Three friends of Job
Key Passage: Job 23:8-10
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn the Bible to the book of Job, chapter number 23. In God’s Word, somebody said they thought they’ve got a job in the Bible. Job, chapter number 23. I think most will be familiar with Job, but he was a very…
Very godly man, the best Christian around. Really, the Bible talks about in the first couple of chapters there, and yet he went through incredible trials, testing. We sometimes think it lasted a week or two. It lasted around a year, some say a year and a half. It lasted for a good while, the trial. And then at the end, he blessed him basically twice as much—financially, his influence, family. I think, of course, his marriage had 10 more kids, and just across the board, he was blessed twice as much. This trial has been an incredible testimony to millions of Christians over the years. I’m sure in the middle of this thing, Job thought, “What in the world’s going on?” He had no idea that God was going to use this to help millions of Christians over the years.
We’re going to look here in chapter 23. He’s really kind of in the middle of this thing, this test, this trial. And he’s got three friends. I tell you what, these guys are friends. You don’t want enemies, that’s for sure. These guys are rough friends, and they’re criticizing him. What a shame. He’s trying to answer back to them, and his heart, in some ways, is revealed through all that. He’s in the middle of the toughest days of his life. We want to look at, I think, maybe the hardest part of this trial. In Job 23, the title tonight for the internet will be “When You Can’t Find God,” when you can’t find God. Of course, we’re talking about, for the most part, a saved person that’s just going through trials.
I was thinking about the Dumpers a little bit preparing for this, and they have served the Lord for years and years. They’ve been there, I guarantee. They’ll relate. Anybody that served the Lord over the long haul, you’ll have been through it. I wish there were detours around it; I’ve always looked for them, but there’s just no way around it. So let’s just look at this thing. Job’s right in the middle of his trial. Job 23, we’re going to start in verse number 8. Would you please stand just to show the Word of God respect, if you’re able to? Job 23 and verse number 8 of God’s Word.
Job here is answering one of his old friends that’s coming at him. Verse number 8, he says, “Behold, I go forward, that he—that’s the Lord—he’s not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.” It’s an amazing verse. “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Wow.
Would you pray with me that God would just make this thing real to us tonight and use it to encourage us and give us what we need tonight? Father, Lord, I know I’m not the best; I don’t have a great vocabulary, but Lord, would you take a simple preacher, your wonderful Word, and your Spirit, Lord, now make these truths real to us? And then, Lord, I pray that you’d use it to strengthen, to encourage, Lord, to help us to come forth as gold through the test. Use tonight to that end. Thank you, Lord, for every person here tonight. Would you feed your flock through me? And we’ll thank you and pray and praise you for it, Lord. And Father, we ask for this in faith because we’re asking in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
We’ve already mentioned Job’s incredible trial. I’ve heard, as you have, so many heartbreaking stories. It just seemed like it’s a daily thing, and these trials are just awful, but I cannot imagine what all Job went through. Job basically owned companies at that day and time—there were cattle and different things and flocks. He lost all his companies, and I think not only that, but his servants or his employees—I think he had a good bond, a good relationship—they, for the most part, all died in these tragedies. He lost, I think, some of his closest friends, too. By the way, if you want to get to know someone, work with someone, then you’re really easy to know them. Job lost them. He lost his companies, his finances. He lost his friends. And he had 10 children. I’ve been with people when they lose a child, and that’s so heartbreaking, but I cannot imagine losing all 10 of your kids in one day. Of course, we just have two, John’s hair. I can’t imagine losing one, but both of them, all of our kids in one day.
Can you imagine the heartbreak Job went through, losing all his kids? And, of course, his wife is grieving, and she really, in some ways—well, take it for whatever you want, we’ll just tell you what the Bible says—she said, “Job, won’t you curse God and die?” Just give it all up, you know? Then Job’s health—his health was shot, and he got these sores all over his body. Different people have different scenarios about what they think it was, what kind of physical disease it was. But just imagine having sores, almost like leprosy or boils all over your body. He’s out in these ashes—we think it was kind of like the city dump where they would have smoldering a lot of times. He’s out there. He has this, what the Bible calls a potsherd—it’s kind of like a sharp rock; it’s basically what we have as a pocket knife. He’s out there scraping his sores. And his friends come—his quote-unquote three friends. They sat with him seven days, but after that, they start just going after him. It’s one thing for you to be that low, but then when your friends come and they just step on you when you’re down—that’s awful. Job’s there, and one had said, “Well, there’s just something wrong in your life. You’re not right with God.”
