John said to me a couple weeks ago, he would be gone on the 17th, or at least he thought he was going to be gone. So much for that. And he said, can you speak for me? And I said, yeah, I said, do I have to do this stuff happen series?
And he said, well, no, you don't. You can do something else. And I was kind of like, well, it's going to come out anyway on some level. I'd rather just kind of hit it head on.
But I do just want to say, you guys have continued to support us. And several of you very specifically continue to walk alongside us. And that is a blessing to go and walk through this with in this church. So thank you.
I was, Kim Quas a quote this week. James Baldwin, the novelist in Playwright, said, children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. Which is kind of a soul-searching quote for a parent and going, wow, my kid really does imitate me all the time. I was in the car with Tice yesterday, and we were coming home and he's four.
And so he asked a lot of why questions. To the point that they don't make sense anymore. Where are we going? Home.
When are we going to be home? Well, we're there now. Why are we there now? And so at some point, you kind of, this is terrible.
But after 20 minutes of driving the car of why questions, you start to tune out a little bit. And you just started going, mm-hmm. And at some point he went, dad, use your words. Right?
Kids imitate their parents. And I've, you know, my kids get older. And I start realizing that I'm actually imitating my parents with my kids. And I can see in my mind's eye exactly my parents facial expression when I was four or five or six or something.
And it's just kind of scary. We imitate people. We model our lives on each other. And even as we're here socially, we influence each other and imitate each other without even thinking about it.
Without even thinking about it. And so this morning I wanted to look at a model for what happens when stuff happens, when it hits the fin. What's that model? So James, Chapter Five says that Job is actually the model.
He says, if you want to know what patient enduring and suffering looks like in the midst of crisis in the stuff, look at Job. And so that's what I want to do. I want to look at Job and who Job was and how he responded to the crisis. It's been encouraging for Rensk and I to look at that.
And I've realized as we walked through some stuff that we actually looked at other people we respected or who had been through similar things and said, what did they do? Because one of the things that I've discovered when you're in crisis is that sometimes you don't always know what to do or what you need. You just don't know. And so when you're in crisis you look at models because you might forget everything you think you know.
But the stuff that comes back is the stuff that you've seen lived out. What did that person do? How did they do it? So who was Job?
I don't want to jump right there. We're going to read the story. Job, Chapter One says, there was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright.
One who feared God and turned away from evil. Blameless, upright. One who feared God and turned away from evil. Those are like buzz words out of the book of Proverbs.
It's like basically this guy walks closely with God. He is in a dynamic, close living, breathing relationship with God. He's blameless and upright. We kind of read them and it goes over our heads.
But that's what the author's trying to get at. And he goes on. He says, there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. And he possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoko box and then 500 female donkeys.
And very many servants. So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. And they would send and invite free sisters to eat and drink with them.
And when the days of the feast at the run their course, Job would send and consecrate them. And rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them. Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually.
And so Job not only walks closely with God, he's also very prosperous. God has blessed him. Wealth was measured in terms of livestock and he's got it. So the point that his kind of looks like his children don't really need to work.
They just kind of feast. Seven sons. That's pretty practical. Seven days of the week.
So Monday you're at Billy's house, Tuesday you're at Johnny's house, Wednesday you're at Mikey's house. That's good. And he cares spiritually for his kids too. He sacrifices that he worries about how the relationship with God.
And so the author of Job, we don't know who that is, but the author of Job sets Job up for us. It's kind of this blueprint of the kind of person we look at and go, of course God bless us that guy. I mean, like, of course. He's like, he's the right kind of guy.
And then the scene cuts away from Job into this heavenly scene. That says, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also was among them. And so it cuts kind of like a film. We see Job, we've got the opening titles, all his wealth, he's a good guy.
Then it cuts to heaven. And God is on his throne with the sons of men, the angels, and they're doing business. They're taking care of you, fairs of the universe. But one called the Accuser is there among them, Satan.
And God says, Satan, where have you been? And Satan says, well, I've been walking too and for a while on the earth, making trouble doing what I do. And God says, you can almost hear like just a hint of like rubbing Satan's nose in it kind of in his voice. He says, have you noticed my servant Job?
