WEBVTT 00:00:00.380 --> 00:00:07.460 I decided today that I didn't want to step into the middle of pasture, going through the churches, the seven churches in 00:00:07.460 --> 00:00:09.080 Revelation two and three. 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:16.160 And so I'm going to look at a different book today, and hopefully we can get some application from that book, not only for our personal lives, but 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:20.080 some application for us studying and looking through the Book of Revelation. 00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:23.970 And so if you want to follow along, turn to the book of job this morning. 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:25.240 Job. 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:29.620 Job is just before Psalms in your Old Testament Bible. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.560 So the book of job, I think pastor has done just a great job of letting us know some 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:41.300 of the things to expect as we go through the Book of Revelation. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:47.040 And two things that stood out to me so far is he says that the Book of Revelation is a book of hope. 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:54.940 And that's encouraging to me, because no matter what we're going through, no matter what's happening in our lives, God 00:00:54.940 --> 00:00:56.870 is always there. 00:00:57.020 --> 00:00:59.520 God, we can always have hope in our Lord. 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:00.220 Right? 00:01:00.220 --> 00:01:04.180 And so hope is it's a wonderful thing and we're going to see it in Job. 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:04.970 We're going to see it in Revelation. 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:10.040 And the other thing that pastor has mentioned is that Revelation is a book of worship. 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:11.020 And I love that. 00:01:11.020 --> 00:01:12.980 I love that we get back to the place of worship. 00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:15.580 We get to worship here every Sunday morning. 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:15.900 Right. 00:01:15.900 --> 00:01:20.140 And our music group is so amazing and the worship is so incredible. 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:21.790 And so that's a praise. 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:23.100 But we get to see. 00:01:23.300 --> 00:01:25.530 I hope you get to worship daily. 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.400 You come across times when you want to, when you can worship in your personal life all the time. 00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:38.040 And we're going to see that not only is Revelation the book of worship, but job we see is a book of worship as well. 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:45.580 And again, I think I think these things help us, help us not only in our personal lives, but help us as we're going to study Revelation. 00:01:46.380 --> 00:01:47.860 So job is an interesting book. 00:01:49.220 --> 00:01:52.930 one of the things that makes it so interesting is we have no idea who wrote it. 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:58.240 We can speculate a whole bunch about who wrote it, but we really have no idea who wrote the book of Job. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:03.320 And so since we don't know who wrote the Book of Job, it's kind of hard to tell when the Book of Job was written. 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:07.180 And so we don't know these things about job. 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:10.300 we do know a little bit. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.540 And we're going to look at that in these first three verses of job. 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.670 So job chapter one, verses one through three say this. 00:02:16.940 --> 00:02:24.020 It says there was a man of the land of us whose name was job, and that man was blameless and upright, fearing God and turning away 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:24.790 from evil. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:27.220 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:35.010 His possessions were 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. 00:02:35.060 --> 00:02:36.130 Now listen to this. 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:39.820 And that man was the greatest of all the men of the East. 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:42.120 Wow, that's a statement. 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:43.600 We'll come back to that in a minute. 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:43.800 But. 00:02:43.980 --> 00:02:46.380 But it says that job was from the land of Oz. 00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:49.640 And again, we really don't know where that was. 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:56.000 There are several references to us in the Bible, but none of them can conclusively tell us that that's where job is from. 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.360 And so but it does say this, that he was the greatest among the men of the East. 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:04.360 And when the Bible talks about the East, it's really it's really unique. 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:07.960 The Bible is talking about east of the Jordan River. 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:11.780 East of Israel is anything east. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:16.520 And so Ammon, Moab, Edom, they're all east of the Jordan River. 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:20.200 And on that east side well also is Arabia. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:23.820 Arabia just keeps going east, and it's a long ways east. 00:03:23.820 --> 00:03:27.260 I mean, the wise men who brought gifts to Jesus in Bethlehem. 00:03:27.420 --> 00:03:28.150 Where were they from? 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:30.360 They were from the East. 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.960 They traveled a long time from the east to get there. 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:36.100 And so these guys, the east is all of that. 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:40.250 And so we know job was from somewhere in all of that. 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:45.460 But what's incredible is that he was greatest among all the men and all of that. 00:03:46.460 --> 00:03:49.640 That's what a testimony that is to job. 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:55.320 So really an incredible thing to see about job. 00:03:55.440 --> 00:04:01.860 And oftentimes since we don't know so much about who wrote it and when it was written, and even where job lived. 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:03.900 And sometimes people come up with this idea. 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:09.520 Well then, is job really a real character in the Bible or is this a parable? 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:11.270 Did job really exist? 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:14.040 And I think the Bible helps us with that. 00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:21.240 In Ezekiel chapter 14, verses 12 through 20, God is telling Ezekiel some things, and he tells him four 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:22.000 different times. 