Job here, in this chapter, said he would love to be able to talk with God right now. He said, “I longed, I longed just if I could just…” He knew God would not—he would not just kill him if he would. Verse number six right there, just real quickly: “Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put strength in me.” He’s saying, look, if I could just talk with God, if I could get close to God, if I could have his presence, he wouldn’t wipe me off the face of the earth. I know God is gracious if I could just feel his presence a little bit.
I tend to think maybe the greatest part of this trial—I don’t know how long it lasted—was that when Job went through part of this trial, he didn’t have God’s presence where he could feel it. Now, was God there? Oh, yes. But they couldn’t feel it. Sometimes us preachers say, “Well, those three Hebrew boys, you’ll never be as close to God as you are under trials.” And sometimes that’s true. But sometimes part of the trial is you don’t feel his presence. His Word is true; He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. But sometimes the hardest part of it—I may be saying a little bit more than I should—I remember when my wife was going through cancer and through chemo. Chemo just affects everything, and she had about a third of her colon taken out, and then chemo and all that. We were in the middle of that trial, and we had heard so much preaching on “God’s going to be never so close to you right in the middle of the trial.” But there was a portion of that trial where we thought, “Man, we don’t feel real close right now.” I’m just being honest with you.
It was almost as if Job right here—all the past glories spoke to his soul during that time. He says there in that verse, he said, “Behold, I go forward, he’s not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive him.” Not that God wasn’t there, but he said, “I just can’t perceive him.” “On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, and he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.” Sometimes the hardest part of the test is maybe just our flesh is so down. I don’t know all the reasons for it, but you just don’t feel God’s presence like you like to. You long for that.
Friend, this is at the end of the chapter, the last chapter of the book, so it’s not always like that. But sometimes that’s part of the trial. I think sometimes that can be the toughest of trials. Can I say this: Jesus went through that, much greater than us. Remember on the cross? Those three hours of darkness when he took the sin of the world on Jesus Christ? Remember what Jesus cried? He cried that, in a little bit of broken Hebrew—it’s not truly Hebrew, it’s almost like a different language—and he said, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” He said, “That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus went through that trial. I think maybe that was the greatest part of the agony of the cross: that he didn’t have the closeness with his Heavenly Father because our sin was laid on him. God turned his back on his only begotten Son because he was bearing my sin. The Bible says he who knew no sin became sin for us. It’s amazing. Christ experienced that when he was just, if you will, “He go forward, he’s not there and backward. I can’t find it. The left hand, I can’t perceive it.” He understands. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” It can be some of the most hurtful times of the trial.
Would you look in the first couple of verses of this chapter? Look at verses 1 through 3. “Then Job answered and said, ‘Even today is my complaint bitter. My stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!’” Job said, “I want his presence. I’d love to be able to just come and sit down before him.” Friend, can I say this? When you go through that trial, don’t think you’re the only one that’s ever been through it. The Bible said, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Job has been through it; Jesus has been through it. Sometimes we go through it. It’s not that He’s not there, but in our—maybe just our humanity—we don’t feel He’s there. That could be the toughest time, the toughest part of the trial. You said, “Preacher, what do I do when I go through trials like that?” I’ve heard many preachers talk about times in their lives very much like that, just that season pleading, “God, I need your presence more than ever. I’m so hungry. I’ve got to have that. I need that.” David went through that, and he hungered and thirsted after God more than once. What do you do during that time? Just three quick things. If I’m a Baptist preacher, it’s got to be three, right? Let’s say it is three. It is three. What do we do? Number one, look at verse number 10. Verse number 10 is amazing, it really is. He’s just crying out, “Lord, I need you right now. I can’t perceive you right now.”