Like, he's a good guy. I love him. He loves me. Have you seen, have you noticed how you can't get to him?
And how he trusts me so much? And Satan's reply is really interesting. Here's what he says. He says, does Job fear God for no reason?
How have you not put a hedge around him in his house and all that he has on every side? He goes, of course he loves you. Nobody can touch the guy. I mean, you want to, like, there's a hedge, by the way, that's where we get the hedge protection phrase from if you've heard that.
We say that's Christian, he's coming for the book of Job. You put a hedge of protection around you. I can't touch him. Of course he loves you.
You keep blessing him. But if you take that away, let me take all of that stuff away. And then he'll curse you to your face. Let me take all the good things that you give and then he'll say that you aren't good anymore.
And that's kind of what I call the principle of skin in the game. When we moved to France, I discovered that Europeans don't know what they're saying. I discovered that Europeans don't play sports the same way Americans do. In America, there's no such thing as a casual game of anything.
We play for the love of the game, right? We play for bragging rights at the very least. Even when we don't actually play the game, you hear my house, my bucket, I just want to get in. Who does that remind you of?
Steve Fisher. Right? Even when it's not our team, it's our team, love the love of the game. So we play even when there's not skin in the game, they're skinny.
Europeans don't do that. And it's frustrating because they do play casual sports and it's terrible. I mean, you get out there and they're missing layups and people are walking and it's like, come on! But they do play when there's skin in the game, when there's money riding on it, when there's something to play for.
Then they play. That's what the accuser is saying. He's saying, let's put some skin in this game and then let's see what Job does. And so God says, okay, I'll take that bet.
I'll bet on Job. That's not meant to sound cavalier. I'm not celebrating gambling or anything like that. If you feel really strongly about it, you can email John.
I thought of that one last night. It's not meant to sound cavalier, but God says, yeah, I'm confident in Job. I'll bet on Job. I'll bet on Job.
And so the author has set up this person. He's the blueprint of, this is the kind of person that God is going to bless. And then we get into this situation where all of a sudden we find God saying, okay, I'll let you bring some harm to Job. And we're going, wait, what?
That can't be right. God's allowing Satan to hurt Job. And we start getting around to this question of why would he do that? Why?
And Job gets there eventually too. And the problem is for us, I know for me, is that sometimes those why questions often don't help. In the sense that I think that if I could just know why and have some tangible reason of the good that comes out of this, it would be okay. The problem is if you've ever gotten those kind of answers, they often don't minimize the pain at all, or the crisis, or whatever it is.
But that's not to say that the why questions don't have a purpose. They do. The why is meant to lead us to who? Who is God?
And who is he? And that's where Job eventually gets to. The crazy thing and the frustrating thing about the book of Job is that those why questions are never answered. We never find out why.
But Job finds out who he meets God face to face. And so what's really at stake here? That Job would curse God to his face. What does that mean?
And what I think what it means is that God's goodness as it's stake. We just sang about it. You are good. We sing about it all the time because it's so central.
It's so foundational. And it's not just that God works all things for good. That's true. It's not just that he's the most good.
That's also true. It's that he is goodness itself. He is the measuring stick by which all things are measured good or not. The devil's been trying to undermine that since Eden.
Did God really say? I mean, what he said really good, the most good. Maybe there's something else that's better over here. You can do it yourself.
You don't need God. So that's what's at stake is will Job trust in God's ultimate goodness no matter what. That's what's at stake. And so how does he respond?
And let's find out. And we get to the next scene. It cuts back to Job and says now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And the oxen were plowing.
And the donkey's feeding beside them. And the bee and fell upon them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword. And I alone escaped to tell you said the messenger. And while he was yet speaking, another messenger came up and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep.
And the servants consumed them. And consumed the servants and the sheep. And I alone escaped to tell you. And while that second servant was still speaking, another came up and said the Chaldeans have formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them.
And struck down the servants and the edge of the sword and I alone escaped to tell you. And while he was yet speaking, a fourth came up and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold the great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house. And it fell upon the young people and they are dead.