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:24.520 He says four different times, something like this. 00:04:24.580 --> 00:04:30.650 If a country or a land sins against me and I pour out my wrath against it, then I'm going to do it in various ways. 00:04:30.900 --> 00:04:38.100 There's various ways God listed in each of those four times, but then each of those four times two, he says something like this out of verse 20. 00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:46.080 He says, even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in the midst as I live, declares the Lord, they could not save 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:48.580 either their son or their daughter. 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:51.960 They would save only themselves by their righteousness. 00:04:52.940 --> 00:04:54.800 Wow, that's pretty amazing. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:55.220 I mean it. 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:57.940 So we learn a couple of things about job. 00:04:57.940 --> 00:04:58.620 Job was righteous. 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:08.100 I mean, if job was in one of these lands that God was going to pour out, his wrath on, job wouldn't be affected by it, just 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:09.940 like Noah and Daniel. 00:05:10.280 --> 00:05:11.840 I mean, that's pretty good company to keep. 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:16.060 And I don't know that I've ever heard anybody say that they thought Noah and Daniel were parables. 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:22.160 And so I think, I think we get a pretty valuable information from that about job being a real person. 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:23.180 And here's the second one. 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:24.440 And I like this and a whole bunch. 00:05:24.440 --> 00:05:26.410 This is out of James, out of the New Testament now. 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:34.240 And in James chapter five and verse ten says this as an example, brothers and sisters of suffering and patience take the prophets who spoke 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:35.460 in the name of the Lord. 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:37.240 We count those blessed who endure. 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:38.680 And you think about it. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:42.350 If you look at Hebrews chapter 11, you see what he's talking about. 00:05:42.440 --> 00:05:45.800 You see what some of these prophets endured and what they went through. 00:05:45.860 --> 00:05:49.620 And if you're a student of the Bible, these some of these prophets. 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:52.150 It was crazy what they dealt with, what they endured. 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:58.780 He's talking about and he says we count them blessed because of what they endured for their suffering and patience. 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:05.860 But now listen to how he ended, he said, and you have heard of the endurance of job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:09.810 dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:15.130 So really, when you see these things that happen to job, it's pretty obvious that job's a real person. 00:06:15.380 --> 00:06:22.680 And not only did these things happen so that we could see his righteousness, but they happened so that we could see God's compassion and his mercy 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:24.180 on people. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.010 And so job was a real man. 00:06:27.180 --> 00:06:27.680 We learned. 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:29.880 We learned some amazing things about him. 00:06:29.880 --> 00:06:30.450 He was blameless. 00:06:31.460 --> 00:06:32.120 He was upright. 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:35.360 He feared God, and he turned from evil. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:42.620 We also learned that he had ten kids, and that he had a whole bunch of animals and a whole bunch of servants and if you go on 00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:45.360 in chapter one, you learn this about him. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:50.180 Job's ten kids would get together and they would have these big dinners, and they would have these big gatherings. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:57.760 And after his kids would get together the next day, job would rise up early in the morning and he would offer burnt 00:06:57.760 --> 00:07:04.800 offerings for each of his kids, and he would do that, the Bible says, just in case any of them sinned or cursed 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:05.240 God. 00:07:06.380 --> 00:07:12.580 He wanted to make sure he could do everything he could, to even make sure his kids were good, were clean. 00:07:12.580 --> 00:07:16.240 We're right with God at the time, and so it was pretty amazing. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:20.260 It's pretty incredible to see the type of person Jobe was. 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:22.600 But here's something Jobe didn't know. 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:30.860 There was a real spiritual heavenly battle going on for Jobe, and we see that in the next 00:07:30.860 --> 00:07:31.550 few verses. 00:07:31.820 --> 00:07:39.000 In chapter one, starting in verse six, it says, now there was a day when the sons of God came and presented themselves before 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.020 the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 00:07:42.740 --> 00:07:44.160 That's amazing. 00:07:44.780 --> 00:07:46.010 The sons of God are angels. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:50.820 The angels come and present themselves before God, and Satan also comes with them. 00:07:50.940 --> 00:07:58.020 And it's interesting that we get to hear Satan's exchange with God, because God says to Satan, from where 00:07:58.020 --> 00:07:58.890 do you come now? 00:08:00.700 --> 00:08:01.800 God didn't need to know. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:03.540 God already knew, right? 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:04.360 God knows everything. 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:05.820 God knows where Satan was. 00:08:05.860 --> 00:08:06.840 He knows where he's been. 00:08:06.940 --> 00:08:08.150 He knows where he's going to go. 00:08:08.420 --> 00:08:09.720 I mean, God knows everything. 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:10.860 He didn't need to know that. 00:08:11.020 --> 00:08:13.270 But this statement is made more of a Satan. 00:08:13.960 --> 00:08:15.130 Give an account of yourself. 00:08:16.840 --> 00:08:18.070 I want to hear what you've been doing. 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:20.800 And so Satan says this. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:21.880 He's he answers the Lord. 00:08:21.960 --> 00:08:25.380 And he says, from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:27.040 Oh, man. 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:30.920 Kind of reminds you of first Peter chapter five and verse eight, doesn't it? 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.570 Satan roams around, walks around on the earth seeking whom he may devour. 