The events of the book of Job are real. They happen to a real person. They happen within a generation of the life of Abraham. That's important for you to understand. They occurred in a place called the land of Uz. We had some fun the other day talking about that man had two sons. One of them's name was Uz. The other one's name was Buzz. Uz and Buzz. I don't know how you run out of names, but they must have. So anyway, Uz and Buz. Well, it was the land of Uz, I guess, named for this man. He must have been quite a leader. He was a descendant of Nahor, and that was Abraham's brother. You say, where is that? Well, the land of Uz is east of Israel, and today it would be in what is southern Jordan. So it just kind of gives you an idea of the area that this all happened in. Here's a little summary of the whole study in about one paragraph. In the first two chapters, The backstory of Job's drama is revealed in which God challenges Satan concerning Job, and he declares him to be a righteous man. Here's how he said it. This is chapter 1, verse 8. For testing, that's the whole point. Have you considered my servant Job, that there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? Now, this was a question that God asked Satan, because if you remember, there was a royal meeting of the sons of God that gathered together from time to time to give an account of what they were doing on planet Earth, where they were going, what they were doing. And so among them, one of the original sons of God was a man named, or an angel named Lucifer. Now he fell, but he still was able to come before the Lord's presence. And I know that's stunning to a lot of us. Why and how and for what reason is it possible that Satan has access to God? Well, we know it's true because all the way in the book of Revelation chapter 12 is the place that we find that he is finally thrown out and has no more access to God. It's at the midpoint of what we call the tribulation period. He's thrown to earth. He knows he has a little time. He comes with great wrath. And he's going to do terrible, terrible things on the earth and really goes after the Jews and all of our other descendants and all the other descendants of God being the Christians. And so, but he, the accuser of the brethren, it says the old, the old serpent, the old serpent, the devil and Lucifer, he is thrown out. He's cast out. So that is the back, the backstory is. Satan comes before the Lord. The Lord says to Satan, Satan, have you considered my servant Job? There's nobody like him. Have you tried to test him? And he says, well, no. No, I haven't tested him. You have protected him, prospered him, and promoted him. Of course he serves you. Who wouldn't serve you if you'd done all those things for him? But I tell you what, you take his stuff away and he will curse you to his face. That's chapter one. That was the challenge you take away his stuff and he will curse you to his face. Well, we know and studied and read Discussed went through that that he lost all of his camels. He lost all of his other animals He lost all of his possession in his farms and his tents And he lost his children, seven sons and three daughters. World War I came and hit the corner of the house or the tent where they were. They were having a birthday party and they died. And so, wow, that was awesome and terrible. That didn't work. He did not curse God to his faith. So the second time around in chapter two, he showed up again before the Lord. The Lord said, have you considered my servant Job? There's none like him. He loves God, hates evil, and he is just blameless. He says, well, you take his health away. That'll do it. If you take his health away, he will curse you for sure. Well, in chapters one and two, Job came through those first two chapters and those first two periods of suffering in a stellar fashion, to be honest. He just amazingly praised God, gave God the glory. Naked I came to the world, naked I will go out. You know, blessed be the name of the Lord and so on. It was amazing how he said that. But time wore on. His testing was not brief. His losses could not be recovered, or so he thought. His misery was indescribable, and to top all of this off, three well-meaning but misguided friends showed up. And at first they did well. Seven days they sat in silence, and they just didn't say a word. They just sat in silence, and they mourned with Job because of all that he was going through. But then from chapter 3 all the way through chapter 41, we were able to sit in and discuss. We went through it ourselves, read them, talked about them. Jerry brought out things. I brought out things. And we just listened to these accusations that these three men came. So we sat in on the discussions, the diatribes, the debates. They occurred over some period of time, we don't know how long, more than a few weeks, several months, perhaps years. The three older men, they had names, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. These men took time, took turns, telling Job that what your real problem is, is that you refuse to confess and repent of sin. Now, they said it many ways, and they had many ways, many accusations, but the essence of their story is, Job, You are suffering terribly because you have sinned greatly. That was the bottom line. They made the assumption, their theology and their belief taught them that if anything's going wrong in your life, if you're suffering, it is always because you've done something wrong, you're holding out, you're not coming out with the truth, you're not being honest. Therefore, our theology is thus. You're suffering terribly because you have sinned greatly, but God is good and faithful. Confess your sins, repent of it, and He will restore you. It always works that way. That was their belief. Their belief was it's always this way. The truth is it wasn't that way. God was doing something. Something that we would never plan, something we could never imagine, but there was a celestial battle going on between God and Satan, between the forces of good and the forces of evil. It was happening in the heavenly places. It was a drama, but it was playing out on the stage of a person and his life. All of this stuff's happening in the life of Job and all of those people connected with Job. Now, Job refused and he debated them on every point. At last, and this is the whole story, whole book of Job now, I'm rehearsing for you chapters three through 41 now. At last, a younger man who had heard it all gave his own very vicious attack on Job's character and he disrespected him all along. If you remember, he called him by name, Job, Job, Job, Job. Nobody had done that. Not even these older men never did that. And in that culture at that time, a younger man didn't address a man directly by his first name. And so, in this situation, Job has ceased to talk. Job's position is that God has just not been just with him. And Job's thinking, I would like an audience with God, and I'd like to have it out with Him over why I am suffering so severely when I, with all of my heart, tried to serve Him so faithfully. Now, we can pause and think about that. That's the story of chapter 3 all the way through chapter 41. And we can stop for a moment and we can just ask this question. Has that ever crossed our mind? Maybe we didn't verbalize it. Maybe we didn't stand up and say it. You know what? I've been trying to do the right thing, but hey, it's just not working out for me. I mean, Psalm 73 is like that if you ever go read that. That's what happens. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked, I almost slipped. I almost lost it. It's kind of the summary of the whole book of Job in one Psalm. And so this is what was going on in Job's life. So Elihu, as Elihu, this last expositor was finishing, God finally spoke up. And that's where we pick it up now in Job chapter number 38. And we're going to finish the book tonight and not going to read every verse of chapter 38 through 42, but we are going to read some passages and we're going to look at it together. So he finally spoke up, but he did not speak as Job had imagined. The truth is Job got no opportunity to ask any questions at all. Rather, God required Job to answer his questions. If you want to look at it, Job chapter 38, verse 1, it says, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and he said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct me." And then he goes on and begins asking him a series of questions, and that's how it all started. When I first came back from Peru to be the pastor here at the church, I had been a missionary all this time, and I had a certain man that I was talking to, and he told me when I got back, he said, hey, Pastor Phil, before you get really into this whole expository preaching and digging in and studying the passage and preaching and everything, he says, look, I just got some news for you. It's important. He said, we need to stop talking about things that people are not interested in in our pulpits. We need to seek to discover their questions and answer those questions from the pulpit. That way we know we are relevant. And anyway, we need to stop trying to answer questions that people are not asking. That was his advice to me. In other words, don't preach through the Bible. Don't do that. Nobody's interested in that anymore. You've got to find out what the questions that people are that are asking, and then you've got to get up there and you've got to take the Bible and apply it to their life that way. The only problem with that is we don't even know what the right questions are, much less the right answers. We don't even know what questions to ask, much less the answers to those questions. We don't know what we need to ask. What we need to do is hear what God has said in His Word. I'm going to share something with you. What God has said is always relevant to our lives. Would you like to know the most relevant thing that you could read before you read tomorrow morning's headlines? The most relevant thing you could do is to get out God's Word and begin to read it. Now, folks, you can't just open the Bible, flop it to a page, and then find something on that page that's gonna correspond to what you're gonna see in tomorrow's headlines. But that's not how you read the Bible anyway. If you read the Bible like this, Lord, speak to me. Well, you can get yourself in trouble in a hurry, you know. Judas went out and hanged himself. You don't wanna do that, you know what I'm saying? So just, so what I'm saying to you is be systematic about reading your Bible. Systematically read the Bible, see what God has to say to you. Read it, submit yourself to it, bow yourself before it. It's the authority, you're not the authority. Ask God to speak to you. Do what I said on Sunday. You know, we got this wonderful power that God has given to us, the Holy Spirit of God, he lives in us. and he's a power, but he's a teacher, he's a guide, and he'll tell you, but we have to approach the Bible like this, oh Lord, speak, thy servant heareth. Oh my goodness, it'll just make all the difference. Well, I'm off that little stump, and I will move on. So, the big problem is, is if we leave it up to people to ask the questions, they will never ask the really important question, and that is, what must I do to be saved? They're not going to ask that question. You know why? Because the Bible says there's none that doeth good, there's none who seek after God, no, not one. People don't just wake up and say, well, I think I'm going to look for God today. Nope. If anybody wakes up and has any thought of God, it's because God has already touched them and is drawing them to himself. It's so important. Now I want you to notice the circumstance of God's speech, the circumstance. He spoke out of a whirlwind. Verse one. Go back there if you would, please, Job 38.1. I don't know how I lost my spot. I had my Bible turned there and now it's somewhere else. All right, Job 38 and verse number 1, it says there, the Lord answered, Job, out of the whirlwind. That's kind of interesting. God seems to like whirlwinds. When Elijah went up, how did he go up? He went up in a what? A whirlwind, that's how it happened. Listen to Nahum, chapter one, verse three. Nahum, or Nahum. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. And the clouds are the dust of his feet. I didn't realize whirlwinds were mentioned so often in the Bible, and I have a program called Logos, and get on there and look, and man, it's everywhere in the Bible. Here's some interesting stuff. I didn't realize that they were mentioned so often, but you know, Job joins Moses, Elijah, and Ezekiel in receiving messages directly from God out of a whirlwind. You know, sometimes God speaks to us through storms and whirlwinds. Did you ever feel like God was talking to you in a storm, in a whirlwind? Think I'm like you I would rather God to speak to me in a still small voice when you Let me ask you a question when you were growing up and your dad said to you something like this Son, I'd like you to go pick up your toys now and and put them away and get ready for bed Did that move you as quickly as hey? Get those toys picked up which one moved you quicker the last one you see we like a still small voice, but Do we listen? as quickly to a still, small voice. Sometimes it takes a storm, doesn't it? And it happens often. And so he spoke to him out of a whirlwind. Notice the tone. Well, that's the circumstance. Look at the tone of God's speech. Look at verse number two. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? It's kind of an interesting way to put that. He says, prepare yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me. Basically, he says, sit up straight and get ready to answer. Job, who do you think you are? You and your friends are making things worse. You are running your mouth about things of which you know nothing, and you are clouding the issue. You are not clarifying it. That is exactly what he is saying. The Lord tells him out of a whirlwind, and he talks to him straightforward, and he says, you know, enough of your speech, enough of your talk, you've given your opinions, now I'm going to tell you the way it is. And so Job's silence is the first thing we experienced. Chapter 38, verse one through chapter 40 in verse number five, Job is just silent all the time. He's been wanting to say, I wish I could get an audience with God. I would like to ask him, and he said that, I'd like to, we could go back and read it, but I'd like to ask you about this and ask you why that and ask you and tell you, just proclaim my innocence. If I could just get in God's, boy, you know what, if we were really in God's presence today, you know how much we would say? Nothing. He has his audience with the Almighty, but interestingly, the name God used to speak to him now is Yahweh or Jehovah. Up until this time, they've been calling him Almighty, Almighty, Almighty, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Shaddai. Everybody's called him El Shaddai. But we come here and he calls himself Lord or Yahweh. He's the self-existent covenant-keeping God. Job has his chance to speak, but he is speechless. You know, even at the time of the end, at the great white throne judgment, if we were to go to Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11, we would find at the great white throne judgment, All of those people that would like to come and say something are not going to be able to say anything. All the Christ-denying philosophers, scientists, atheists, and agnostics will stand before God, yet they will have no speaking part whatsoever. The only thing they're going to hear is His name written in the book of life. That's all they're going to hear. Whoa. So they will have no speaking part at all. Brethren, you know what? We