1 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:06,080 You guys can have a seat. I'm going to grab something 2 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:09,920 really quick. If you were here last week, you 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,920 might, you might recognize it, but I'm going to let you keep 4 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,000 thinking about it. I'm just going to sit it up here 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,640 right in your view. Don't get distracted. 6 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:29,040 So obviously I'm not Pastor Blake, but thank you for being 7 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:29,960 here. Yeah. 8 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:33,280 Who is? Who is this guy? 9 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,520 No, I am Jared Woody. Me and my lovely wife, Beatrice, 10 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,520 we get the honor of leading Elevate Student Ministries over 11 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,200 in that building. It is always something I try to 12 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:50,080 soak up when I get a chance to be over here. 13 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:56,120 I love being over here with you guys, but I do love the youth 14 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,840 over there. And that's where we are blessed 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:01,960 to be right now in the season of life. 16 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:08,400 And I'm just grateful for it. So Pastor Blake is in Guatemala. 17 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:10,600 We saw with the announcement video. 18 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:12,440 It looks like things are going well. 19 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:15,480 I don't know if you follow him on social media, but apparently 20 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:16,760 they had some good fried chicken. 21 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:22,040 So it seems like they are doing pretty well down there. 22 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,640 No, I'm excited to hear what God is doing through them while 23 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,240 they're down there and how their lives are being changed. 24 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:35,000 I want to give you just a little snippet of how I got to be up 25 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,280 here today. This was about 5 weeks ago. 26 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:41,960 We were at a staff meeting. We have staff meetings on 27 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:46,800 Mondays just so as a team we can be in line. 28 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:52,680 And what is the word kind of connected? 29 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:54,720 We know what's going on with the different ministries. 30 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,720 We know the plans coming up for the church. 31 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:00,800 We know events coming up, things like that. 32 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:05,400 And so Pastor Blake is going through his travel plans, right? 33 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:07,960 He's got some trips lined up. He's got Guatemala coming up. 34 00:02:08,199 --> 00:02:09,479 And that's what he was talking about. 35 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:15,880 And I felt it coming. You, you know, when you're in a 36 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:20,000 classroom and the teacher is about to ask a question and you 37 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,800 don't want to answer it, so you just don't make eye contact. 38 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:30,960 I, I always sit. Cassie sits between Pastor Blake 39 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,920 and I and I always sit. And I was making sure I wasn't 40 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:37,840 looking at him, but it didn't stop him. 41 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:43,560 He said, Jared, are you available on August 30th? 42 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,840 So what? I mean, I had an idea that I was 43 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,280 pretty clear, but I was hoping I started flipping through my 44 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,000 electronic calendar, my phone calendar, my computer calendar, 45 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,480 started hoping that I had some kind of vacation plan. 46 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:01,720 I wasn't going to be available. Maybe. 47 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,400 No, I'm just kidding. It is. 48 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,000 It's an honor to be able to speak to you guys this morning. 49 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,200 And I want to thank Pastor Blake for trusting me to speak to you 50 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,960 guys this morning. And I'm praying that they get 51 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:18,840 back safely so we can hear all about it. 52 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,000 But it did. It stirred up a little bit of 53 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:28,800 nerves, I'm not going to lie. And then my Sunday was open, 54 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:34,120 right? I felt an excitement amidst the 55 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:36,040 nerves and I was like, what is this? 56 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,120 How does God? Are you already like planting 57 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,840 something there? What what is this? 58 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,160 And then I immediately questioned it because it can't 59 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,720 be God, right? I questioned myself, I 60 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:54,480 questioned God and then I took it to him and I said a short 61 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,360 little prayer right there. I said, God, if it's your will 62 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,960 to speak for me to speak, I'm going to need you to be pretty 63 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:06,600 clear on what I need to communicate, and I need you to 64 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:11,520 tell me what I need to say. And thankfully, over the next 65 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,519 couple moments, a couple weeks, days, he did just that. 66 00:04:17,519 --> 00:04:21,600 But as soon as I said, yeah, my schedule's open, you know what 67 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,520 Pastor Blake did? He started laying out his sermon 68 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:26,960 series that he was about to go through. 69 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:30,800 And if you've been here for the past four weeks, you know that 70 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,480 it was spiritual warfare. Yeah, I get to talk. 71 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,640 But in the midst of that, and guess what? 72 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:40,360 When he comes back, we're not done. 73 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,400 So after I said I was available, then I find that out. 74 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:49,560 But it's good I'm here and I'm excited about it. 75 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:55,480 Now I know I'm a little weird. I would put it out there that 76 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,240 I'm probably weirder than most who are in here. 77 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,520 If you know me, maybe you agree with it. 78 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:04,800 If you don't know me, you're like, maybe, maybe not. 79 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:11,880 I'm kind of weird myself, but I have this question that I've 80 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:16,320 asked so many times over the past couple years and I'm sure 81 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,600 none of you have asked it before because I'm weird and you're 82 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:24,640 probably not. But why do bad things happen to 83 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:26,200 good people? You guys never asked that, 84 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:32,440 right? So many times in my life I've 85 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:39,120 asked this question, and maybe you have, but when I've tended 86 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,920 to ask it, up until about a couple years ago, it was just a 87 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,840 question that sat in my head. I didn't really do anything 88 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:48,840 about it. I didn't submit it to the Lord 89 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:53,120 and seek answers on it. I just kind of let it float 90 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,040 there. And I've learned that that's not 91 00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:58,760 really what we need to do with our questions. 92 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:03,000 We need to take them to Him, submit them to Him and do and 93 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,920 our ability what we can to seek the answers for that. 94 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:08,880 Now, granted, not always going to get the answer. 95 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:10,800 You're not always going to get the answer that you want. 96 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:16,120 But I started wrestling, wrestling with it a couple years 97 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,160 ago and I actually took it to him. 98 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,600 I actually put in some effort in seeking maybe some clarity 99 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:25,560 there. And maybe many of you have asked 100 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,840 that same question, maybe not. Maybe you've asked one of these 101 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:32,720 other questions that I would tuck away in that same file 102 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,720 folder. Why do good people get cancer? 