And I alone escaped to tell you. It never rains but it pours. Right? Can you imagine sitting there in your car and your phone rings and your investment manager says I have really bad news.
It's gone. And while you're still talking to him, your phone rings and you go I got to take this. And it's your boss and he goes actually just eliminated your job. And while he's still speaking, the phone rings again and you take that call and your children are gone.
And then you get a fourth call and your house is gone. It's burning a fire. All in the space of ten minutes. Do you feel a little bit where Job is at?
Do you feel that? And here's where we see his first response. In verses 20-22 he says, then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall I return.
The Lord gave him the word take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this Job did not say no to wrong. And I think we're meant to ask how did he do that?
How was his first response possibly worship? And I think the truth of that lies in those opening verses, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright and who feared God and turned away from evil. And the first reason that he's able to respond in worship is because he had a relationship with God before he got into the crisis. He was already building and cultivating that relationship with God.
And the thing I've learned and maybe you've learned as well is that what's inside is what comes out. When you take a life I had a professor in counseling and he said when you take a jar and turn it upside down, guess what comes out? What's inside? When you take a life and turn it upside down, what's inside is what comes out?
In crisis that's what happens. And so if that relationship isn't already there it's not going to magically appear. And so the question I kept asking myself was, have I cultivated a relationship with God that can sustain me through crisis? Because crisis is where faith, it's where rubber meets the road, right?
It's where you suddenly go, oh I said all this stuff, I said I believed it and I really do believe it but now I find out whether I really, like, really, really believe it. Because either have it or you don't. That's the question I have for you. What are you doing right now?
How are you cultivating that relationship with God? And not that you should adopt some kind of fear of like, I've got to do everything I can and Armageddon's coming and we've got to make the seller and put all the food in it. I'm not saying a fear but it's an evaluation question. Take an honest look at your relationship with God, can't sustain you in crisis.
The second thing that I noticed about Job is that his answer is rooted in the idea that everything from God is a gift. Naked I came, naked I will return Lord gives and Lord takes away. That's a very realistic two feet on the ground look at life because often we overestimate how much control we have over our lives. We start to look at all the factors that have influenced us and how we got to where we are and also you go, well I really am a product of my circumstances.
I chose but a lot of stuff led me up to that choice. And Job goes, no, no, no, everything came from God and he can take it back and he's still good. And because he has that relationship from before, because he has that rooted in grace kind of approach to his stuff, he responds in worship. And it's costly worship.
David says, I don't want to give God a gift that doesn't cost me anything. Worship costs. Romans 12, 1 says, offer up your bodies as living sacrifice. Sacrifice is something that you give up that costs you something.
What did it cost Job? First of all, it cost him his right to control or at least to think he has control. But secondly, it cost him his right to understand. And I think that's a big one for us, right?
Going back to the Y questions but also in our culture, right? We call for transparency because we're afraid that the powers of the B are corrupt and we want to know and it's our right to understand because we've got to hold him accountable and God's corrupt and we've got to hold him. Oh no, wait, right? We start putting that on God.
Well, God needs to be transparent with us. But Job sacrifices that perceived right. And you could call that blind faith. But the truth is that blind faith tends to minimize the suffering because we're trying to hold the suffering and God is good intention.
And blind faith ends up favoring God and ignoring the suffering and the pain of the crisis. But Job doesn't do that. He worships in his suffering. He doesn't worship in place of suffering.
He worships in it. And that, my friends, is costly to worship in your suffering. And so at the end of the day, Job's worship is a choice. It's a choice based on his relationship with God.
I knew him before him, and he's still good. I choose to worship. The story continues and we see we cut back to the scene in heaven and the devil's there again and the sons of men are there and God says to same see, he's enjoying this now. See, he didn't deny me.
He didn't deny me. He still got his health. Let me take that. And then he'll curse you to your face and God says, okay, I'm still confident in Job.
And Job continues to trust. He continues to express this faith in God. And in chapter 13, verse 15, he has this incredible, and I never caught the second part of it before. He says, though he slain me, I will hope in him.
Yet I will argue my ways to his face. Though he slain me, I will hope in him. What an incredible expression of trust. But I will still argue my ways to his face.
