0:00 Let's pray. Let's go to the Lord. Father, thank you for your word. As we've heard so much today in the singing and the memory verse and from the girls, your word is so good and it gives us hope and truth and light and correction 0:13 and instruction and all these things that we can follow you and know you more clearly. Lord, please speak to us today. Thank you for your word. Lord, help us to hear from you in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. Uh want to talk about the 0:28 book of Job. And for me, this is this this book has been a comfort and a challenge and instruction in so many ways over the past few years, especially so thankful for this book. I'm sorry for my 0:47 brother Job for what he went through. I know we'll get to meet him and hear from him personally one day on this. And I know he's not sorry. And I say that in a in a human way where I'm looking at all that he went through, but I know that 1:01 he's glad he went through it. And I believe that as we meditate on Job and think about the Lord and truth and his love that we too can maybe not during the trial. We want that. But certainly after the trials are over, uh to be able 1:18 to be glad for them and and not regret having gone through them. And I'm sure that if Job could stand here today, he would not regret having gone through what he did. So just in and we'll be mainly in the book of Job, I'm not going 1:30 to go through the whole thing, don't worry. Probably just chapter one today, maybe a part two down the road. But um I know when I think of Job, we think of suffering that he went through. We think of God and Satan talking about 1:43 some things and some things happening. We think of Job as this very, very godly man. And sometimes when we think about I mean if we just in the secular sense if we think about this very high performing athlete or this very famous leader or 1:59 politician or Hollywood person that we think well we can never be that. We don't have those abilities. And sometimes as we look in the scripture we can fall into that and we can think you know think about Daniel or Noah or Job. 2:11 We think wow these are just superheroes. I can never I don't have those superpowers. I can't do this. I can't do what they did. Well yeah we can. And the first verse of this really jumped out to me as as we look in Job 1:1 says, "There 2:24 was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job." And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. And I saw those four things, blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil. And for each one of us, 2:41 those are completely within our realm of control. We can control those things. These are a result of choices that we make every little every day. We in the memory verse it was so fitting. He was faithful in little will be faithful in 2:54 much. Job made those choices. Every little every little choice throughout every day he made those choices to yield to the Lord, to obey, to deny himself. He didn't never heard a message about taking up his cross. There was no such 3:05 thing invented yet. But he had a fear of God. He had a love for God. He had a desire to know God and to please God and to walk with God. And this blameless these and they're these four things are different. Being blameless is is living 3:18 in such a way that no one can accuse you of anything. And being upright is doing what's good and right. And fearing God is having a supreme love and respect and desire for him. And turning away from evil. It is what it says. It's turning 3:32 away. I don't want it. I don't want I don't care who's looking. If nobody's looking, I'm going to turn away. And that was what Job did every day. And that can be our testimony. If it hasn't been up till now, it can be today. We 3:42 can make that choice, every little choice. We can be faithful in these little things, and we can be blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. And we know in this story that God, if you're familiar with Job, 3:55 God's going to boast about Job. And as you will read through these verses, the thing that God boasts about is this in verse one. He he says these these four things: blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil. If you look in 4:10 verse two, he had seven sons and three daughters. When God is talking to Satan, he doesn't bring that up at all. That's important. God cares about us and our children, our families. But that's not what God is boasting about. If you look 4:22 in verse three, talks about Job's possessions, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yok of ox, and 500 female donkeys, very many servants. That man was the greatest, the richest, maybe the most famous of all the men of the east. God 4:38 doesn't bring this up when he's talking to Satan. When there's the things that really matter, God isn't interested in all these earthly things, these accomplishments. It's good if we can accomplish these things. It's fine that 4:48 Job was was wealthy. But when it comes down to it, the thing that matters in eternity is in verse one, being blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil. God's not interested in all these things. As remarkable as it 5:01 is, it had to be noted here how wealthy and powerful he was, all this possessions that he had, but that's not what mattered to God. And in uh verse four and five, we won't read them, but talks about how his children on each of 5:16 their birthdays would have a celebration and they would come over and it wasn't it wasn't necessarily a wild sinful party, but Job had a concern at the end of verse 5. He said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their 5:31 hearts." He didn't say, "I know they were wild. They're getting drunk doing wicked things." No, it wasn't that. It was He had a burden and a concern that maybe after a couple days of feasting and celebrating their birthdays, maybe 5:45 one of them somehow in their heart sinned against God. And that was his burden for their heart, for their for the heart of the his children. And it's easy to fall into a trap as a parent. you wanting your children, you know, we 5:57 want them to learn to behave and do a certain thing and we want them to, you know, do what's right on the outside, but it's really the heart. And it just shows another aspect of how godly Job was that it wasn't just his personal 6:09 life. He he was just this holy man by himself. He had 10 kids. He had a huge business to manage. He had servants galore, all this responsibility. He wasn't just some hermit off being holy with God