Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey, New Life Gillette Church, we are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:25] Good morning.
[00:00:26] If we haven't met, I'm Wes. I have the privilege to lead the Northwest region district of Wesleyan churches, of which New Life is one. And I'm specifically excited to be here today because today we have the privilege to provide and participate in a vote of affirmation for your next lead pastor. Let me talk about how that happened and where we're at on that. So many of you were here when Pastor Mike shared that he was being called elsewhere. And, and immediately on that, actually, before that, my team had started to work, do the research, do the interview, do all the work that we do to help find who we will recommend as your next lead pastor. We went through that process. We came up with a couple of candidates that we thought would be fantastic, and we recommended those to your local board of administration and your local board of administration, your local board of elders did their work. They interviewed these candidates. They did all their work. And when it was all done, both the district team and the local board of elder team unanimously agreed that we wanted with enthusiasm to recommend Pastor C.J. ward to be your next lead pastor here at New Life. So that, yeah, that tells.
[00:01:47] That tells the story up to today. Today we have the privilege to. For all of us to engage. And everybody here is welcome to participate in the vote that's going to occur after the service when you leave.
[00:02:00] Member, non member, everybody's welcome. And so when you leave, there's going to be opportunities and places for you to fill out a quick ballot. And if you at all are inclined to do so, we would love it if you would do so. From a statutory perspective, we'll differentiate those of you who have gone through membership and those of you who haven't. But let me just.
[00:02:23] You, as somebody who leads this process and kind of has some final authority on it, every vote equally counts, right? Like, we really want to hear from you all, all of you all, and really excited about what's. What's next, kids can participate. That's kind of at the discretion of their parents. And so if you'd like, if you'd like for your family to participate in that, they can so just encourage you to be part of that. I gotta say, just as a sidebar, a side note, I've actually been really engaged, connected to New Life now for a very, very long. I'm an old man, so a very long time, since I was a teenager, like before this part of the building was built like a long, long time ago. And have been really in the inner loop and know the staffs over the years really well. And I got to tell you, just from my perspective, the team, the pastoral team you have here at New Life is just one of the best it's ever had. I'm blown away by its competence and quality and char and godliness and all the rest. It's just. I celebrate it across our whole nine state region. You just have a really great team, really excited about your future. I think it's going to be quite epic, to be honest.
[00:03:34] And because of that, I'm humbled and grateful because Pastor C.J. has had to.
[00:03:40] I don't know if he's had the wisdom or not, but he's invited me to teach today and I'm really grateful for that because as part of your discussion about fully engaging in the local church, I've been given the privilege to share a story that has revolutionized.
[00:03:58] First it wrecked my life, and then I believe it revolutionized my life. And it. This story is so foundational to why I am so madly in love with the God who made me so madly in love with the local church. Even though I'm in a position, I hear all the church's faults, right? Like I know them. And I got to tell you, there's nothing like it on planet Earth. And I've dedicated my life to it on a weekly, regular, daily basis. And this story, I think, explains why. So if you would give me the privilege of your attention for a few minutes, I want to tell you a story. Read some of it. We'll read some of it together. I'll tell a lot of it. It's an ancient story. It's one of the first stories that, that was ever written about the human race and about God. It's. It was written around the time the book of, if you know about the book of Genesis was written. It's an old story, but it's amazing and you may not have heard it all before. Will you give me your ear for just a moment? We're going to read just the opening of it together. And since it was written so long ago, I'll have to kind of, kind of explain, like, what, what, what they were saying at times. But we'll do that together and we'll get to the end and it'll be worth it.
[00:05:11] I just trust it has the Same impact for you it had for me. So words are going to come up and we're going to read together. It says, in the land of us, there lived a man whose Job. Some of you have been to church a few times and you think you've heard the story of Job. Just let go of that for a second, okay? There lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless, upright. He feared God, shunned evil.
[00:05:33] He had seven sons, three daughters.