“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” You call that an amazing Christian? You call that a Christian just going through incredible times, maybe the greatest part of the test, when he didn’t feel the presence of God like he needed and wanted it? Yet in the middle of that, he said, “I don’t get it all; I don’t understand it all, but he knows the way, and I’m going to trust him.” Friend, when you can’t trace him, you trust him. If you can trace him, you don’t have to have any trust. No need for trust if you can trace; you can figure it all out, and you don’t have to have much faith in him. In those times you don’t understand, you can’t figure it all out—can I say this?—those times you trust him, that takes humility. Pride wants to figure it all out. Pride wants to know what’s going on. Pride wants to know why, why, why? Sometimes, just in your humility, you just say, “Lord, I can’t figure it all out. It doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. I’m going to trust you.” Job said he knows. He knows the way that I take. At the end of this trial, I know what he’s trying to do: He’s trying to make me gold. “I shall come forth as gold.” You know the story of gold: it gets heated up, and the dross comes to the top, and they take that dross off. Job said, “I don’t understand it. I’m not saying I like it. I’m hurting. I long to feel the presence of God.” But I’m going to trust him. I’m going to trust him. I hope I don’t do too much of this, but I look out and see Brother Glenn and what a wonderful marriage. I can’t remember how many years, and Miss Aretha went home. I thought, I was trying to be there for Brother Glenn, but I’ll be honest, he was more of a testimony to me. I remember several times he was saying, “You know, I’m just going to trust him.” Pretty amazing. When you can’t figure it all out—and there will be times that you can’t figure it all out—you just trust him. Sometimes you’re not going to feel his presence like you want to, and you say, “Well, I want to be so close to him during this time.” I understand that, but that season is going to be like Jesus: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” You trust him. You trust him here in those times.
Look in verse number 13. “But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desires, even that he doeth.” Can I just maybe put it in this wording: He is God. Amen. And I am so far, far from figuring out God. Look if you go over to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55. Look on over Isaiah 55—great verses for times like this in your life. If you live for God over the long haul, you will have times like this. I don’t like it, but you will. Praise the Lord, his tests are not permanent. The test did end for Job; the captivity did turn for Job in Job 42, amen. Right in the middle of these are great verses during those times. Isaiah chapter 55, would you look at verse number 8? Isaiah 55, verse number 8. He says there, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts.” God is just trying to say, “Hey, man, we’re on two different wavelengths.” Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God said, “We are so far apart.” Let me be honest with you: your mind is about as far from His as the heavens are above the earth. You don’t always get it. You don’t always comprehend it. And you’re there sometimes, and we’re all there from time to time. You just say, “I’m just going to trust him. I’m just going to trust him.” There’s going to be times that you don’t trace it, but you trust him. You say, “Preacher, man, what do I do? I can’t feel the presence of God like I like to.” Trust him.
David said, “I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.” He couldn’t see it; he believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Sometimes you don’t see it, but you trust him. You believed to see it one day. It doesn’t matter if you can see it or not; he’s still good. He’s good whether I can figure it all out or not. He’s still God; he’s still good. By the way, he’s still sending his Son to the cross to shed his blood for you, and that’s a good God right there. These trials we go through, in the long scheme of things, are just a drop in the bucket. I’m going to have eternity walking on streets of gold with no pain and no sorrow and no tears for all eternity. Hey, he’s a good God. But I’m going to go through these times down here living in a sin-cursed world. I’m just going to trust him. I don’t get it all. It’s a good day when I just say, “You know, sometimes I’m going to stop trying to figure it all out. I’m just going to trust him.”
Years and years ago, there was a family out on the prairie, and a bad storm came in the middle of the night, just a bad storm. I don’t know where the husband was in the story. There was a mom, a grandmother, and three children. The storm was so bad, and the wind was so bad, it blew the windows out in that old prairie house. They didn’t have electricity at the time, so they couldn’t have any lights; the wind blew the light out, and they were in the dark. They went over to the safest side of the house—the mom, the grandmother, and three children. The wind was just blowing, and any second, you know, the wind could just tear that old house down. All of a sudden, they couldn’t find their little 11-year-old son. The mom went frantic. She said, “Where’s Walter? Where’s Walter at?” They scrambled around and finally found Walter in that little room; he had crawled up in the corner and just fell asleep. The mom was frantic. She said, “What are you doing? We couldn’t find you!” Walter said, “Well, Grandma said God’s going to take care of us. So I figured if God took care of us, might as well just go to sleep.”