alone. He had day-to-day 6:22 decisions to make, servants to take care of, animals that were sick. Was he going to buy more camels? Was he going to do this or that? He had all these things that you and I have. We have to study for school. We have to go to work. We 6:32 have to take whatever. We have all all of our responsibilities. In the midst of all those things, we can be blameless, upright, fear God, and turn away from evil. These are totally within our reach. And I'm just encouraged to see 6:43 that. And I'm encouraged to for Job's burden for his children. And in verse six, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, verse 6:59 7, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." And it's interesting that God asked Satan a question. You know, number of times in the Bible, God 7:14 asks people questions and he already knows the answer, but he wants the response. And here we see Satan Satan's answer. I am roaming around about on the earth and walking around on it. And one thing that I get from this is is a a 7:28 truth that has really helped me from a child. I learned this and hopefully you know this. If not, but Satan is not everywhere at once. He's not like God. He's not in every place of the universe at once. He's not all knowing. He's not 7:40 doesn't have that. God did not give him that ability. So that's why he says, "I'm roaming the earth. I'm walking about in it. I'm walking around." And what's he doing? Why is he Why would Satan walk around the earth? What's the 7:50 point of that? He's not sightseeing or getting exercised. He's he has a purpose in everything he do. Remember, Satan hates God. Satan wanted to be in God's position. He wanted to be like the most high. He wanted everything that God has 8:01 and is. And God casts him down. God didn't destroy him yet. That's that will happen. But God has allowed him to continue to exist for his purposes. But Satan's walking around the earth, walking around, roaming around, going up 8:15 and down about it. and why. And that reminded me of first Peter 5. If you want to turn there, you can. 1 Peter 5. And this was mentioned earlier. Josh talked about and both Joshes maybe about casting all our care on him because he 8:30 cares for us. And first Peter 5 6, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the proper time. Casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. And here's what here's what the connection to Job. Be of sober 8:46 spirit. Be on the alert. Don't be scared. Don't run and hide. But just be aware of what's going on. Keep your wits about you. Don't be drunk with things of the world. Don't be so distracted. Be sober. Be on alert. Your adversary, the 9:00 devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And another translation says he walks about. Same ver same words even. He walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And it's interesting if you look 9:15 at what when God asked Job or God asked Satan, "What are you doing?" He said, 'I'm just walking around. And that reminded me of, you know, we've all been children and we some of us have children and you maybe the children are in the 9:27 room and you hear some disturbance and something you you know something's not right and you go in there and you say, "What are you guys doing?" And they just stop and say, "We're just playing. Haven't you done that? Haven't you 9:37 experienced that as yourself as a child or your children?" And you know something's going on, but they just give the minimum answer. they're not lying, but we're just playing. Or I've seen myself be tempted at work with this. 9:47 There's some news I don't want to tell my boss. And he says, "What's going on?" And I want to try to figure out how do I not lie, but how do I not have to tell him what really happened? Those temptations are real. But that's what 9:56 Satan did. He just said, "Oh, I'm just walking around." He didn't say, "I'm walking around like a roaring lion trying to devour people." But that's what he was doing. And so another way I do not want to be like Satan is to be 10:07 dishonest. And so that that stood out to me that he was even just try try to be crafty with God in his answer. But this true as Peter says, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to 10:20 devour." And it doesn't say run and hide. It doesn't say flee for your life. Oh no, your life is over. It's just a warning that we need to be aware of that we can resist him in the faith. Verse 9, resist Satan firm in your 10:35 faith. It it's not in our own strength. It's not in my cleverness. We're not going to outsmart Satan. We can overcome by faith and resisting him in faith. We should not be afraid of Satan. I I we hear it enough that Satan has been 10:50 defeated on the cross, but I I pray that all of us have can live in that truth that we cannot we should not be afraid of Satan ever. He's defeated and he is subject to God in every single way. as you see in Job 1, we'll go back there, 11:01 but resist Satan firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being exper accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. Knowing that you, it's not just you that is being singled out. It's not just Job 11:16 that was singled out. This the story of Job is wonderful that God had preserved and wrote for us that we could learn and we could see what's going on. But know that we're the trials that we're going through, the suffering that we're going 11:27 through, it is being accomplished. And there's other brothers and sisters who are going through these things. In verse 10, this really encourages me. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to 11:40 his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, strengthen, and establish you. I like that where it says after you have suffered for a little while. It's just a little while. And again, if you think 11:53 about how hard it can be as for your children or as a child, you know, someone says, "Just sit here for a little while. I'll be right back and we'll go get ice cream or whatever." And that little while is so hard. We think 12:03 it lasts forever. And these trials that we go through, we think it's lasting forever. And when will it ever end? But the heavenly perspective that is in scripture, just other places, it says to this light affliction which is but for a 12:17 moment. And he says, "After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, our God is gracious and he's called us. He has a calling on our life. He has a purpose like we hear in Romans 8:28 and 29." So often there is a 12:29 calling. We are called according to his purposes and he himself will perfect you. He will confirm you. He will strengthen and he will establish you. He will perfect you means he will complete what he started. I am confident of this 12:44 very thing who that he who began a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. Paul writes and to confirm us means to make us more firm. We're supposed to resist the devil. Firm in faith. We may not feel like we're so 12:55 firm and strong in faith. That's okay. Resist the devil. Be firm. Endure suffering. And God will perfect you. And he will confirm you. He will make you more firm. And he will strengthen you. He will give you more strength. He will 13:06 establish you. He will give you more stability is the word established. and to him be dominion forever and ever. And I like how just in the epistles and Paul and Peter remind us of God's dominion. It's not a word that you and I use in a 13:20 day-to-day basis in our society, but dominion is what's under their rule. Has to do with the kingdom of God. To him be dominion. He has the dominion. Whatever he wants, whatever he does, it is good and right. And Job, believe it or not, thousands of years 13:35 ahead of this, he didn't have any of these scriptures. Job understood the dominion of God. Job understood that God was in control and that God was good. And so just very encouraged but reminded of this this as Peter explains what's 13:47 really going on. When Satan's walking around roaming the earth, this is what he's doing. He's looking whom he may devour. And Peter says, "Don't be scared of that, but be aware of it. Resist and resist him in faith. Be firm. And after 13:59 you've suffered a little while, God's going to keep working." God's going to keep working. God can't do these things when we're all if we lived in a bubble and were protected from trials and suffering. If we had an easy life, if 14:10 everything went our way. Those are the times where I honestly do worse, it seems like because I'm I'm not being tested. I'm not being stretched. I'm not being nothing. It's just about me. And so it can cause us to be thankful for 14:22 the trials after we suffer a little while resisting the devil. And uh in James 4, it also says, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from us. There's nothing to be afraid of with Satan. So let's go 14:38 back to uh Job 1 and verse 7. The Lord says, "Where where'd you come from?" Satan said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there was no one 14:51 like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." And this encourages me. You know, if you think about Job, I don't know who wrote Job. I don't know if on this earth did Job get the sneak 15:09 peek of what really happened in the background. Did God ever in Job's life pull the curtain back later on and say, "Hey, Job, here's what really happened." Or did it what did Job find out when he met the Lord? I don't know. We don't 15:19 have that spelled out for us. But I think we can agree that most of us in our life, we don't get the curtain pulled back. we don't get this sneak peek of what God is really doing when we're going through these trials or 15:30 whatever might be going on. And the trials of Job is just unbelievable. We can't even we haven't even gone through one of these trials, let alone all of them within two minutes of each other. But I've been encouraged by the fact 15:46 that God did not pull the curtain back and show Job at the end of chapter 1 or at the end of chapter 2 or at the end of chapter 10 or the end of chapter 20. I don't even know if he got it in his life. And that gives me hope and 15:58 encouragement. And as I thought about it, I realized, yeah, if if God would have showed up in the whirlwind at the end of chapter 1 after he lost all his possessions and his children, if God would have showed up right then and say, 16:10 "Hey, Job, you know what? Really, I'm so proud of you. I was actually bragging about you to the angels and Satan. I'm so happy with you. You are the You are my favorite person. I You are the godliest person on earth. This is really 16:20 what happened. What really happened is me and Satan. Satan wants to do this thing to you and I, in my wisdom, am allowing it. He didn't tell Job any of that. Job is completely blindsided by all these things. And what we'll look at 16:31 in a little bit is Satan's ultimate goal was not to take make Job poor, was not to kill Job's children, but it was to make Job think that God was against him. This is what I believe. And I've come to see that Satan's so wise and crafty. He 16:47 could not tempt Job with the love of money. He could not tempt Job with a young woman to go after her. He could not tempt Job to steal or be dishonest. He couldn't He couldn't penetrate Job. He was blameless. Like if you think 17:01 about the story in of Daniel when uh in I forget chapter six maybe when Daniel was serving King Darius and he wanted to promote him and all the other rulers they hated Daniel and they they looked every day day after day they they tried 17:15 to trick him and tried to find some way of accusing him. They couldn't do it. So they had to make up this crazy rule about you only get the way to get Daniel in trouble is to make a rule that you couldn't worship God. And that's how it 17:26 was with Job. Satan was roaming and walking like the lion watching. He just couldn't figure out a way to pounce and get the prey. If you've ever seen a documentary on how lions hunt, they're waiting. They don't go after these. One 17:39 lion's not going to go after a herd of elephant for try to get the huge elephant. They're going to go after the weak little deer or whatever it is. But with Job, it was like a lion and three huge elephants. He couldn't go after 17:49 him. He every time he would hide and maybe wait by the water hole, he's like, "No, I can't get him here. I can't get him here." Satan couldn't do that. So, Satan in his evil wisdom thinks, "The only way I can get this guy is to get 18:01 him to turn away from God. And I can if I can make it look like God is against him, maybe maybe I'll get him to grow cold and draw away from God." But God sees Job and God is bragging about this man before Satan and the angels. He says, "Have you 18:18 considered my servant Job? Have you looked at this guy?" And God knows obviously that Satan has been doing this. There's no one like him on the earth. Blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. And I just 18:31 think of a a parent, you know, as a parent, as your child