are to speak out for God, but we're not supposed to speak up to God. Did you know that? We can speak out for God. We're supposed to be testifying, aren't we? We're supposed to tell His story, tell about His greatness and His goodness. But speaking up to God, like Job said he was going to do, is just not something we're going to do. Job, you spoke up about justice and how you think what God is saying to him. You spoke up about justice and how you think you have not been judged justly. You think you could do a better job at dispensing justice in the world? Well, I have a few questions for you. Let's read in verse 4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? Or where were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Now those sons of God shouting for joy, who was that? Angels the only people that could have been present at the creation of the world other than God himself were who? Angels so that tells you when angels were made before the earl world was made anyway Jerry's gonna teach us about that coming up next week So the sons of God or the angels shouted for joy by the way except with the exception of Adam no human was called son of God in the Old Testament and Not one. Only angels were called the sons of God in the Old Testament. All right, so let's move on and let's see what we got here. So Job is silent in this passage. And so he says, what do you know about history? Well, he doesn't know anything about history. He wasn't there. Okay, what do you know about oceanography? What do you know about the oceans and how I did that? Chapter 38 and verse eight are, who enclosed the sea with its doors when bursting forth it went out from the womb? When I made a cloud and a garment, a thick darkness and swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it, and I set a bolt and doors, and I said, thus far you shall come, speaking of the ocean, but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop. Where were you? Drop down to verse number 16. Have you entered the springs of the sea, or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? So basically he says, Job, He says, you've got wisdom, you want to talk about justice, you want to talk about dispensing justice on the earth. Before we do that, where were you when I built everything, made everything? Where were you when I made the ocean work? What do you know about meteorology? You guys, I don't think meteorologists know a whole lot either, do you? But anyway, what do you know about meteorology? 3812, look at that. Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the sea, and they stand forth like a garment. And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the uplifted arm is broken." So what do you know about meteorology? Look at verse 17. Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell me if you know all of this So he's talking about all of these different things and then he asked even a bigger question. What do you know about? Astronomy now notice I'm not saying astrology, you know, there's a difference in astrology and astronomy, right? astrology is believing that the stars can guide your life and Astronomy is the study of the stars that exist and all of the constellations and everything like that. Nothing wrong with astronomy, but I pray you're not getting up in the morning and trying to guide your life by reading the astrological forecast in the newspaper or on some place online somewhere. He's basically saying to him, do you know how many stars and galaxies, planets and constellations there are? How about where they came from and when the stars will burn out? How come they stay put? Come on, Job, you're so wise, you know about justice, tell me about it. So what he's doing is going point by point of all of his greatness and all that he has done and he's saying, be careful before you talk to me about how you could dispense justice because you don't have any understanding of anything. You have no wisdom job. This is what he's saying to him and then we get to zoology What do you know about zoology? I love this section Chapter 38 39 to 41 and then chapter 39 1 through 30 now We're not going to read all of that, but you ought to sometime it says basically can you feed the lions? He says, how about the ravens, can you feed the ravens? Now, Bonnie and I have little bird feeders, and we haven't been keeping up with them real well lately. One of them fell and broke, had to get rid of it. And so, I don't know why we think we're gonna feed the birds. Do you think you could feed all the birds in your neighborhood? Do you think you could feed all the birds in the state of Iowa? I mean, he's saying to him, he says, do you know anything about the ravens, can you feed them? Do you know about the birthing of mountain goats and deer? Do you know when they have their gestation? Do you know how long it is? Do you know where they do it and why they do it? Do you know all about that, mountain goats and deer? He said, do you know about the wild donkeys, my wild donkeys, and why they are wild? He said, do you know how to harness a wild ox and make him plow for you? What do you know about ornithology? That is especially about storks and ostriches. And he asked him particularly, why is the ostrich so stupid yet he can outrun a horse? And this is God talking to Job. Says, Job, do you understand? Why does the ostrich lay its eggs and then walk around with it almost ready to crush him with his feet? Doesn't take any care for its own eggs. Why does she do that? And on and on he asked him more and more questions. Then for that matter, what do you know about horses? And why are they so brave? And why do they paw the ground? And why do they know that when they're headed into battle, they know what it's all about and they can't wait to do it, even though they may die doing it. Horses, why are they so brave? And then can you speak these are all things he talks about from verses 39 41 of chapter 38 and then chapter 39 almost a whole chapter Then he asked him this question. Can you speak about the nature and the habitat of the hawks and the eagles? And by the way, can you feed them? So he's just asking job all these questions You know sometimes you know we're looking at this and well of course Job doesn't know all he doesn't know any of those things how could he know he wasn't there he doesn't know how to do it and everything but in the what what we're learning and what we're seeing in this passage is sometimes in our minds and in the way that God is dealing with us under a certain set of circumstances at a certain point in our life when things seem to be wrong and out of control and not going right and not at least not going according to our plan. And it doesn't seem right and it doesn't seem fair in any way. You know, I gave my tithe and I came to church and I helped all my friends and I tried to be good and everything's just not working out. And I just, God, let's have a talk. I want you to, I want you to answer me. Whoa. Are you going to ever be able to get in a situation where God who's running everything and also has paid attention to our life to the point of knowing how many hairs are on our head? Are we ever going to get to the place where we can sit down with him on equal ground and just have a discussion? The only way that we're going to have a discussion with him is because of his great mercy and his great compassion. At the same time, he invites us into his lap like a father with his children. God is so good, and he's so kind. Then this answer proved Job's silence. I want you to look at chapter 40 now, chapter 40, and verse number 1. Then the Lord said to Job, Will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am insignificant. What can I reply to thee? I lay my hand on my mouth. Once I have spoken, I will not answer. Even twice, I will add no more. And so he answers the Lord there and he says, the Lord says to him in verse one, speak