103 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:44,480 Why do innocent people die in shootings or car accidents or 104 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,600 other seemingly random tragedies that they had no control over? 105 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:56,760 Why do children get such terrible diagnosis or die at 106 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:01,160 such young ages? Why do natural disasters happen 107 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:06,880 that hurt so many people? Why do good people suddenly lose 108 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:12,360 jobs, lose whole careers and experience terrible financial 109 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:16,760 hardships? Why do bad things happen to good 110 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:19,720 people? And so that's what I've been 111 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,600 wrestling with. And when I've asked these 112 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:28,440 questions, looking back on it, it's usually when myself or 113 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,960 those around me who I care for, who I spend a lot of time with, 114 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:37,240 it's when we are going through circumstances like this, right? 115 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,000 It doesn't matter until we're actually in that right? 116 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,520 Doesn't exist until we're in that spot. 117 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,040 If you've got your Bibles this morning, you can go ahead and 118 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:53,600 turn to Luke 18, verse 19. We're going to be there shortly 119 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:00,200 as you make your way there and we get to jump in this morning. 120 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:06,880 I do have a disclaimer for you and I want to be clear, I do not 121 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:17,400 have all the answers. Surprise, no, you don't have all 122 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:25,680 the answers in shocker, Pastor Blake doesn't have all the 123 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:30,520 answers. Taking it even a step further, 124 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:35,000 I'm very confident there are things in this life, questions 125 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:38,799 that we are never going to have answered, questions about our 126 00:08:38,799 --> 00:08:42,799 theology, question about why things happen that are never 127 00:08:42,799 --> 00:08:46,760 going to be answered until everything is made right, when 128 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:52,120 we meet our Lord, right? But thankfully, our salvation, 129 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:56,120 it doesn't depend on how much we know or the good works that we 130 00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,040 do. It's based on accepting a gift 131 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,440 that's freely given to us. Amen. 132 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaking of having answers, I want to throw a little plug in 133 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:10,800 there. If you weren't here this past 134 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:16,360 Wednesday, Tom Hines gave a solid word and you can go back 135 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,480 and watch it. But he jumped into talking about 136 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:25,120 the veil being torn when Jesus died on the cross and the direct 137 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:29,160 access that that provided for humanity to God. 138 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:36,120 And he talked about how this direct access is something that 139 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,960 we can step into or we can choose to stay outside of it. 140 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:45,000 As believers, we can press in into that relationship with the 141 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,200 Lord into potentially having our eyes open and things revealed to 142 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,040 us, or we can choose to stay outside of that. 143 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:58,920 That choice is up to us. But let's look at Luke 18, verse 144 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:02,160 19. This is the account of the rich 145 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,840 young ruler. Those of you, there's many of 146 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,280 you probably familiar with this. And this is his encounter with 147 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,720 Jesus. The young ruler comes to Jesus 148 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:17,640 and says, good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal 149 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,640 life? And then in verse 9, we see 150 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:24,120 Jesus's response. Why do you call me good? 151 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:27,640 Jesus asked him. Only God is truly good. 152 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,800 Now in this interaction, I don't necessarily think the rich young 153 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:38,720 ruler was trying to trap Jesus into an answer or test him or 154 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,360 trick him like maybe the the Pharisees did. 155 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:46,560 But I think the bigger thing that sticks out is his maybe 156 00:10:46,560 --> 00:10:49,280 attitude. If you look at kind of the whole 157 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:51,760 interaction, he comes to Jesus with this kind of 158 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:56,160 self-righteous, like, I think I'm kind of good. 159 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,160 I might be able to tackle this eternal life thing on my own. 160 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,760 And then he asked Jesus, and Jesus eventually gives him an 161 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,800 answer. And he would go on to learn that 162 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:11,160 he is, in fact, not as good as he thought he was on his own. 163 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:16,480 But the thing that sticks out here to me is that before he 164 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:22,360 even gave an answer to the rich young ruler, he addresses his 165 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:26,880 use of the word good. And I think that's relevant to 166 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:31,360 our question today. He let him know that no one is 167 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,920 truly and inherently good but God. 168 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,720 Now let's look at Romans 3, verses 9 through 12. 169 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:46,560 This is the words of Paul. He's quoting Psalm 14, and he's 170 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:48,840 writing to the Christian Church in Rome. 171 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:56,840 In verse 9 he writes, Well then should we conclude that we Jews 172 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:01,280 are better than others? No, not at all, for we have 173 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:05,640 already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are 174 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:09,240 under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say. 175 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:11,920 No one is righteous, not even one. 176 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:16,440 No one is truly wise. No one is seeking God. 177 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,960 All have turned away, All have become useless. 178 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,720 No one does good, not a single one. 179 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,320 As he addresses both the Jewish and the Gentile believers in the 180 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:31,120 Church of Rome, he explains that neither group is morally 181 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:35,720 superior to the other. As all people, that includes you 182 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,040 and I today, as all people fall short of God's standard. 183 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,440 And because of this, we all need His grace just the same. 184 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,240 When we look at these scriptures, we see that Jesus 185 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:54,440 defines goodness by divine standards and that God is the 186 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:56,280 only one true and inherently good. 187 00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,120 Paul then double s down on this right there in Romans. 188 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:03,600 On this idea. He makes clear that no human 189 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,080 being or group of people can claim to be inherently good on 190 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:10,680 their own merits. Maybe that's a tough thing to 191 00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:13,800 swallow. For me, it is sometimes because 192 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:17,600 pride, right? Maybe you don't struggle with 193 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:21,320 that. As much as I know it's true, 194 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,440 there's a part of me that doesn't really like hearing 195 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:26,640 that. It doesn't sound like a 196 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:28,760 glamorous truth sometimes in my life. 197 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,800 Now, with that being said, it doesn't mean that we are all 198 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,720 terrible, terrible people. It doesn't mean that we can't do 199 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:44,640 good things right. Rather, it means that no amount 200 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:49,280 of good that we can do can change our sin nature. 201 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:57,200 And I think if we are honest, we can fall into that same thinking 202 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:01,200 that the rich young ruler had. If we aren't actively aware in 203 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,680 aligning ourselves to the one who is literally the standard 204 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:08,800 for good, we start to define that on our own terms. 205 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:13,040 We start to start to filter what is good, what is fair, what is 206 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:18,000 just, what is good through our own biases and filters. 207 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,040 Anyone ever find themselves in that position? 208 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,680 And then when things happen in our lives that don't align with 209 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:36,320 our definition of what should be good and just happening, we feel 210 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:42,080 like there's an injustice and we start to wonder, why does God, 211 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,760 who factually we know is good, and just, why does he allow 212 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:51,720 these things to happen? So with this new understanding 213 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,040 that no one is good aside from God, I think it's important that 214 00:14:55,040 --> 00:15:00,080 we correct that original question because good and bad 215 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:02,760 can so often be subjective in our lives. 