[00:05:36] He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys. He had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
[00:05:48] His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they'd invite the three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[00:05:55] When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning, he'd sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, thinking this, maybe my children, perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular custom. So if you're reading this in ancient times, in Job's days, here's what all that means. Here's what all that says.
[00:06:18] Job was filthy rich, okay? That's the way that they would have described that. He's also super blessed. That's why they talk about seven sons and three daughters.
[00:06:29] For me, 10 kids would not be blessed, okay? But in Job's Day, 10 kids would be like, boom. Like, God's on his side. Like, wow. Super, super blessed. And then it says when his kids would, like, throw a celebration, Job would have offer, like, a sacrifice in case maybe they thought something did something wrong for forg. And what that's telling us is Job was really blessed, but he had it coming because he's a really good dude. Like, he's. He's a godly, super religious, like, perfect kind of guy. And so he kind of had coming because in Job's day, the thought was that if you're really, really good, God loves on you. And if you're not, God does not. And there's kind of this quid pro quo relationship with God and as it impacts the way we are with others, that's kind of how they thought in Jobs. They maybe there's a little bit in our day. Okay, that's just why I bring it up. But I'll get back to that in a moment because that's where it is. And God uses this story, and he knows that millions of People over the thousands of years will read this story because he wants to reorient our thinking about who he is because it impacts our lives so deeply and it has reoriented my heart. So stay with me for just a moment because everything turns for Job. If you know the story, God allows Satan and life and all the stuff of the world to radically, horribly, tragically change Job's life.
[00:07:56] And Job's not told anything about, hey, I need people to understand. It's not. No, it's just, boom. Stuff happens. Like all of his. All of his animals, all of his livestock gone. His property gets destroyed. Then his children die in a real traumatic accident, horrible situation.
[00:08:18] And Job personally is inflicted with what we think would be leprosy. We're just told incredibly painful sores.
[00:08:27] Life goes really, really bad. We read about. We read about Job's reaction this way.
[00:08:35] It says at this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. He fell to the ground. He worshiped, but he cursed.
[00:08:45] He cursed the day of his birth. Now it says he tore his robe. He falls down in ashes. He shaves his head in Job's. You know, in our day, when we shave our head, we just want to be better looking, right? But in Job's day, when he would do that, it was just like a time of mourning and pain. It was just, like, bad. This is. This is tough stuff. And Job is just at his end. Matter of fact.
[00:09:05] Matter of fact, we're told that his wife comes to him and says, job, you should curse God and die.
[00:09:12] When your spouse tells you to curse God and die, you need more than marriage counseling. Okay, Life's not going great. And this is Job's situation, right?
[00:09:22] It's bad. And we could go into that more, but that's what you need to know. Really, really bad. It says, though, during that process, it says Job had three friends that came. It said, when Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the shuite, Zophar the Naamathite, Dadgum the termite. Heard about all the troubles that I made dad Gum up. Are you still listening with me? Are you in the story? There was no dad Gum. There's just three guys. I don't think they used that word in those days. Okay, when they came, says, they set out from their homes, met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they hardly recognized him. They began to weep aloud. They tore their robes, sprinkled dust on their heads, then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was.
[00:10:14] That would be something they would do in ancient times when great loss occurred and there was mourning. They would set Shiva, which means they would sit seven days and seven nights, and nobody would speak. They would just sit. And it was awesome. And it gave people such courage and hope during times of mourning. And if they would have just stuck with that in this story, it would have been amazing. They did not, because they're like us. Like, they can't help to say stuff, right? And they start talking, and that's where the story goes really south. But again, God's using all of this. Stay, Stay with me, because I want you to hear what wor his three friends started to give in terms of advice, because they started to speak when Job would say, hey, something's happened to me, and I don't think it's right. They would just start. Listen to what, for instance, Eliphaz said. Eliphaz says, job, who, being innocent, has ever perished, where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble, they. They reap it. Job, in other words, you had it coming.
[00:11:17] And if you'll just confess your sin or change your. Like, you had this coming, and you're not being honest with us. Because what I've heard about God and what I've heard about the way the world works is that bad stuff doesn't happen to, you know, good people. They deserve it when it happens to them. And Job, you just need to turn. And Job, if you read on, and we don't have the time today, but Job said, I don't think so.
