The Softening of the Heart
Job 23:1-17 (text v. 16)
1. Verses 1-6, Job is saying? I would come and let God know just how I feel, and He’d give me strength.
2. Verses 7-9? It was like a game of hide & seek. Job cannot sense God’s presence. Sometimes you will find yourself in some extreme circumstances, and God will be nowhere to be found. It’s not be cause God does? t love you, but it’s the only way God can work in you what you really need.
Sometimes God almost appears a loof from our sorrows (Luke 24:28; Mk. 6:48). It is not because He doesn’t care. He wants us to feel our need of Him.
3. Verse 10 If I cannot see God, He can see me. Although we may not know where God is, God knows where we are!
God ‘s dealings with Job were not to punish him (as his friends accused), but to TRY him.
4. Verses 11-12? Job’s troubles didn’t cause him from stop walking in the ways of God. He wouldn’t be turned back. He still loved Gods Word (cf. Mt. 4:4).
5. Verses 13-14, Job is saying, God is one way! God’s way can’t be changed. What is that way? God is out to perfect what He has procured. He is out to perform what He said He would finish.
NOW WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ALL THIS?
Troubles soften our heart (v. 16).
God doesn’t bless hard-hearted people. God uses one with a soft heart, A pliable heart, a tender heart, Many times in Scripture God says, Harden not your heart (Ps. 95:8).
Jesus upbraided His disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart. (Mark 16:14).
God told Ezekiel, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (Ezek 36:26).
David said, . my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. (Ps. 22:14). The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken hear. (Ps. 34:18). A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Ps. 51:17).
Paul exhorts us to be, kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you (Eph. 4:32).
QUESTION…
How do you tenderize a piece of meat?
By pounding on it.
And so it is with the heart, Trouble, adversity, trials, suffering all will make your heart soft if you don’t turn away from God during those times.
In many cases, The man with a hard heart is one who has never suffered, but always had it easy. Or, it is the one who during the hard times allowed his heart to turn away from God, and become even harder.
QUESTION?
What did God use to soften Job’s heart?
#1 DEPLETION OF FINANCES.
Job was one of the richest men of his generation (1:3). He had it all. He was prosperous. He was wealthy. He was on easy street financially. So God gave Satan permission to destroy all of jobs financial holdings (1:9-17).
A. God never gives Satan permission to do anything that doesn’t work for our perfection (ROM. 8:28).
B.
C. God will let you experience what other people experience to make your heart soft towards their distress.
. This gave Job a soft heart towards others that had nothing. When you experience poverty, you are more sympathetic towards others in poverty.
Illustration
A man gave a panhandler on the street $20. Was it because he was rich? No. It was because he came from the ghetto himself.
. You’re never feel the littleness of someone else’s poverty if you have always been full.
We have too many hard-hearted ministries and stony hearted preachers.
STORY.
I must say when I went to south America last year I saw people for the first time in my Life that was Truly Poor, I had thought I had seen it all until I went there, I saw family’s who lived in Homes with dirt foor’s and Plastic Tarps for the roof, no pluming in the house at all. Many had no power at all. My heart broke that day as I walked the street and looked around at another place in the world that had nothing and I had just about anything I wanted. I must say when I came back home to America, My heart was changed, and even the poorest here were rich to the people in South America. It made my heart very soft to poor people here. One can not understand that until he has been there him self, and it will make a difference in your life.
#2 DEATH IN THE FAMILY
(1:18-22). Why would God let that happen? Because God wants to make the heart soft (23:16).
. Anyone, who has had one of their children’s names in the obituary, Job had a soft place in his heart for them.
I have a soft spot in my heart for anyone who has lost their parents.
. When I lost my dad, It made me feel the pain of someone else that had lost their dad.
But God gave Job back twice as much as he lost.
#3 disease IN THE FLESH (2:4-10). Verse 6 how would you like for God to put you into the devil hands?
That is the reason why David Ring has a soft and compassionate heart.
Vic Morningstar has a soft heart for anyone who is confined to a wheel chair.
Pastor Ken Blue has a soft heart towards anyone who has cancer.
I have a soft spot in my heart for one who is blind, Because I too was Blind for a Time in my life.
. Don’t ever think that the troubles you are going through are for nothing. God is using it to soften your heart.
#4 DESERTION OF FRIENDS
(19:14-19). How do you feel when you see someone else deserted, hurt, neglected, and left alone? When you suffer loneliness, you’re heart is softened for others who are truly alone.
CONCLUSION:
Sometimes a wife has a husband with a hard heart. They pray their husband’s heart was soft. Don’t be surprised if God doesn’t answer your prayers by sending great trouble into your husband’s life to make his heart soft.
It isn’t because God does love you that He allows trouble in your life. On the contrary, He loves you enough to make your heart soft. He’s not trying to hurt you He’s trying to soften you so you can help others. (Read Heb. 2:18)
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AMEN…LETS PRAY
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