Better is one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand anywhere else. Here we go. >> How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord almighty. For my soul longs and even faints for you. For here my heart is satisfied within your presence.

I sing beneath the shadow of your wings. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.

Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Than thousands elsewhere. One thing I ask, and I would seek to see your beauty, to find you in the place your glory dwells. One thing I ask, and I would seek to see your beauty, to find you in the place your glory dwells.

Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts, than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts, than thousands elsewhere. My heart and flesh cry out for you, the living God. Your spirit’s water to my soul. I’ve tasted and I’ve seen, come once again to me.

I will draw near to you. I will draw near to you. To you. Better is one day in your courts. Better is one day in your house.

Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts. Better is one day in your house. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts.

Better is one day in your house. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts. Better is one day in your house. Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.

Than thousands elsewhere. >> Amen. Who’s happy to be here this morning? Yeah. Well, this morning we have the privilege of sitting under John Moore’s teaching and he’s going to be in the book of Job.

Job sometimes gets a bad rap for being a depressing book because there’s a lot of suffering and a lot of hardship, but it’s a great opportunity for us to really focus on the sovereignty of God and his faithfulness. And so that’s what we’re looking forward to today. So, I thought this song was very appropriate, Sovereign. Oh, we’re going to read from Romans 8 first. >> I consider that our present sufferings are not worth with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For we know that in all things God works for the for the good of those who love him. Who have been called according to his purpose. >> What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also graciously give us all things?

For who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or loss or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all things we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loves us. Amen. >> Sovereign in the mountain air, sovereign on the ocean floor, with me in the calm, with me in the storm.

Sovereign in my greatest joy, sovereign in my deepest cry, with me in the dark, with me at the dawn. In your everlasting arms, hold the pieces of my life. From beginning to the end, I can trust you. In your never failing love, you work everything for good. God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you.

Sovereign in our greatest trials, sovereign in submission’s bend, with me in the fight, with me in the wind. Sovereign in my desperate doubt, sovereign in my perfect peace, with me in the pain, with me in release. In your everlasting arms, all the pieces of my life, from beginning to the end, I can trust you. In your never-failing love, you work everything for good. God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you.

God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you. All my hopes, all I need, held in your hands. All my life, all of me, held in your hands. All my fears, all my dreams, held in your hands. All my hopes, all I need, held in your hands.

All my life, all of me held in your hands. All my fears, all my dreams held in your In your everlasting arms, all the pieces of my life from beginning to the end, I can trust you. In your never failing love, you work everything for good. God, whatever comes my way, I will trust God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you. God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you.

Grand earth has quaked before, moved by the sound of his voice. Seas that are shaken and stirred can be calmed and broken for my regard. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. Through it all, through it all, it is well. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you.

And it is well with me. Far be it from me to not believe even when my eyes can’t see. And this mountain that’s in front of me will be thrown into the midst of the sea. And through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. Through it all, through it all, it is well.

Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. And it is well. It is well. So, let go, my soul, and trust in him. The waves and winds still know his name.

So, let go, my soul, and trust in him. The waves and winds still know his name. So let go, my soul, and trust in him. The waves and winds still know his name. The waves and winds still know his name.

It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my It is well.

It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul. And through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. Through it all, through it all, it is well.

Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. And it is well with me. >> Father, we come to you today as your people, as the family of God gathered together asking of you that through your spirit and by your word you’d penetrate our hearts. You’d cause us to see again the need to rely on you for the comfort and safety and satisfaction of our lives. We ask that today would be to that end in every respect in Jesus’ name.

Amen. You may be seated. And the children can find something better to do than listen to me this morning. Yeah. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Sheri. Good morning to our church family. I miss seeing you from this vantage point. I actually got some nervous comments.

You know, we do the men’s group every week. I got some nervous comments when the men heard that today we’re going to be in Job two and that this is a series of five messages on Job. Because they said, “John, you took five years to go through five chapters of James.” And I assured them that we’re only going to do five five sermons on Job. This is the second of all.