grows and makes different accomplishments, you just you're so pleased with where they're at. And I was thinking my my director at my office, he's over a lot of people. He's 18:42 an attorney. He's very high up. I I rarely ever see him smile. He's very professional. Everything's, you know, business. But there was a meeting that we had with the whole department and uh the first slide of the the presentation 18:55 was his son playing baseball and his son was some hero in the baseball game. They won the championship or something and he was just he was glowing. He was red. He was happy. He's just so excited to share what his son had done. And I was like, 19:08 "Whoa, this is this the same guy? He's never liked this." He was so happy. It just came out of it. Just burst out of him. And that's what I think of with with God here. He is so happy with Job. He couldn't be happier with him. There's 19:19 nothing that no complaints. God had no complaints about Job. And that's encouraging because again, we can think Job is some superstar that we can never be like this. No, we can be blameless, upright, fear God, and turn from evil. 19:30 We can do that today. We'll have opportunities today sitting here or before you get to your car. We'll have opportunities to do one of those four things. And those are choices. We can be faithful in these little things. But this is what's going on in 19:42 heaven. God's talking to Satan about this. Satan hates it. And Satan does see it. And Satan answers the Lord. And he doesn't say, it's interesting what Satan is. He just doesn't waste any time. He just comes right out with the 19:57 accusation. And Satan answers the Lord, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Hast thou not made a hedge about him and his house, and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land." So, Satan 20:12 wastes no time as evil as he is, but as clever and he's he's got intelligence for sure. He's he's making this accusation that Job has an easy life. Job's not suffering. Job's not going through trials. You haven't really tested him. 20:27 He's only godly. You say he's godly. He's only godly because you gave him an easy life. You blessed him. You've done all these things. And verse 11, this is Satan talking to God. this. There is no Satan's not He's so disrespectful and 20:42 arrogant. It's amazing. He's telling God, "You put forth your hand now and touch all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face." And if you think about one of the worst things you could do to a person is you go up to 20:55 their face and you just curse them to their face. That is it's a horrible insult. It's it's a complete rejection of that person. It's unthinkable. But Satan says, "God, here's what you should do. Well, here's what I'm telling you to 21:09 do. He's not even asking. He's telling him, "Put forth your hand now and touch what Job has, and he will turn away from you." And he'll not just turn away from you, not just drift, not just get into sin. He will come back and curse you to 21:22 your face, God. This this this is all superficial. There's no reality to his life. It's just because it's easy. And that's Satan's accusation. He's so arrogant. I thought of the other times when Satan talks to the Lord in Matthew and 21:39 Luke 4 when Satan is tempting Jesus and he says, "Tell this stone to become bread." He doesn't there's just I just can't get over the arrogance of him. Tell this stone to be bread. Bow down and worship me. Throw yourself off 21:51 the temple. He's just so forceful with God. And I saw another way that I want to make sure I'm never like Satan is to be forceful with God or others. this pressure, this demanding and like we think when Jesus told Peter before Jesus 22:06 went to the cross, he said, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat." Satan came up to however that worked. We don't have that story. We don't have the Job version of what all that how that all happened. But 22:19 Satan demanded to sift Peter. And Jesus didn't deny that sifting. He was sifted, but Jesus's burden that Peter's faith would not fail. It all goes back to faith. And we'll see in Job, we saw in Peter, it's our faith. Can we have firm 22:33 faith in a good God that loves us even though everything looks like he doesn't love us? Can we still have faith in that God? And it's also interesting. I see verse 11, he tells God, "Put forth your hand. You do this. I'm not going to I'm 22:48 Satan. You know, whatever. Yeah, I'm evil. I'm gonna do whatever. But God, I want you to use your hand on this guy." And I I think the the choice of words in God's response is telling in verse 12, then the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, 23:04 all that he has is in your power." And at the bottom in my margin, it says hand. The word power could be translated hand. So the Lord says to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only do not put forth your hand on 23:18 him." So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. So, as Satan wants God to do it, because as I'm seeing it, Satan wants Job to think that God's against him. And in our life, when we go through trials, when this or that 23:33 happens, Satan's goal, he he may, sure, he may try to pull out all the standard temptations to get us to fall into sin this way or that way. But when we're seeking the Lord and we want to have a clear conscience and we're our hearts 23:46 towards him, we're walking in the fear of God, upright, blameless, turning away from evil. Satan runs out of temptations that he's going to try to pull out the standard ones that work on an everyday person. Those weren't working on Job. 23:58 And so, he got more evil, more conniving, more scheming, and he wants Job to think that God's against him. And I believe that I' I've experienced that in my life, and I I'm sure I'm not alone, that these trials can look like 24:10 God is against us. And I I pray that the Lord will open our eyes to see the truth of this, that God is not against us, that God is for us as we seek him. And one thing that's really helped me out, it's kind of a it can be confusing, especially as a 24:27 younger believer, I was often confused. Is God punishing me? Is this discipline? You know, you hear about discipline of the Lord in Hebrews and Proverbs, other places. And it was kind of this sometimes this vague heavy condem 24:40 condemning feeling like, oh, God must be mad at me. But it wasn't it was just this general heaviness. There was no I didn't really know. He didn't correct me in anything. There was no