216 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:09,640 I think the question is better represented as what do I do when 217 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:11,840 things happen that I don't understand? 218 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:18,560 Pretty fair. Fair by your definition. 219 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:24,920 Nevermind. We just learned from Pastor 220 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,080 Blake over the past four weeks about the spiritual war 221 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:31,960 happening around us. We learned about the unseen 222 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,280 battle. We learned that even though we 223 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,320 can't see it, there is a battle happening and guess what? 224 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,680 We're a part of it. We learned that there is an 225 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:47,080 unseen accuser, the enemy Satan, there is an unseen accuser and 226 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,000 he laid out the accusers battle plan for us. 227 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:57,440 I hope he took notes. Then week 3 Pastor Blake 228 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:02,200 explained the unseen hosts. I'm be I'm be honest, that one 229 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,360 got a little weird. He started talking about the 230 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:08,120 Nephilim. Now you guys can go back and 231 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:10,520 watch it. I'm not even going to attempt to 232 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:16,080 try to explain some of those things, but seriously, go back 233 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,920 and watch it because this is stuff that we need to know 234 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:22,400 about. And then last week he finished 235 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,080 up that series talking about the unseen truth. 236 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:29,880 And that is that you and I, as believers, as followers in 237 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:34,920 Christ, we fight from a position of victory, right? 238 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:43,480 The battles been won. Why? 239 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:57,680 Why doesn't it feel like it? What do we do when this war gets 240 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,160 personal? Right? 241 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,560 When we get punched in the face out of nowhere by life? 242 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:10,680 Maybe you haven't been there. Maybe you have. 243 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:16,839 What do we do when the pains of this life and this war start to 244 00:17:16,839 --> 00:17:21,960 distort our vision of the victory that we factually know 245 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:27,640 that God has already got right? And I thought vision was right 246 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:28,680 there. It reminded me. 247 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,440 I didn't give you an update last time I spoke to you. 248 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,240 Sorry, this is a rabbit trail and I'm going down it. 249 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:40,520 Last time I spoke to you, it was Palm Sunday and I had some 250 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:42,440 glasses and I talked about my eyesight. 251 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,280 I want to give you an update because many of you have sent 252 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:49,800 the friendly reminders and the jabs saying, hey, did you get 253 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,560 your eye appointment? You get your glasses yet? 254 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,240 I'll give you an update so we can calm those those thoughts. 255 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:00,880 I got a prescription, but I'm fighting through denial to 256 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:07,920 actually order the glasses. So all right, out of the rabbit 257 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:13,720 trail, here we go. This morning I want to share a 258 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,200 few things that I've discovered as I've repeatedly wrestled with 259 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,840 this question and finally took it to God, sought some answers. 260 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:28,520 I hope this morning is multifaceted. 261 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:34,520 I I hope to give you clarity somewhat, maybe with some things 262 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,520 surrounding this question or at least some food for thought and 263 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:42,400 your walk with Christ. I want to give you encouragement 264 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:46,240 to get back in the fight if you find out that maybe you haven't 265 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,400 been in it. But most importantly, I pray 266 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:54,520 this morning will help us all to recalibrate our trust in God's 267 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:59,080 wisdom and His character amidst all the uncertainties that life 268 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:02,760 is going to have. That when we don't know why it 269 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:07,400 happens, that we can rest in the confidence of who we know and 270 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:12,360 that He is good. If you like, you can go ahead 271 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:14,800 and turn to Job one. We're going to be looking at job 272 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:22,720 a lot this morning, but Job 1 is where we'll be very shortly as 273 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,640 you get there. If you want to note these down, 274 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:30,880 you can, but I'm going to quickly look at Genesis 11 and 275 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:35,600 Jeremiah 3325. Again, that was Genesis 11 and 276 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,080 Jeremiah 3325. They're going to help set the 277 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:40,960 stage for us before we get the job. 278 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,440 And the first thing that I discovered is that maybe you've 279 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,280 heard it before, maybe you haven't thought much about it, 280 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:55,200 but God created a world with order, not a world without 281 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:59,400 consequences. In Genesis 11. 282 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:01,680 It seems simple enough. Many of us probably haven't 283 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,200 memorized because it's the first thing we read in the Bible plan 284 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,080 every year, and probably the Scripture we've read the most 285 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,000 ever. But in the beginning, God 286 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:12,320 created the heavens and the earth. 287 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,840 Easy. God is the creator of the world. 288 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:25,400 Creation wasn't random. It was done with intentionality. 289 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,640 And with creation, God established order. 290 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:39,080 In Jeremiah 33 verse 25, we see a message from the Lord to God's 291 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:43,040 people through the prophet Jeremiah in verse 25. 292 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:48,080 But this is what the Lord says. I would no more reject my people 293 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,440 than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and 294 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:56,160 sky. Here we see God's response to 295 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:01,400 critics maybe claiming that he abandoned the descendants that 296 00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:04,840 he of Jacob and David that he chose right. 297 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:09,640 Through Jeremiah, God compares the promise that he made to them 298 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,480 to the unchanging natural laws of heaven and earth. 299 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:18,880 Day follows night. Seasons come, seasons go. 300 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:24,440 Creation operates according to laws and patterns that got 301 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:29,440 established from the beginning. And just as nature functions by 302 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:35,280 these fixed rules and laws, God's moral covenantal promise 303 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,800 to restore the descendants of Jacob and David stood firm. 304 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:44,920 These two scriptures show us that God created a world where 305 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:48,920 things operate according to an order, and when God creates 306 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:54,600 something with order, that means there are consequences to the 307 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,840 way that that order works. What do I mean by that? 308 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:08,720 Gravity works still working. Fires burn for fire started 309 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:14,600 until something stops it. Actions have consequences, 310 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:20,440 choices have consequences, and that means sin has consequences. 311 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,080 I'm going to simplify what I'm trying to say a little bit. 312 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,000 I'm going to give you an illustration that might make you 313 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,680 a bit hungry. If you know my wife, you know 314 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:32,920 that she likes to bake. If you don't know that, I'm 315 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:38,000 sorry, it's unfortunate. But if she creates a chocolate 316 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,400 chip cookie, right? Any chocolate chip cookie fans? 317 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:48,400 Yeah, they are delicious. When she creates a chocolate 318 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,720 chip cookie, I don't just get a cookie. 