Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Shabbat Mitzvah at this temple. Let's all stand, and we'll start off with a word of prayer. Brother Steve, would you open us a word of prayer, please? Amen, let's all take your hymns. Let's turn to hymn number 14. Hymn number 14, Bail Out the Cross. ♪ A special nature there ♪ ♪ Come while he waits for you ♪ ♪ Rest in his arms, live him where you can ♪ ♪ Let him bring a life anew ♪ ♪ In Bethlehem comes your King ♪ ♪ Every day in Bethlehem comes your King ♪ He's the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. Amen. Let's turn over to hymn number 56. of Jesus in this place, in this place. In the nature of the flesh, in the great and awesome place. ♪ On a day of joy and liberty ♪ ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ And we all see dreams, and we all see what's out there to be. Let us stand with you and pray for justice, for a new day. I want to live today, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, Amen. Thank you, BBC. Looking in the mirror at my life and my plans Wondering how I'm gonna make it Wondering how I'm gonna stand Then I look at your goodness on my life and where I've been I have never been forsaken But you've never failed me So when I feel like giving in, the Lord remind me again. When the mountain was in front of me, you made the mountain move. When the road ahead seemed too dark, you guided me through. When the waters were in front of me, you parted them too. There's never been a day in my life God didn't come through Standing where you are right now, I know it seems there's no way out. But I've been there, my friend, and this is not the end. So when it feels like hope is gone, and you feel you can't go on, just remember. When there's a mountain in front of you, you'll make the mountain move. When the road ahead seems too dark, he'll guide you through. When the waters are in front of you, you'll part them too. There'll never be a day in your life when God won't He's bigger than the mountain, stronger than the storm. His love is like no other. You can run into his arms. When there's a mountain in front of you, he'll make the mountain move. When the road ahead seems too dark, He'll guide you through. Oh, when the waters are in front of you, He'll part them too. There's never been a day in your life. Oh, there'll never be a day in my life when God won't come through. Well, amen. It's good to be in the Lord's house tonight. Have each one of you here. We'll be in the book of Job if you want to go ahead and turn over there. Some may call it Job. People who are scared to work, might not want to go to it, they may have already tore it out of their Bible. But Job, right in front of the book of Psalms. Have a thank you, says dear Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple, my church and I want to thank you all for your sacrificial giving towards the work the Lord has graciously allowed us to be involved in. It was a great conference, referring to the Home Missions Conference. I've never seen so many independent Baptist pastors and laborers give like they do at this conference. The preaching was just what I needed, and seeing how God moved was wonderful. Thank you all once again for your giving and prayer. Sincerely, the Jones family, missionaries to North American Indians in California. and so it's good to be a part to help others, amen? Yes, praise the Lord, it is awesome. The book of Job, you can follow along. I'll begin reading verse number one. We'll be dealing with the first couple of chapters here tonight. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and the man was perfect and upright. and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, and 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all men of the East. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, Thus did Job continually. Let's pray. Lord, we love you and we thank you for your great love to us. Lord, as we study the book of Job, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds, make us receptive to your word. Lord, that we might grow thereby, give us insight, understanding, help us to meditate throughout the week upon the things that we'll read here. Might we even be challenged to do more of our own study when it comes to Job. I pray that you might be honored and glorified through the preaching, teaching of your word tonight. We ask these things in your wonderful, most precious name, amen. So the way of introduction here, Job is introduced to us here at the first. God allows Satan to test Job's faithfulness by taking all that he has. Job responds with great sorrow, but he worships God. Satan accuses Job again and strikes him with boils. Job's wife tells him to curse God and die, but Job remains faithful. Three of Job's friends come and mourn with him. Some of the observations that I've made myself as I've read and studied in the book of Job, first one that stands out is reading after somebody just this week, and they suggested that since there were seven sons, that maybe each day they went to a different son's house and ate. Thus, Job continually offered sacrifices on behalf of his children. That's interesting. I never really thought of that. I kind of thought they all just got together and all went and ate at one place, and then time went on. Maybe they did that again. That's kind of an interesting thing to think about. When I think about Job, I think of a man that didn't do anything to deserve