know. But what is the answer to them? Where can we find out how to help and encourage others properly? In the Bible, of course. The instruction book for life is filled with wisdom and instruction for godly living. It covers all areas of life from childhood right through until we leave our bodies and go home to be with the Lord. All stages of life have their own unique set of circumstances, lessons and experiences that do not compare to any other time in a person’s life. Each stage has a need and many lessons to be learned - can I get an amen? That is where Christians have to step up to the plate and be proactive. We must be ready to encourage and teach and uphold those who are weak. Let’s look at a passage the Lord showed me today…

Titus 2 – 3:2

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

 Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

Look at what the Webster’s 1828 dictionary says about the meaning of the word ‘exhort’…

EXHORT', verb transitive egzhort'. [Latin exhortor; ex and hortor, to encourage, to embolden, to cheer, to advise. The primary sense seems to be to excite or to give strength, spirit or courage.]

1. To incite by words or advice; to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to any laudable conduct or course of action.

I exhort you to be of good cheer. Acts 27:22.

Young men also exhort to be sober minded.

EXHORT servants to be obedient to their masters. Titus 2:6.

2. To advise; to warn; to caution.

3. To incite or stimulate to exertion.

EXHORT', verb intransitive To deliver exhortation; to use words or arguments to incite to good deeds.

And with many other words did he testify and exhort Acts 2:40.

In the above passage we see the qualities of a sound church – one that is busy doing what the Lord has instructed us to do. So to exhort is to encourage, stimulate to good works, to teach and lead and guide. Look at all the different phases of life Paul talked about here. Older men, older women, younger men, bondservants, and finally he says, “teaching us”, meaning everyone being taught by God’s grace. No matter who we are we need the Lord’s instruction. He uses many people within the body to be teachers, preachers, and so on. He Himself is the one who teaches us all things. While He uses people, it is His Spirit that teaches us everything that matters…

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

 Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

The Lord has given us His Spirit, His word and fellow members of the body to teach us all His ways. Truly we can say in awe, “Oh Lord, who is man that You are mindful of him?” Like the song says, “It’s amazing! So amazing!” To have One so great who can find the deepest parts of the earth in a flash and tell the skies, the heavens and all that exists in the earth what to do and where to lay it’s boundaries, our magnificent Creator wants to teach us His wonderful ways of living while we are here in our training period. Hallelujah!

Job’s question to Bildad was profound. I have known Christians who said when they go about their daily business they do not talk about the Lord to others. I found that to be quite sad actually. They were content to live their life, go to dinner, be retired, go on nice vacations, watch football, go to church potlucks and even help out at the local shelter, handing out food with a nice smile, and that’s basically it. One guy even told me that he likes to chat with people when he is sitting at the pharmacy waiting for his prescriptions. When I asked him if he told anyone about Jesus, he quickly said, “No.” My heart sank when I heard that.

Does that mean I have made every divine appointment to help others when the Lord wanted to speak to someone through me? Certainly not. I have missed it, and that to me is very sad!  But as the Lord instructs us in His word and our understanding continues to increase, so we should be instructing others, just like our Titus verses show us today. Are we willing to miss a Saturday afternoon at the mall to meet with someone who needs some biblical counseling? Are we willing to lay down our plans so we can help a younger person in the faith? We need to encourage one another.

That’s why it is so important to go to church and get to know people. Only then can the Lord blow open doors of opportunity for us to be of service to our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. How many believers are there that live nearby our homes who could use a word of encouragement or some help searching the scriptures to find answers for issues they may be facing? Who may benefit from hearing our testimony of all that the Lord has done in our lives? When we listen to what God has done for someone else, we can be greatly encouraged to believe Him for the same in our own lives.

Just this past weekend there was a lady in my neighborhood who I have been getting to know for several months. My husband and I have grown to love her and her sweet puppy dearly. She is not from our church but she is a part of the body of Christ. We have been planning a time of fellowship for a while and finally we were able to meet. It turned out to be a great blessing for both of us. As I listened to her and she listened to me, we marveled at the things God has done in our lives. I was not interested in trying to solicit her to come to my church. The purpose was going to be left up to God to speak through us to encourage one another in our walk with the Lord. And the time was rich.