319 00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,120 That's not the only thing that's created there. 320 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,720 What do I mean? I get the heat in the kitchen. 321 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,960 Heat rises because the oven's on to create that cookie. 322 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,680 There is an aroma that fills the house. 323 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:16,520 Hallelujah. There are physical changes to 324 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:20,080 the ingredients in that cookie, right? 325 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,160 There are additional calories. I'm OK with it. 326 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:32,360 I want them all. And there is a rise in my blood 327 00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:34,840 sugar when I consume what was created. 328 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,880 When something is created, there are often many things that come 329 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:45,840 along with that that don't immediately maybe come to our 330 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:51,600 mind. That cookie has consequences 331 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,360 because it exists in a system of cause and effect. 332 00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,640 But listen closely, because I already see wheels spinning and 333 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:02,800 you're trying to connect with the things that I've already 334 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:11,240 said. So consequences do not mean that 335 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,640 everything that happens to us is something we caused. 336 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,720 I want you to hear that. And this is where Job comes in. 337 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,960 The first several verses in Job tell us that Job wasn't living 338 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:32,920 in rebellion. As a matter of fact, we see that 339 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:37,600 Job was righteous jumping into verse 6 there. 340 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:41,000 This is Job's first Test, and I believe Pastor Blake has 341 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,360 referred to this through the series we just went through. 342 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,680 One day the members of the heavenly court came to present 343 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:51,560 themselves before the Lord and the accuser, Satan, came with 344 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,520 them. Where have you come from? 345 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,360 The Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord. 346 00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:04,160 I've been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going 347 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:09,840 on. Then the Lord asked Satan, Have 348 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,520 you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the 349 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:15,760 earth. He is blameless, a man of 350 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,920 complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from 351 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,240 evil. Are you guys seeing what I'm 352 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,480 seeing in my head? The only thing that I image wise 353 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:31,720 and experience wise have to try to picture this is an actual 354 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,680 courtroom. Anyone been in a courtroom? 355 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:39,280 You don't have to admit to anything, but if you've been in 356 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:44,120 a courtroom, there are depending on which court it is, General 357 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:49,240 District Court is very busy. There are a lot of buzzing and 358 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,720 murmuring happening. And the attorneys will go up to 359 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,640 the judge between cases and they will have maybe a conversation 360 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,400 here, conversation there because they have got a lot going on. 361 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:09,320 But here you see the Lord and Satan like having a a 362 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,360 conversation like aren't they supposed they're like rife, like 363 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:15,960 mortal enemies, like it's not explosive here. 364 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:22,280 It's not a crazy action scene, but that's maybe you don't see 365 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,280 that and I was just trying to help you imagine it. 366 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,480 Continuing in verse 9, Satan replied to the Lord. 367 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:39,280 Yes, sorry, yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 368 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,800 You've always put a wall of protection around him and his 369 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:50,880 home, his property. You've made him prosper in 370 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:55,640 everything that he does. Look how rich he is, but reach 371 00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,760 out and take away everything he has and he will surely curse you 372 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:03,840 to your face. All right, you may test him. 373 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,280 The Lord said to Satan, do whatever you want with 374 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,080 everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically. 375 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:15,920 So Satan left the Lord's presence and then as we know, 376 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:21,280 Job loses nearly everything, his livestock, his servants, his 377 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,840 children. Eventually Satan would come 378 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,520 back. God would say just don't take 379 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:28,560 his life. He would lose his health. 380 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:34,520 The account of Job right here in the beginning lets us kind of 381 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:39,120 peek behind the curtain here. Something terrible is happening 382 00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:45,720 to Job, but he doesn't know why. We know what's happening because 383 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,800 we get this peek behind the curtain, right? 384 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,200 We get to see a glimpse into the spiritual realm here. 385 00:27:54,760 --> 00:28:00,320 Satan challenges Job, God allows testing to happen, and Job knows 386 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:05,480 none of this that we are reading about so often. 387 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:12,680 It's so easy for us to fall into the mistake of thinking someone 388 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:18,240 must have done something bad to 'cause this bad thing happening 389 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:23,680 in their life. Job. 390 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:26,560 The story of Job breaks that equation. 391 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:31,880 Sometimes terrible things happen to people just doing their best 392 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,400 to follow God. So why does God allow it? 393 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,000 And this is where, again, I want you to hear me carefully. 394 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:45,520 I'm not standing here telling you that I can explain why every 395 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:47,880 bad thing happens. I can't. 396 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:53,160 You can't, Pastor Blake can't. There are so many things that 397 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,560 happen that we're not going to fully understand, and at some 398 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,080 point we have to come to that understanding. 399 00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:03,840 But we can understand some things about the world. 400 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,480 God created. People have free will. 401 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:10,920 Actions have consequences. Creation has been affected by 402 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,440 sin. Natural laws continue to 403 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:15,000 operate. Should we check it again? 404 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:23,800 Yep, still working people can make decisions that harm 405 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:30,520 themselves and or other people. God doesn't constantly override 406 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:35,840 every consequence or bad choice to make life perfectly 407 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,320 comfortable. If he did, I think we would all 408 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:47,600 agree that he is not a just God. I was talking to Pastor Blake 409 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,640 and I was running through kind of a warm up of this sermon and 410 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,760 he brought up Bruce Almighty. And so with his permission, I'm 411 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,640 going to use that illustration. How many of you know Bruce 412 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:00,720 Almighty? OK. 413 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:05,000 It's a movie where Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston are husband 414 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,640 and wife. Morgan Freeman plays God and 415 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:15,080 Bruce, he's got an Anchorman job he puts in for promotion, 416 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,000 eventually doesn't get it. Things start to go really bad. 417 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:28,360 Bad things, excuse me, bad things start to happen in his 418 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:39,860 life and then he blames God. So God Morgan Freeman comes back 419 00:30:40,180 --> 00:30:43,660 and gives him the opportunity to play God. 420 00:30:44,340 --> 00:30:48,340 He gets the power, but he has 2 rules. 