this, right? Hey, Doug, how you doing, man? Good to see you. Kind of blinding me, but it's good to see you, anyhow. There you go. You got it, brother. You got it. So here's a man who did nothing wrong, right? I mean, we read scripture. He's a great man. He loves God. He fears God for his children and for himself. He's done nothing to invoke all this. And yet Satan comes before God and God allows Satan to do all this testing, if we would, or all these trials to Job, and Job hadn't done anything to deserve that. So one of the takeaways we ought to have is that just because hard times come in our life doesn't mean that it's like a payment for something we did wrong. It could be that it's truly a trial from God just to grow us to be more like him. So today I got a text from a pastor friend of mine. And he said, would you please pray for me and my wife? She has been diagnosed with cancer. And that's very near to my heart, and so I started firing off texts to this guy, and we talked for about 30 minutes back and forth through texts, and asking what kind of cancer she had, and then I gave testimony to how that we don't understand what God does, but God does it for his glory, and how many doors will be open to them. to be used of the Lord in meeting people they never would have met, whether that be doctors, technicians, those who run tests, those who are getting treatments, those that are in the hospital. I said, God's gonna open all kinds of doors for you. So don't be afraid of what God's put before you. Just pray that you would glorify God in each step that you take through this process. And then pray that you will be the help to your wife that she needs as they go through this time. You know, it wasn't a punishment to my wife that she had cancer, and yet it's opened a great many doors to us to be able to talk about God's goodness through it. And so we don't, whenever hard times come, we want to remember God loves us. And one of my favorite sayings, and the guys on staff have heard me say this a million times, God loves me too much to hurt me. And he loves me so much that he wants to grow me. Okay? There's a difference there. You know, we think of when I was a kid, we had a lot of June bugs under the light. You know, you'd go outside at night, you'd have the light on, here'd be all these June bugs, and we'd gather them and we'd pluck their wings off, you know, just kind of torture the June bugs. Or we'd get a jar and catch lightning flies and put them in the jar and keep them, kind of shake them up to be like a flashlight, you know. But God doesn't treat us like that, okay? We're not some weird experiment that he's trying to experiment on. He loves us. He really loves us and cares for us. And so he's not there to torture us or to hurt us. He's there to make us more like him. And we're not all gonna go through the same process to become more like him. Some of us will go through no process, and that's God's plan. Some will go through great trials and problems, and that's God's plan for their life. And so we just need to be ready to say, God, whatever it is that you have for me, I just want your grace to be able to go through this trial, to go through this process, to get to the other side and be able to give you the honor and glory and praise for all that you've done. So letter A here is his faith. His faith is seen in verse number one. We see that he was blameless and a man of complete integrity, that he feared God and eschewed evil, and he stayed away from it. He didn't want anything to do with evil. He went the other way. He stayed away from it. So when you look at Job, you go, man, here's a perfect Christian. This guy's a perfect guy. We see his fortune. He owned a lot of stuff. Man, I'm telling you, he had all the cattle and he had all that wealth. As a matter of fact, it says that he was the richest man in the East. He had the most possessions of anyone in the East. And by the way, possessions aren't bad as long as we're giving God what's rightfully his to have. It shows the blessing of God, I believe, upon your life for that faithfulness. The third thing we see is his family. Verse number two and verses four and five that he had seven sons and three daughters. The second thing we notice is Job's pain. So we start off talking about Job's prestige, his faith, his finances, those type of things. We come to then Job's pain. This would be chapter one, six through 22, and chapter two, one through 10. And for reasons unknown to Job, he suffers two waves of tragedy. And so we start in verse number 13 of chapter one, and we read, and there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword. and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven and have burned up the sheep and the serpents and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came another also." Man, you... I'd be like whoa whoa hold it I don't need I don't want I don't want to see another one coming okay but here it is in verse number 17 while he's just speaking there came also another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away yea and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only escaped alone to tell thee and while he was just speaking there came yet another one and said thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are all dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. I can't even imagine what that must have been like to be sitting there and in one moment life is the greatest it's ever been. You