But he’s holding up one from in front of him. So, you know, I the point of that is that it really is good for you to have a the focus on text in front of you and to move around in the text as we speak. And I know I saw the electronics that, you know, that’s the world we’re in. I I went to a CLE, which is a continuing legal education course years ago and one of the first ne- presenters reminded us that it’s an electronic world, get used to it. So, I guess that’s true in every respect.

The word is good out of the Mexico clan. Jason last night got out of prison and I’m glad to hear that. We It doesn’t do us well to have our pastor in prison. And Whitney says that he is survived that and he’ll have some pulpit experiences while he’s down there with our with our people as well. And you know, I need to say again, and I guess I get the liberty to say it cuz nobody says I can’t say it, that for the infrequent times that I’m up here, it is a real gift that we have the Smith family here.

And And thank you to that faithful committee of you of 10 or 12 for a year that was on a search committee for that. It’s it’s a good thing. This morning we are in Job chapter 2. And Job uniquely, as one of the wisdom books literatures of the Old Testament, there are five wisdom books of the Old Testament. And they’re designed to teach us to live wisely.

Wisdom in the Old Testament means to wrap yourself skillfully around the principles of God. And that is something that Job in part is designed for us to do. And it’s unique in the book of Job because we find in chapter 1, in the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright, feared God and shunned evil. Period.

And we learned in our first session with him that he was through the evil designs of Satan allowed, Satan was allowed to strip him of everything he owned. His flocks and his sheep and his camels and his cattle and his children. He lost it all. And I have been under the persuasion, personally, but for this book, that as a as an individual, that’s the greatest pain you can go through is to bury your children. That’s not supposed to happen.

Jabe Job did it and he ended up proclaiming by faith his devotion to God at the end of that. And it brings up for us the subject of pain and suffering. You know, there are some Christians that say, “I I don’t I don’t want to talk about that cuz I’m kind of theologically superstitious and it seems like if I talk about something like that, then God’s going to kind of like the the Billy Goats Gruff that were hammered by the troll as they as they try to sneak across the bridge, the troll reaches up and smashes them and that’s not at all what God does. And in fact, realistically, we know that that’s silly anyway because in fact, hard times are part of life. It was Phil Yancey who knew much about hard times and the loss of a number of his children prematurely who says, “I have never read a poem extolling the virtues of pain nor seen a statue erected in its honor nor heard a hymn dedicated to it.

Pain is usually defined as unpleasantness. Christians don’t really know how to interpret pain. It was penned it pins them against the wall. In a dark secret moment, many Christians would probably admit that pain was God’s one mistake. He really should have worked a little harder and invented a better way of coping with the world’s dangers.

I am convinced that pain gets a bad press. And it really it really does. It is something that we avoid at all costs because we are survivors. We are people that seek the the easier path, the more comfortable environment. But as another author has said, you know, realistically in life there are a thousand deaths.

A job that ends unexpectedly. A friendship that tanks. A body that starts to wear out. A reputation that is hammered by slander and gossip that’s not true. A child that suffers.

A marriage that’s going bad. A struggle that is through no fault of our own. And for a moment let me offer a disclaimer as a lawyer. There are two disclaimers in this book. The first is this book is not about suffering or getting the consequences of bad choices.

If we go to this book to try to find a resolution to the pain that comes because we face consequences of bad choices, this is not the book. Proverbs is. James is. Hebrews is, but not this book. The second disclaimer this is not a book with a message for those who refuse to see the sin in their life.

They just said didn’t happen. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do anything wrong. Now everybody else knows they did, but they would rather try to find an escape that keeps them from admitting the errors in their life. We live in a culture of entitlement and victimization.

Well, people run to those stations instead of saying, I own this. I did it. If we decide to take that approach, then Galatians 6 is for us. Where there are consequences for the seed that we put in the ground and the crop that comes out. But there are also resolutions.