[00:11:43] Like, I didn't do anything to deserve this. Like, nothing changed. I'm living the same way. Like, they're not hiding a secret sin. God's not punishing. No, no. And he just keeps going back and forth with Eliphaz. So then the next guy, Bildad, he speaks up. He's Job, how long will you say such a thing? Your words are a blustering wind.
[00:12:06] Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? And then he says this incredibly offensive thing. He says, when your children sins against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. Job, face it.
[00:12:22] Actually, your kids had it coming.
[00:12:25] They deserved it.
[00:12:26] Now, if you're a parent in this room, you might understand some of the violent emotions that come out in words from Job in the next few chapters. I Key.
[00:12:38] He says, no, they didn't have it coming. But he says it in some pretty colorful language. Okay? He's a real guy in a real time, and he's really ticked off. And he says, no, they didn't have it coming. That's absolutely wrong.
[00:12:53] So hearing all of that, the third friend, Zophar. Zophar says, job, if you'll devote your heart to him, stretch out your hands to him, put away the sin that's in your hand, and allow no evil to dwell in your tent. And then you'll lift up your face without shame. You'll stand firm without fear. Job, quit denying quote. This is all just a long poetic way of saying you're covering something up.
[00:13:20] Quit.
[00:13:22] And again, the next. Next long discourse is just Job saying over and over again, no, guys, I didn't say. And they have. They get angry with one another and they keep telling Job, like, we have all wisdom. We know the answer. You're just in high. Listen, I love if you have any joy of sarcasm in your life, you understand and appreciate Job's response here. Job says, doubtless you three are the ones, and wisdom will die with you.
[00:13:56] When you three die, there'll be nobody smart left on planet Earth. That's basically a modern way of what Job says to them. Like, you got all wisdom, don't you? And then he says, I have a mind as well as you. I'm not inferior to you. Who doesn't know these things?
[00:14:11] He says, I've heard all these things. Like, of course, I've been to the same Sunday school class, the same small group. I've been to the same, like, Sunday morning where they taught this stuff. I know. We all know. We all know, right, God, you be good to God. God will make rain come on your pasture. He'll, you know, you're offer the right sacrifice, you do the right ritual, you follow the right rule. God will bless you. But if you mess up, like, no, God doesn't love you anymore. And he takes that, like, I know this stuff. I'm just telling you guys, it's not what happened in my life. And he just goes back and forth and back.
[00:14:45] You see this great myth, like all great myths about God and us, actually, the reason it's so easy to believe it is because you know, there's some truth, right? Like, God does love to bless people, and he does love to give great gifts.
[00:15:07] And there are times out of his love for us, right, that when, when we're headed in a wrong direction, stuff happens to say to us, hey, this Isn't going to work.
[00:15:16] Bad idea.
[00:15:18] Right? So there is a little bit. And they've, they've observed this and they've come to believe God is a celestial Santa Claus type, right? Who, who, who gives these things to the people who just love on him the most and follow all the rules perfectly. But everybody else and, and rain comes to other. And they've come to. And Job says, I get that. I've been to the same Bible study you were at, but I'm telling you, that's not what's happening. Matter of fact, matter of fact, listen to what he says. He says, I believe God's God and I still bow before Him. But, but he says, you are tormenting with me with your words. Ten times now you've reproached me shamelessly, you've attacked me. But though I cry, I have been wronged. And I get no response from God. Though I call for help, there is no justice. He's blocked my way.
[00:16:14] And then he goes on to say, here are these words. He goes on to say, if only I knew where to find him. That being God, if only I could go to his dwelling, I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out where he is and I would make him answer me.
[00:16:34] Essentially, this is ancient way of saying, I want to find God and I want to sue God because he has wronged me. And Joe's not joking around, I understand he's God and I would bow before him, but I would tell him this is wrong.