421 00:30:48,500 --> 00:30:54,520 He can't mess with anyone's free will and no one can know that he 422 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,200 is God. So the whole movie is kind of 423 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:03,480 depicting that storyline. Entertaining, yes, but Bruce 424 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,400 starts to use the powers. He starts to use them for 425 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,880 personal things, things that if we're honest, I think we would 426 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:12,960 probably be doing selfish things. 427 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,000 But then he also realizes that God has all these other things 428 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:22,440 that he has to do. He has to answer prayers, and 429 00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:26,680 Bruce has to figure out how to do that. 430 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,600 Now. He eventually sets on just 431 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,160 saying yes to everyone's prayers, which as you can 432 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,120 imagine, would cause quite a chaotic world. 433 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:46,840 But I think sometimes maybe we wouldn't say it, but maybe we 434 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,200 think that we might could do God's job better. 435 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:56,680 Maybe, no, maybe you wouldn't put it out there like that. 436 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,920 But I think if we were to ever have that opportunity to step 437 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,280 into that, I think we would quickly learn, like Bruce did, 438 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:13,000 that God's responsibilities are so much more complex than our 439 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:19,600 understanding of the world. In the same vein, God being good 440 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:24,280 doesn't mean he prevents every painful thing from happening. 441 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,520 And God allowing something to happen doesn't mean that he 442 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:35,440 caused it. God created a world with order, 443 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:38,280 not a world without consequences. 444 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,720 But it does not mean if something bad happened to you 445 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:48,200 that you caused it. OK, Job shows us that that's not 446 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:52,880 true. And sometimes it happens. 447 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:58,320 Sometimes the bad things happen, sometimes the diagnosis happens, 448 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:03,800 sometimes the death in the family happens, sometimes the 449 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:11,640 financial struggles happen, and sometimes we don't know why. 450 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,320 But that lack of understanding and that questioning of why is 451 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,320 where the the real struggling begins. 452 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,280 And the second discovery that I want to bring to you today is 453 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:29,160 that when life doesn't make sense, we have to get to the 454 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:35,760 place of taking it to God. I know it sounds elementary, but 455 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:38,280 do you take it everything to him? 456 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:44,840 You don't have to answer that. We recently broke down Psalm 13 457 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,240 over an elevate. We're doing a study through the 458 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:52,560 book of Psalms, and we were talking about lament and grief. 459 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,800 Now, this is often considered a prayer of lament. 460 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,840 It's written by King David. If you want to go there, you 461 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:00,640 can. Again, it's Psalm 13. 462 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:06,040 Now this is potentially written while David was on the run from 463 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:10,560 King Saul or from Absalom. We're really unsure about when 464 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:15,520 exactly, but it's a Psalm that gives us an example of bringing 465 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:20,080 our deep grief and our pain and our confusion to God. 466 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,760 Lament. How many of you have heard of 467 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:26,840 that? Probably a lot. 468 00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:32,880 It's characterized by taking an action step and moving from just 469 00:34:33,159 --> 00:34:35,080 just sitting in this grief, in this pain. 470 00:34:36,679 --> 00:34:39,360 But it turns into lament when you take that action step and 471 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:43,760 you say, yes, I've got that, but I'm trusting and giving that to 472 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,040 God. I'm taking it to him and I'm 473 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,679 putting in action and I'm trusting him with that. 474 00:34:48,679 --> 00:34:58,560 OK, so Psalm 13, Oh Lord, how long will you forget me forever? 475 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,280 How long will you look the other way? 476 00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:06,840 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow 477 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:10,400 in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the 478 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,040 upper hand? Turn and answer me, O Lord, my 479 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:18,040 God, restore the sparkle to my eyes or I will die. 480 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:22,320 Don't let my enemies gloat, saying we have defeated Him. 481 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:24,800 Don't let them rejoice in my downfall. 482 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,880 But I trust in your unfailing love. 483 00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,080 I will rejoice because you have rescued me. 484 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,640 I will sing to the Lord because He is good to me. 485 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:44,760 Notice how David's words and his tone shift. 486 00:35:47,240 --> 00:35:49,120 He starts with questioning how long? 487 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,080 I mean, he says it what, four or five times? 488 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,240 How long? How long do I have to deal with 489 00:35:56,240 --> 00:36:00,040 this? And then he moves to a request. 490 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:06,680 Oh God, turn to me. I need an answer. 491 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:13,480 And then he moves to I will rejoice because you have rescued 492 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,760 me. I will sing to the Lord because 493 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,880 He is good. I trust in your unfailing love. 494 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:23,480 David doesn't hide his pain from God. 495 00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:28,600 He takes it to him. He makes an active move from his 496 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,520 deep grief into renewing and reclaiming his active trust in 497 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,720 God. How do you normally handle your 498 00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:38,760 pain? You don't have to give me an 499 00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:47,120 answer, but just think about it. When it happens in your life, 500 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:55,080 you normally sneeze. Never mind. 501 00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:01,120 Oh man, how do you normally handle the pain in your life? 502 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,440 When it happens in your life, Everything that we've mentioned 503 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:11,840 under that word it and you find yourself hurting, how do you 504 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:21,520 normally respond? I'll give you an example here of 505 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:26,560 a time in my response. This was some pain in my life. 506 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:38,360 I had a grandma, loved her and she was struggling with cancer 507 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:49,160 for about 9 months and this was back in 2021 or the end of 2020. 508 00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:53,440 Beginning of 2021 and my birthday was coming up. 509 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,960 At the time I was working at New Bern Police Department and I was 510 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:03,280 on the street working patrol. I was on night shifts so I would 511 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:10,080 go in at 6:00 PM, get off at 6:00 AM, but I was sleeping from 512 00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:14,120 the day before and I get a phone call that she passed away. 513 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:16,360 Guess what? So my birthday. 514 00:38:22,970 --> 00:38:27,170 That hurt still hurts looking back at it. 515 00:38:30,850 --> 00:38:34,690 Why? Why, right? 516 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,560 God, you could have just moved that. 517 00:38:41,720 --> 00:38:46,120 Like I get selfish, right? You could have just moved it a 518 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,240 day here, a day there. Why'd you have to mess up my 519 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:57,440 birthday? It's not about me, right? 520 00:39:04,380 --> 00:39:09,220 But we still have those questions and being straight 521 00:39:09,540 --> 00:39:17,000 honest with you, the next, I don't know, 2-3 years. 522 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:19,880 I didn't want anything to do with my birthday. 523 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:29,720 I just wanted it to come and go because that hurt was there and 524 00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:34,760 I didn't take it to God. Just being honest. 525 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:42,160 I was selfish with it and I was feeling some type of way about 526 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:49,680 it, but I finally did. I took it to him. 527 00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,520 I said, God, here, this is this hurts. 528 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,480 Why'd it have to happen? I don't know. 529 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:05,200 And that's OK now. Still hurts, but. 530 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:21,800 Taking it to him, it was revealed again. 