And in fact, in this book in part, I kind of I kind of squeeze that. There is There is a part of that in this book, but it doesn’t have to do with Job. It has to do with his three friends. Because we will find in the third session, not today, but in the third session, what happens when all your support systems fall apart. And they fall apart because they’re giving you a false message.

They’re giving you a narrative that’s not true. And you’re having a hard time anyway. You’re despairing, you’re depressed, and Job in chapter 3 is all of that. In fact, he’s suicidal. But his friends come along and after a good decision to say nothing for 7 days, then they start in their theological system to explain why Job has gone through what he has.

And they’re wrong. And in the book, as you get through, not only does Job identify them as wrong, but God identifies them as wrong, and they only are saved from the consequences of their wrong message to Job by Job’s prayer in chapter 42. But that’s That’s chapter That’s That’s down the road. But for us, this book is for those of us who who suffered through something and we didn’t deserve it. We didn’t We didn’t ask for it.

It really is a expression of the innocent who suffer. And Job and his wife are doing that in chapter two. Now, we would expect that in part there’s no reason that God should given have given us this book 42 chapters. I mean frankly at the end of chapter one if you’ll look with me at verse Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb. Naked I will depart.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed is the name of the Lord and the Lord be praised.” After all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. Okay. Sermon’s over.

We’re done. Close our Bibles. Let’s go on to another subject. Should have been the end of it. How could you do better than that?

He responded in a superlative manner. And in fact, if we if we miss that in chapter two God says about Job and he still maintains his integrity. This is God saying about Job he passed the test with flying colors. But what chapter two says is he’s not done. And the reason it’s not done is and and this is not a psychological profile, but but it’s really a theological one that says “Okay, we can go through the Bible and we can find the following.

When God wanted to make David king he didn’t give him a crown, he gave him a Goliath. When God wanted to make give Joseph a palace he didn’t give him a shortcut. He sent him to prison. When God wanted to make Esther a queen, he didn’t give her a comfort. He gave her a crisis.

When God wanted Moses to be a leader, he didn’t give him a stage, he gave him a wilderness. Obviously, the things that in our mind think that will break us, historically, we can find in the Bible that God used them to build his purposes in both the nation of Israel and in the church. But that doesn’t get us far enough. Because that’s all stuff that happens around us. And Job chapter 2 is what happens to us.

And I would suggest to you that though there are exceptions to this rule, the general rule is you don’t feel the greatest pain until it happens to you. You know, there’s tremendous benefit in being supportive as the friends and people in our church go through suffering. We suffer with Shari together. We love her and are praying for for resolution and health for her. We we pray for our family members and our spouses and things as they go through hard times, but at least it’s not us.

And there is a deeper stage of suffering and pain that comes when it happens to us. Glen Chambers was a man who always dreamed of adding his voice to the ministry in Ecuador in the radio station Voice Voice of the Andes. And so excitedly, he got on a ready to get on a plane in New York and he realized he had not written a card to his mother. So, he pulled an ad out of a magazine that had the advertised asked asked the question why and ignoring that, he scribbled a loving note to his mother, put it in an envelope, mailed it off, got on a plane, a DC-4 that within hours crashed into a mountainside in Quito, Ecuador. A few days later, his mother got that card and opened it up.

And apart from the things that her son said to him to said to her, the advertised that advertising that jumped out at her was the word why. Why did that happen? And that’s critical because it’s something that pierces into the very fiber of our soul. It’s the woman who wrote, “Lord, I’m drowning in a sea of perplexity. Waves of confusion crash over me.

I’m too weak to shout for help. Either quiet the waves or lift me above them. It’s too late to learn to swim.” And that’s what happens with hard times. It absolutely hammers us.

But it hammers us most deeply when it happens to me. Not to my spouse, not to my friends and family in the church, but to me. Some of you may have been following the narrative that’s going on in this country with the former senator from Nebraska named Ben Sasse. Ben is suffering through stage four pancreatic cancer and doesn’t have long to live. And he echoes the refrain that we hear among pastors who struggle with the comfort and solace they want to give to those in their church who are similarly struggling.