[00:17:00] And in ancient times, well, anytime really, but in ancient times, reading the story you kind of expect, and Job died, right? Like that's what the next sentence you think might be.
[00:17:11] But instead God does answer.
[00:17:16] And they have quite an exchange. And I want to share a bit with you because his answer, yes, it's life changing.
[00:17:30] It's in. If you read this later, it's in chapter 38 where he begins to answer. It starts out kind of how you might expect, says the Lord, answered Job out of a storm.
[00:17:42] Who is this that darkens my counsel?
[00:17:45] Brace yourself, I'll question you. You're asking with words without knowledge, where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me, if I understand, who marked off its dimensions? Surely Job, you know, who stretched a measuring line across it.
[00:18:01] And so when the story of Job is told and taught, it's usually told and taught this way, and that is that God shows up and says, job, whoa.
[00:18:12] Who do you think you are?
[00:18:18] Your size and wisdom compared to me is there's just. The difference is so vast, you don't know. And there is.
[00:18:26] There is some of God establishing that woe. Job, there's none of the big picture that you know anything about.
[00:18:36] Acknowledge that. And there is some of that.
[00:18:40] But. But, guys, he doesn't stop there.
[00:18:43] And this is what. Oh, let me see if I can explain it. There's. There's pages that God says, and I'm only going to have time to do a little bit, but. But he starts to ask Job some questions, and I think I can narrow this down, so. So we'll just get it today. God says job, who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain and a path for the thunderstorm to water a land where nobody lives, a desert with no one in it to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout grass. He says, job, you know all those sacrifices and perfect things you do so that I'll look down on you and love you enough to send rain.
[00:19:26] I know that's your thought about me, but let me ask you, Job, why then does it rain where nobody lives in a desert? Why does it rain sometimes there? Why does it rain other places? And why is pasture awesome? Other places where nobody prays or sacrifices like a animal or something? He just leaves that as a question.
[00:19:51] And they're starting to think, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
[00:19:54] What if God is not what we had heard?
[00:19:59] What if God actually loves because it's who he is, not for some strategic reason?
[00:20:07] He says this. God asks this question. He says, job, who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied his ropes? I gave him the wasteland as his home, the salt flat as his habitat. He laughs at the commotion in town. He does not hear a driver's shout. He says, you know how you guys think. All animals have to be of strategic use to your operation, or they're worthless. And those donkeys that just run wild, you're like, man, we got to either, like, tame them and use them or get rid of them. Well, who created them and put them out there where they're just running wild? And by the way, who takes care of them?
[00:20:47] Well.
[00:20:48] Oh, let me.
[00:20:50] Let me move to my favorite one. Maybe my second favorite. It's one of my favorites. Okay, it's God, says this Job.
[00:20:59] The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but they cannot compare to the pinions and feathers of the stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, unmindful that a foot may crush them that some wild animal may trample them. She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers. She cares. Not that her labor was totally in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense.
[00:21:25] Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at the horse and rider. This is awesome.
[00:21:31] God says, guys, have you seen the ostrich? Like, yeah, we've seen the ostrich.
[00:21:38] Not our favorite bird, to be honest. Right? We've seen the ostrich. God. Oh. Oh, I love the ostrich.
[00:21:45] Dumbest bird ever made.
[00:21:48] I get it. I didn't give her good sense or wisdom.
[00:21:51] And absolutely the worst mother on planet Earth. Have you seen that? She lays her eggs, forgets that she laid her eggs, stomps on them, kills bad mother, right? And they're like, yeah, we've seen all that. That's why we're not a big fan of the ostrich. Oh, guys, I love the ostrich.
[00:22:08] Have you seen how she runs?
[00:22:12] Oh, I love to watch her run.
[00:22:15] Doesn't she run? Awesome.
[00:22:18] You guys have these horse races.
[00:22:22] I made a senseless bird who could outrun them all.
[00:22:26] Love the ostrich, guys.
[00:22:29] And these guys are meeting a God.
[00:22:32] Not like what they thought.
[00:22:35] Not like what they thought.