531 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:25,800 Pastor Blake just went through Ecclesiastes was a little bit 532 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:27,680 ago, right? Bible study Wednesday night. 533 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:30,800 And what do we learn? There's a time for everything 534 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,440 under the sun. There's a time for being happy. 535 00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:41,200 There's a time for being sad. There's a time for death. 536 00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,760 There's a time for life, and you know what? 537 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,280 Just because that happened on my birthday doesn't mean that I 538 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:55,440 can't remember my grandmother and still celebrate this gift 539 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,040 that God has given me of another year, right? 540 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:09,160 So let's jump ahead to Job 3, just maybe a couple pages over. 541 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:14,360 This is Job's first speech after seven days of silence. 542 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:20,440 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 543 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:26,760 He said, May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said 544 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:31,080 a boy is conceived that day. May it turn to darkness. 545 00:41:31,240 --> 00:41:36,320 May God above not care about it. May no light shine on it. 546 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:42,200 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more, May a cloud 547 00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:44,520 settle over it. May blackness overwhelm it. 548 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,400 He finally speaks after sitting in silence for seven days. 549 00:41:51,120 --> 00:42:00,000 He curses the day of his birth. His pain is real, his emotions 550 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:04,560 very real, his questions very real. 551 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:15,600 He doesn't get the answer to his why, but he does something that 552 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,600 in my situation I wasn't necessarily able to do for a few 553 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:21,600 years. He doesn't let it push him away 554 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:25,680 from God either. One thing that I'm learning, 555 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:31,200 although it isn't easy, is that maybe instead of asking God why 556 00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:35,960 would you let this happen, it would be more beneficial to pray 557 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:38,880 God? I don't understand any of this. 558 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:43,280 This is how I feel. Lay out all your emotions, your 559 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:50,880 feelings, and it's frustrating, God, but I'm bringing it to you 560 00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:56,080 and I'm trusting you because of who I know you to be, because of 561 00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,440 the evidence that I've seen in my life. 562 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,360 Now, pain. We're going to talk about it a 563 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:10,440 little more, but it does not determine my purpose. 564 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,160 It doesn't determine your purpose. 565 00:43:15,240 --> 00:43:19,800 I'm jumping even further ahead. Job 19, verse 25. 566 00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:25,280 We see Job's response to his friend Bill Dad as he is going 567 00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:28,280 through some intense feelings of loneliness and physical pain 568 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,800 here. But in verse 25, I know that my 569 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,600 Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand on the earth. 570 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:42,760 Everything in Job circumstances seemed like God had abandoned 571 00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:50,840 him, but he did not let His circumstances define what He 572 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:56,120 believed about God. He knows that his Redeemer 573 00:43:56,120 --> 00:44:01,880 lives. If we jump ahead, way ahead to 574 00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:09,400 the last chapter, chapter 42, verses 2 through 6, we see Job's 575 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:16,920 last reply to the Lord. He says I know that you can do 576 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,640 anything and no one can stop you. 577 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:25,000 You asked who is this that questions my wisdom with such 578 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:31,720 ignorance? It is I, and I was talking about 579 00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:36,400 things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. 580 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:38,720 You said Listen and I will speak. 581 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,280 I have some questions for you and you must answer them. 582 00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:47,440 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you 583 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,640 with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, 584 00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:56,320 and I sit in the dust and ashes to show my repentance. 585 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,640 Job admits his ignorance and his lack of knowledge to comprehend 586 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:10,720 God's reasoning, and even still, he chooses to trust God's wisdom 587 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,360 and in God's consistent character. 588 00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:21,240 It might be hard, but how many of you know we need to admit our 589 00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:26,160 ignorance and our lack of knowledge sometimes, some of us 590 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:28,400 maybe more than others. I don't know. 591 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:35,240 Eventually in verse 5, verse five, Job says he has seen the 592 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:39,840 Lord with his own eyes. Sometimes when we're hurting, we 593 00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,760 forget the history that we have with God. 594 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:46,080 Sometimes that pain anyone ever experienced like an excruciating 595 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,880 pain and it's almost like tunnel vision, can't think about 596 00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:54,800 anything else. Sometimes when we're hurting and 597 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:59,120 we're feeling that pain, we forget that history that we have 598 00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:02,160 with God. We've become so focused on what 599 00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:08,800 He isn't doing right now that we forget about what He did do and 600 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:14,440 what He has done. So how can we better remember 601 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,800 that? How can we better remember what 602 00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,960 He has done? How many? 603 00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:27,360 You know what a testimony is? Yeah, every one of us has one. 604 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,680 Share that. Share your testimony. 605 00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:38,520 And I'm not just saying when I'm having a tough day mentally 606 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:42,120 think about things, although that might help, but I'm saying 607 00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:44,080 verbalize it. Put it out there. 608 00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:47,720 Put it out loud to your small groups, to your communities, to 609 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:53,080 the people that you trust. Vocalize and share your 610 00:46:53,080 --> 00:47:02,280 testimony because why? Because when you start to speak 611 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:07,040 things and you hear yourself speaking these testimonies and 612 00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:11,320 you hear other people speaking these testimonies, that builds a 613 00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:15,720 confidence, that builds a confidence, and it strengthens 614 00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:20,640 our confidence even more in who we know God to be, Right? 615 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,960 Last week, I know some of you were like locked eyes here and 616 00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:31,640 you haven't moved. You're like, what is this? 617 00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:36,240 Last week Pastor Blake used this jacket and this rope for an 618 00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:42,040 illustration. He had Abigail come up here and 619 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,280 the jacket was essentially to hold the rope to him. 620 00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:50,320 So I'm just going to use the rope, but I hope you'll stick 621 00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,480 with me and you can see where I'm going. 622 00:47:53,200 --> 00:48:00,440 So this rope he talked about was things that happened to us that 623 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,000 maybe we don't fully handle, maybe we don't fully heal from. 624 00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:09,560 We don't necessarily take it to God and allow him to help us 625 00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:17,800 deal with it. These things, maybe it's a death 626 00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:21,040 to a loved one that we don't fully understand why. 627 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:33,320 Maybe it's a diagnosis. Maybe it's a part of, I don't 628 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:38,520 know, a family just out of nowhere seeming to have issues 629 00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,760 and like God, what is happening and all of a sudden you have 630 00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:47,920 these these things that are not being dealt with and they 631 00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:52,680 become, we learned last week, hand holds for the enemy that 632 00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,880 maybe we don't always see. But if you can imagine someone 633 00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:58,680 behind me, like last week pulling on the ropes, they 634 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,240 affect me, right? He can kind of move me around 635 00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:05,320 and affect me if I'm not dealing with these hand holds. 