conviction of a sin. It was just this heavy blanket of 24:51 waiting down on me. And the Lord help me with that. And in Revelation 3 uh 3:19 and 20 is just one place that it mentions this difference between this trials or things that happen to us versus the discipline. And I just want 25:07 to look at that briefly because it has helped me a lot. In Revelation 3:19, he's talking, he's writing to all the churches, and he gets to Leodysa, which has all these horrible conditions, and he points each out. He points all 25:20 the things wrong out. He doesn't just show up and say, "You guys are just a mess. I I'm done with you." He doesn't do that. That's not the way the Lord rebukes or disciplines his children. And that's something to keep in mind that 25:31 what helped me is to realize that if the Lord is disciplining me or rebuking me, it will be a specific thing and I will know what it is. The word rebuke means to confront to the face. It's not this thing where I got to wonder all that, 25:43 you know, forever what is going on here. It is a direct communication. It's clear. If you're a parent or you've you've been a child, all of us, as your parents have disciplined you or you discipline your children, it would be 25:55 unthinkable just to administer discipline and never tell them what's going on. That would be horrible. That's a horrible way to do it. We wouldn't do that as earthly evil parents. We we correct and discipline our children. We 26:06 tell them, "Here's what you did. This is why you're getting disciplined because you did this. And that's the same way with the Lord. And verse sorry, Revelation 3:19, this is Jesus says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and 26:19 discipline. I reprove. I will tell you to your face. I will tell you in your heart by the Holy Spirit why I'm disciplining you." If it is discipline, not every trial is a discipline, of course, but if it is, if he's disciplining us, he will tell us. He 26:32 will reprove us. And then he says, "Be zealous, therefore, and repent. He will tell us what we did, convict us, and we'll get an opportunity to repent. And he says, "I stand at the door and knock. I'm talking to you. I want I want this relationship. And if 26:45 there ever is discipline in our lives, I believe with all my heart the Lord will make it clear to us so we don't have to wonder in condemnation that God's against us." And so, I just say that as an aside because that that truth really 26:56 helped me. And so back in Job when Satan brings this proposition up to God and Satan wants God to do it so that way it looks like it's God against Job. Job and and God says, "No, I'm not going to do it with my hand. He's in your hand, but 27:13 there's limitations." And the other encouraging thing to me that is so encouraging. I'm so thankful for these chapters that if God does permit Satan as as as happy as Satan must have been at that moment when he got permission at 27:25 le he didn't get God to do it, but at least he's now Satan says, "Okay, I'll take it. You're going to let me touch Job's things. I'm I'm all for it. I'm going to do my best." That's what Satan said. Satan's so happy he got his way. 27:36 He's he's so foolish. He He You know, he's defeated and the Lord has the victory. Revelation 20, he's going to be thrown in the lake of fire. Satan will be. And Romans 16 says, "The God of peace will crush him under our feet 27:50 shortly." All these wonderful things. There's nothing to be afraid of, but he is an adversary. He is a roaring lion. Let's be alert. Let's be on the lookout, not be ignorant of his schemes. So, Satan departs from the presence of the Lord. And as we read 28:07 these, we'll we'll go kind of briefly here. All the things that happened. Satan in his I say evil wisdom. It's not a good wisdom. It's not a godly wisdom. He is so intelligent. His goal is to get Job to think God's against me. And so 28:20 Satan in his planning and scheming and he's so intelligent. He picks the day where it's the oldest son's birthday and all the children are in that house. Okay? So there's a house somewhere. All the children are there. They're they're 28:33 having the birthday celebration. And then in another place there are uh donkeys and oxen in another field somewhere. And then there's an army of Sabian. Okay. So, Satan's got this army of Sabians near the donkeys and oxen, 28:49 and he they're going to come and steal the donkeys and oxen and kill the servants. Okay. Then in another spot, there's going to be sheep and servants in another field, and Satan's going to have fire come from heaven and take them 29:02 out. And then in another place, the Calaldanss have are going to break into three bands and raid the camels and take them and kill the servants. And then all there's Satan is going to let one servant escape from each of those 29:15 situations and they're going to run from their different you know one maybe one is one mile away one is 5 miles one's 18 mile however the timing is so perfect that Satan lines this up that these servants land one after the other after 29:29 the other for the impact to Job. This this news could have trickled in over different days. It could have been any other way. Could have been more random. But this is so calculating. It's on the oldest son's birthday. All the kids are 29:42 in the house and all these different situations with all these animals and all the he's losing all his property. As you read this, we we won't read each one, but there's one servant from each one. And it says, "While he was yet speaking, 29:56 another came also. And then while he was still speaking, another came also." Look at how calculating that Satan is. And there's this weapon I heard of recently that it's called a I forget the name, but basically if there's an enemy who's 30:08 dug a tunnel way underground, there's a certain kind of bomb that they're trying to develop. Maybe they did, but where one bomb goes off and that dirt goes out and then another bomb right behind it and that so it like plows in deep and 30:20 penetrates even where you think it would never penetrate. And that's what I see here. Satan has calculated and he's trying to penetrate one after another after another to make it look like this is no coincidence. And this is so crazy 30:31 that there's people there's people that say they believe the Bible. They don't even believe Job is literal. They think it's how could this be? This must be figurative. This can't be a real thing. Well, here it is. But all these things 30:43 one after the other after the other. And I believe