[00:22:37] I'll do one more. Oh, there's so many. It's hard to stop. But let me just do one more. He says, okay, I got to set this up just a little bit because we're going to talk about the behemoth.
[00:22:49] We don't know exactly what the behemoth was in Job's day. Again, this is thousands of years ago. It would have been very much like a rhinoceros, but probably larger. And in Job's day, it was the most hated animal.
[00:23:03] Really hated. They tried and tried to kill them all, but it was difficult for them to kill them, and they just hate. It was a huge animal that ate a ton of grass and just destroyed their, you know, their agricultural, you know, region. They'd come through, and they. They just hated them. But they couldn't do much about it because they're so big and their hide. So th.
[00:23:24] Just behemoths were like, lois. So God says this.
[00:23:30] Look at the behemoth, which I made right along with you, which feeds on grass like an ox.
[00:23:38] Oh, guys. He didn't say, oh, guys. That's my. He says, what strength he has in his loins. What power in the muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar tree. The sinews of his thighs are close knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God.
[00:24:01] These guys, God says, have you seen the behemoth? Yeah, we were aware of the behemoth. And then he talks about the behemoth loins.
[00:24:11] They did not think God would celebrate the loins of a behemoth in this discourse, okay?
[00:24:18] And then he says, guys love everything about the Behemoth. I made some serious bone structure there.
[00:24:26] Matter of fact, God says he ranks first among the works of God. Like when it came to creating like a body structure, I think I got it right the most with the behemoth. That was when I had my A game going.
[00:24:41] And these guys who hate the behemoth are just like, what kind of God are we talking to here?
[00:24:48] The behemoth does no value for anybody. The wild donkey is of no good to anybody. The ostrich that runs around and kills her own children, that's of no value, that shouldn't exist. And yet God is just celebrating all of them and loving. Oh, what kind of God are we talking to here?
[00:25:07] And the behemoth, really?
[00:25:11] And it goes on, and it goes on.
[00:25:15] And when it's done, it's the way to understand what we're going to see and listen to next. Job's reply because we're going to put the words on the screen of Job's response when it's done.
[00:25:26] But it's almost like if you had to understand and be like God. Job finally said, he raised his hand, says, okay, enough.
[00:25:33] I now get it.
[00:25:35] Like, okay, God never tells Job the behind the scenes story of why he's put him through this. God never gives a specific answer to his question. He just introduces himself. And when he introduces himself, it's enough to Job. For Job, let's, let's read together what he's says. Job replied to the Lord, says God, I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. What you started with being God and all, I acknowledge that you are God and I don't have all answers. But then he goes on, he says, who is this obscure? You asked God who is this obscures my plans without knowledge. Surely I spoke of things I didn't understand, things too wonderful.
[00:26:25] When I met you, I came to understand things are even too. It's not just too distant, too big, too wonderful for me to understand, for me to know.
[00:26:39] And then next he goes on, he says, you said, listen now and I'll speak, I'll question you and you shall answer me.
[00:26:50] My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes.
[00:26:55] Like, I'd been to, like, life group. I'd been to Sunday Morning. I'd heard a teaching here. I'd heard this. I'd done a lot of Bible study. I'd heard of you.
[00:27:05] And I had one thought about who you were.
[00:27:07] But now I've met you.
[00:27:11] Oh, that was different.
[00:27:14] And finally he says, therefore despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. And this would not. This is not what it sounds like to us. This is not like I'm going to hate on myself now. No, that's not what this is. This is.
[00:27:27] Now I'll publicly say I had it all wrong and I was doing the right things for the wrong reasons.
[00:27:33] And so much about my life was wrong, and I blamed you. I've met you, and you can be trusted with my daughters and my sons.
[00:27:45] And you can be trusted with the pain I'm feeling right now. I don't understand it all, but now that I know who you are, I'm glad to be in your hands.
[00:27:58] And I changed. My orientation has been changed.
[00:28:04] And then God responds in a massively accepting way. And then at the end of God's response, he says, by the way, Eliphaz Bildad, you know, you three guys, you were wrong all along. All that you were saying, wrong, wrong, wrong.