imagine, just imagine with me a little bit, it's like the best. I mean, he's got money, he's got wealth, he's got stuff, he loves God, he worships God, he's got children, he's got heirs to the wealth. I mean, everything is great. And then just that quick, it all changes. I don't know how many times I've seen that in the life of an individual. Life's going along great, and all of a sudden, a spot appears, or not feeling quite as good as they used to feel. They go in for a doctor's appointment, and next thing you know, they hear the words, you've got stage four cancer, or you've got this, or you've got that. And I've watched people just as shortly as two weeks die once they find out that they have something like that, some tragic thing. And yet through it all, we just need to trust God. The best we can do is say, God, you are the great giver and I want to serve you and whatever you bring my way, that I will accept because it comes from your hand. And so the first wave is seen here in verses 13 through 19 of Job chapter one. And we see that he experienced these four terrible tragedies where the oxen and the donkeys are taken and his farmhands are killed, the fire falls from heaven, burns up his sheep and shepherds, the Chaldeans carry off the camels and kill his servants, and finally the wind blows on the house where his sons and daughters were, killing them all. But that's not it. That would be enough, wouldn't it? I mean, I'd be like, whoa, Lord, that's plenty. But remember, Satan's gone back to the throne room of God in the process. And in the throne room of God, God has said, have you considered my servant Job? And then he says, okay, you can do everything but touch him. And so this is what Satan does. He takes everything that he has. And Satan comes back and he goes, yeah, he's still holding to that integrity, but let me touch him. God says, you can touch him, but you can't take his life. And then the boils come. the personal, physical suffering that Job ends up having to go through. It wasn't something that Job had done. It wasn't that he reacted to this first wave of tragedy in a bad way. It's just that Satan had come and desiring to test and God gave him permission. And so we find that Job is afflicted with painful boils from head to foot. Verses seven and eight in chapter two, so went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown, and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Now I don't know about you, but those boils had to be pretty painful. To the point that you would take a piece of pottery and scrape them. Man, I've had some like boils, you know? They're usually in a spot that's very painful. I can't imagine your whole body being nothing but boils. Your feet, your head, everything covered with these painful boils to the point that you say, if I can just get a piece of broken glass and I can just scratch and break these boils open, Can you imagine how severe the pain must have been? But that's where Job finds himself. The reason for his trials. Well, Job's trials resulted from the two confrontations between God and Satan, where Satan goes in before God and he accuses God and God says, you may touch my servant Job. And we find out that Job passed the test. The first confirmation in chapter 1, 6 through 12, the first confirmation gives rise to the first wave of Job's tragedies. And we see all that's happened there, and Job passed the test. And then we come to the second confrontation in chapter 2, 1 through 6. The second confrontation gives rise to the second wave of Job's tragedies. And we see in the midst of all that, he still passed the test. So what are the reactions to his trials, this pain that he's suffering? Well, Job 1, 20 through 22, and again in chapter two, verses nine and 10, we read, then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. This is when he's lost all of his wealth and his children. And then when his own body is afflicted, we see that, then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto her, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What, shall we not receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Shouldn't we receive, of the hand of God, good and bad? I mean, our lives are not gonna be perfect. Do you ever, as a Christian, look at the lost world, maybe your neighbors or family friends that don't know Christ as their Savior, and you think, wow, look at, Look at them, they've got money, they've got stuff. I mean, they look so successful and so happy. If only I had all that stuff. How soon we forget that we possess something that they don't possess. That is eternal peace, happiness, and a home not of this world, but of the one to come. They may look happy, they may look joyful, it may look as though they're having such a great and grand time that they go out and party and get drunk and all these type of things and they look like they're just having a whale of a time. But remember the end of the story. Let's not get caught up in the in-between chapters, okay? Let's look at the end of the story, and that is we find that those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior will spend an eternity with Him, and those who never accept Christ as their Lord and Savior are gonna spend an eternity separated from Him in eternal punishment. So I guess we could say, why shouldn't they be able to enjoy the things of this world that's the best it's ever gonna be for them? where we will have joy and happiness and peace for eternity, they