Steve Leder, a rabbi in the synagogue in Los Angeles, says, “Every one of us sooner or later walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the hell of hurting another, the hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant thinking shovelful of earth upon the casket of someone we deeply loved, the hell of betrayal, the hell of betraying, the hell of divorce, the hell of a kid in trouble, the hell of knowing that this year, like any year, may be our last.” And for all of the ministry that this man participated in in his mission in Los Angeles, eventually he became ill. And he said, “As a leader of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, he said, it wasn’t just my phone that rings when someone’s in trouble. He says the couch in my office is often drenched with tears, but after 27 years, I had it hard in my own life and brought me to my knees, a new uncertainty, a new unfolding as I realized it was different with me than with anything I’d heard for 27 years.

And that’s what we have in Job chapter 2. We would think, “Close your Bibles, chapter 1. We’re done.” No. Read with me chapter 2 verse 1.

On another day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came with them so to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” I love the accountability. You realize in this book that heaven and hell collide. They did it in chapter 1 with the Lord and Satan.

They do it again in chapter 2. This is the supersonic inter-terrestrial collision of God and Satan. And it starts with God requiring of Satan, “Give me an account. Where have you been?” It’s what a parent says to a child.

“What are you doing? What’s going on?” But it’s what God said to Satan. And Satan answered, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” He didn’t have any option to not answer the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?” And we want to say, “Really?” Lord, did you see his response in chapter 1? “There is no one on earth like him. He’s blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil, and he still maintains his integrity, though you excited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

So, Satan snarls, “Skin for skin. A man will give all that he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand into his flesh and his bones and he’ll curse you to your face.” There’s the challenge. There’s the collision between heaven and hell.

There’s Satan saying, “I dare you, Lord. Take this man down lower.” And it is lower because he’s lost everything in chapter 1 except his wife. And now he’s going deeper into the struggles of pain and suffering. And the Lord said to Satan, “Very well.”

And you have to take a breath when the Lord says that. “He’s in your hands, but you must spare his life. Now, we learned in chapter 1, do you remember that in October? We learned in chapter 1 that God has a hedge around us. And Satan complains in chapter 1 that Job has a hedge around him.

And we do. Everything that happens in our life is structured by God. There is no molecule in life that goes outside the purposes and controls of God. He knows the hairs on our head. He knows the days of our life.

He knows everything that happens. He knows the birds that fall out of the sky. And in this, the Lord said, “You have a measure of additional permission to take him down in terms of his flesh, but you can’t take his life.” The Lord said to Satan, “But you must not You must spare his life.” So, Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it and sat among the ashes. If in fact this book teaches us first of all that spiritual growth only happens in hard times, and there are those among us, our friend Chuck Swindoll being among them, saying, “All of the lessons, all the hard lessons I’ve learned in life, I’ve only learned them during hard times.” And while that’s about 90% correct, it is correct. We don’t learn things until we’re strapped in and have to say, “I’m coming to the end of my own resources.” And it happens most of all for us.

So, what do we do? In the midst of that, we understand there’s a spiritual battle. And we talk about spiritual warfare, this is one fashion of spiritual warfare. It’s Satan attempting to strip our faith down by stripping our health from us. And he knows that that’s the core of where we live.

And he knows that that pierces us at the deepest level and raises the most spiritual questions and says, “God, what are you doing?” Now, C.S. Lewis spoke to that when he said, “God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain.” Pain for us in suffering is God’s megaphone that says, “You’re not going to get through life as my son and daughter in the kingdom without growing up.”

And growing up includes hard times and pain and suffering. We’re still in this dark corridor in Job chapter 2 from Job chapter 1, and it’s not going to get light until we get farther in the book. But in that, it says just as a parent will only be happy when their child grows up and matures, God’s most delighted in us when we grow up. And the growing up comes in the midst of the spiritual battle with evil, it comes only through hard times. So, where do we go with that?