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:38.260 That's what he could have said to God. 00:08:38.260 --> 00:08:40.549 I've just been out looking for who I may devour. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:47.260 And then God says this amazing thing to him says, have you considered my servant job? 00:08:48.660 --> 00:08:50.040 What a wonderful title. 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:53.460 Wouldn't everybody like to say if God addressed something about you? 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:55.020 Oh, there's my servant. 00:08:55.020 --> 00:08:55.240 So. 00:08:55.260 --> 00:08:55.720 And so. 00:08:56.280 --> 00:08:57.400 That would be pretty good. 00:08:58.460 --> 00:08:58.940 Good. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:08:59.900 Good stuff. 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:07.060 But then he says, for there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, fearing God and turning away from 00:09:07.060 --> 00:09:07.720 evil. 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:12.260 Now we got the blameless and the upright and fearing God, and turning away from evil. 00:09:12.300 --> 00:09:13.460 We got that out of verse one. 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:15.470 But listen to what he says there. 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:17.450 There is no one like him on the earth. 00:09:18.180 --> 00:09:20.400 God had already said there was no one like him in the East. 00:09:20.420 --> 00:09:22.180 He was the greatest among the men of the East. 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:26.280 And now God is telling Satan, there's nobody like job on the entire earth. 00:09:28.020 --> 00:09:29.440 What a testimony that is! 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:31.340 That's amazing. 00:09:31.420 --> 00:09:38.520 And you'd think that Satan would say, well, I should think before I act, but Satan don't do 00:09:38.520 --> 00:09:39.020 that. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:40.240 Satan. 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:44.740 It's really shocking, the boldness with which Satan approaches God. 00:09:45.060 --> 00:09:47.230 And we see it starting in verse nine. 00:09:47.260 --> 00:09:51.040 It says, Then Satan answered God and it says, Does job fear God for nothing? 00:09:52.180 --> 00:09:57.070 Have you not made a fence around him and his house and all that he has on every side. 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:03.760 And have you or you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:06.240 I mean, God, you're taking care of job. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:07.600 Of course he fears you. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:09.680 Of course he's in awe of you. 00:10:10.700 --> 00:10:16.800 I mean, if he didn't or if you didn't, if you stopped doing this, then job wouldn't fear you anymore. 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:17.600 He wouldn't do it. 00:10:17.640 --> 00:10:19.060 That's Satan's accusation. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.680 If you stopped, then job wouldn't. 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:25.240 He would stop worshiping you. 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:27.080 He would stop fearing you. 00:10:27.180 --> 00:10:34.740 And I think it's pretty amazing that we get to listen in to this exchange and this conversation between 00:10:34.740 --> 00:10:41.460 God and Satan, because job helps us see in just an incredible way that God is in control of everything. 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:45.280 Nothing goes on that God's not in control of. 00:10:46.020 --> 00:10:49.730 Even Satan has to come before God and get permission to do what he does. 00:10:51.040 --> 00:10:52.520 God is in control of it all. 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:56.080 There's nothing that goes on that God God's surprised by it. 00:10:56.160 --> 00:10:59.360 There's nothing that goes on that God doesn't know about. 00:10:59.420 --> 00:11:04.070 There's nothing that goes on that God doesn't even know what the results are going to be after it goes on. 00:11:05.020 --> 00:11:09.960 I mean, that's how completely in control God is in of everything. 00:11:11.300 --> 00:11:13.260 Nothing is out of God's control. 00:11:14.140 --> 00:11:21.180 And so God says, or Satan had said, reach out and touch your hand and with your hand, and touch all that he has, and he will 00:11:21.180 --> 00:11:22.920 certainly curse you to your face. 00:11:23.500 --> 00:11:25.660 And so God says, okay, go ahead. 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:28.780 He says, he's in your power to do whatever you want to do. 00:11:30.020 --> 00:11:31.360 He says, but you can't harm him. 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:32.580 You can't hurt him. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:39.540 And so Satan uses the Sabians and the Chaldeans, and he has them come and he has them raid everything that job has. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:41.730 All of his children are killed. 00:11:41.780 --> 00:11:42.820 All of his servants are killed. 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:44.660 All of his livestock is taken away. 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:48.120 A pretty much virtually everything that he has is gone. 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:55.160 And look at job's response 22 or in verse 20 it says. 00:11:55.160 --> 00:12:01.220 Then job got up, he tore his robe and he shaved his head, and he fell down to the ground and he worshiped. 00:12:02.280 --> 00:12:02.740 Oh, my. 00:12:04.420 --> 00:12:08.980 I don't know about you, but when I'm going through tough times, that's not my response. 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:11.580 My immediate response isn't worship. 00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:13.040 I mean, I praise the Lord. 00:12:13.040 --> 00:12:16.450 I think it comes eventually, but that's not my immediate response. 00:12:16.920 --> 00:12:18.880 Job fell down and worshiped and he said this. 00:12:18.900 --> 00:12:23.360 He said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:24.000 Listen to this. 00:12:24.020 --> 00:12:26.370 The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. 00:12:26.520 --> 00:12:27.830 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:32.740 And despite all this job did not sin, and he did not blame God. 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:38.160 Satan come to God and said, take all this stuff away, and job will sin and he'll curse you. 00:12:38.400 --> 00:12:39.040 And job didn't. 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:41.940 That messed up for a minute? 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:49.490 So he comes to God again and look in chapter two and at the first few verses in chapter two and you see the exact same thing going on, 00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:51.660 Satan again comes before God. 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:58.840 And this time God says to Satan, he says, if you consider my servant job, and he says this about him, he says, who still holds firm to his 00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:04.920 integrity, though you have moved against him, he says, I know what you did, Satan. 00:13:05.140 --> 00:13:11.660 And yet job is still holding firm to his belief in me and who he believes I am. 00:13:11.780 --> 00:13:16.160 And he hasn't sinned against me, and he hasn't cursed me like you thought he would. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:20.360 Satan and Satan challenges God again. 00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:21.860 He is again. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:23.580 He's just incredibly bold. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:27.130 He says, put forth your hand and mess with his bone and his flesh. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:31.580 Put forth your hand and hurt him physically, and then he'll curse you to your face. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:35.030 And God says, okay, you can do that, Satan. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:36.540 He says, but you can't harm him. 00:13:36.540 --> 00:13:37.560 You can't kill him. 00:13:38.900 --> 00:13:41.410 And so, if you know the story, you know what Satan did. 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:45.380 Is he afflicted job with the boils, with the sores all over him? 00:13:45.380 --> 00:13:47.040 I mean, it was it was so messy. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.570 It was so painful, and job was so miserable. 00:13:49.680 --> 00:13:56.790 I mean, he was scraping himself with pieces of pottery, broken pottery, trying to clean the stuff up and trying to get a little relief. 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:01.750 And it was so bad that even his wife chimes in and his wife says this. 00:14:02.460 --> 00:14:05.580 She says, are you still maintaining your integrity? 00:14:06.060 --> 00:14:07.240 Cursed God and die. 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:09.130 Are you still? 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:14.330 Are you still going to stand up and say, yep, I believe God, I trust God, he's in control. 00:14:14.660 --> 00:14:18.360 Why don't you just curse God and die and get and be done with it? 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:23.960 You're going through so much, and job's answer to his wife is really an amazing answer. 00:14:23.980 --> 00:14:28.580 And it's a question that I think it would be good for us to ask ourselves once in a while. 00:14:29.160 --> 00:14:38.900 Job says this, he says, but 00:14:38.900 --> 00:14:39.880 he said to her, you are speaking as one of the foolish women speaks. 00:14:39.880 --> 00:14:40.080 Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity? 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.600 Despite all this, job did not sin with his lips. 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:45.010 What a great question. 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:49.020 Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity? 00:14:49.700 --> 00:14:54.880 It's so easy for me to stand and say, oh God is so good when things are going good for me, right? 00:14:55.660 --> 00:14:56.640 God is so good. 00:14:56.660 --> 00:14:59.640 But when things aren't going so good, do I still say that? 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:03.430 Do I still say God is so good when I'm struggling? 00:15:03.520 --> 00:15:05.510 When things are going on, whatever it might be. 00:15:05.680 --> 00:15:07.000 Is God still good? 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:08.060 We know he is. 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:08.980 But am I saying it? 00:15:09.880 --> 00:15:11.600 And that's what job's trying to tell us here. 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.780 Should we accept the good from God and not the adversity? 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:16.250 Really a good question. 00:15:17.280 --> 00:15:25.440 And, any time we talk about Satan, I think it's important to bring up a couple of things about Satan, because as powerful 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:29.400 as of being a Satan is, he's not in control of everything. 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:31.440 Like we said, he has to come to God. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:32.700 He has to ask for permission. 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.890 But there's a couple of other things about Satan that I think are important for us to know. 00:15:37.160 --> 00:15:39.340 Number one is he has no idea what we're thinking. 00:15:40.660 --> 00:15:43.600 Satan can't get into our mind and look into our mind like God can. 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:45.340 He don't know what we're thinking. 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:48.640 The only thing Satan can operate from is what I show him. 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:52.190 The only thing he could operate from with job was he was righteous. 00:15:52.820 --> 00:15:53.160 He was. 00:15:53.300 --> 00:15:53.940 He was blameless. 00:15:54.180 --> 00:15:54.800 He was upright. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:56.220 He feared God. 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:58.400 I mean, that's the only thing Satan had to operate from. 00:15:58.400 --> 00:15:59.160 So who did he accuse? 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:00.600 God. 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:03.620 He stands before God and accuses God. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.440 The only reason saint or job is so good is because of you, God. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:10.180 And so he. 00:16:11.140 --> 00:16:12.630 That's the only thing he had to work with. 00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:16.040 He has different stuff to work with for me and he'll use it. 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.460 But Satan can't do anything that I haven't showed him already. 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:22.500 The second thing Satan doesn't know is Satan doesn't know the future. 00:16:23.160 --> 00:16:25.280 The only thing Satan knows about the future is the same thing. 00:16:25.340 --> 00:16:29.700 We do what's in this book and he knows it well, but he doesn't. 00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:32.140 He can't determine what's going to go on next week. 00:16:32.140 --> 00:16:33.140 Only God does that. 00:16:34.520 --> 00:16:41.900 So to me, those are a couple of valuable things about Satan that keeps me from giving him too much power in my life 00:16:41.900 --> 00:16:46.980 because he is an incredible, powerful, incredibly powerful being. 00:16:47.160 --> 00:16:51.080 And really, nothing's going to stop him from accusing us before God. 00:16:51.260 --> 00:16:52.260 That's his goal. 00:16:52.260 --> 00:16:53.400 That's his plan. 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:56.200 Pastor is going to cover this soon in the Book of Revelation. 00:16:56.400 --> 00:16:59.060 But Revelation chapter 12 and verse ten says this. 00:16:59.260 --> 00:17:06.770 It says, then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. 00:17:07.460 --> 00:17:13.940 For the accuser of the brethren and sisters has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before God day and night. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.680 Comes a time in chapter 12 of Revelation when Satan is thrown out of heaven again. 00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:27.020 And but what he was doing while he was there is he was accusing the brethren day and night, and that's 00:17:27.020 --> 00:17:27.869 what he's going to do. 00:17:28.620 --> 00:17:30.360 He's going to spend that time accusing us. 