[00:28:21] And you've sinned against God by saying things about me that aren't true. I'll only forgive you if Job will pray for you and ask for your forgiveness.
[00:28:34] Now, if I'm Job, I'd let that draw out for a little while. Okay?
[00:28:40] A couple hours at least. In my case, probably a couple of weeks. At the very least, there'd be a few sheep and donkeys involved, right? Or whatever. Whatever. Job does it. Job does it. He prays for them immediately.
[00:28:51] God forgives. It's just a massive scene.
[00:28:55] And then comes the little thing at the end about Job and what happens next. And this.
[00:29:04] You won't be shocked by it, but if a reader read this in Job's day, this would have been unbelievably shocking, Scandalous. Right? Let me read it to you. We'll read these words together. It says, the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former part. Had 14,000 now sheep, 6,000 camels, a thousand yoke of opposition, a thousand. He's great.
[00:29:24] He also had seven sons and three daughters, just like before. Okay, he's blessed again. The first daughter, he named Jemima. The second, Keziah. The third, Charon Hapek. And then finally it says, nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters.
[00:29:42] Job's writing this, by the way.
[00:29:45] And their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
[00:29:50] If you're reading this in Job's day, let me try to try to communicate how scandalous, offensive, shocking this would have been. So in Job's day, everything is about quid pro quo and finances and survival of your family and passing on stuff. So when you had a son, you really threw a party, because now that son would marry somebody else's daughter, and that family would have to give your family a ton of stuff.
[00:30:18] Okay? But if you had a daughter, sadly, in those days, there was mourning in your family. There was fear and mourning and anxiety, and it was going to be bad because you were going to have to give a bunch of stuff away. Matter of fact, very, very sadly, in Job's day, when daughters were born, sometimes families would decide they couldn't afford it, and they would end that young baby's life.
[00:30:44] But Job has met his maker, and something snapped in an amazingly good way in Job.
[00:30:51] So Job's given his blessing at the end of his life, and he's telling us how many camels and all that stuff. And then he says, I had seven sons and three daughters, and this is what we expect. But then something goes crazy. In the story he names his daughters. He never tells us the names of his sons.
[00:31:10] Yeah, I had seven sons. I can't remember their names right now.
[00:31:14] They're fine.
[00:31:16] Oh, let me tell you about my girls.
[00:31:19] Amazing.
[00:31:21] Amazing this would have been. What, did you lose it somewhere in this process?
[00:31:26] And not only does he name them, he names them these outlandishly. What in his day would have been considered craziness? Names like, what are you doing? Because names are all serious in Job's name. They need to have this deep religious meaning, right? That's the way you honored God or did the right thing. Not Job, he named. Let's see what it say here. Says he's named his first daughter Jimima, which means dove.
[00:31:51] In our day, that would be so weird. But in his day, to name his daughter after a bird he loved was crazy. He's like, have you seen Jemima?
[00:32:00] Oh, she's beautiful.
[00:32:02] Love that girl reminds me of a dove.
[00:32:06] People would just stare at him. Him at this point, right? The next one he names Keziah, which means cinnamon. Like, oh, I got to introduce you to her. She's spicy.
[00:32:18] Oh, yeah, baby. Love this girl. She's. She's on fire.
[00:32:23] And they're just like, what?
[00:32:25] Who are you? Who are you? And then many names. The last one, Karen Hapock, which, which literally means horn of eyeshadow.
[00:32:35] It's like you can't name your daughter, you can't figure out her name. You're walking around Walmart, you're like, why don't we call her Maybelline, right? I mean, this is just, this would be just crazy. It's like, what are you, what are you doing here? Oh, she's gorgeous.
[00:32:48] Matter of fact, I'm going to put in this story that I had the most beautiful three daughters that ever lived. Right? It's just crazy. Oh, it goes on. Did you see, remember the last part?
[00:32:58] He says, and Job gave his daughters an inheritance, right? Along with his sons.
[00:33:04] That never happened.
