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[0:00] It sounded like y'all kind of started getting quiet on your own, so I was like, well, I guess it's time for me to come up here. Oh, the good news is I may see a couple new faces, but the rest of them look like people that regularly come, so I shouldn't run off any new faces.

[0:20] But if you are new or visiting that, you know, I am not the normal preacher, Brother Billy Joe will be back, so please, and everybody who is a regular, don't let me run y'all off either, so I thought about making y'all vow that you would come back next Sunday.

[0:35] I promised to come back next Sunday, right? All right. Well, today if you want to, or if you have your Bible with you, flip and open to the book of Joe.

[0:49] It's before Psalms, spelt like job, which, you know, when we were in school, you know, we saw that, we learned that word is job, right?

[0:59] But in churches, Sunday school is Job. But we're going to be reading Job 42. All right.

[1:36] So, how's y'all flipping there? Billy Joe asked you to stand up. If you'd like to stand up, stand up. But if you don't, I ain't going to get offended if you just sit there and read. So, we're going to read verses 1 through 6 and then 12 through 17.

[2:00] So, Job 42, verse 1. Then Job answered and the Lord said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

[2:13] You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

[2:25] Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard you by the hearing of the ear, and now my eyes see you.

[2:36] Therefore, I abhor myself and I repent in the dust and ashes. Down to verse 12. Now, the Lord blessed the later days of Job more than his beginning.

[2:47] For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 female donkeys. And he also had seven sons, three daughters. And he named the first Jemima, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Kirin-Hapuk.

[3:06] And in all the land there were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them the inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.

[3:23] So Job died old and full of days. If y'all don't mind, we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I just thank you for this opportunity to come into your house, Lord, to worship you, to sing praises for all the many blessings that you've given us, Lord.

[3:40] And Lord, I just thank you for the freedom that we exercise, Lord, to be able to gather together in your name, Lord, to come and to read your word freely. And Lord, just, I invite your presence.

[3:51] And Lord, you say where two or more are gathered in your name, Lord, there you are also. So, Lord, just welcome and thank you for this opportunity that we can gather together. Lord, as we get into this, I just ask that you open our hearts and minds.

[4:06] And Lord, that we can learn from this story, Lord, of Job's devotion, Lord, and his devout trust that he had in you, the faith of Job, Lord.

[4:19] And I just ask that you be with me during the rest of the message, Lord, and that I glorify your name and not myself. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, everybody may have noticed, I flipped to the back of Job.

[4:37] I mean, right? Read the happy ending first, right? If you may or may not be familiar with the story of Job, a lot of you probably are familiar.

[4:47] And, you know, y'all caught on. They're like, yeah, well, you read the happy ending. Well, that's kind of who I was when I was young, too. I flipped to the back of the book. I was like, I already know what's going to happen. I got to skip a lot of this middle chunk.

[4:59] Well, I read that, but I plan to recap it. So, if you, we will flip back to 42 eventually. But if you want to go back to one, you can kind of follow along with me.

[5:11] But I'm just going to kind of paraphrase it a little bit of the first part of Job's life. So, Scripture says that Job was the greatest man in the East.

[5:23] That he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and the seven sons and daughters.

[5:35] Seven sons and three daughters, right? Like, Job was a man of great wealth, it would seem. And just God had blessed him in so many ways.

[5:50] And he was blessed to have his family near. All his seven sons, Scripture tells us that, you know, every day of the week, seven sons. Each day of the week, a different son would host the big meal of the day, a feast or whatever.

[6:05] Each day of the week, a different son would host dinner, right? So, everybody would come over and they'd invite the three daughters. And it was just a very tight-knit family. I mean, as close as you can get. And Job loved his sons and daughters and cared about them so much that he would actually go on, every day he would offer sacrifices, offer burnt offerings for his children.

[6:27] Because Job himself, Scripture tells us, says he was a blameless man and lived upright. Blameless and upright man, right? So, Job himself was of good standards, good character.