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:34.180 He's going to accuse us continually until he can't accuse us anymore. 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:42.630 And so job in this interesting place that he's at, all of a sudden he runs into some accusers that he wasn't expecting. 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:50.620 We're introduced at the end of chapter two, or toward the end of chapter two to his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. 00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:58.760 Now these three friends come along, and their purpose and their desire is to be show job some sympathy 00:17:58.760 --> 00:18:02.120 and to mourn with him and to care for him. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:03.700 And when they first come, they did that. 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:04.800 They were great at it. 00:18:04.840 --> 00:18:12.080 Listen to this says when they looked from a distance and did not recognize him, he was so messed up 00:18:12.080 --> 00:18:13.430 they didn't even recognize him. 00:18:13.600 --> 00:18:15.530 They raised their voices and they wept. 00:18:15.600 --> 00:18:20.310 And each of them tore his robe, and he threw dust over his head toward the sky. 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:22.120 And then they sat down on the ground with him. 00:18:22.120 --> 00:18:29.380 And for seven days and for seven nights no one spoke a word to him, for they saw 00:18:29.380 --> 00:18:31.140 that his pain was very great. 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:32.880 What an impressive thing. 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:37.120 What a great thing to come and just sit with a guy and mourn. 00:18:38.760 --> 00:18:44.760 You know, we oftentimes get the opportunity to try to be an encouragement to someone. 00:18:45.120 --> 00:18:49.960 And if you're like me, I always think I got it, say exactly the right thing. 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:52.290 So I'm always trying to think, what's the right thing to say? 00:18:52.860 --> 00:18:58.900 Maybe sometimes it would be better for me just to sit down and be quiet and just mourn quietly with them. 00:18:59.660 --> 00:19:01.320 Maybe I just need to give them a hug. 00:19:02.100 --> 00:19:04.280 Maybe I just need to hold a hand, you know? 00:19:04.280 --> 00:19:05.840 Maybe I just need to cry with them. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:06.400 Right? 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:09.320 Maybe I don't need to say a word. 00:19:10.220 --> 00:19:12.000 I mean, there will come a time when maybe we do. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:18.860 But maybe I could just be quiet like these friends of job. 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:21.480 Now, unfortunately, the friends of job couldn't stay quiet. 00:19:22.780 --> 00:19:23.660 They. 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:27.770 It's a it's a really an interesting time, but they couldn't keep quiet. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:34.240 And actually, over the next 28 chapters of the book of job, job will heal in chapter three. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:38.780 He'll he'll mourn that he was even born, and he'll wish he was dead. 00:19:39.320 --> 00:19:41.460 And so he spends chapter three doing that. 00:19:41.600 --> 00:19:48.800 And then starting in chapter four, his friends start in, and their whole goal is to convince him 00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:50.000 that he's a sinner. 00:19:50.460 --> 00:19:50.860 Job. 00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:51.900 You've got to be a sinner. 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:55.500 You've got to have sinned or God wouldn't be doing all this stuff to you. 00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:02.490 And they spent the next 28 chapters doing that, and job spent his part of the next 28 chapters defending himself. 00:20:02.580 --> 00:20:07.200 No, I didn't sin, I didn't sin, and at first that was his focus. 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:08.320 No, I didn't sin. 00:20:08.380 --> 00:20:12.740 Later on, as we'll see, he also started saying, no, I didn't sin. 00:20:12.800 --> 00:20:17.010 And I'm a pretty good guy and I'm a pretty good guy all by myself. 00:20:17.080 --> 00:20:20.800 It didn't come from God, and God will challenge him about that. 00:20:20.860 --> 00:20:25.620 But for what we see with job and with his friend is his friends. 00:20:25.620 --> 00:20:32.720 As they spent all this time arguing their positions and job says some pretty unique things as he's stating 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:33.660 his defense. 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:36.500 And I want to look at a couple of them because I think they're kind of fun. 00:20:36.500 --> 00:20:43.500 In chapter 16 and verse 21, he says, oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a son of man with his 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:44.250 neighbor. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.300 Job said, man, I wish somebody would just plead to God for me. 00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:50.350 I wish there was somebody that could do that. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:58.060 And those of you that are familiar with First John know this first John chapter two and verse one says, my little children, I am writing these things 00:20:58.060 --> 00:20:59.710 to you so that you may not sin. 00:21:00.040 --> 00:21:04.860 And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 00:21:05.420 --> 00:21:10.940 Jesus Christ is doing for all of us exactly what job was hoping somebody would do for him. 00:21:11.340 --> 00:21:13.620 Stand before God and advocate for him. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:20.660 What an incredible picture of job looking for what Jesus Christ does for us. 00:21:21.420 --> 00:21:22.280 Pretty nice. 00:21:22.300 --> 00:21:24.000 In chapter 19 we have another one. 00:21:24.060 --> 00:21:24.850 And this one is great. 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:31.920 You've probably heard this one before, but he says yet in 25 yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that the last he will take his 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:32.900 stand on the earth. 00:21:33.260 --> 00:21:37.920 What a great verse in Colossians chapter one, verse 13 and 14. 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:45.120 We have somewhat of a parallel and there's many for this one, but this is for he has rescued us from the domain of darkness, 00:21:45.140 --> 00:21:51.040 and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sin. 00:21:51.800 --> 00:21:54.020 Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives. 00:21:54.020 --> 00:22:00.900 You know job again, we're not sure, but job probably lived at a time when no other scriptures were available. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:03.120 He didn't have a Bible to go look at. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:05.460 He didn't have the law to go look at. 00:22:05.460 --> 00:22:07.080 He didn't have any of that stuff to go look at. 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:10.390 Yet he's able to make the statement, I know that my Redeemer lives. 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:17.940 I know that he's alive right now, and he's one day going to stand on this earth, both as a man and in his second coming. 