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Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Walk With God Receive Blessings 与神同行得祝福

Sunday, 21st April 2024

Rev. Daniel Xi An Poon

We tend to think that when follow God, there will be lots of things that we can’t do as Christians. However, Job 42:5-10 gives us different revelation.

Firstly, we need to know what stops us from receiving God’s blessings. Sometimes we feel that we hear God talking to us, just like Job who heard something in the past, but is it really from God, or from ourselves? Exodus 34:6 can help us examine whether what we hear is from God or not. God used this proclaim about Himself to wake up Moses, who learned about God from his ancestors. How about us? Do we learn about God from articles on the internet, or from the Bible? We must know Who our God is and what He is like, otherwise we will end up like those Israelites who were impatient to wait for Moses and then worshipped the golden calf. We like to assume what God should be like, and limit Him to a small box. That’s why Job confessed that “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5). Do we see God in our life? Many of us may only see God from the internet when we watch sermons in YouTube. We should see God from His word, not by hearing from other people or even spiritual books. Jesus when on earth followed God’s way, so He never doubted. Do we follow our way?

1. Awake, Return, Repent 醒悟回转认罪

In Job 42:5 we can see that Job had lots of assumption about God in the past, but now as God appeared to talk to him, he realised he had put God in a box before, and said “I abhor myself”(V6). Our earthly fathers are all humans, and therefore falsely represent the heavenly Father, making us dislike God. As we learn that we had the wrong assumption about God, we should be like Job to “repent”, which was also what Moses did when God showed His glory to him. Do we really wake up when God revealed the truth to us, and return to Him? Who is the God that we know? Do we feel that He has put too much pressure on us? But in the Bible He has proclaimed that He loves us no matter what, and He knows we need Him. Maybe in the past we also put ourselves in a small box and assumed this was what God wanted us to be, however, this is a lie from Satan. A creator God would not limit us in a box because He wants us to grow from a baby to an adult, and He will walk with us through this journey. Those disciples like Paul and Peter all went through similar journey, starting as someone who did not know God nor themselves then becoming great Apostles. When we do not know who we are, we also will not know Who God is. When we truly know who we are, we will accept who God is. Apostle Peter did not put himself in a small box, that’s why when God showed him a vision of all the unclean animals, he humbled himself and not limit Christianity to Jerusalem, but followed to God’s new instruction and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

We make a lot of conclusion about ourselves, God, and other people, but we need to repent, because we don’t really know ourselves or others. Let us not blame anyone else when problems arise.

2.The God of the Way, the Truth, the Life 道路真理生命的神

If we don’t know our God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we will not listen to God but listen to other people in the world. When we know God is the Way, we must follow Him, and when we know His word is the Truth, we will not challenge Him. We must believe that Jesus our God knows about us more than we do. As we follow Him, we will have the life – we can breathe, talk, and communicate with others. Our life is not for us to win the world, but about how we follow Jesus and live for Him. Do not make our life too hard that when others see our miserable life they don’t want to follow God. When Jesus was on earth, He lived out the glory of God – and this is what God wants us to be. Jesus’ prayer has taught us how to do that: let the Father’s will be done, not our own will.

In Job 42:7-8, God commented that Job’s three friends were foolish, and they had said about God was wrong. God has the right to punish those three friends, however, He instructed them how to be forgiven, showing them the Way, the Truth, and Life, enabling them to walk out from the death. God will make a way for us when we think we are in the dead end, but do we believe and follow Him, or continue with our own way? When we come to God, we will receive the Life.

When we walk with God, we must know He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, so that we won’t tricked by Satan’s lies about God and we no longer need to complain.

3. Humbly Obey, Deny Yourself, Benefit Others, and Receive Blessings 谦卑顺服舍己利他得祝福

Job 42:9-10 tells us that Job’s three friends followed God’s words after receiving God’s teaching, and what Job did was hard for humans to achieve – he forgave those friends who had hurt him, and even prayed for them. The worship and prayer that God accepts should be from our spirit and our heart. When we fight with others, it means that we want to get what we have lost to others. However, here God restored to Job “twice as much as he had before”.