[6:39] But he was so concerned, he loved his children so much that every morning he would go and sacrifice for his children. You know what? They may have sinned against God.

[6:50] And so, he would go and sacrifice for them. And this is just to paint a picture of what things to come. So, anyways, now there was a day when God and Satan had a little conversation.

[7:07] And Miss Debbie Allison, where'd she go? There she is. All right. See, this is, praise God for some of those little reassurances. I was definitely nervous. This is my first time in a pulpit.

[7:18] But those little reassurances God gave you. She said this exact saying that I want to tell you. So, there was a day in heaven when God noticed Satan walking by.

[7:31] He said, where have you been? Well, you scoundrel, where have you been? The devil's like, well, I've been here, there, and yonder. Down on earth, you know, just up to no good, no doubt, right?

[7:42] The devil's just, Satan's just walking around looking for a lost soul. Looking for somebody that's weak and down that he can sway back his direction, right? All right. So, anyways, God says to the devil, have you seen?

[7:56] And if I had a title for this message, it would be, have you considered Job? All right. So, God says, have you considered my servant Job? The devil says, well, Job, well, of course Job loves you.

[8:09] I mean, you've put a hedge, you've put a wall of protection around Job, his whole family. You've blessed his hands. Look at all that you've given him, all the blessings that you've given Job. Of course Job loves you.

[8:21] But I bet if you were, the devil's telling God this. I bet if your hand was to go against him that Job would turn against you and curse you to your face. And so, anyways, well, God says, no, not Job.

[8:37] But God says, all right, well, you have all of his possessions are in your power. You know, you can do anything you want to Job, but you cannot touch Job himself.

[8:49] You cannot touch his person. And the devil, he jumped in with both feet that next day, I'm sure. He departed from God, and he was like, okay, Job.

[9:02] He got busy. I mean, that next day, the devil, apparently all the kids, they were at the oldest son's house.

[9:14] All the kids, the whole family, you know, were there at the oldest son's house having a festival. And Job's wherever else. And then all of a sudden, here comes a servant running into Job.

[9:26] It says, Job said, I was with all the oxen and the donkeys were out in the field grazing. The oxes were plowing.

[9:37] I was out there with them. And then a group of raiders came. And they came, and they took all the cattle and slayed all the serpents. I was the only one that survived. I was the only one that got out.

[9:49] Everything else is gone. And it said, while he was still standing there in front of Job telling him this, here comes another servant running in. It says, Job, man, I was out there with the sheep, and all of a sudden, fire from heaven rained down.

[10:07] God's fire rained down from heaven and set the fields on fire and burned up all the sheep and all the servants, everybody that was out there with them. I'm the only one that escaped with my life.

[10:18] And so, all right, so there's two. Here comes the third one in. While they're still standing there, here comes another one that said Chaldeans or Servians, somebody came in riding.

[10:31] And in three groups, they came, they raided, and they took all the camels, and they killed all the servants. And I'm the only one that's left. So, we just learned of all of what Job had.

[10:43] He said he had 3,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen. Well, guess what?

[10:55] He doesn't have any of that anymore, right? Sounds like he's got about three servants left. Because those are the three people that have made it through these experiences. And they come to him, and then here comes a fourth in the door.

[11:10] And what news is he bringing? Well, a fourth comes in and says, Job, there's been something tragic.

[11:23] A great wind came and blew the house down where all your sons, daughters, all your children were in there together. And this great wind came and blew, and everybody in the house is gone.

[11:36] There's nobody left. There's been times when I've thought I've had a real bad day, right? I'm sure everybody's, you know, everybody's been down and been down in their luck.

[11:47] Seems like everything's going wrong. Job was having a truly terrible, terrible, terrible day.

[12:00] I mean, there's nothing comparable, I wouldn't think, to losing literally everything. And so, how does Job respond to this?

[12:14] I think it's there, chapter one, still, it's all still in chapter one. There's a chapter, there's like three, or there's 42 verses. But there's the first three chapters, or 42 chapters of Job, first three chapters got a lot of meat.