it's to get Job to think that God is doing this in in judgment against him because Satan wants to drive a wedge in there to get Job. Job's heart is so toward the Lord. Satan's just he can't 30:57 use the standard temptations to get him to trip into sin like most people. He can't. So, he's driving that wedge in the relationship. And he'll do that with us. It may be he does it in our relationships with our spouses, our 31:09 children, other brothers and sisters. He he drives that wedge when he can't bring an outright sin, outright fall. He'll drive that wedge and try to separate. And that's what he's doing here. And that's that's shows you the most that's 31:19 that's more evil than stealing camels or even killing your children. Those are horrible things. But the more evil thing is that Satan's goal is that we drift from God. May not be overnight, but he his goal is that we drift from the 31:35 Lord. And even we see Satan, the Lord give gave Satan so much freedom to do all these things. It's it's really if it wasn't in the Bible, I would probably wouldn't believe it. But it is, so I do. But that Satan could control the Sabian 31:49 bands. Satan could control the weather in this spot. that the fire of God b burns 7,000 sheep. I don't think that's a lightning strike. I think some obvious miraculous thing that the servant all he could say is the fire of God came down. 32:03 And you think about Job, he's sitting there. The first wave was bad where his camels and or the oxen and donkey were stolen. That's and servants were killed. As you read later in Job, Job loved his servants. He treated them like family. 32:16 He he knew that God made both of them that they were on equal footing. He loved his servants. It wasn't just some disposable thing. So that was hard. And then the second wave where it says the fire of God and Job I I just think that 32:28 must have been planted by the devil for that guy to say that this thought of God is doing this. What the fire this has never happened. Then in Job's knowledge ever that fire has come down and then the next one while he's still 32:40 speaking the calaldanss came and took your camels and killed your servants. And then while he was speaking, verse 18, your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. Now remember when we 32:53 first read it early in the chapter, Job was burdened that his children would not be sinning in their hearts. And I see more of the evil cunning of Satan that Satan already knew what Job did. He offered sacrifices and he was worried 33:05 about his children's spiritual condition. And so Satan picked a day when they're having their party and he knew Job was already worried about it to kill them all and to make it look like this whirlwind came out of nowhere out 33:17 of the wilderness and took down the house and it collapsed and killed all 10 of them. To make it look like God was judging his children. And even later on as you read Job's friends, they make reference to that. They like, "Hey, you 33:29 know the children of the wicked get punished. You know that, don't you, Job? They're they're and those those guys were those things were planted by Satan to get at Job everything. And the thing that comes back to me is is is how Job 33:43 responded. And verse 20, Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked came I from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. 33:56 Blessed be the name of the Lord." And not only was he blameless and upright, fearing God, turning away from evil, what's not written in that verse is that he was a thoroughly thankful person. And he was so thankful for everything that 34:10 God had given him. He didn't have this verse to quote from. We have this verse. We have songs that says, "Blessed be the name of the Lord. You give and take away all those good things." We have a plaque on our wall. Maybe Job didn't have any 34:19 of that. But he had a deeply thankful life. If he was the greatest, richest, most godly, well-known person in that region of the world, everything he had, he knew was the Lord's. And it wasn't from his own efforts. He had a deep 34:32 knowledge of his need for the Lord. That everything was given. And so that when he did when things were taken away, he he could fall and say, "Lord, you gave me this and you took it away." And it's very easy for me. I see when things are 34:46 taken away from me, when I think God has taken something or someone takes something away, my first thought is not worship. My first thought is anxiety or ups getting upset or how can this be? This is wrong. Job had a deeply thankful 35:00 heart all the time. And when things were taken away, this is not some verse he was quoting. This came out of his heart and out of his deep belief of every day, I came here naked. I'm going naked. I have nothing. Everything I have is from 35:12 the Lord and he can take it if he wants it. As we read in Peter, his is the dominion now and forever. His is the dominion. And verse 22 20 also I see Job arose and tore his robe shaved his head. Those are signs of mourning, of sorrow, 35:29 of deep grief. And it is no sin as we see in verse 22. He didn't sin in any of these things. It is no sin to mourn or grieve when the Lord or what maybe Satan takes things away. It is no sin to grieve over those things and that that's 35:43 makes us weep and and mourn. Job did that. But at the end of the day, he fell to the ground and worshiped. There was a heart of worship because God is good and he loves me. And Satan, I would have loved to seen Satan's face at this 35:57 moment because I think Satan's waiting. He's getting excited. He's got this plan. He's very proud of himself. He figured out all this stuff. He's going to get Job to deny the Lord and curse his face because that's what he 36:06 believes. I would have loved to seen Satan's face when Job arose and tore his robe and fell to the ground and worshiped and could say, "Blessed be your name, Lord." And verse 22, through all this, Job did not sin, nor did he 36:18 blame God. And Satan's jaw drops open in disbelief. And I'm just so thankful that as trials come in our lives, we too can put Satan to shame. And we don't know the trials we go through. We don't know if it's Satan or God is allowing it or 36:33 God's plan. We don't understand. God doesn't pull back the curtain and show us the preview of what's really going on in heaven. Another thing that I realized that is if he did, I wouldn't need faith. If God could come and explain to 36:45 me all the things going on in my life that I wish weren't, then I wouldn't need