Well, this chapter wonderfully says in verse 9, his wife said to him, “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die.” He replied, “You’re talking like a foolish woman.” Couple things, I need to save Job’s wife’s reputation for a moment, I’m actually I consider myself a Christian feminist because there are very few there very very little literature that’s more laudatory of the woman than the Bible. In Joe in in Genesis chapter 2, we get one verse that provides the creation of Adam.

We get six verses that talk about the creation of Eve. We get God exploding into our world the reality of life when he says, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” And I have benefited from that in the last few months myself. It’s not good to be alone. In other words, everything that was good about the creation, then God came in and said, “Are you missing something, Adam?”

And he said, “I sure am.” And he said, “Well, it’s not good for you to be alone.” And he created Eve. And when Adam saw Eve, he knew that was a consonant a consistent provision that was exactly for him. And so he said, “I’m going to name her Isha for she comes from Ish.

I’m going to name her woman for she comes from man.” And he was delighted. Satan knew that. So Satan’s design, this is for another day, in chapter 3, why did he go to the woman first? Because he wanted to penetrate the relationship between Adam and Eve.

He knew if he could break that down, he could bring down that ultimate curse where from this man and woman would come one born of them in their line who would be the one who would destroy him. But for women in the Bible, gentlemen, we need to remember and this is ladies, you can tune us out for a minute. This this is something that is really strategic and Proverbs says when God provides to your wife he provides a good thing and a blessing. In Proverbs 31 she’s likened to one who is for the man a valuable ruby and jewel. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says in the Lord woman is not independent of man and man is not independent of woman.

For just as woman came from man, thinking of Genesis 2, from man’s rib so man comes from woman. Everybody in this assembly has been born of woman. And then Paul says and in the Lord man and woman are not independent of each other. Everything is from God. So Job here, his wife, some would kind of kind of facetiously say well, maybe the reason God didn’t take her is cuz at the end he gets two of everything back and he’d get two of these wives.

I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s fair at all. In fact, I think it’s the opposite. I think he says woman this is not consistent with your character. You’re not a foolish woman.

You’re a wise woman. Don’t let this take you down in a way now in your struggle for what I’m going through to where you respond foolishly. I think it’s a commendable phrase. Maybe this is my attempt to just defend her reputation, but that’s what I think I need to do. And in fact, it is the nature of the relationship that that in this case she would warn she was worn down and Job was getting worn down.

The stripping off of Job’s health some suggest it was something as significant as elephantiasis. I don’t know. But it was something some form of combination of leprosy and ever that just was devastating so devastating that even this man Job it it hammered him. So Job’s counsel is the counsel of chapter 2 for us as well. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?

In all this Job did not sin in what he did. You won’t find anywhere in this book that Job sinned. You’ll find that he struggled. He got depressed. He got suicidal.

It’s not sin. He was overwhelmed with his circumstances. He didn’t sin. But he got confused about God’s purpose for him in life. And so we will find as we move through the book that is a wonderful book for teaching that even in the context of men and women who try to do their best in terms of living the Christian life there’s more to learn.

And so this book tells us that the bottom line is you accept good and bad in life from God. In other words, this is not a Pollyannaish kind of a message that says it’s all good and cookies and sunshine. This is one that says God wants you and me to grow up. And the growing up includes good times and when they happen and you find in Ecclesiastes when God gives you wealth and prosperity and possessions and relationships and days to live that you enjoy them. And And Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, “Eat, drink, and enjoy life to the fullest.”

And Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, “Whatever you do with your hand, do it with all your might in the days that you have.” Ecclesiastes 9:10. So, there’s great good that comes and joy and benefits and provisions that come from God. And we’re careful to say, “They’re from God.” And that we want to use those things in a way that counts for eternity.

But, there’s another side to it. There’s the bad. It’s life. It’s part of God’s measuring line for you and me to grow up. It was Jesus who said in Matthew chapter 6, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow will take care of itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.” That’s our savior who defined, in part, that our day-to-day lives include trouble. And worrying about it is inconsistent with recognizing that God’s in control of the circumstances of our life. It is Tozer who said, “It’s doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he’s hurt him deeply.”