[12:31] And the first two chapters are like, whew, poor Job, you know. Anytime you think you're having a bad day, I'm like, have I considered Job? Because Job had a terrible day, right?

[12:42] Job had a terrible day. So, anyways, how does, if you want to look, or if you are following with me, there, it says, when all these people came in and told him all this news, Job tore his clothes.

[12:59] I know that was a sign, every time we see that in the Bible, you know, that's just great, great emotion, great anxiety, great, just, Lord, you know, he calls out and said, Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and he fell on the ground and worshipped and said, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return there.

[13:21] The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So, Job responds still praising God.

[13:35] He just lost everything that made him a wealthy man, you know. Their currency back then was like, oh, I got eight camels, you know. Their currency was how much possessions they had, how much livestock did they have.

[13:47] And all that's gone. In the blink of an eye and his children, Job responds of, well, praise you, Lord. You know, I came into this world with nothing.

[14:00] I came into this world naked. Now I've not got anything. Praise be to God. So, anyways, that's happened.

[14:13] Chapter 2 starts with another little conversation between God and the devil. Whenever I referred to Miss Allison earlier, she was saying, when your ears are burning, when somebody's been talking about you, because I said I was going to mention her up here on the thing.

[14:29] And she said, well, my ears will be burning. Can you imagine if it's true when a couple people are talking about you that your ears are burning a little bit? If Satan and God are having a conversation about you, what kind of feeling is that?

[14:43] What kind of sensation would that be? To have, you know, all that power to have a conversation, you know. So, anyways, here it goes again. Chapter 2.

[14:54] Start off with the devil and God are having a conversation. God's like, hey, Satan, how did it work out with Job? Huh? Did you convince Job that I'm such a bad guy?

[15:07] And Job, or Satan's like, well, yeah, sure, you took everything, you know. Sure, he doesn't have anything, but man would give anything to keep his life.

[15:18] Man would give away all his possessions to keep his life. That's not such a big deal. He wouldn't let me do anything to Job himself, but, you know, man would do anything to keep his life or would be willing to give up anything.

[15:33] And so, God's like, all right, you know what? You can. You can touch him, but you cannot take his life this time.

[15:45] First set of rules was that he wasn't allowed to touch Job himself. Second set of rules is like, all right, you can't kill Job, but you can, all right, have fun with your health or have fun with his health.

[15:56] So, the devil, at this point, goes out and he strikes Job with great illness. He has bulls all over him, head to toe.

[16:06] He's covered in these bulls, festering. I'm sure he looked in a pretty terrible way, and he's miserable. And at this point, even his wife, you know, he's done lost everything.

[16:21] Now, at this point, Job's wife is like, just curse God and die. Like, you, you know, you have lost everything. You are, you know, you look terrible.

[16:32] You know, obviously, God is, you know, upset with you. Something's going on. And so, her advice to him is just curse God and let yourself, you know, get put out of your misery, you know, to blaspheme God and let him handle you kind of thing.

[16:50] And that was her advice. So, I mean, now Job's catching it from every angle. And his response to his wife saying that, in verse 10 of chapter 2, says, But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speak.

[17:03] Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. So, there again, he's like, you know, we all enjoy it whenever God's blessing us.

[17:17] We enjoy God's blessings and stuff. That's easy. It's easy for us to enjoy when things are going good. But when things are going bad, we're also supposed to, you know, praise God.

[17:31] And it said, you know, you were supposed to accept adversity just as openly. So, then again, Job didn't turn against God. He didn't say it was God's fault. He never turned against God.

[17:42] And that was Satan's whole ploy was to try to get Job to turn against God and turn away from God. But, and, so anyways, there to finish up chapter 3.

[17:56] Now it talks about a few friends that come in to visit with Job. And, yeah, I can't really remember their names.

[18:06] So, Eli, Zophar, no, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

[18:17] So, you got these three friends that have heard, oh, man, Job is in a terrible, terrible place. You know, he's lost all his possessions, his whole family.