only have it for a short time. Third thing we see is Job's pity. Chapter 2, 11 through 13, we see that Job has some friends come to comfort him in his grief. Verse number 11, now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came everyone from his own place. Eliphaz, the Timite, and Bildad, the Shuite, and Zephora, the Naamanite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept, and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. When you think back through what's happened in Job's life, the losing of all his wealth, the losing of his children, and now the attack upon his own health, I can't even imagine the heartbreak. I've watched people here lose a loved one, and I've lost loved ones in my life, and that heartache is great. Can you imagine losing seven boys and three girls, 10 children all at once? You go from a pretty good, Thanksgiving time, table full of people having a good time, but just you and mama. Everybody's gone. Can you imagine standing at the graves of those 10 children? And you probably would think to yourself, man, I just knew God had some big plans for you, and I knew that God had some plans for you, and your sweet, loving spirit here, daughter, and your joy and happiness that you brought, and the voice that you had. I can only imagine the grief and the heartache, let alone the pain and suffering he's going through. I'm telling you that Job's grief and pain was very, very great. Very great. Yet through all this, he did not curse or falsely accuse his God. I doubt if he cussed either. So who are they? Who are these friends that come? By the way, isn't it good to have friends? Good friends are priceless. I don't know, as we evaluate here at this point, whether we would call these good friends or not. I would say that they get a positive check in my box because they showed up. When we buried my dad, he's buried just over the hill over here behind the Monticello Gardens. There's a little cemetery. My dad's buried there. I can remember leaving the tent thing. You know, they put a tent up. They got chairs for the family to sit. It had been a very trying day in my life, and we'd taken my dad's casket there, and I remember beginning to turn and walk away from that casket. And I begin to turn and walk away, and I had a friend come up alongside me, and he just put his arm around me. He said, I want you to know I love you, and I'm praying for you. That's all he said. I want you to know I love you, and I'm praying for you. You know what that did to my spirits? that someone would acknowledge the pain and suffering I was going through, that someone would say, I'm here to help you carry this burden, I'm here to turn to God on your behalf, and when the words may not come from your lips, I'm gonna utter them from my lips on your behalf. And so here come these three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zephora, they come, they set, They sat in silence. I've heard many times people say, you know, you don't have to say a thing, just knowing that you're there is enough to say volumes. But they sat there seven days, seven nights. I can't imagine how they stayed awake all that time. Anyhow, seven days and seven nights. What will they do? What will they say? What are they gonna tell Job? How are they gonna encourage him? We see what his wife says. Why don't you just go ahead and curse God and die? Job's not that man. Job reminds her. Hasn't God been good to us? Look at all that he has blessed me with, and now it's taken back, and why shouldn't I continue to praise God and serve him? whether in sickness or health or trying pain or suffering or intense grief, Job said, through it all, I'm just going to trust God. I'm going to walk with Him. These men that sat there, grieve with him, they throw dust in the air. Kind of interesting that they see him afar off, they can't even recognize him. Someone said, oh yeah, you want Job? You want to go down to the dump down there, and he's sitting among the ashes and the broken pottery, and you'll see what kind of resembles a man. That's Job. And as they look afar off, they look at him and say, that doesn't look like Job at all. As they get closer, they recognize through the boils and through the scratches and the ooze and the blood and all the stuff there, they say, oh, this is Job. This is he. Then they sat with him on the ground for a week, all without saying a word. Now, don't you want to know what the rest of it is? You have to come next week. or you'll have to study it on your own. And I encourage you to do that too. I'm telling you, Book of Job is so relevant for us today. If you've not had to suffer, it will come. So you ought to bone up on it if you would, you know, study up on it, be ready for when the trials and the testings come in life. Lord, I love you tonight and I thank you for the life of Job. I pray that you would teach us many things about him, things that we can take and hide away in our hearts and in our lives, Lord, that we might effectively live for you that we can live through those difficult suffering days that we may have to walk or that we can be a help to those around us in their time of great need. Thank you for putting Job in the Bible. I pray that you give us discernment to be able to dig through it and to grasp the golden nuggets to hold on to and to draw us into your fellowship and be more like you. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. May I ask these things in your wonderful name. Amen.