When people don’t go to church because of this excuse or that, they are missing out greatly. Paul encouraged us to go…

Hebrews 10:25

not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Going to church has many purposes. To be a blessing, receive blessings, be taught and encouraged so we can then go out onto life’s battle ground and deal with issues successfully. In our neighborhoods we can do the same with brothers and sisters in the Lord regardless of what church they attend. The disciples went from house to house and preached the word of the Lord. Then there is our Master, Jesus – who did not hesitate to enter the house of sinners to preach the good news to them. Look at this…

Luke 19:1-10

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.  And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Most of us remember the cute children’s song about the sweet story of short little Zacchaeus who wanted to see Jesus so much that he climbed up in a tree to peer over the crowd and behold the Lord of glory coming his way. That is what I call seeking God – hallelujah! Praise the Lord! This little man was a great big sinner – a tax collector. But he had a tender heart – one that longed for something better. So when he saw his opportunity, he seized it. Look at what the Bible says about folks like Zacchaeus…

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

What if Jesus would have just walked on by and said something like this, “Come on guys, let’s get a move on. We need to get to the next town before sundown so we can find us a nice cozy place to eat and sleep. Let’s push through this noisy crowd and get on down the road.” Can you imagine such a thing coming from the Mater’s mouth? Of course not. But that very same thing has been said by Christians across the globe every day. We have been too busy to be led by Holy Spirit into divine appointments that could have changed someone’s life for eternity.

“Let’s hurry and do this and do that so we can…” And how many faces in the crowd have we passed by who were waiting to hear the gospel from our lips? When we get too busy to look beyond satisfying our own needs, we miss opportunities to both build the church and encourage those that are already a part of it. I know I missed it before. I was in a store one day and I handed a lady a tract and then after she had started to ask me a profound question I sort of hurried off to be about my business. 

As soon as I walked away I was cut to the heart. I knew I had missed an opportunity and I asked the Lord to forgive me and to send someone else across her path who would be obedient – how sad is that? I missed being used by God to do who but Him knows what that day. And I missed my reward for it. The tract was not all she was supposed to get. Maybe I could have led her to the Lord right there on the spot and I missed it.

And when the Lord wants us to encourage other Christians, we can just take it as the Holy Spirit leads us. Everything we do should be Holy Spirit led. We shouldn’t have our own agenda. Another thing to remember is this. We don’t need to try to tell people everything we know or have learned in fifteen minutes. My friends, we need to learn that those encounters are not about us. It is about what God wants to do in the other person’s life. Only He knows what they need to hear that day. If our hearts are open and tender, we can be used mightily by Him to make a difference in the lives of others in the church, and in those who are not yet in the family of God. There is so much work to do and the time is short.

The more I have learned to keep my mouth shut and let the Holy Spirit lead, the better the results have become. He has spoken things to people through me that I had no clue about, nor would I have been able to say them on my own. Only He knows what a man, woman or child needs to hear. We do not. But we can be taught by Him so we can be used by Him to teach others and that is great! We can bear a lot of fruit that way. As we live our daily lives we need to be sensitive to the opportunities to help others in the church are when they are presented to us.

We need to be like our Master, who, as He walked from town to town listened to His heavenly Father and did what He was being led to do. If we want to be like Jesus, we will instruct, and encourage and model a good Christian life to those in and out of the body so that the glory of God can be seen no matter who is looking at us. We want folks to say, “I don’t know what you have or what you ate, but I want what you have.” Our joy and our love should be so obvious and infectious at all times that others are drawn to us like a magnet. Once they come to us, we can magnify the Lord and show them what He wants to teach. After all, the Lord is our Teacher, isn’t He?

Questions:

What were Bildad’s 6 questions to Job?

How did Job respond?

What do we learn from the passage in Titus today?

What do we learn from Jesus’ example with Zacchaeus?

What opportunities has the Lord been giving you lately? How did you respond? 

Isaiah 2:3

Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

Christians should be open to be used to teach others in the church

Jesus set the example for us in how He handled daily life reaching out to others

God is our ultimate Teacher

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for teaching me the path of life through Your Spirit, Your word and through Your people. Father, I ask You to show me who I can help and teach about Your ways. Bring me opportunities Lord, whether it is a younger woman or a child or a neighbor. Bring those who don’t know You so I can tell them about all the wonderful things You have done for me. Help me not to miss any opportunity You have selected specifically for me. Thank You in advance Lord. In Jesus name. Amen!

Who has the Lord brought into your path to exhort? 

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

                             

     Proverbs 4:13

Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go;
Keep her, for she is your life.