[18:28] And now he's covered in these sores and bulls. And we need to go see Job. So, his buddies get together and say, all right, let's go see Job. Let's talk to him. See, you know, try to encourage him.

[18:43] So, they wind up traveling to see Job. And when they get there, it says they, you know, they noticed him from a distance and they didn't even recognize him. But Job's in such a bad way.

[18:54] You know, his best friends didn't even recognize him. And here in the last part of verse 13 of chapter 2.

[19:09] So, they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. And no one spoke a word to him for they saw how his grief was so great.

[19:21] Right? When I read this verse, preparing for this today, that was just another one of the little reassurances. And I was like, oh, okay, that's funny.

[19:33] Because when I, when this was kind of laid on my heart to talk about Job today, I thought, I kept thinking about this time when, you know, when a true tragedy happens.

[19:46] When somebody loses a loved one. And I think in this particular case, it was the death of, you know, a child, like an infant, a three-year-old or something. And it was a family member that I was talking to.

[20:01] And I was, you know, a very close family member. Very close, tight-knit family. And I was talking to them. And, you know, you get faced with the question of how can God let this happen?

[20:13] You know, how can, somebody's just sitting there grieving so deeply. And they're like, how can God let this happen? And from their point of view, you know, they're, maybe they are questioning God.

[20:26] Questioning, you know, what's going on. And in that time, if that's your position, it's time to consider Job. What did Job do? Job praised God for his adversities. That's when we need to consider Job again.

[20:39] But in that particular situation, I sat there because I couldn't say anything. I didn't have anything to respond to her whenever she gave me, you know, when she said this to me.

[20:52] There's, you know, there's things, there were thoughts that came to my head. But I wasn't, I couldn't open my mouth. I just, you know, I knew nothing that I was about to tell her would comfort her in any way.

[21:03] That, you know, it wouldn't be received. So I just sat there quietly and, you know, just tried to be, you know, be present. But there was nothing I could say.

[21:14] So whenever I read this verse right here, I was like, well, that's what that story is for. That's, that's why God, that's why I kept thinking about that before I even read this verse. It said Job's friends got there.

[21:25] They sat down with him for seven days and didn't say a word to him because he was just grieving. He was so down and out. So the, uh, it says that at that point, you know, Job started cursing.

[21:43] Job, to this point, Job is, Job has always given God glory. You know, you know, the whole thing was Satan's, you know, trying to trick, God knew that Job, how devout Job was to him.

[21:56] And he was allowing the devil to test Job to prove that, you know, that Job, I guess his worthiness, he was trying to prove that Job was his.

[22:09] And it's not working with Job. Every time, you know, the first tragedies happened and Job tore his clothes and said, Naked, I came in, Naked, I'll leave. You know, thank you, Lord, for letting me, you know, allowing me to possess it for the time I did.

[22:25] But, you know, still praising God. And then after the bulls, you know, he's still correcting his wife saying, Look, I won't, I won't, uh, I won't allow myself to lose my integrity and to curse God.

[22:40] Like, this is not of God. But God, or Job knew himself as to be a righteous man. And, uh, I'm sure in those times, you know, myself in a situation like that, I'd be playing back everything like, What am I doing wrong, Lord?

[22:56] What am I doing wrong? Why am I being punished for this kind of thing? And whenever Job's friends come, the next, all the rest of the chapters all the way to the end are pretty much Job's conversations with his buddies of going back and forth of, They're all accusing Job of, Man, you've been doing something wrong.

[23:16] That's why God's hand's against you right now. Like, you need to repent. You need to get yourself in line. This, you know, God's hand is against you right now. And Job would never accept that.

[23:27] Job was like, No, I'm, you know, I've lived righteously. That's not what's going on. And so, they go back and forth for a long time. Uh, about whether or not it's anything that Job's been doing.

[23:44] And Job even, you know, he starts cursing, Lord, you know, he cusses, he curses the Lord, or the day he was born. He says, I wish I was never born. I wish my mother's womb was never open.