Sometimes that childlike faith—you’re not going to figure out the storm. It’s going to be blowing, and you’ll hear the wind howling. All the questions are going to go in your mind. When you’re in the test, your mind always goes to the worst. The best you can say is, “I can’t figure it out. Just going to trust him. Just going to trust him.” What do you do during those times when you can’t find him? You trust him.
Now let’s get a couple of things in here. We’re done for the night. Look in verse number 11, back over here in Job 23. He says, “My foot hath held his steps; his way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Can I say this? Number two: Number one, you trust him. Number two, don’t change. Don’t change. Keep your steps in his way. Keep following God. If there’s ever a time that you want to change, it’s right in the middle of the trial. You want to change. You want to give in. You want to lower the standards.
Parents, any time you raise children, you’re going to go through times when you just want to lower everything. It just looks so bleak and so black, and you will be tempted to change. If it’s not going your way, you’re going to say, “Well, why do I read my Bible? Why do I do all these things? Nothing’s going my way.” You’re going to be tempted just to change it all. Job said, “No, I’m not letting His commandments go. I’m going to keep stepping in his way. I’m not going to change. I’m not going to change my beliefs, my convictions, my standards.” I know I’m going through trials. I’m going to come forth as gold one day, but I’m not going to change right in the middle of it. It’s amazing how many churches change in the trials. I haven’t pastored as long as many, but 22 years here. We’ve experienced some days of growing, and we’ve experienced some days of holding, and we’ve experienced some days of declining. Can I be honest with it? It’s a whole lot easier to pastor a church when you’re growing. That’s pretty easy compared to when you’re holding your own and when you’re going backwards. If you’re not careful, if growth is your main goal, you’re setting yourself up to change and lower and give in on everything. That is not our goal. Our main goal is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don’t want to change just because sometimes it pleases some people and sometimes it doesn’t please people. Sometimes they like you, and sometimes they don’t like you. Sometimes they brag on you, and sometimes they criticize you. But you don’t change just because you’re down sometimes. God’s Word doesn’t change. You just say, “We’re just not going to change either.” By the way, if we have 5,500, 500, 50, or five, we’re going to use an old King James Bible around here. We’re going to have some dress standards for our young people, for ourselves, and for leadership people. You say people don’t like that anymore. It doesn’t matter. God likes that. That’s what we’re after. I’d rather win. Everybody’s happy with you. Man, I like those days. We’ve lived long enough to realize you better hang on, friend. Things change.
We went to the Nashville Sounds ball game the other night, and it reminded me of an old story I always use when talking about how people change. Years ago, at the old stadium with the Nashville Sounds ball game, we were out in the outfield, and we kind of got alone, just the family. There was just us in the whole section. Down here was a group of guys; they were drunk. And that right fielder out there, man, they were giving him what for. Since there weren’t a whole lot of people there, the outfielder could hear them. They were yelling, “You’ll never make it to the majors. No wonder you’re in the minors.” They were just giving him a rough road the whole way. Somebody hit a pop fly out there, and this guy ran. He ran as fast, and he dove, and he caught that ball in midair. He landed, he yelled, “I got the ball!” Those guys flipped. They were yelling, “You’re the best! You’re the greatest!” For the rest of the game, they just loved this guy. I just remember the Holy Spirit said, “Be careful, Paul, that’s people.” Sometimes they love you, and sometimes they don’t. You can’t have what you’re going to do and not do based on people. You’ve got to have it based on God and His Word, what you believe is right. You just have to say, “Hey, in the toughest of times, I am not changing.” You’ll be tempted to change. Job said, “Look, my foot is going to keep in the same way, walking the same way it walked before this test.”
Or to change? Oh, friend, it’s so easy. “Well, my goodness, maybe we have that old rock and roll band over there in our church. Maybe we can have a big crowd like that.” I want to reach as many people as I can. You say, if you’re talking about numbers, you better believe it means souls. That’s God’s business, not mine. He brings in; Christ brings in, not me. I just want to stay right and see what he’ll do. I can’t bring the increase anyway, friend. But look, we cannot get so focused on that. Listen, friend, your music standards, your dress standards, your language—all that ought to be based on what you believe God wants you to do. People change and situations change, but God and His Word don’t change. You stick with that. What do you do during the times of testing? You say, “I’m going to trust him.” Number two, don’t change. Then number three, look back at verse number 11. Job 23, look at verse number 11 right there. He says, “My foot hath held his steps. His way have I kept.” He’s not changing. Watch this: “And not declined.” Number three, don’t quit. Don’t quit. Don’t quit.