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:20.320 What an incredible statement by job. 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:23.360 Really amazing. 00:22:23.380 --> 00:22:26.770 And so job maintains, all this time I didn't sin. 00:22:27.860 --> 00:22:32.360 But like I said, he does come to this place where he starts to question how God is dealing with him. 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:36.850 He starts to question God's justice and how he's dealing with him and his three friends. 00:22:37.020 --> 00:22:38.760 Continue over and over and over again. 00:22:38.760 --> 00:22:38.940 Yep. 00:22:38.940 --> 00:22:42.220 You must have sinned or God wouldn't be allowing what's going on here. 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:45.860 And then in verse 32, a whole new guy shows up. 00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:48.540 All of a sudden a guy named Elihu shows up. 00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:57.040 Elijah, who's younger than the other guys, but he had to have been there all along because Elihu's argument is, he argues, 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.670 from what job and his three friends have been arguing about already. 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:08.560 And Elihu, he in the next six chapters states his point, and his point 00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:09.640 is much more godly. 00:23:09.820 --> 00:23:11.240 This is this is really good. 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:12.740 He starts out angry. 00:23:12.760 --> 00:23:18.380 Elihu says, job, I'm angry with you because you justified yourself and not God, right? 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:22.640 You eventually got to the place to where you found your justification within yourself. 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:26.540 When you know that God's the one that justifies. 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:27.840 And. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:34.000 And then he was angry with the three friends because they spend all of their time, they didn't give job any godly advice. 00:23:34.040 --> 00:23:35.120 All they gave him was condemnation. 00:23:36.760 --> 00:23:39.030 And so Elihu was angry at them as well. 00:23:39.620 --> 00:23:43.280 And Elihu comes at this whole thing with a whole different point of view. 00:23:43.360 --> 00:23:45.920 The other guys were trying to prove job was a sinner. 00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:48.260 Elihu didn't want to prove job was a sinner. 00:23:48.360 --> 00:23:56.010 Elihu who wanted to show him that his view of God, what he was saying about God, his questioning of God is wrong. 00:23:56.340 --> 00:24:00.100 He had no no right, no reason to be questioning God. 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:01.960 And he said things about God like this. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:03.720 He said, God's gracious, God's just. 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:04.500 God's great. 00:24:04.500 --> 00:24:11.700 That's the kind of things that Eliyahu covers as he's going through his all of these statements to job and to his three friends. 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:16.710 Now, like I said, Eliyahu goes on for six chapters. 00:24:16.860 --> 00:24:23.920 And then all of a sudden in chapter 38, job Eliphaz Bildad Zophar, none of those guys got 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:28.140 to talk because God said, I'm done with all this. 00:24:28.280 --> 00:24:29.430 It's my turn to talk. 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:31.520 I'm ready to talk. 00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:33.540 I need, I need to be the one that comes in next. 00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:40.440 And so God starts talking and, job questioned God's justice. 00:24:40.520 --> 00:24:41.880 He challenged God. 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:43.560 He questioned Job and God. 00:24:43.560 --> 00:24:50.840 And even though God's going to challenge job and it's interesting to realize God's challenge of job still comes 00:24:50.840 --> 00:24:54.240 on the heels of God calling him things like a man. 00:24:54.300 --> 00:25:00.210 There's no other man like him on earth, and calling him blameless and upright and the greatest of the men of the East. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:03.600 But God has to has to help. 00:25:03.740 --> 00:25:04.040 Job. 00:25:04.040 --> 00:25:04.440 See? 00:25:04.460 --> 00:25:07.540 Did you forget that I'm the one that gives you that character? 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:09.920 I'm the one that gives you that stuff. 00:25:10.140 --> 00:25:10.440 And so? 00:25:10.820 --> 00:25:12.980 So God addresses job and. 00:25:13.060 --> 00:25:15.180 And there's all kinds of questions that he asks. 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:22.140 There's actually 77 questions in these chapters, these five chapters that God questions job. 00:25:22.520 --> 00:25:26.510 And in those 77 questions, he asks him things like, were you there? 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:27.460 Did you do this? 00:25:27.460 --> 00:25:28.330 Did you do that? 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:30.220 Who did do those things? 00:25:30.520 --> 00:25:33.540 And so he's challenging job with all of that stuff. 00:25:34.120 --> 00:25:40.280 And his goal is to help job realize that you really have no right to question God. 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:44.080 You should not be questioning God. 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.320 And as you can guess, I mean, job's got to be shrinking way down, you know? 00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:53.100 I mean, if God's talking to you and challenging you like that, good job shrinking way down. 00:25:53.300 --> 00:25:59.620 And he can barely speak at one point at the in chapter 40, God questions him directly. 00:25:59.620 --> 00:26:01.520 And so job answers like this. 00:26:01.700 --> 00:26:03.660 He says, behold, I am insignificant. 00:26:04.540 --> 00:26:06.360 What can I say in response to you? 00:26:06.360 --> 00:26:07.720 I put my hand on my mouth. 00:26:08.180 --> 00:26:13.620 I have spoken once and I will not reply or twice, and I will add nothing more. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:20.440 Man, I don't mind saying I probably should do that once in a while, right? 00:26:20.520 --> 00:26:27.600 I mean, I've spoken too much, but job says I'm done and God continues to challenge him through the 00:26:27.600 --> 00:26:29.640 first part of chapter 42. 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:36.100 And we finally see the place where job reaches this humble response, where? 00:26:36.500 --> 00:26:39.880 Where it's obvious that job has come to that place of repentance. 00:26:39.940 --> 00:26:41.220 He's understood. 00:26:41.300 --> 00:26:43.360 He's got to that place of repentance. 00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:47.540 And he no longer feels like he can question God. 00:26:47.540 --> 00:26:49.760 He no longer thinks God was unjust to him. 00:26:49.840 --> 00:26:51.140 And so he says these things. 00:26:51.260 --> 00:26:58.420 Starting in verse two of chapter 42, he says, I know that you can do all things, and that no plan is impossible for you. 00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:01.560 Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge? 00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:09.200 Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. 