up, Job. You're a fault finder. You're a fault finder. So what's my fault? Figure this out. Tell me, speak up. And he doesn't say anything. And then he says, okay, he says, then if you're going to reprove me, let him who reproves God answer it. So you're a teacher, you're going to reprove me, correct me, show me, tell me, Job, how I am wrong and what I have done that's wrong. So Job hadn't got anything to say. So what does Job end up saying? He says, I am vile. And then he says, I'm clapping my hand over my mouth. In other words, he says, boy, I am not even gonna let a word slip out because I got nothing to say. He just closed his mouth. Amazing. So the first section all the way down through right there, we find out that Job is just plain silent. Now we're going to see Job surrender from chapter 40 in verse 6 all the way through chapter 42, verse 17, the end of the book. 40 in verse 6. I have a question. Did you ever have a really, really hard test in school? when you were a kid. I mean, one of those tests that you just felt like signing your name at the top and confessing you didn't have a clue. He tells a story, did you read that story in there, Jerry? He told that story about, he said that he went to a class one time, he was woefully underprepared, he didn't have any idea about any of the questions. He thought that it was unfair, way too hard, and so he wrote on there, only God can answer these questions at the top and signed his name. handed it in and the teacher gave it back and says, God gets 100%, you get a zero. Job has just been put to the test, been asked a lot of questions and he scored zero. You know, when we think we can charge God with doing wrong, and that we could have done it better, and we think we could correct the way He does things, and, God, why didn't You do this, and why didn't You do that, and why didn't You do it this way and do it that way? I mean, if we get into a situation where we're asking God those questions, we're going to get a zero. Amazing Job had all kinds of questions to ask God, but he didn't have a single answer to any of God's questions Job got a tour of the universe in the animal kingdom God asked him with various questions about them as to how when where and with what power everything Had happened and what was his answer crickets nothing. He didn't have a word to say he couldn't answer He didn't know how God did it. He didn't know anything I just had to throw this in here and speak to the straw man who's not in the room, but it just irritates me to hear so-called educators and people that are supposed to be in the know. I want to say, Mr. Evolutionist, Mr. Big Banger, Mr. Billions of Years for Random Processes, if what you proclaim were possible and it's not, I have a question, who pushed the first domino? Where did matter come from? Where did that super dense dot from which the universe exploded come from? And once exploded, it exploded and scattered and cooled and evolved and began to function. Who sustains it? Why are there only 118 basic elements as of the date? Why did some atoms become lions and other atoms become granite? Why did some become turtles and others become trees? Why did some atoms form a rose and not a redwood? My answer is don't be silly and don't be a smart aleck. God made it. He sustains it. We need to stop all the words and we just need to be filled with wonder. You know what we need to do sometimes? When we think everything's messed up, gone crazy, that we just can't figure it out and that everything's out of control, do two things. Rise up early in the morning and watch the sun rise. Stay up late in the afternoon and watch the sun set and just be assured that everything that happened between those two things, God was in charge of. And everything he does is good. Do you ever even wonder why we don't fly off the earth? It's spinning like crazy. It's going nuts. Why don't we? Because God made something called gravity and it holds us on the earth. Why doesn't the earth crash into other planets? Why don't the stars collide? Why don't they? Because God's in charge of all these things. The universe is like a huge time piece. It's like a, it's like a chronogram and it's just spinning beautifully and it's, God did these things. I mean, sometimes we just need to shut up and wonder. Just wonder at what God has made. I saw, coming in a little bit earlier tonight, I saw Melody and Michael with a little Caden. They just came in and they were walking in and there was There was a little Caden, content as he could possibly be, and he was looking out. I don't know whether she had him in one of those little front carrying things or whatever. There's a little kid just looking around. He's only five weeks old. Every toe, every little finger, everything's perfect. And the kid's sitting there sucking on his pacifier, looking up at me. I mean, what a marvel a birth of a baby is. What a marvel. We need to just stop and wonder. We need to stop in awe sometimes because God breathed into Adam the breath of life and it hadn't stopped yet. The book of Isaiah says if God wanted to stop everything, he just withdraws the breath and everything dies like that. It's his breath. Just think about the wonder of everything. Drive somewhere, go see something. If you wanna think about God and is he in control, go find a waterfall and watch it just do its thing. Watch the river, watch anything, watch the birds fly and just remember God made everything. I was so happy when I saw the, I had to stop Bonnie from whatever she was doing and say, hey look, guess what? We know the weather's changing because the blue herons have come back. And the blue herons don't show up until it's going to be warm enough for them to go fishing. And so there's that. You know, they look like prehistoric birds. You know what I'm talking about? Legs flopping behind them and they fly real slow, you know. I must be a blue heron because I'm doing everything slow now, you know. It seems the older I get, the more like a blue heron I am. But anyway, they just fly slow and their neck is just crooked around. They look prehistoric. And they go down there, and one day I went out there just by the bridge, walking my silly little dog, and I hardly ever get close to one of those things, because they always seem to know where you are. And I was just, and boy, he was right there in Four Mile Creek, right down below. And all of a sudden, he, I don't know, I must have seen him, he decided to jump up, spread those wings. I didn't know they were as big as they are. Wings just flew right up over my head, and my crazy dog was jumping, jumping, jumping. the wonder of everything. That's what God said to Job. He said, Job, just look at these stars here. What do you know about them? And he didn't know anything. He just couldn't answer. God is good, folks. God is great and He's in control. And when it seems like things are falling apart, they're not. So God confronts Job, verses 6 through 8 of chapter 40. He says, Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm and said, Now gird up your loins like a band, and I will ask you, and you instruct me. Will you really annul my judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Or do you have an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his? I mean, just think of those statements that he's making right there. God confronts Job and then he challenges Job. Those next verses, adorn yourself with eminence and dignity and clothe yourself with honor and majesty. Pour out the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and make him lower. Look on everyone who is proud and humble him. Tread down the wicked where they stand. In other words, God, you're treating me And why aren't you taking care of the wicked? He says to Job, why don't you take care of the wicked? Why don't you tread down the wicked? Why don't you? And he knows that he can't do it. Hide them in the dust together. Bind them in the hidden place. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you. But Job can't save himself. He can't fix anything. He can't mete out justice. And then God confounds Job. He confounds him. In chapter 40, verse 15 through 41, and it's just awesome, through 41, 34, and I want you to see this with me. He confounds him with something else, and he gives him the lesson of the hippo. Actually, the old word is behemoth, and it's chapter 40, verse 15 to 24. Behold now behemoth which I made as well as you he eats grass like an ox behold now His strength is in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly He bends his tail like a cedar the sinews of his thighs are knit together His bones are tubes of bronze his limbs are like the bars. He's describing something now. It seems modern scholarship thinks it's a hippo But a hippo hadn't hippos tails about that long. So we know we're not talking about a hippo I believe we're talking about it. What we're talking about here is either a woolly mammoth or a mastodon some great beast that is just you know, Enormously huge and enormously powerful and he's talking about them and he talks about the strength that they have And then he even gets more interesting. We talk about the lesson of the crocodile. He's really showing job some interesting stuff now The word crocodile has been supplied in a lot of modern translations. The actual word is the word leviathan, and I seriously doubt that it's talking about a crocodile. What we tend to do is to seek to explain away what we can't understand or identify. But there is in every seafaring culture of the world, there are stories and legends of terrible sea monsters, and of terrible sea monsters that sink ships, make the water glow, have impenetrable hides, and even breathe fire. Somebody's gonna say, well, that is impossible. Do you have on your sheet a little website that you, did I put that website on your sheet? Is it on there? It says www.youtube.com, watch, something, something, is it on there? Well, I want to challenge you to go and look and study the bombardier beetle. You say, what is a bombardier beetle? Well, it's a beetle. And it's a bombardier beetle. And it's different because it shoots fire out of its hind end. You say, what? It does. It has three chemicals in its hind end. that when he's under attack or when he feels any kind of danger or anything like that, he shoots fire at us. They combine these chemicals, it creates an explosion, he shoots it at his hind end and he directs it. And that little site, it's hilarious, this little site. It's a PBS kid site and it's got real close-up pictures of this happening and the very words that come out. Well, this occurrence in these bombardier beetles is enough to make many of us question whether evolution is possible at all. And I'm thinking, yep, I guess so. And I'm looking at it and listening to it, it's kind of, now they finally come along and they come up with some far-fetched idea of how evolution is true. I'm going to tell you about this bombardier beetle. God made it. And this little bombardier beetle, it showed this great old big hairy spider. I think it was a, I don't know what it was a, what do you call those big ones? A tarantula, I don't know if that's what it was or not, but it was coming up on it and gonna snatch this little bug and he lifted his hind end and shot this thing out of it. That spider took off, he was gone. You just gotta see, it's a bombardier beetle. You say, why are you talking about the bombardier beetle? Because this sea monster is said to have breathed fire. It wasn't possible. Well, tell the bombardier beetle that. It's like I'm saying bumblebees can't fly. They've been saying that forever. The proportions are wrong. The wings aren't big enough. It's impossible for a bumblebee to fly. Tell the bumblebee that. I get amazed at willful ignorance. of many people. Listen to Psalm 104, talking about this creature, Leviathan. Psalm 104, 24. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works and wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. This great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things, living things, both small and great. There the ships sail about. There is that Leviathan which you have made to play there. And then verse Psalm 74 14 talking about God's great power. He says you broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Isaiah 27.1, in that day the Lord with his severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisted serpent, and he will slay the reptile that is in the sea. The literal word is dragon that is in the sea. Sometimes Leviathan may be a double reference to Satan himself, but here he's talking about a reptile or a dragon that is actually in the sea. Now, I brought my New Living Translation of the Bible here on purpose tonight because I want to read in modern language. I want to read this section in chapter 41 of the book of Job. I'm just going to read it to you, and then I'm going to make a few comments. You say, why are you making an emphasis on this? Because God made an emphasis on this. And I wanna read this to you, and I want you, now remember, everywhere that the older versions of the Bible say Leviathan, the new version is gonna say crocodile. But just remember, a crocodile does not fit the image of what we're gonna see. Crocodiles are big and vicious, and I wouldn't wanna put my hand in a crocodile's mouth either, but just watch this. He's challenging Job and he says, can you catch a crocodile with a hook or put a noose around its jaw? Can you tie it with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike? Will it beg for mercy or employ you for pity? Will it agree to work for you? Can you make it your slave for life? Can you make it a pet like a bird or give it to your little girls to play with? Will merchants try to buy it? Will they sell it in their shops? Will its hide be hurt by darts or its head by a harpoon? If you lay a hand on it, you will never forget that battle that follows and you will never try it again. No, it's useless to try to capture it. Stop. Have we ever captured crocodiles? The hunter who attempts it will be thrown down, and since no one dares to disturb, I'm gonna call him Leviathan, who would dare stand up to me? Who will confront me and remain safe? Everything under the heaven is mine. Now that's God, so if nobody will mess with Leviathan, who's gonna mess with me? I want to emphasize, this is God talking, I want to emphasize the tremendous strength in Leviathan's limbs and throughout its enormous frame. Who can strip off its hide? I can take you to where they have crocodile hides. Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor? Who could pry open its jaws, for its teeth are terrible? The overlapping scales on its back make a shield. They are as close together. No air can get between them. They lock together. Nothing can penetrate them. When it sneezes, it flashes light. Its eyes are like the red of dawn. Fire and sparks leap from its mouth. Ever seen a crocodile do that? Smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from the boiling pot on the fire of dry rushes. Yes, its breath would kindle coals or flames shoot from its mouth. The tremendous strength in its neck strikes terror wherever it goes. Its flesh is hard and firm, not soft and fat. Its heart is as hard as a rock and hard as a millstone. When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror. No sword can stop it, no spear or dart or pointed shaft. To Leviathan, iron is nothing but straw, and bronze is as rotten wood. Arrows cannot make it flee. Stones shot from a sling are ineffective. Clubs do no good. It lasts as the swish of javelins. Its belly is covered with scale as sharp as glass. They tear up the ground as it drags through the mud. Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion. It churns the depths the water glistens in its wake One would think that the sea had turned white There is nothing else so fearless anywhere on the earth of all the creatures. It is the proudest it is the king of all beasts Leviathan is there why did you emphasize that so much because Job thought he had everything figured out, and here's a creature he's never even imagined, never seen, never laid hands on, never could conquer, and it's just one of God's creatures. Pastor Phil, what do you believe? I believe Leviathan exists. And I do not know that the flood would have killed it, because it's a sea creature. It could have lived through it. There was a man that came to speak to us on two occasions, a man by the name of Dr. Carl Ball. He has died and gone on, but I've never seen a demonstration in my life about all of the things concerning Leviathan and the probability of it. And then he talked about stories from around the world, especially in seafaring peoples of people out on sea and ships and stories all over the world that all talk about giant sea creatures that make the water glow. and do these amazing things, knock ships down, just completely destroy ships. And so on. So anyway, I just wanted to go through that and show it to you. Now, let's move on to this next section, and that is that God conquers Job. We come to chapter 42. We're at the end of the book. Everything has happened. And so he comes to Job, and Job had said time and again, I need to ask God some questions. I want to talk to him about his justice and his lack of fairness. It seems like the wicked cruise along with very little difficulty. And while I have tried to do everything that God has told me to do, and where did it get me? Now, this is the way he was thinking. But now he has heard God. He has experienced his power. He's been overwhelmed by his wisdom. So what does Job have to say? Well, one thing he doesn't do is complain about the four men who had been criticizing him relentlessly. You would have thought he would have said, hey, God, can you do something about these guys? They just won't leave me alone. They criticize me nonstop. He didn't say one word about them. He only spoke of his own failure and his sins. We're going to read it in just a moment. And by the way, folks, he spoke of his own failure and his own sins. Just remember this. You cannot confess another person's sins. That's so important. You must repent for yourself. We can identify with the sins of the people like Ezra identified with the sins of the children of Israel when they had come back from the land. He said, we have sinned, but he could not confess for the sin of another person. Parents, you can pray for your children, but you can't confess for their sins. Oh, it's just so important. Let's read this section. It says now in chapter number 42, Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me that I did not know. Hear now and I will speak. I will ask thee and do thou instruct me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee, therefore I retract. I repent in dust and in ashes." The old King James says, I abhor myself. This is what Job said. So what he says to God is, God, you are powerful. God, you are irresistible in the sense that no one can resist your power and authority. God, you are past comprehension. And then he says, God, I have heard of your greatness. Now I have experienced it personally, and all I can say is this is a very, very precious thought because Job is experiencing God. Think about that. Experiencing God. I should pull over and I should stop for just a moment right there because I think that in church life, in church life, we make a terrible mistake. especially with our children and our grandchildren. We, of course, are supposed to do everything in our power to put them in the circumstances and in the atmosphere where they can hear the good news of the gospel and they can be saved. It is crucial that we do everything in our power to see to it that they hear the good news and that they're taught the truth. That is crucial. But it is very, very dangerous for us to assume that because they are in the circumstances, and they are in the atmosphere, and that they are hearing these things, and maybe even they can polyparent the stories, that we make the assumption that it's real with them, that it's personal with them, and that they personally have had an encounter with Jesus Christ and that they have believed on Him because they can give all of the right answers. Now just listen to me for a moment. Outside this building outside this culture in the world around us when they know nothing they've heard nothing And they've never heard a single thing and they come in and begin to hear they've got a long way to catch up But in one way they know that they're lost But when children grow up in church and in Sunday school, now look, I'm not telling you it's good that they don't grow up in Sunday school and church, I'm just telling you parents make a terrible mistake assuming that having them in the right place under the right circumstances and the right atmosphere and under the right teaching is proof positive that they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is erroneous. because every person, I have to tell you the story of my own daughter, Amber. Amber was baptized as an adult right up here and gave her testimony up here in front of the church. Amber was born and raised in our home and talk about Jesus. My wife is sitting right here and we had the blue rug talks for years and years and Bonnie would teach, demonstrate, tell stories, read the Bible, talk to the children as they grew. And when Amber was a little girl, she made, because mom and dad loved her, and we wanted her to know Jesus so bad. And so she at some point made a quote-unquote profession of faith, and I baptized her as a little girl, and she went through her teenage years, and it was in her, was it her senior year, Bonnie? She began, she says, I'm leaving my home, I'm going away, I'm gonna go and be away from my family. And she says, and she asked herself, am I gonna continue this Christian stuff? And it just dawned on her that she was living on borrowed faith. And she asked all alone, by herself, with nobody around, she had her own encounter with Jesus and asked Jesus to save her from her sin, to come into her life and make her a different person. And she got up as a valedictorian or whatever she was, and she got up and gave her speech, and she said at the end of her speech, She told, and she's told the story, she says, I just want you to know that at some point in my senior year, I had to ask myself, was this the faith of my father's or was this my faith? Did I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? And oh, my soul, I mean, I was sitting there listening, and this was the first I was hearing of it right there in her speech, and she just stood up and said, Mom and Dad, it just took my breath away. She said, I just want you to know, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is my Savior. and I intend to live all of my days for him. Well, you see, don't make any assumptions. with your children. Let them, let them have their own encounter with the Lord. You set every circumstance up, but you can't decide for them. And you can't confess for them. And you just can't. It's just so very important. Well, Job, he said, I'd heard about you. I knew all the answers. In fact, I even thought I could tell you a thing or two. But now, I have experienced God. And he said, I abhor myself and I repent in sackcloth and ashes. You say, what Job had to repent of? Self-righteousness. He thought he was right and righteous and that God was giving him a bad deal. Wow. Pretty amazing. He had his own experience with God. So, he said, I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes, and it's amazing. It's amazing that the scriptures teach us both of these things. The Bible says in Romans chapter eight, verse 15 and 