636 00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:13,040 So Pastor Blake encouraged us to deal with them, get rid of them, 637 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:19,960 and he sat them on the stage. Now, I came in here Monday or 638 00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:23,920 Tuesday and I saw the jacket here and I was like thinking 639 00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,160 about my sermon and what I was going to be talking about. 640 00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:31,880 And I just couldn't kind of get away from this thought that I 641 00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:35,360 think we can take this even further and actually connects 642 00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:40,560 with one of my points. So when we deal with those 643 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:43,720 things, we put them in a grave, right? 644 00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:48,480 What is a grave for? It's to lay something or someone 645 00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:51,160 to rest. What does that mean? 646 00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:55,120 You're putting it down and you're moving on. 647 00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:57,200 It doesn't mean you're forgetting. 648 00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:03,360 That's not what I'm saying, but you're putting it in the grave. 649 00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,440 Again, pain is real. These things actually, they 650 00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,560 happen to you. I'm not discounting that. 651 00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,760 I mean, I was getting choked up just talking about one that I 652 00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:23,760 feel like I have dealt with. OK, emotions are valid now. 653 00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:28,520 They don't validate all of your actions because of those 654 00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:32,280 emotions. Some of you take that and chew 655 00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:37,560 on it. I had to for a while, but pain, 656 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:41,680 that rope, whatever happened doesn't have to become my 657 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:45,000 identity. It doesn't. 658 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:50,840 Disappointment doesn't have to become what I believe or know 659 00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:56,400 God to be. What happened to me doesn't get 660 00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:59,240 to control what God has next for me. 661 00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:02,800 My pain does not determine my purpose. 662 00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:07,080 Now I want to jump back to night of worship, beginning of this 663 00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:11,240 month. If you were here, you got to 664 00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:13,080 experience it. If you weren't here, you better 665 00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:16,840 come Wednesday night because it's going to be fantastic. 666 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:21,440 But I was at night of worship. I was worshiping. 667 00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:25,680 They did the song made for more. If you know that song, maybe you 668 00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:28,760 don't, but I'm going to read you the chorus. 669 00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:33,800 I wasn't made to be tending a grave. 670 00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:38,560 I was called by name, born and raised back to life again. 671 00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:42,600 I was made for more. Why would I make a bed in my 672 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:46,400 shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? 673 00:51:47,240 --> 00:51:50,280 I know I am yours and I was made for more. 674 00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:59,240 Can I be honest with what happens sometimes with these 675 00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:02,760 these things in our life now? I know the song specifically 676 00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:06,200 says shame. Maybe this thing down in the 677 00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:09,520 grave is shame over something you've done in the past. 678 00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:13,840 Maybe it's an addiction that you've worked through, or maybe 679 00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:16,880 that you're still fighting to get away, get out of the grips 680 00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:20,240 of. Maybe again, it's all those 681 00:52:20,240 --> 00:52:22,920 things that we mentioned, but you've put it in the grave. 682 00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:28,560 But if we're not careful, I think we find ourselves coming 683 00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:34,320 back here. I think sometimes we might even 684 00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:42,760 pull it out. We might start to relive it. 685 00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:49,040 We might start to maybe allow it to start forming our identity 686 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:51,680 again. I don't know. 687 00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:03,920 We have to stop tending graves in our lives, and we have to be 688 00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:08,000 an active participant in God's will for our lives. 689 00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:16,000 If we were made for more, why do I want to come back here and 690 00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,680 live in a cemetery? Why? 691 00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:24,040 Guys, God has so much more for us. 692 00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:38,440 It's frustrating. I know also when you see people 693 00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:42,720 who are doing that, that you care for and you can't make that 694 00:53:42,720 --> 00:53:53,160 decision for them, but you can encourage them. 695 00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:56,200 You can be there for them and you can speak truth in their 696 00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,280 life. You can speak testimony into 697 00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:03,040 their life, right? We got to stop tending the 698 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:04,720 grave. We got to stop living in that 699 00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:11,000 cemetery. Some of us has been sending them 700 00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:14,560 for so long. Maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe 701 00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:19,240 years, maybe decades. We keep visiting what hurt us. 702 00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:22,800 We keep rehearsing what happened over and over and over. 703 00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,120 We keep replaying the disappointment in our heads. 704 00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:34,880 We keep asking why I don't. Don't hear me incorrectly. 705 00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:38,640 I'm not telling you again to pretend that that grave is not 706 00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:44,160 there. I'm telling you that you are not 707 00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:48,920 created to spend the rest of your days living in that 708 00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:56,880 cemetery. Job lost things that he could 709 00:54:56,880 --> 00:55:01,400 never replace. But Job story did not end in the 710 00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:05,000 ashes. Some of us have been tending 711 00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:10,800 graves for so long that we forgot we were created to live. 712 00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:20,480 Pain is part of your story, but it does not have to become your 713 00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:24,320 purpose. We spent the last few weeks 714 00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:27,800 talking about spiritual warfare, and the reality is there's an 715 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:30,360 unseen battle happening around us. 716 00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:35,040 And here's something that we have to remember about war. 717 00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:44,320 Wars have casualties, people get wounded, people get exhausted, 718 00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:51,800 people get knocked down, and sometimes people need to be 719 00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:54,760 carried off the battlefield for a little while while they can 720 00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:58,400 heal. That's not weakness. 721 00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:03,560 It's not failure. That is what happens in war. 722 00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:09,520 Liberty Church, if you're visiting today, I'm talking to 723 00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:12,840 you too. I believe Satan would love 724 00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:18,240 nothing more than to take as many casualties as he can get us 725 00:56:18,240 --> 00:56:21,200 off the battlefield, whatever that looks like. 726 00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:27,400 If that's tending to 5/10/20 different graves and not living 727 00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:30,120 the purpose God has for you, that's what He wants. 728 00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:35,440 He would love to see you wounded and convinced that you have 729 00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:39,800 nothing left, or to see you hurting and move into isolation, 730 00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:41,240 because that's what we tend to do. 731 00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:47,920 And close yourself off to those around you who care, who want to 732 00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:52,280 support you. He'd be thrilled to see your 733 00:56:52,280 --> 00:56:56,320 disappointment and your pain become your identity. 734 00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:00,720 Or to see your questions and your doubts. 735 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:04,760 Or how you excuse me. Or to see your questions and the 736 00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:09,000 doubts that you have define what you know about God. 737 00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:13,560 You love it. But here's the truth. 