It was Corrie ten Boom, that wonderful saintly woman who buried two husbands, who was sitting in a church in Southern California, kind of quietly on her own, toward the end of her life. And the pastor in that church came up here to her at the end and said, “Corrie, how you doing? I get overwhelmed with all the problems that people bring me.” And Corey said to him, “There is no pit so deep that he is not deeper still.” You’ll not go through anything in life that can supersede God’s mercy and grace to get you through it.

It may seem that way, but it won’t happen. So, back to our friend Ben Sasse. I love this story in part because he politically didn’t always agree with me. Though he’s a Republican and though he resigned as a senator because of his health and then went on to be president of the University of Florida for a while, he he voted for the impeachment of our president on the January 6th fiasco and that’s a whole different subject. We’re not going into it, but my point is I didn’t agree politically with this man everywhere, but he is the measure of what it means to be a man who lives and dies holding on to God.

He was interviewed, for example, and he said in part that he takes great consolation out of the Heidelberg Confession, which asks in part this question, “What’s your only comfort in life and in death?” Answer, “That I’m not my own, but I belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ. He’s fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me that eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. So, Ben said in that interview, “If I belong to him, then nothing happens that can un- belong me.” He said, “In fact, there is no maverick molecule in the universe.” Everything is by God’s design, and he’s absolutely right. He said, for example, “Having stage four pancreatic cancer,” he said, “I’m going to be separated from my wife for time.”

He said, “I’m not going to be able to walk my two daughters down the aisle when they get married. I’ll not be able to give my son, who’s a teenager, I think he was 16 at the time of this interview, counsel on how to live life, even if that counsel is unwanted by him.” He said, “None of that’s going to happen. But he said, I’m going forward looking at death in the face, and I’m in resurrection mode.” That’s incredible.

There’s no maverick molecules in the universe. So, where do we go? We as God’s people affirm straight on. I’ll take the good that comes in life, expected and unexpected. I’ll work hard in this country, and God will likely reward me financially, probably relationally.

But that doesn’t guarantee that those pits won’t come. And so, I believe that God is deeper still. In fact, the Proverbs are true when it says, “There is no way in life, or course of life, that’s greater than following God in the circumstances that you find yourself.” Job was right when he gave counsel to his wife and said, “Can we accept good from the hand of God and not bad?” A strong, growing, mature man and woman of God is going to look that question in the face and say, “I’ll take both.

Thank you very much. I I didn’t want it, but I know I need it.” The Book of Job is really the story of that passage in James chapter 1. That remarkable way that book starts when it says, “Enjoy. Consider hard times that you go through as being from God, understanding that the tests of God produce in us perseverance.

And perseverance is to finish its work that we may be complete and mature, not lacking in anything.” And you say, “Selah.” End of verse 5 of James 1, we’re done. Okay, that’s the narrative, Lord.” It’s not the end of the narrative.

Verse 6, the very next verse after the promise, “You’ll not be lacking of anything.” James says, “If you lack wisdom.” How do those two get together? Because that’s what life is. It’s the good and hard times that we understand, and some of the hard times that strip us down and we don’t understand them.

And so James goes on to say, “If you lack wisdom, and it’s going to happen to everybody, happened to Job, happened to David, happened to Esther, happened to Samuel, happened to Peter, happened to John, happened to Thomas. In fact, all of the disciples bailed on Jesus before the cross. It’s going to happen. James says, “If you lack wisdom, and you will, just like Job, ask of God. He’ll give you three things.

He’ll give you generously without finding reproach, and it’ll be given to you.” That’s the consolation for Ben Zassi. It’s not that he doesn’t have dark times. He knows that there’s a light at the other end. Maybe a a silly little illustration will provide the best description.

The the black stick complained that he was being carved up. It was not easy. It was painful. It took him out of his original posture and state as a limb of a tree. So, he didn’t understand it.