You’re going through trials, and you’re going to say, “Well, what good is it to read the Bible? I’m going to quit reading it.” Think if Job would have quit. What about if Job would have quit around chapter 32, before he started talking to Jehovah the Lord? What if he had quit right before God turned to Chapter 38? What if he had quit? He would have never experienced 10 more kids. He would have never experienced more influence for the Lord Jesus Christ. I think, yes, he gave him twice as many companies and all that, yes, but I think it’s more about the influence that he can have on people for the Lord. What if he had quit right in the middle of that trial? He’d never experienced what God had on the other side of the trial. Don’t quit. Keep praying for your neighbor to get saved, your uncle or aunt, whoever it is, to get saved. Don’t quit. You say, “Well, why pass out gospel tracts? Nobody wants to read them anymore anyway.” That’s not true; that’s the lie of the devil. Why pass out tracts? Maybe that next tract is the one that someone’s going to read and get saved. Our whole family got saved from a tract. You’ve heard me tell this story many times. Our whole family tree changed. We don’t even know the guy who put the tract out there. It just may be the next mile. Don’t quit. Don’t quit.
I have so appreciated some of these Old Testament prophets lately. Take Ezekiel, I mentioned just a touch this morning, how God called him to a rebellious people. God said, “I’m going to give you a harder forehead than they’ve got.” Man, I wouldn’t want to play that game. I used to play with my kids when they were little; we would get face-to-face, you know, and push our foreheads against each other. Praise the Lord, I did it when they were little; I don’t do it anymore—they’re too big. They hurt nowadays. I wouldn’t want to play that game with Ezekiel, though; man, he had a hard forehead, harder than flint. Ezekiel never had a big ministry in our day and time. He never pastored a big church. He never had loads of people saved. If you look at it, Ezekiel just didn’t have a whole lot of success. He was never in the Ministerial Association, being one of the top ministers. Ezekiel wasn’t there. It’s amazing to me. Ezekiel’s wife passed away one evening, the Bible tells us, and the next day the Bible says he said, “I did as I was told.” Wow. Ezekiel died trying; he just died obeying. He didn’t have what the world would call great success, but he died obeying.
I think of that. I read this afternoon of a little boy who would sing, “Trust and obey,” but he kind of got it mixed up, as only little boys do. He said, “Trust and okay.” Hey, just trust him; it’ll be okay. Don’t change and don’t quit. Ezekiel didn’t quit. Jeremiah—I mentioned him this morning—wow, you talk about unsuccessful. Israel never listened to that guy. He had to follow them into exile in Egypt. The guy didn’t have success, but he just died trying. Hosea, we just finished studying him on Wednesday night. Wow, my hat’s off to Hosea. He had a sixty-year ministry, and his wife, Gomer, left him. Later on, he bought her back for half the price of a slave. He bought her back, and probably her health or life was ruined, but he bought her back because God wanted him to. He didn’t have a successful ministry; Israel didn’t listen to him, but he died faithful. Maybe that’s some of the things Jesus had in mind where he says, “Many of the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” The Lord must have thought an awful lot of those men because he used Jeremiah to pin the longest book in the Bible—not chapter-wise, I know Psalms is long, but words and verse-wise. He used those men. Those couple men pinned at least a third of the Old Testament. Isaiah put him in there. He didn’t have a successful ministry either, really. He had some influence with the king, but the king didn’t listen to him for the most part. Don’t quit. Those Old Testament prophets are just faithful. Don’t quit.