738 00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:17,760 And I want, I really want you to hear this. 739 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,800 Andy Flom, you matter in this fight. 740 00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:35,040 Peter Austin, you matter in this fight. 741 00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:43,000 Colton Liberty, you matter in this fight. 742 00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:48,320 Cassie, you matter in this fight. 743 00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,640 And I can go through and I can tell each of you that 744 00:57:54,640 --> 00:57:57,600 one-on-one, I'd be happy to do it if you want, I'll be back 745 00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:01,960 thereafter. And I'll tell you that every 746 00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:07,000 single one of us matters in this war, in this battle, in this 747 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:11,480 fight. The Army of God functions better 748 00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:16,520 with each of us at our best. Though now we know the victory 749 00:58:16,520 --> 00:58:20,320 has already been won, right? We don't have to worry about 750 00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:22,040 that. But again, we're talking about 751 00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:27,160 when life distorts that. And I think it's true. 752 00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:31,760 The Army of God functions better when we are all individually, 753 00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:36,200 spiritually at our best. If you're listening today and 754 00:58:36,200 --> 00:58:40,200 you realize that you're doing your best to continue fighting, 755 00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:44,840 but you're limping pretty good right now, that's OK. 756 00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:49,240 I highly encourage you to evaluate it. 757 00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:52,960 Maybe ask a trusted friend, see what they're seeing. 758 00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:56,520 Maybe you need to step off the field for just a moment. 759 00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:03,120 Maybe you need to get around some people who can help you 760 00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:07,200 heal. Maybe you need counselling or 761 00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:11,680 medical attention or to get back in God's word consistently. 762 00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:15,200 Maybe you need to say I'm not OK. 763 00:59:17,720 --> 00:59:23,000 Take the time that you need to heal because the goal isn't to 764 00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:25,840 keep limping around the battlefield pretending that 765 00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:30,280 we're fine. The goal is to get healthy and 766 00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:33,480 return to the fight because it is still there. 767 00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:37,680 There is another side to this though. 768 00:59:38,160 --> 00:59:40,400 Sometimes we can get so comfortable sitting on the 769 00:59:40,400 --> 00:59:45,160 sidelines that we stop really wanting to get back in. 770 00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:50,480 We overuse the word healing when we're really just trying to buy 771 00:59:50,480 --> 00:59:54,440 our time hiding out because maybe it seems easier than 772 00:59:54,440 --> 01:00:00,800 getting back into that fight. I, I really pray that you hear 773 01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:04,080 me this morning. Someone is depending on you, 774 01:00:06,240 --> 01:00:09,480 someone in your family. They might need your faith. 775 01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:14,360 Someone in your church might need your encouragement. 776 01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:19,520 There might be someone who needs the testimony that God is 777 01:00:19,520 --> 01:00:22,800 bringing you through to be shared with them. 778 01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:27,680 So please don't stay on the sidelines forever. 779 01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:34,320 Heal properly, get back up, and when you're ready, get back in 780 01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:40,960 the fight. OK, if you're realizing that 781 01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,000 maybe you need to be taking some steps to get back into the 782 01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:45,920 fight, have some action steps for you. 783 01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:49,920 And I'm a little over, but I'm going to go through it quickly, 784 01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:53,640 OK? Some practical, practical things 785 01:00:53,640 --> 01:00:58,800 that we can do to get back in this fight #1 be honest with 786 01:00:58,800 --> 01:01:04,880 yourself, with God, anybody. Honesty is good. 787 01:01:06,680 --> 01:01:15,800 Feel your emotions, guys. Men, that's not something that 788 01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:22,560 we are necessarily raised to do. Feel your emotions. 789 01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:28,320 If you've never learned what that looks like, we have a 790 01:01:28,640 --> 01:01:30,720 conquer ministry that goes on here. 791 01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:32,400 I would love to talk to you about it. 792 01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:34,920 I'm sure there are plenty of guys here who would love to talk 793 01:01:34,920 --> 01:01:37,680 to you about it. Feel your emotions and work 794 01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:44,600 through that. And be honest with God. 795 01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:47,320 Take it to Him, lay it out for Him. 796 01:01:47,360 --> 01:01:51,440 He doesn't need to see you all happy, dandy, perfect, best 797 01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,680 version of yourself. Go to Him and be honest with 798 01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:59,800 Him, but trust him because we know he's good. 799 01:02:02,240 --> 01:02:06,320 Get healing. Maybe that's counselling, maybe 800 01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:10,720 it's therapy, maybe it's finding a hobby or reigniting a hobby 801 01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:14,120 that you've done before. Maybe it's a medical evaluation. 802 01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:17,280 Maybe it's forgiving someone or forgiving yourself. 803 01:02:19,440 --> 01:02:22,200 Get healing and do it the right way. 804 01:02:24,480 --> 01:02:29,520 Sometimes we ignore this because we think it's it's noble to keep 805 01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:33,800 keep limping in that fight. But again, we need each other to 806 01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:37,600 be at the best version of ourselves to continue forward in 807 01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:43,080 this third get around community. We just had a call for small 808 01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:46,480 groups last week. Community will help you get 809 01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:50,520 through things if you engage in them, if you open up, if you're 810 01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:53,760 honest in them and you give people another chance. 811 01:02:54,760 --> 01:03:00,040 Yeah, people hurt people. Don't let that keep you from 812 01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:03,120 what God has for you. Don't let that pain determine 813 01:03:03,120 --> 01:03:06,280 your purpose. 4th, get back in the Word. 814 01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,080 Get back into worship in the spiritual disciplines. 815 01:03:10,680 --> 01:03:13,760 They matter and they are important to this fight. 816 01:03:15,520 --> 01:03:17,360 And 5th, get back to your purpose. 817 01:03:18,800 --> 01:03:22,160 Start serving again. Maybe you got hurt in in 818 01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:23,640 serving, whatever that looks like. 819 01:03:23,640 --> 01:03:25,440 It doesn't have to be volunteering here at Liberty 820 01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:28,400 Church. Whatever serving looks like to 821 01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:31,640 you, get back to it. Love again. 822 01:03:31,840 --> 01:03:35,360 Love big love people. Yeah, you're going to get hurt 823 01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:39,000 again. Probably actually, most 824 01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:44,360 certainly. But don't let that keep you from 825 01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:49,720 what God has for you. Give again and live life. 826 01:03:51,880 --> 01:03:54,720 We all have questions of why? Why did this happen? 827 01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:58,080 Why didn't God stop it? Why didn't He answer my prayer? 828 01:03:58,080 --> 01:04:01,520 And the truth is, we're not going to always know that. 829 01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:04,400 Why? Job never got every answer. 830 01:04:05,160 --> 01:04:07,680 But Job came to know God more deeply through it. 831 01:04:09,720 --> 01:04:11,600 And that's what I want to leave with you today. 832 01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:16,720 I might not know why, but I know who and I know He is good. 833 01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:22,600 I can trust Him even when I don't understand everything and 834 01:04:22,600 --> 01:04:26,120 all of his reasoning. And to be honest, I think my 835 01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:32,560 brain would explode if I tried. And here's the beautiful thing. 836 01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:36,840 God never intended for us to walk through this life alone. 837 01:04:37,440 --> 01:04:39,640 Next week, Pastor Blake is going to be back. 838 01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:43,760 He's going to be beginning a series on the Holy Spirit, and I 839 01:04:43,760 --> 01:04:47,160 think that's the perfect spot for us to go next with this. 840 01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:50,360 I'm excited for it. I hope you guys would join us 841 01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:52,840 back next week. Because when life doesn't make 842 01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:56,760 sense, when we're wounded, when we're trudging through a battle, 843 01:04:57,160 --> 01:05:02,040 God has given us his presence. The Holy Spirit is our helper. 844 01:05:02,320 --> 01:05:05,400 He's our comforter. He reminds us of what's true. 845 01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:08,360 He strengthens us. And we don't have that on our 846 01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:11,600 own. And we don't have to go through 847 01:05:11,600 --> 01:05:19,480 this battle alone. So maybe you don't need God to 848 01:05:19,600 --> 01:05:24,080 explain everything to us today. Maybe we just need to trust Him 849 01:05:25,240 --> 01:05:29,080 and trust in his consistent character and who He's always 850 01:05:29,080 --> 01:05:31,360 been. Because it happens. 851 01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:38,480 But God is still good. He's still with us, and we're 852 01:05:38,480 --> 01:05:39,880 not alone. Thank you guys.