[23:55] And I wish you knew it never happened because he's in terrible, terrible grief of the position he's in. But he never, he never, uh, loses his integrity and curses the Lord.

[24:11] So, anyways, the, uh, the verses we read, the happy ending part of this, I want to pick out a couple verses. Or, verse 2 right there.

[24:25] It says, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. So, that's just giving credit to God for who God is.

[24:38] He can do all things. There's nothing. If God can create this heaven, or this world, in seven days, in the heavens, the stars in the sky, if God can do all that, there's nothing God can't do.

[24:51] There's nothing of this world that isn't of God. And, uh, there in, verse 3, uh, you asked who it is that hides counsel without knowledge, and therefore I had uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful me to know, which I did not know.

[25:14] So, during all those conversations with his friends, I mean, they didn't talk for seven days, but then, after a time, then they started talking, and, I'm sure in some ways, his friends start convincing him.

[25:30] Because Job's sitting there saying, like, hey, I haven't done anything wrong. You know, I'm blameless, I'm upright, like, I literally, I don't know why God's hand might be against me. And, his friends, of course, are accusing him of everything that he could be doing.

[25:46] And, uh, so, I'm sure by those conversations going on, and on, and on, that, you know, at some point, Job kind of got convinced that, you know what, maybe God's not justified.

[26:02] You know, that, uh, they, as, as humans, we try to justify things. Like, okay, well, this happened to you. Whenever things are going wrong in our lives, we feel like, okay, what did we do?

[26:14] What did we do? You know? And so, he was thinking that God was not justified in what he was doing, uh, and the things he was going through, that God wasn't fair. And so, there in verse three, he's just apologizing for being human, for not knowing God's plan, for assuming that he had some control over what was going on, or, uh, the things he said.

[26:44] Uh, and then we'll skip on down to verse five. I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now, but my eyes see you.

[27:01] Therefore, I'll arbor myself, and repent in the dust and ashes. Jesus. So, what had happened there at the end, God revealed himself to Job in a whirlwind.

[27:13] So, this conversation that God and Job are having, last two chapters or so, you know, now, now God's made himself apparent.

[27:25] He's sitting here having a conversation with Job. He's present. Uh, I'm gonna, kind of go on a little side note, and glorify God a little bit.

[27:37] Psalms, 50, 17 says, Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. So, right now, I'm gonna do a little bit of glorifying God, for a time when he was present, when he showed up in front of me, in a big way.

[27:54] And, most of the kids have heard this, because I like telling this story. Being a farmer, uh, so one day, I was hauling a bunch of cattle. I was hauling them to a new farm, they'd never been there before, and, uh, when I pulled in, it was the first group of cows, there were no cows on that place, so I pulled in, and I had to kind of drive up the driveway, and then I pulled into a smaller little lot, and, then, turned the truck around, and faced out into the property, where all the grass was so tall, and green, and everything.

[28:25] And, so I turned around, where I was facing back out, and I opened the gates, and the cows came running off the trailer, and of course, I didn't shut any of the gates back to the road, on my way in, because I was like, I'm, I'm on, I drove 180 yards, into this property, and into another field, a little zigzag, so, uh, of course, I was like, of course, cows are just going to jump off the trailer, and go eat, right?

[28:47] Well, I opened the gates, cows jumped off the back of the trailer, did a ewee, and went straight up alongside the trailer, and I didn't think anything of it, so I'm sitting here, just putting my gates back, closing my trailer, and everything, and I look up, and, that lead, that front cow is, halfway to the road, going back down the driveway, and, uh, I was like, oh no, so, and of course, with cows, I didn't want to run, because all I'm going to do is, chase them out the gate, and so, I kind of started brisk walking, and I was in the different field from them, trying to cut them off to the gate, but I was brisk walking, until I realized, that I wasn't going to get there in time, and then I started running, and they all, all nine of them, I think, ran out, and they were, available to the greater part of America, you know, there were, this particular section, there were, a little bit of fence, right where my property was on the road, but nothing, anywhere else, on either side, you know, and they were going straight towards Covered Bridge, and, uh, running up the road, and I took off running, and finally got ahead of the lead cow, probably 180 yards up the road, or 180, 200 yards up the road,