And so Job worships, but he wrestles. He wrestles through the crisis. And the first thing that I want to point out to you about how he wrestles is that he keeps talking to God. He keeps going back to him because we need to process with human friends and maybe counselors.
And we need to talk that through. But the safest place you can process is with God. And Job does book, right? He has his friends.
He talks to them and they're kind of unhelpful. But he keeps processing. He keeps going back, he keeps processing with God. The other thing I noticed is that it takes a long time, 40 chapters of wrestling, of this thick Hebrew poetry, and it's kind of painful to read.
I think it might be supposed to be that way. But in our culture of efficiency and productivity, taking wrestling through stuff, through the crisis and through the fall out of the crisis, that takes time, we don't have room for that. Because it's not efficient, it takes a long time, and it's not productive, it doesn't produce anything. But it takes time.
And so if you're in a season of wrestling, whether you're directly in that crisis, whether you're dealing with the after the crisis and trying to get out of it, it takes time and that's okay. It takes time and that's okay. And Job is on an emotional, colder, roller coaster ride. He's trusting God and he's asking God, why are you doing this?
He's got some bad theology coming on. He's got his friends throwing bad theology at him and misunderstanding how God is and who he works. Who God is and how he works. It's messy as well.
And that's hard for us too because we don't like mess, really. We say we like it, but we don't actually, because we want it to work in a linear way. A and then B and then I process through and I have to C and then D. But it doesn't.
Job is A and then he does D and then he does E and then he goes back and does D. It's messy. But God can handle that. What he wants is for you to keep coming back to him.
Keep coming back to him back again. And that's hard. The verse that has been encouraging for me is Romans 12, 12. Rejoice in hope.
Be patience and affliction and constant in prayer. Patience and affliction and constant in prayer. That's Job. He keeps talking to God.
Endures. He wrestles. And the last thing about his wrestling that I noticed is that it comes to a head at some point. Sometimes we end up wallowing in the wrestling.
But Job's comes to a head. Eventually he sees God in Job 42. He says, I heard about you before. I had lots of things that I thought about you and I had a relationship with you, but now I see you.
And I repent of dust and ashes. And the truth is that in the crisis, that's when we really see him. That's when you stand in front of him, you encounter him, you wrestle until you get face to face with him and you look at his eyes and you see the goodness in his eyes. And that only happens in crisis for some mysterious reason.
Jacob, in the book of Genesis, had the same thing. He ran and struggled with God for years and eventually in the tent on the one side of the river, the angel of the Lord came with him and wrestled with him. Eventually the angel of the Lord said, you have to let me go. And Jacob said, no, not until you bless me.
And the angel blessed him and gave him a new name and changed his life. But he saw God face to face. He wrestled with it. And so wrestled with God and take the time that that needs.
And only God knows how long that's going to take. But expect to come face to face with him at some point. Maybe more than once. Expect to come face to face because that is the overwhelming goal of Job's wrestling in his suffering and his crisis is that he would come face to face with the living God.
It's not about a bet between God and Satan. God is using that to bring Job face to face with the living God, to encounter him. The story goes on. And then Job's wife sat with him after Satan had attacked his physical health and he's sitting on a pile of ashes scratching at the sores with a piece of broken pottery.
And Job's wife says to him, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?
And all this Job still did not sin with his lips. Now, what Job's three friends heard all of this evil that had come upon him. They came each from his own place. Eliphaz, the Temenite, the Shuaite, and the Shuaite and the Zofar, the Numbathite.
They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground.
Seven days and seven nights. And no one spoke a word to him for the Saul that his suffering was great. And so the third thing that I see as I was looking at this story of Job is relational conflict. We always have relational conflict in crisis every time.
And Job's friends, they come up to him and they start really well. And they grieve with him, they will loudly, they put dust on their heads, they tear their robes. I mean, just extreme being with him and his grieving. But then they give him something else that's really hard for us.
They give him their time, seven days and seven nights, and they give him their silence. And I don't know about you, but I'm not good at that because why, time is money. And silence is awkward. But oftentimes, if you've been through, if you're in crisis, if you've been through it, you know sometimes what you need the most is you need someone's time in their silence.