[00:33:07] And you asked Job and he says, why not?
[00:33:10] Aren't they just as valuable?
[00:33:12] Of course I'm going to give them an inheritance. Of course I'm going to. Yeah, I know that doesn't like stay in the family eventually or whatever because of the way the world, whatever, love them.
[00:33:24] I'm blessed. I'm just going to bless.
[00:33:29] I'm telling you something that's happening in my life and it's been happening now for, I hope, a couple of decades.
[00:33:37] And it is every day a little more. I get to go get to know my God, my creator and my redeemer and my Savior.
[00:33:47] And I get to know the fact that he's a reckless, irrational lover.
[00:33:56] He loved me for no strategic reason at all, had nothing to do with who I am or what I did for him or any of that. That's just who he is.
[00:34:10] And the more I'm wrapping my human lack of understanding mind around that, the more I'm coming to know that if he can love an ostrich, he can do, he can love me.
[00:34:25] You see, the more I'm getting that deep inside, the more I hope and I pray because this matters for all of eternity. The more I hope and pray that I'm loving for no strategic reason at all.
[00:34:41] Matter of fact, if you were to ask me, if you were to ask my wife and I, like, why is it that you've dedicated your life to serving in a local church? Why last Sunday was I part of like a tear down team at a new church where we folded chairs and put them on a rack? Why all that stuff?
[00:34:59] Why is the local church the hope of the world?
[00:35:03] It's because what the church does in my life is it becomes this place where I don't Just go along life sort of returning love that's given to me and loving back and thinking I'm a good person for it. No, the church is this place where I meet the one who loved me for no good reason at all.
[00:35:25] And I start with my brothers and sisters, my new family, loving people that will never be of any street strategic use to me personally, because it's not about that.
[00:35:40] It's not about that.
[00:35:43] I'm becoming the kind of person, I believe who serves little babies in a nursery, whose parents are hearing about the gospel and I'll never get anything, but they'll get to know a God who loves them desperately.
[00:36:05] And so I have given my life to engaging and serving in the local church because it is making me new and people are learning who Jesus Christ is in the right way.
[00:36:20] And I want to tell you, if you haven't done this, do this sign up in some way, step outside the good little deed you maybe do for a neighbor who does good deeds back to you or somebody who agrees with you on a lot of things and so you kind of love them or whatever else. No, no, no, no, no. That's. That's not God. That's quid pro growth stuff.
[00:36:47] No, no. Say I'll be part of what you created here on planet Earth to change the world through brothers and sisters who get together and say we will love people who are unworthy of love. But who, God, Who God says he loves? And we will love them sacrificially.
[00:37:08] We'll give our lives to this.
[00:37:11] Don't let the magic and the beauty of a church family pass you by.
[00:37:16] Let God change you like he changed Job, like I think he's changing me.
[00:37:21] Oh, God in heaven. Can I talk to you for just a moment?
[00:37:25] It's such a privilege to talk directly to you, the God of the universe, the one that is so, so immense and so wise compared to somebody like me. It's just incredible to have your audience for the moment.
[00:37:37] And you know that when I read this book, when I hear this story, every time I'm reminded of the God who loves the ostrich and the God who loved Wes when he did not deserve to be loved in any way, shape or form.
[00:37:50] And I'm so, so grateful to you for that.
[00:37:54] Do not let me live these handful of years on this planet not becoming like you, only loving the people for whom it's convenient to love or who will love me back in some way. Do not let that happen in my life.
[00:38:10] Use your local church to build in me a new creation.
[00:38:15] Someone who loves.
[00:38:18] Just because that's who I've become. Just because it's who you've made me. Just because.
[00:38:23] Not because somebody's like me or deserves. Just because.
[00:38:29] Remind me of that every time I'm folding a chair, caring for a child, participating in some act of service through the local church on some team, that this is who I'm becoming.
[00:38:45] Keep me engaged. Keep me signed up. Keep me going forward. I pray in Jesus name. Oh, I love you. I love you.
[00:38:56] Amen. Amen.