[29:59] I got ahead of her, and, she stopped under this big shade tree, just off the road, she stopped, they all stopped, and I'm sitting there, out of breath, like, I don't know, what am I going to do, because if there were fences on both sides of the road, it wouldn't be so bad, I could try to push them right back up towards my gate, but, there were, they could go anywhere, they could go any direction they wanted to, where they were standing at that point, and I didn't know what was going on, and I don't really remember, right now, what else had been going on that week, but I remember that I wasn't having a very spectacular week, that week, probably flat tires, and dead batteries, and, all the things that, definitely something was broken, or, been breaking, so, I know I've been having a pretty rough week already, so, I got down there, the cows had stopped, and, I'm like, oh, crap, I don't have my phone, I left my phone in the truck, because I was just getting out to open the, you know, let the cows out the trailer, and, so, and I didn't think, oh,

[31:01] I need to grab my phone, the cows were walking out the gate, so, I just took off running to go try to stop them, so, I'm down there, I don't have my phone, and I was like, well, somebody will drive up the road here in a minute, and I'll, I'll get them to stop, and help me push the cows back to the theater, and, nobody came, nobody came, and the time that nobody was coming, I was thinking about how my week was being just terrible, and, I think in that moment, I, I, I just hit my knees, I hit, I prayed, I said, Lord, please, I don't know what I'm going to do, I had, I think it may be tearing up a little bit, I was like, I don't know what I've been doing, please, Lord, I need you to come and help me right now, I don't know what to do, and, at that moment, the cows, single file, I'm still on my knees, just in the road, not doing anything, those cows walked in a single file, straight up the road, and I was like, I mean, I was like, okay, and, I didn't even put, I didn't walk behind them, didn't push them, didn't anything,

[32:02] I walked alongside of them, and, they walked straight back into the gate, just as calmly, and in a straight line, and just, and I shut the gate, and I hit my knees, and I said, Lord, I'll be darned, thank you, I would have never, you know, that, that's whenever, that's when God hits you in the face, says, here I am, right, so, that was, just a little bit, a little story to glorify God, and, but anyway, as far as Job goes, you know, we all have times in our life, I don't know what time it is, in your life right now, you might be, you know, cows and donkeys, and sheep, maybe belly deep in grass, and, but you're on the verge of a calamity, you know, and I don't pray that on anybody, I hope, Lord, please don't let that happen, but, you know, those, those times of calamity, we gotta, we gotta remember, that God's great all the time, and we don't always know his plan, and his plan may not always, meet our thoughts, and desires, but, we gotta, we find ourselves in that time of, trials and troubles, that's when we gotta consider Job, try to consider Job, and consider what Job, what made Job Job, his faith, his putting his trust in God, devoutly, no matter his friends, his wife, everything, it seemed like the world, had come against Job,

[33:37] Job did not, you know, he did not falter, he did not stumble, he stayed true to God, and it wound up being, Job that wound up, kind of clearing his buddy's name, after all these conversations, that he had had back and forth, we skipped it, there in verse, or chapter 22, but that group of verses, that we skipped over, was just describing how, God had kind of, gotten a little angry, with all his buddies, and how they'd been talking about God, and the things they had said, so, he told them, look, I gotta go back to Job, Job, and get Job to offer these sacrifices, I ain't accepting the sacrifice, from you, but Job, Job's my boy, you go to Job, and he'll pray for you, and you know, offer your sacrifices, and I'll forgive you for it, so, that's, just, I guess that's, pretty well the end of it, I don't know what else, but I appreciate y'all, being such a, cooperative group,

[34:45]  I'll just, pray that Billy Joe, gets back here quickly, right, save him, I don't really remember, what happens at this point, you gotta come sing, yeah, alright,