faith. I wouldn't need faith because I'd get the explanation. And God, but God gets so much glory if he can get if in the situation of Job or in 36:58 the situation of you and I, we have no clue what's going on in heaven. We don't know the God's plans or purposes. We don't know if if it's the adversary, but at the end of the day, when we lose if we lose everything, we can bow and 37:08 worship and recognize everything is from the Lord and to him be dominion and we're not letting go of him no matter what. And so that is a life we each of us can have, brothers and sisters. I'm very challenged and encouraged by the 37:19 life of Job. It is not some superstar level. We can make these little be faithful in these little things every day so that no matter what comes, we can be firm in faith. We can resist the devil. He's been defeated. Praise the 37:29 Lord. Thank you, Jared, for sharing that. And I I really appreciated that um the 37:48 description you gave of the glow on your boss's face when he talked about his son and when he was praising his son. And we see there in Job 18 as as Jared read, God is describing Job to Satan and he says, "Have you considered my servant 38:02 Job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright." And that reminded me of how God also talked about someone else. This is Jesus in Matthew 3:17. And behold, a voice from the heavens said, "This is my beloved son in 38:16 whom I am well pleased." And I was dwelling on that. But I was thinking what what was the similarities between Job and Jesus where God could kind of say the same thing about each of them. Was it the number of children they had? 38:27 It can't be, right? Job had 10 kids. Jesus had none. Was it their wealth? Job was described as the greatest or the richest man in his whole area. Jesus was just a poor carpenter. He he had to get money out of the mouth of a fish to pay 38:39 for his taxes. Was it the number of animals they had? No, it can't be. Right. Job had thousands of animals. He even had 500 donkeys. And I think uh I think Zimry had a shared the verse earlier. Jesus didn't even have one 38:50 donkey. He had to go borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. So it's none of those things. But what is it that's the same between Jesus and Job where God could be so pleased with both of them. We see about Job. He says this is he is 39:03 a man who is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil. And then God describes Jesus in Hebrews 1:9 saying, "You," speaking of Jesus, "you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God has exalted 39:18 you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." So that's the similarity between Job and Jesus. They both loved righteousness. They both hated wickedness. They turned away from wickedness. They feared the Lord. And 39:31 here's the great thing. If Job and Jesus could do that, that gives me hope because I think Jesus can God can say the same thing about me if I do those same things. The very fact that Job was able to do it and he was in the old 39:43 covenant. He wasn't even in the new covenant like that like we are. But he was able to please God because he shunned evil and loved righteousness. The same can happen for me. If I love God, if I love the Lord, if I fear him, 39:56 if I hate wickedness, the Lord can also say of me, "Well done, good and faithful servant. this is my servant and that gives me hope. And so I was just encouraged by that. Job and Jesus are similar not because of what they owned 40:08 or what they had, but because of their attitude toward God and their attitude towards sin. I appreciate the challenge right at 40:30 the beginning. that uh that brother Jared gave us being blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. And we can choose to do this daily. So, I I really do appreciate that challenge. And what I 40:46 was reminded of is what we learned on uh Friday night in our on our Bible study in this new covenant life. And this is the Apostle Paul in Acts 24:16. He says, "I do my best to 41:04 maintain a blameless conscience before God and before men." And so I I I see the challenge there and it makes me want to do this here so God can be can say the same of me one day. That is my hope. Anyways, thank you. when Jesus was uh walking on this earth 41:38 when he preached people noticed compared to Pharisees there was some authority in his teaching. uh the same thing I sense when uh when Jared was coming here and speaking on the book of Job he he's clearly speaking from his life uh some people ask how 41:58 many days does it take to prepare for a sermon some people prepare for so many hours and all that but when Jesus spoke uh sermon on the mount it is 30 years of preparation and when Jared is speaking he's speaking from his life from all the 42:12 experiences God is taking him and his family through uh as he was teaching the treasures coming one after the treasure as I received one treasure there's one more coming and it was so good to see the the truths he shared with us from 42:28 just this first chapter there are so many chapters in the book of Job just in this first chapter he explained and showed so many revelations he had obviously when we are going through the trials and we get our comfort and 42:43 strength from the scriptures God opens and reveals more and more those truths that become an anchor for our faith uh so that we will be unshakable even in the midst of those hardest trials. Uh that's what blesses us when someone 42:58 speaks from their life. And um yeah, we had received so much. I encourage all of us to go back and read these verses again. Let's not forget. Let's not be the forgetful hearers because though so many things uh hidden here in this first 43:15 chapter uh some of the things that in the first very verse right blameless pride fearing God and turning away from evil all of us can as Paul did uh he did his best to keep his conscience clean we can do that and when I was a believer 43:33 when I was an early believer I used to think whenever I see some blessings coming to someone's life. I always used to think God must be really really very happy with their lives. when someone is going through a lot of trials, I used to 43:46 think God must be very angry and that that was my ignorance until I read the book of Job and all the things that happen as a behind I mean without our knowledge uh in in heaven and book of Job is the only book that helps us to 44:02 understand what's happening in the realm of heaven and and what are the Satan's limitations as Jared was