You need them to invest emotionally and relationally with you. And sometimes that looks like time and silence, but that's hard for us. I think that's why Paul says in Galatians 6, he says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Why?
Because when I bear a burden with you, I'm actually carrying some of the weight. I'm actually working. It costs me something. It'd be a lot easier to just walk alongside you with my arm around you or lead you down the path in front of you.
But Paul says, no bear one another's burdens. Give that time. Give that silence. You get to bear their burden by bearing the awkwardness of the silence and the cost of the time.
But Job's friends, so they start really well, but they end really badly. And they end up saying, Job shut up, we're going to tell you how it is now and they start accusing Job of having sinned. And just so we're all clear, that's not a good way to comfort somebody. You must have done something to deserve this.
Not a great way. And Job eventually says, you guys are miserable comforters. Just his patience runs out. But there's one person who he does have patience with, his wife.
She says, remember, Job's wife has walked with him the whole time through this. She's lost all of her stuff. She's lost her children. And now as Job sits dying, essentially on an ash heap, she looks at him and goes, I'm going to lose you too.
And she says, just curse God in high. You're dying anyway. And Job, I never caught this before. Job responds really graciously to her.
And we miss it because we don't understand. But he says, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak. He's saying is, I know you don't really mean that like it came out. Why?
Because in conflict and crisis, we say stuff. And if you're married, you need to be a place of safety for your spouse. Because one or both of you will crack at some point. At some point.
One of you will lash out as you're flailing around trying to figure stuff out. You inadvertently hit the other person. Renskin and I have talked about this. And I've always felt like there's a little bit of a stigma.
Maybe you've felt this as well. Whispering to my friends here. Renskin, we can't say it out loud because that would mean we're on the rocks. And it's almost done.
And it's not true. And so Renskin and I have, we went on right now. Maybe there's like six marriage series. And we picked one out.
Felt the coin. There's a study guide in there that's got lots of good discussion questions. Thursday nights, we sit at home and we watch one. Because we've been through some stuff and we want to take care of each other.
And you know what we discovered? The stuff that we were doing five years ago? That was good stuff. That was a good way to relate to each other.
But we're not the same anymore. We changed. And you changed over time. And so does your spouse.
And so you need to work on that. You need to rethink stuff in every season. Whether that means going to counseling. Whether that means sitting down and just taking time and talking through stuff.
Whatever it is. Can I encourage you if you're married? Don't put that off. It costs you something.
It costs you something to say we're working on our marriage. I feel my pride go. Don't say it. I'm just kind of why I wanted to say it this morning.
Let's be done with this. Joe was gracious to his wife. The band comes up. We can collude with this.
If you are wrestling right now, if you are the season of wrestling through whatever it is, can I encourage you to keep wrestling? To be patient in your endurance. But don't wallow in the wrestling either. Sometimes we start to wrestle on our own in our own little corner.
That's when we start to wallow. We get comfortable. The doubts begin to eat away. Wrestle with God and expect to see him.
Expect to find him. It might take time. That's why we need each other. Keep wrestling.
If you are someone who is in a season where you're not in crisis right now. Can I ask you this question? What are you building into your relationship with God? How are you cultivating a relationship that is going to carry you through crisis?
We know the strain that it puts on human relationships. It also puts a strain on your relationship with God. If there's not a foundation there, it's going to rip you apart. You and God.
I wrote a song a number of years ago. I'm not going to see it now. I wrote it about Joe. I just wanted to read it for you.
It really captures the sense of how God's goodness is what's at stake. Instead of a wound, let me see a scar. Instead of the rain, let me see the stars. Instead of a stain, let me see a work of art.
Looking out through red eyes, I want more than false hope and white lies. Trying to see past the curse is their goodness in your eyes. Is this the blessing in disguise. That is my heart for this church is that we would be people who walk through crisis in such a way that we come face to face with a living God and we look him right in the eyes and we see there the depth of goodness and mercy and compassion.
And that we would continue to trust in that in crisis. We're going to sing a song. Good, good Father. It's who you are.
To you are. His goodness is the very essence of who he is. So would you trust that this morning as we stand in the city?