00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:11.190 Please listen, and I will speak. 00:27:11.580 --> 00:27:14.610 I will ask you and you instruct me. 00:27:14.860 --> 00:27:17.580 I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. 00:27:17.700 --> 00:27:19.500 But now my eyes see you. 00:27:19.740 --> 00:27:23.980 Therefore I retract, and I repent, sitting in dust and ashes. 00:27:24.840 --> 00:27:31.840 What an incredible statement Joseph or Job makes in these few verses, because it's so 00:27:31.840 --> 00:27:38.960 good for us, no matter what we're going through, to come to that place where we say, I know you can do all things, and no plan is 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:40.020 impossible for you. 00:27:40.840 --> 00:27:46.640 I mean, just get to that spot where we know God's in control of everything. 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:47.770 You can do it all. 00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:50.300 Nothing's impossible for you. 00:27:50.420 --> 00:27:56.130 And if you keep reading in verse or in chapter 42, you see, this job at this time is repenting. 00:27:56.760 --> 00:28:00.880 He's humbling himself, and he declares all these amazing things about God. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:03.540 And this is before God does anything for him. 00:28:04.580 --> 00:28:05.550 And I think that's important. 00:28:06.180 --> 00:28:08.360 God eventually is going to restore everything to job. 00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:09.910 As a matter of fact, he's going to restore it double. 00:28:11.100 --> 00:28:13.600 He's going to have double of what he ever had. 00:28:13.780 --> 00:28:20.860 But God doesn't restore it before job makes these statements, and he doesn't restore it before job 00:28:20.860 --> 00:28:22.670 prays for his three friends. 00:28:22.780 --> 00:28:26.140 Listen to what God says to his three friends, he says in his wrath. 00:28:27.260 --> 00:28:31.720 God tells job's three friends, it's I didn't speak or you didn't speak of me. 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:32.380 What is right. 00:28:32.700 --> 00:28:34.440 But my servant job did. 00:28:34.700 --> 00:28:35.160 Isn't that great? 00:28:35.220 --> 00:28:36.180 He was servant job. 00:28:36.180 --> 00:28:38.180 And now, at the end of the book, he's servant job again. 00:28:38.180 --> 00:28:39.900 I like that, but he says. 00:28:39.900 --> 00:28:43.840 But my servant job did so offer a burnt offering. 00:28:43.840 --> 00:28:45.160 And job will pray for you. 00:28:45.300 --> 00:28:46.370 And I will accept him. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.140 I will accept job's prayer for you. 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:50.870 What a great thing. 00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:53.160 And it's after job. 00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:58.240 Prayer prays that God restores everything to job and double. 00:28:58.860 --> 00:29:00.220 And I think it's unique to notice. 00:29:00.320 --> 00:29:02.680 Also, Elihu isn't included in this. 00:29:03.100 --> 00:29:06.980 This is just the first three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. 00:29:08.140 --> 00:29:15.680 They, Elihu, spoke for God and God's wrath was not poured out on Elihu 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.560 relating to all of this. 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:26.280 So it's important for us to remember, I think, that no matter what we're going through, acknowledge that God is 00:29:26.280 --> 00:29:27.020 who he is. 00:29:28.100 --> 00:29:32.520 I mean, sometimes we want to maybe God did this. 00:29:32.520 --> 00:29:33.500 Maybe God is this. 00:29:33.520 --> 00:29:35.050 Maybe God doesn't love me. 00:29:35.180 --> 00:29:39.500 I mean, we sing about that this morning and man, he don't ever take his love from us. 00:29:40.460 --> 00:29:42.180 Acknowledge God for who he is. 00:29:42.180 --> 00:29:43.440 No matter what we're going through. 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.750 Even if the response from him isn't what you were hoping for and what you thought it might be. 00:29:51.100 --> 00:29:53.000 Acknowledge God for who he is. 00:29:53.860 --> 00:29:55.930 Acknowledge that he's in control of everything. 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:58.480 Acknowledge that he's great. 00:29:58.480 --> 00:29:59.140 He's almighty. 00:29:59.140 --> 00:30:01.060 Just everything about him. 00:30:01.600 --> 00:30:07.700 And so I want to apply this as we've looked at job and everything that goes on with him. 00:30:07.800 --> 00:30:10.280 And we went quickly through the whole book and it was fun. 00:30:10.280 --> 00:30:17.360 But I want to acknowledge some things that I hope help us that are that 00:30:17.360 --> 00:30:20.540 when we're going through some things, we need help. 00:30:20.740 --> 00:30:20.940 Right? 00:30:21.340 --> 00:30:23.900 I mean, we're going through stuff and I need help. 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:28.960 And so the first thing I want to point out is that job really helps us a lot with is God's in control? 00:30:29.780 --> 00:30:32.560 I mean, even Satan has to come to him and ask permission to do stuff. 00:30:33.700 --> 00:30:35.260 God's in complete control. 00:30:35.260 --> 00:30:38.560 There's nothing that God isn't in control of. 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:40.940 And I know that. 00:30:41.260 --> 00:30:46.140 I know that God's in control, but sometimes it's kind of hard to apply that truth. 00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:54.420 So my prayers this morning is that when we're going through stuff, if you got something going on and you're going through stuff, maybe if you come back to the book of job, 00:30:54.420 --> 00:30:57.180 it helps you to see God is in control. 00:30:57.980 --> 00:31:00.700 Don't ever forget God is in complete control. 00:31:02.300 --> 00:31:02.520 Job. 00:31:02.820 --> 00:31:06.540 Job was at the place at the first of the book when he knew God was in control. 00:31:06.600 --> 00:31:08.640 The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:10.260 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:31:10.560 --> 00:31:17.760 He knew God was in total control, but later on, after he after he started to justify himself a little bit, then things 00:31:17.760 --> 00:31:21.120 got a little dicey for him, but thankfully he got back to that place. 00:31:21.360 --> 00:31:25.180 I know you can do all things and no plan is impossible for you. 00:31:25.460 --> 00:31:30.180 That's the example job shows us, and understanding God's in control. 00:31:30.260 --> 00:31:33.160 And really it's important to recognize God is in control. 00:31:33.220 --> 00:31:40.140 When we start to get into the Book of Revelation, I mean, you're going to see stuff in Revelation of God's wrath and his destruction. 00:31:40.220 --> 00:31:42.900 You're going to see the Antichrist, you're going to see beast, you're going to see dragons. 00:31:43.300 --> 00:31:45.270 I mean, you're going to see all this stuff. 00:31:45.620 --> 00:31:48.980 And it's really important to know that God is still in control of all of it. 00:31:50.860 --> 00:31:56.020 It's all still under God's control, whatever is described in this Book of Revelation. 00:31:57.600 --> 00:31:59.280 Secondly, we've talked about this a bunch of times. 