explaining he cannot be in one place at at the same time he's not omnipresent He doesn't know our thoughts and he has lot of 44:15 limitations. He has to go get permission from God if he needs to test us. And uh what a wonderful thing to know the weaknesses or the limitations of the enemy. And uh I yeah we need to be alert. We need to be watchful. He's like 44:29 a roaring lion and his purpose is to devour us to make us doubt God to make us uh to make us complain and grumble in the midst of the trials. uh to make us um you know oh I mean why to make us question God in in those situations but 44:48 Job did extremely extremely well within limited knowledge when all those trials came at the same time at the same hour one after the other one after the other it's almost like you know it it is it feels like it overwhelming and too much 45:05 for any human being to bear I know sometimes we do face trials but there is a there is a gap and we recover from that and there is one more trial but in this case everything happened at the same moment but it's amazing to see uh 45:23 how Job responded in all of them naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and the verse says through all these things Job did not sin or did he 45:37 blame God what could have been the other way. I mean it says he did not sin because he worshiped God in that situation. The other response could have been complaining God I did everything right. I was blameless. I was doing 45:49 everything right and but you still allowed me. Why Lord? Nothing of that. Nothing of that. He and then the way when Jared was explaining he was extremely thankful. He recognized everything that he has he received from God and he he and he lived that life of 46:05 thankful spirit. And that's why his response is lord you have given and you have taken blessed be the name of the lord. What a wonderful example for all of us to follow. And finally I just want to read one verse the purpose of the 46:18 trials. U now we see as Christians after like we have the re we have the scriptures now. Job did not have all of this. Now we can see the purpose of the trials. Now our response can be even better. Now we have the holy spirit to 46:32 help us. We have the word of God and we have the fellowship of the saints. And it's amazing to see the book of Job. Many times we hear uh it is Genesis. It's not Genesis which is written first but it's Job and God pointing Satan to 46:46 one person name. It was all about a man called Job. That's what the book starts with. Uh may it be our desire that God can point us to Satan. And it is it is not a kindergarten trial for Job but he it is at a different level but he 47:03 started there he lived that life upright life and uh and God can do that with us and Lord test my faith purify my faith and uh there is one verse that I want all of us to read this is from 1 Peter chapter 1 uh verse 6 and 47:23 7 chapter 1 first chap 1 first Peter chapter 1 6 and seven. In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while. If necessary you have been distressed by various trials so that the 47:39 proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing, right? It is our 47:59 faith being tested by fire so that it will become more and more purer not for us but for his glory. The praise and the glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Lord, if my trial, the trial of my faith is going to produce 48:14 such pure gold that is for your glory and honor, so be it. And do whatever it takes. And uh we all have this wonderful promise to hold on to in the midst of the trials that God will not allow us to be tested or tried beyond what we can 48:28 bear in in all situations. He will provide us a way of escape in the midst of this verse. It says God is faithful. This is 1 Corinthians chap 10:3. I believe that all the new covenant Christians have memorized that verse. 48:43 It's such a wonderful verse to hold on to. No matter God is testing our faith but he knows our limitations too. And we know the limitations of our enemy. And we know God is still good. God is in control of our lives. He has a hedge of 48:57 protections around our family, around our lives, around our children. And uh it is God who has given us everything. And it is God who tests us, who tries us for the purification of our faith. U may the may the Lord get all the glory 49:11 through our lives, through our through the way we respond. Let's pray. Let's spend just few seconds to reflect on all that we heard today. Uh and uh respond to God in prayer. Just one or two things that that resonated with you that gripped your 49:27 heart tonight. Today uh let's convert them into a prayer and asking for God's help. All of us are going through a lot of trials. Um many many different trials. Um but uh let's remember that God is good. We we don't have to doubt 49:45 God. We should never doubt God. God is good. God is love. And he will help us. He will take us through. And um let's glorify God through our response. Dear loving heavenly father, thank you 50:24 for the precious word you have given to us from the book of Job. Lord, out of all the books you have written this book as the very first book in the scripture in the inspired scripture. It is about a man called Job. Lord, a blameless 50:40 upright man. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the precious truths you have given to us today from this book and help us as we face the trials in our lives to know you are in control of our lives and uh the enemy doesn't have permission 50:59 Lord to touch our lives. Uh it is you who gives a permission and there is a purpose for the trials for the purification of our faith. Help us Lord to be full of thankful spirit. Uh no matter how much uh you take us through 51:15 no matter how many trials we have to go through Lord. Lord Jesus we know that you are in control and you will never allow us to be tested or tried beyond what we can bear and you are faithful and you will give us a way of escape and 51:28 help us Lord to be worshippers in the midst of all that you are taking us through. Lord Jesus, please continue to work in our lives, in each one of our lives. Lord, we want to honor you. We want to glorify your name, Lord, through 51:41 our response, through the way we respond in our trials. Lord Jesus, may you get all the glory from our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Okay, that's end of our formal meeting and we have lunch now. Uh let's continue to fellowship and encourage one 51:58 another through all that God is teaching us. And for those