16, that we can come to the Lord and call him Abba, Father, Daddy, and we can crawl up into his lap. And then at the same time, we've got to be careful of casual familiarity because it's dangerous. We are to love Him with all of our hearts, but we are to fear Him with reverential awe. The beginning of knowledge and wisdom is the what? The fear of the Lord. So we love Him with all of our heart, but we fear Him with reverential awe. I love my dad greatly. Sometimes I was welcome to climb up into his lap. Other times he told me I'd better straighten up and fly right. You understand the difference? Which time did he love me? Both. God is like that with us. So Job had a reconciliation then in 42 verse 7 to 9. And it came about that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now therefore take for yourself seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves And my servant job will pray for you for I will accept him So that I may not do with you according to your folly because you have not spoken, right? Spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has so Eliphaz the team and I'd build at the shoe height so far than the hematite Went and did as the Lord told them and the Lord accepted Job whoa There's some curious things here that are really, really important and really interesting. The first thing is he spoke to the oldest one of them all. Eliphaz was the oldest one. Eliphaz and his two friends. Eliphaz should have set a different example for the other two. The other two followed in his steps. The oldest and supposedly the wisest one was the first to speak up and criticize Job and to make assumptions about his sin. Instead of continuing to comfort, he just began judging and he set the example. The Bible says the Lord was very upset with him. And so the other thing that I thought was interesting is the last one who spoke, who spoke the most boldly and the longest and the loudest was Elihu. God didn't even acknowledge he even existed. He didn't even say anything to him. It's interesting. And so all of them were wrong about Job. Then there's something else interesting. God required a sacrifice of them. And the sacrifice he required was seven Bullocks and seven Rams. You said, well, is that a big offering? Yep. It was seven Bullocks and seven Rams that they had to give for the entire nation of Israel. So these three guys, these four men, their sin was so grievous that they required an offering that was big enough for the whole nation. Whoa. God took what they did. as very, very bad. Judging your brother on assumed information is very sinful. Let me say that again. Judging your brother on assumed information is very sinful, and that's what they did. They made assumptions. Job, you're suffering greatly, so you've sinned greatly, and just repent and everything will be all right. Well, he hadn't sinned greatly. So it is so interesting. And then he required them to come to Job for the sacrifice and for a prayer of reconciliation. It's so interesting. Job didn't argue. He graciously prayed for his friends without mention of the weeks nor months of torment that they gave him. Job was so very glad to be forgiven that forgiving others was very easy. Forgiven people forgive people. So very important. So Job's reconciliation. I think it is so interesting how many times God called him my servant. over and over, my servant Job, my servant Job, my servant Job. That's interesting. I gotta move on and I'm gonna repeat this in just a moment. Job's restoration goes from verse 10 through 17. Now here's, this is so interesting. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him And they ate bread with him in his house and they consoled him and comforted him for all the evil That the lord had brought on him and each one gave him one piece of money And each a ring of gold and the lord blessed the latter days of job more than his beginning And he had fourteen thousand sheep six thousand camels one thousand yoke of oxen and one thousand female donkeys. If you go back and read chapter one, he had just half of that in every one of those areas. He had seven sons and three daughters and he named the first Jemima and the second Kezia and the third Kirin-Habak. And in all the land, there were no women found so fair as Job's daughters, get this, and the father gave them inheritance among their brothers. He broke totally with culture. And after this Job lived 140 years, and if he keeps pace with the doubling of everything, he was around 70 when he went through all of this, and he had another 140 years on top of that after he recovered. So all told, Job had 65 to 70 years of incredible life, then he had a period of terrible suffering, and then he had another 140 years of incredibly beautiful life that he had. So Job died an old man and full of days. Notice, Job, God restored his friends. Everybody came back. God restored his finances. God doubled everything that he lost. God restored his family. Now, he had seven sons and three daughters, and then he had another seven sons and three daughters later. You say, well, he didn't double his family. Well, of course he did. Because the first seven and three, they died and went to heaven. He hadn't lost them. They're just living in another place. So did he get double? Of course he did. He got seven more and three more. And the note about the inheritance to the three daughters is significant. Not only were they the prettiest women of the area, they were also fully provided for financially. And this is new and good. In other words, when it came time to divide up the inheritance, Instead of just giving the oldest, the most, and everybody else some, and the girls nothing because they were going to marry somebody and they're the...no, no, no. He gave ten portions, one to everyone, including the three daughters. God restored his favor. What about that? Once again, he is called Job, my servant. At the end, he enjoyed that 140 years of health, wealth, and posterity. Not enough so much posterity. He had posterity. That is, he saw his grandchildren to the fourth generation. And I think this is really interesting. I'm going to come back to this point about Job's identity as a servant in just a minute, but I want to give you some timeless truth from the book of Job. You say, what has this all been about? We've been studying this for 16 weeks. What has this all been about? What can I carry away? Well, I can't tell you. Every point that I would love to emphasize but I've got ten points here that I want to give you that I think are very very valuable and the first thing is and This one we said the very first week and it's stunning God allows things in our life for his glory that we would never plan for ourselves Is that true yes or no? Did God allow, did Job stick up his flag of availability and say, hey, why don't you put me to the test today? Is that what he did? No. Did he say, hey man, God, you've been so good to me, I'm ready to go through it for you, I'm gonna just bear down and take anything you send me? He didn't do that. Nobody thinks like that. God allows things in our life for his glory that we would never plan for ourself. Then number two, this is so important. There is a spiritual world where God is always in conflict with evil. When we talk about the wrath of God in the Bible, God's wrath burns in this way or that. We think in terms of our wrath, one minute we're calm, cool, and serene, and the next minute we're angry and throwing things. We think God does the same thing, that he is just calm, cool, and serene, but he loses his temper every now and then, he starts throwing lightning bolts. That's not the wrath of God. The wrath of God is the settled, consistent, continuous, unrelenting war against evil. That's the wrath of God. God's wrath, if that wasn't so, then Romans chapter one makes no sense. The wrath of God is revealed, not will be, has been, it is revealed against all unrighteousness. And