00:31:59.280 --> 00:32:00.420 Revelation is a book of hope. 00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:04.000 And really, job is a book of hope as well. 00:32:04.180 --> 00:32:06.690 And job expresses that in such a great way. 00:32:06.780 --> 00:32:09.730 When he gets to this place where he says, I know that my Redeemer lives. 00:32:10.820 --> 00:32:13.380 And you and I, the hope that we have is incredible. 00:32:13.660 --> 00:32:16.960 No matter what we're experiencing, Jesus is alive. 00:32:17.340 --> 00:32:18.500 Jesus is our rock. 00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:19.430 He's our strength. 00:32:19.720 --> 00:32:20.540 He's our fortress. 00:32:20.980 --> 00:32:23.040 He's he is our hope. 00:32:23.260 --> 00:32:26.940 And no matter what's going on in our lives, we can hang on to that. 00:32:27.220 --> 00:32:34.540 That's something really valuable that we can grab Ahold of in the Book of Revelation is a book of hope, too, because that's exactly what we see in Revelation. 00:32:34.620 --> 00:32:39.380 We see Jesus and we see him in a bunch of different ways and in a bunch of different descriptions. 00:32:39.600 --> 00:32:40.700 But here's a few of them. 00:32:40.740 --> 00:32:41.860 He's the faithful witness. 00:32:41.860 --> 00:32:43.250 He's the firstborn of the dead. 00:32:43.260 --> 00:32:45.600 He's the Alpha and the Omega is the beginning and the end. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:47.090 He's the first and the last. 00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:50.060 He's. 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:50.160 You're going to see. 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:51.880 He's the rider on the white horse, and he's the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. 00:32:52.600 --> 00:32:57.320 That's the kind of stuff that's in Revelation about Jesus that's exciting. 00:32:57.900 --> 00:32:59.170 And we're going to get to see that. 00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:01.920 And Pastor Nathaniel has done a great job about. 00:33:01.940 --> 00:33:06.380 He mentions that Revelation embraces the glory of Christ. 00:33:06.520 --> 00:33:13.120 And I would be willing to say that we can we can embrace that glory every week as we look through Revelation. 00:33:13.220 --> 00:33:17.580 There's going to be something else that we can embrace about the glory of Christ every week. 00:33:18.840 --> 00:33:22.680 And I mean, I'm going to look for it and it's going to be exciting to see. 00:33:22.780 --> 00:33:26.240 And so and finally, we've mentioned that Revelation is a book of worship. 00:33:27.220 --> 00:33:28.620 I love the job. 00:33:28.620 --> 00:33:30.450 Gets back to that place of worshiping. 00:33:30.840 --> 00:33:32.100 He started out worshiping. 00:33:32.100 --> 00:33:38.220 Remember when everything went wrong and he tore his clothes and he and he sat down in sackcloth and ashes and he just worshiped. 00:33:39.520 --> 00:33:46.620 And then he got to that place where he thought he was pretty good, but eventually he got back to this place where he says, I've heard 00:33:46.620 --> 00:33:50.400 of you in the hearing of the ear, and now my eye sees you. 00:33:50.820 --> 00:33:53.060 In other words, I knew about you. 00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:55.430 Now I know you intimately. 00:33:57.360 --> 00:34:01.220 Now the eye of my understanding knows you. 00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:04.780 And the other thing that he knew is he knows that God is with him. 00:34:05.860 --> 00:34:05.980 God. 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:07.720 God has not left him. 00:34:07.720 --> 00:34:09.120 God is with him. 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:11.120 And that's such a valuable thing for job. 00:34:11.159 --> 00:34:13.050 You and I are going to face all kinds of difficulties. 00:34:13.860 --> 00:34:15.590 We're going to face all kinds of challenges. 00:34:15.719 --> 00:34:20.580 There's probably people in here right now that are not going to, but are. 00:34:20.580 --> 00:34:25.810 And the thing that's amazing about that is we know that God is with us. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:32.800 And please don't let these challenges don't let these things change your understanding about who God is. 00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:36.520 God is always who he says he is, no matter what I'm dealing with. 00:34:37.460 --> 00:34:38.489 And that's important. 00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:43.159 And also, don't let any of these things going on in your life keep you from worshiping God. 00:34:44.060 --> 00:34:46.020 Sometimes that's the last thing I want to do. 00:34:46.020 --> 00:34:47.480 And yet it's the most important thing. 00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:52.940 One of the most important things I can come and do is come where God's people are and worship with them. 00:34:53.900 --> 00:34:55.380 And so don't let that happen. 00:34:55.380 --> 00:35:02.110 If you've got these wild and these crazy things going on in your life, God always has a plan for all of us, for every one of our lives. 00:35:02.580 --> 00:35:05.260 And God is always worth our praises. 00:35:05.640 --> 00:35:07.420 He's always worth our worship. 00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:10.320 Warren Wiersbe summarizes it like this. 00:35:10.360 --> 00:35:11.490 And I think this is pretty fun. 00:35:12.040 --> 00:35:17.440 He says, no matter what God permits to come into our lives, he always has his afterword. 00:35:17.980 --> 00:35:21.260 He writes the last chapter, and that makes it worth it all. 00:35:21.780 --> 00:35:22.620 And I like that. 00:35:23.340 --> 00:35:24.380 God's in control. 00:35:24.660 --> 00:35:25.940 He's writing the book. 00:35:26.120 --> 00:35:27.510 He writes the last chapter. 00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:28.300 So? 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:35.700 So it's my prayer as we study through Revelation that we just come away with this new and fresh understanding about just how amazing 00:35:35.700 --> 00:35:39.160 our God is, about his power, about his majesty, about his awesomeness. 00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:46.600 I mean, there's just so many great things about God and that we end up in the same place that job did at the first job and in the same place that John did 00:35:46.600 --> 00:35:51.310 in Revelation chapter one, verse 17, where he just fell on the ground and worshiped. 00:35:51.960 --> 00:35:54.480 And I pray that's where we end up, is at a place of worship. 00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:00.140 You know, job suffered a lot, but in the end, he knew that God had not left him. 00:36:00.380 --> 00:36:00.520 God. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:02.520 God didn't leave him alone to deal with it. 00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:10.600 And in the midst of whatever we're going through, whatever pain, whatever suffering, whatever, just whatever's going on in our lives, we can be comforted 00:36:10.600 --> 00:36:12.280 knowing that God's not leaving us. 00:36:13.200 --> 00:36:15.540 God's never going to leave us, never going to forsake us. 00:36:15.580 --> 00:36:17.000 He's always there. 00:36:18.040 --> 00:36:19.580 He's always in control. 00:36:19.960 --> 00:36:20.760 He's always. 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:22.560 He's always our hope. 00:36:22.820 --> 00:36:24.580 And he's always worthy of our worship. 00:36:25.160 --> 00:36:30.270 And I think we can see that same God of comfort as we go through the Book of Revelation in the coming months.