He further complained that the one who held that him in his hands not only was carving him up, but he was drilling holes in him. And he came to find out in the course of that he was being made into a flute. And the carving up and the holes in him were things that only could happen in a way that brought him to the place where he met his intended purpose as making music and melody. The best purpose for him. It’s a small illustration, but it makes the point.

That’s what God was doing with Job. He was carving him up. He was letting Satan have a reach into him partially through the hedge putting holes in him devastating him confusing him. Why? So he could grow up.

And we won’t find that final growth until chapter 42. In 1871 Horatio Spafford lived in Chicago with his family, his wife and four children. And being not only an a lawyer in Chicago, but also an elder in the Presbyterian church and with a fire that was starting the Great Fire of Chicago he sent his wife and children on a ship ahead of him to Europe. And he stayed behind to finish his affairs, business and otherwise in Chicago. His wife and children were on the SS Ville du Havre.

And a storm hit that ship in the middle of the ocean. And that ship sank. And in sinking Horatio’s wife and four children perished. In coping with that and trying to understand it, Mr. Spafford got on a ship as soon as he could, and he traveled that same course across that same ocean.

And when he got to the place that he believed was a spot where his wife and children died, he wrote the song, “It is well with my soul.” >> We’re going to introduce a new song that is a new version of that. It’s called Make It Well. And MercyMe is the one credited with this song right now on the radio. And the lead singer, Bart Millard, wrote this song because singing “It is well with my soul” in those dark times of life tend to be it makes you feel like you’re singing something that isn’t really true, like you’re pretending somehow.

And for him, saying the words “Make it well, Lord” somehow brought him into the presence of Jesus and helped him feel like Jesus was helping him through understanding and getting him over to the place where he could say, “It is well with my soul.” So, we’re going to sing this now. If you would like to join us, please do. Make it well with my soul. Don’t let me face this loneliness alone.

Make it well with my soul. I need a peace that only heaven knows. Jesus, could you please just sit and cry with me till I can sing? Till I can sing. It is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul. Whatever my lot, you are still my God. It is well. It is well with my soul. Make it well with my soul.

When the storm is raging, please don’t let me go. Oh, voice that calms the sea, keep whispering to me so I can sing. So I can sing. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul.

Whatever my lot, you are still my God. It is well. It It is well with my soul. Make it well with my soul. Make it well with my soul.

Make it well with my soul. Make it well with my soul. Keep this heart from hardening like stone. Show me through the pain, there’s reason still to pray so I can see. So I can see.

It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. Whatever my lot, you are still my God. Whatever my lot, you are still my God. Whatever my lot, you are still my God.

It is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul.

>> Lord, we’re grateful for your word in our life. We’re very grateful for the direction it provides when we’re at the end of our own resources. And it’s never better than to reaffirm the words of David. You, Lord, are my shepherd. I shall not want.

You make me to lay down in green pastures. You lead me beside quiet waters. You restore my soul. You guide me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Lord, you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen. It is truly well with our soul and by faith we commit ourselves to that in Jesus’ name. Amen. >> Be still. There is a healer.

His love is deeper than the sea. His mercy is unfailing. His arms a fortress for the weak. Let faith arise. I lift my hands to believe again.

You are my refuge. You are my strength. As I pour out my heart, these things I remember. You are faithful, God, forever. Be still.

There is a river that flows from Calvary’s tree. A fountain for the thirsty, your grace that washes over me. Let faith arise. I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge.

You are my strength. As I pour out my heart, these things I remember. You are my faithful God forever. I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge.

You are my strength. As I pour out my heart, these things I remember. You are my faithful God forever. Let faith arise. Let faith arise.

Open my eyes. Let faith arise. Let faith arise. Open my eyes. Open my I lift my hands to believe >> Amen.

Is he a faithful God? Yes. Well, as you go next door to encourage one another at Cafe, we just want to remind you that we do have car show sign-ups again today. And that is just around the corner. So, we’ll see you next door.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 7,418 words.