he goes on and talks about it, and I won't read the whole chapter. It's the wrath of God. So there is this spiritual world where God is always in conflict with evil. Number three, life can hurt. And when it does, it doesn't mean God hates us. Life can hurt. Number four, I'm telling you timeless principles from the book of Job. Friends and family can disappoint us. Is that true, yes or no? Number five, pain and sickness can linger. And we may not ever get an explanation on this side before we go to God. Did Job ever, was he ever told on this side of heaven the battle that had gone on in heaven between Satan and God himself? Was he ever even told of that? Did he even know? He never even knew why what was happening to him happened to him. And when God did speak, he talked about his own glory and his own sovereignty and his own control and that he was in charge. And Job, you're just going to have to trust me. Oh, what a lesson to learn. We're just going to have to trust him. I think one of the greatest hymns that's ever been written in, in the annals of Christian history is the song trust and obey. Because there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. We're gonna have to trust him. And I will say this, the greatest honor that you can ever give our heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ, the greatest honor is to trust them. Have faith. The currency of heaven is trust. If we trust him, God's impressed. If we don't trust him, God's disappointed. It's just that simple. Trust him. What was wrong with the children of Israel? That they did not go into the promised land, those that he had promised to take them in. And when they went up there and they saw the giants, they got scared, says, we can't go in. Two said we could, 10 said we couldn't. They didn't go in and God let them. What happened to them in the wilderness? What did they do? They died. Why? Because they did not trust God. Trust. Number six, we dare not speak in judgment on another brother based on our assumptions. Assumptions, assuming that we know the situation and judging other people. Number seven, caring compassion is better than theological discourse when friends suffer. The three friends showed up and they were doing really good until they did what? When they opened their mouth. Caring compassion is better than fear. Now there's a time when words are necessary, but at the beginning when the suffering is great. I got a call today. How many of you remember Tony Minor? Tony Minor sat right over here, real gruff voice, opened the door to a whole family full of people who came to Christ. First man saved in anybody, in any area, in any direction in his family. And his whole life he kept bringing people to Jesus, his whole life. Well, I got word this morning that he died. He was on his way trying to get back up here to Iowa from Florida. He wanted to say goodbye to his family and friends that are up here, but he died. Tony, one of the times I called him on the phone and everything, I called him on the phone and he was in Florida. And I said, Tony, I said, how you feel? He says, I'm feeling better and better than a man like me ought to feel. I said, Tony, I said, you've got cancer. And I said, you're, you know, you're fading away and everything. He said, that's all right, Pastor Phil. And he said, I said, well, what can I say to help you? He said, no, it's not what you say. He says, I don't need any Bible verses right now. I'm just glad you care. It's so important. Caring compassion is better than theological discourse when friends suffer. Eight, God is great. His works are incomparable. His wisdom is incomprehensible. His love is unfailing, and His grace is amazing. You know, Job suffered greatly, but Job was rewarded immensely. God turned it around and gave him more than he ever had. You know, some of us are never going to get that kind of earthbound reward. I just want you to know God's keeping records, and He knows who serves Him and who loves Him, no matter what the pain. And just remember, there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness. God is going to reward the saints. Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me Jesus said hmm so important So number nine it is a privilege to be called his servant Job was called his servant over and over and over and then number ten and this is the curious one sometimes the service he requires is suffering This was Job's service to God during all this time. That's how the book ends. He called him my servant, my servant, my servant, but he hadn't been serving him during all this suffering. He hadn't been doing anything except hurting. All he'd been doing is enduring this pain. And God called him my servant over and over and over and over at the end of the book. Sometimes the service that He requires is suffering. Is it fun? No. Should we volunteer for it? No. But if it happens, what should we do? Trust God. That's all we can do. Now I'm going to finish up James chapter 5, and we're just going to read this. And I want you to see this beautiful passage of Scripture here, and just let it sink into your heart. James chapter 5, Hebrews, James. Here we go, James chapter 5 and verse number 7. Now just let this sink in. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until he gets the early and the late rains. You too, be patient, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or on earth, or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under judgment." Isn't it amazing? Here's James' summary of the whole issue of Job. By this time, the book of Job was recorded and James could read it. And he says, we count those blessed who endured, and you've heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. So it wasn't just the period of suffering that James looked at. He looked at the reward that the Lord gave him. God is full of compassion. Patience, we talk about the patience of who? The patience of Job. Patience is a virtue. James starts off saying in his first chapter, when you're in trials, when you're in trouble, when you're hurting, give God the glory. Thank God, be joyful because it's going to teach you what? And patience is a wonderful, wonderful virtue. Well, I hope you've learned something from the book of Job. It's been a long study, been a lot in it. We're going to switch gears and do something next week. And we've given, we've not just given lip service to the study of Job, we've almost read every verse and we've read through the whole book and we've studied it, looked at it, talked about it. And if I could summarize the whole book, and that is that this, is that, you know, though we may suffer, God is faithful. Though we may have troubles and heartaches and heartbreaks in our life, none of those things mean God is mad at us or hates us. Now, we're living like heathens and suffering for it, that's a different story. But if we're serving Him with our whole heart, yet suffer. Do not forget Job. God is faithful. Our Father, thank you for the time together. Thank you for all that have gathered to be here on these Wednesday evenings, and we just thank you for this book of Job. There's so much to hear, so much to learn, and I just thank you for it. Lord, as we go from this place tonight, I pray that we would thank that we would thank you for your faithfulness to us. And I'm thankful, Lord, that though I've had testings and trials, Lord, I've never been through anything in my life like Job has. But I'm glad he's there in the Bible. I'm glad we can see his example. So that if we do go through things that are just unbearable and beyond understanding, we know that you are in the middle of it, and you are faithful, and you will take care of us to the end. Bless our people that are here gathered tonight. Help us as we go home to have safe travel. Bring us back again on Sunday as we start pointing toward our study in the book of John. In Jesus' name, amen.