Maybe those men will be lifted up so high in heaven because they just stayed faithful. I mention it so often, but I’ve got to close it out with missionaries who go to—the one I always use, Michael Williams, a great, great guy. He went to South America and Africa, Ghana, Africa. He was there; man, great ministry. Hundreds getting saved. You go pass out gospel tracks; you don’t have enough gospel tracks to give to them; they just flock to it, you know. He was there for a couple of years. God just blessed them, and people were getting saved left and right. Then God called them to Germany. Well, friend, in Germany, you have gospel tracks. You have three of them; you’ve got plenty. They don’t want them there, and it’s a tough area. Praise the Lord, that young man stayed faithful in both places. God’s called him over to the mission board more like now, and he’s seen both sides of it. In the toughest of times, that’s the time it’s easy to quit. That’s the time you just stay faithful. Don’t quit. Don’t quit.
I talked to Brother Warren a little bit yesterday. We’ve been trying to reach each other all week long, and finally, we got a hold of each other. He called yesterday, and I was able to get him on the phone. He’s an amazing testimony. You know the story: Brother Warren living in the camper on his own, having so many health issues, and all they had was Buck, his dog, whom he loved. Well, you know, he’s been in the assisted living hospital for over five months now, and he’s given his dog up to a foster home or adoption, all that stuff. His health is declining; he has congestive heart failure. They’ve called hospice in to oversee now, and he’s kind of trying to accept all that, but the guy is amazing. In one part of the conversation, he just talks about, “Man, I’m so excited about going to heaven. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about going home. I can talk about going to be with the Lord.” That is a testimony to me. He’s just so faithful. I want to be faithful here; I want to stay true here. In the other half of the conversation, he says, “I can’t wait to get back in church. I can handle everything, but man, I want to get back in church. I want to see the people again.” Let him know I’m missing him; I love him. Friend, to me, those are the ones Jesus is going to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He’s not quitting. He said, “Man, you’re winning a crown of life right now.” He’s going through the trials, and he’s talking about how good God’s been, how God has provided for him. God has, in some ways. He hasn’t paid a dime for all this medical care, and God has taken care of his dog and everything. God has taken care of him, but he’s going through the trial, and yet he loves the Lord. He’s not quit. He’s not quit.
Hey, what do you do when you’re going through times when you’re trying to find the presence of God, and you’re not going to feel it like you want to? You trust him. You trust him. Don’t change. Don’t quit. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Heads bowed, eyes closed. You said, “Preacher, somewhere along the line, the Lord spoke to my heart. I need to quit trying to figure it all out; I need to trust him.” Maybe it’s that “I don’t need to change.” I’m tempted and prone to change, and I can feel the tug. I don’t want to change. Maybe I feel the tug, and I don’t want to quit. I don’t want to quit. But somewhere along the line, God spoke to my heart. If that’s you—God spoke to my heart. You slip your head and just lift your hand. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you for it. The Lord worked in your heart. Thank you so very much. Would you please stand? Would you please stand? Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. Would you come just spend some time with the Lord Jesus Christ? Maybe something specific spoke to your heart. Maybe you need to come. Maybe you say, “I need to get saved tonight.” It would be a great night. We’d love to be a help in leading you to Jesus Christ so you know for sure heaven is your home. We’d love to be a help in that. We rejoice in that. Maybe just come spend some time with the Lord. Let’s pray, and would you come to an old-fashioned altar, spend some time with the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you do that?
Father, thank you. You love us. Thank you, Lord. You are worthy of our trust. You’ve proven your love, your ability. Help us to trust you, Lord. Help us not to change during the tough times. Lord, help us not to quit during the tough times. Lord, thank you for Job. Thank you for your Word. Bless our people tonight through that. And we’ll thank you, Lord, for it. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen. Would you just spend some time? You’ll be obedient to the Lord as he leads you as we sing. Think about Job. Think about Job, right in the middle of that trial. He may have said, “Lord, I don’t get it, I don’t understand it, I can’t find you.” But he didn’t realize that for thousands, literally thousands of years, how many millions of Christians have been helped by those verses when I’ve read them. They have been such a comfort to me. He couldn’t find God at that time, and maybe God is allowing this trial in your life because he wants someone to get help from what you’re going through—God’s plan. Would you, A. J. Gordon, say, “Lord, be thorough with me. Be thorough with me.” Trust him. Don’t change. Don’t quit. Let’s just be faithful. Would you let him know that right where you stand? Would you let him know while we’re singing?
Original File: 3 friends of Job - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 06262022