And They Lived Happily Ever After...

[0:00] Well, we come to the end of our story. We're in our last few verses of the book of Job.

[0:10] and we finally come and have made it to kind of this happily ever after ending. Those of you who like happy endings, you're going to love today's message.

[0:22] But as a recap and as kind of a way to kind of catch us up and kind of get us in the flow of where we are, I want to read for you kind of this story of Job in, let's say, kind of like a fairy tale kind of a venue.

[0:41] Okay? So this will serve not only as a summary, but also help for some of you who this is like your first time coming into the series, kind of catch you up to where we are so it will make sense as we finish out our study for this morning.

[0:57] I asked Chet GPT for help in creating a fairy tale version of Job with the facts that are there, so bear with me as I read for us today.

[1:09] Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Uz, there lived a man named Job. He was the greatest and most respected man of the East, known for his kindness, his wisdom, his devotion to God.

[1:23] Job was blessed with a beautiful family, seven strong sons, and three lovely daughters. His household was filled with joy and laughter, and his children regularly celebrated together and met in each other's homes.

[1:35] Job faithfully pointed his children to God and was careful always to pray for them, offering sacrifices on their behalf. Job was also exceedingly rich.

[1:46] He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 donkeys. His fields and pastures stretched as far as the eye could see.

[1:57] His herds dotted the hillside like stars across the night sky. Everyone in the land knew of Job's greatness, but even more they knew of Job's devotion to God.

[2:08] Until one day, the sons of God came and presented themselves before the Lord, and Satan came before the throne of God. And the Lord said, Have you considered my servant Job?

[2:22] There is none like him on the earth. Satan sneered and said, Of course he loves you. Haven't you given him everything? Take away his blessings, and he will curse you to your face.

[2:33] And so it came to pass. That God allowed Satan to test Job. In one dreadful day, Job's sheep were destroyed by a fire from heaven. His camels carried away by the Chaldeans from the north.

[2:46] His oxen and donkeys were stolen by the Sabaeans from the south. And worst of all, a great wind struck the house where his beloved sons and daughters were feasting, and they were taken from him.

[2:58] Job tore his clothes and fell to the ground, yet whispered through his tears, the Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But Job's trial was not complete, for Satan was not finished tormenting him.

[3:15] Satan presented himself again before God and said, Skin for skin, strike his health, and he will surely curse you to your face. So Job was struck with painful sores from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

[3:28] He sat in ashes, scraping himself with a broken shard of pottery. His friends came to comfort him, but instead of easing his sorrow, they accused him of hidden sins, making his suffering even heavier, heaping pain upon pain.

[3:45] When at last, the Lord himself came to Job, not with anger, but in a mighty whirlwind, he asked Job questions that no man could answer.

[3:56] Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Do you give the horse its might? Do you command the storm and sea? In awe and humility, Job placed his hand over his mouth and repented in dust and ashes, saying, I know that you can do all things.

[4:16] And so the Lord restored Job, blessing him more than before. Job prayed for his friends and offered a sacrifice for the repentance, and God forgave them.

[4:27] His fields once again filled with flocks and herds. His house rang with joy. He was given new sons and daughters as beautiful as the morning light. And so Job, along with his friends and family, lived happily ever after.

[4:45] If you like happy endings, this is a happy ending for you. But I wonder this morning, as we look into the scripture, as we fill this out, there's some questions that we need to answer for ourselves.

[4:56] We're left with this final question. What was actually the happy ending? What was the happy ending? What made Job so happy at the end of his life?

[5:08] What is the moral of the story? What are we supposed to learn and embrace as followers of God and those who would devote ourselves to worship him? What should we learn from this book?

[5:20] How does it impact our hearts and influence our lives and our activities on Monday? We come to Job chapter 42, beginning in verse 7.

[5:31] We're going to take it through the end of the book this morning to verse 14. And we're going to see God who shows up in two ways. First, God is going to show up with his final word. God's final word to Job and his friends.

[5:44] It begins there in verse 7. 7 to 9. Let me read that for us and we'll jump into our text for this morning. After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite, My anger burns against you and against your two friends.

[6:03] For you have not spoken of me, what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves and my servant Job shall pray for you.

[6:20] For I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite went and did what the Lord had told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.

[6:40] God will speak one more time and he will provide this message to Job's friends. And we're going to see three components to his word this morning.

[6:51] First, his righteous anger that comes through. Notice that God leads with this, My anger burns against you and your two friends. After the Lord spoke to Job, we get the impression that now Job, or God turns to Job's friends and continues this conversation.

[7:11] Having informed Job about how Job was ignorant towards God's will, God's truth in some ways and he darkened counsel of God, now God turns to Job's friends and he is clear about his anger.

[7:30] His friends likely have participated in the hearing of what God said to Job. God has expounded the wonders of his creation God has helped to communicate the way that he intricately created the world and cares for his creature.

[7:47] God's sovereignty, his power, his majesty, all of those things that certainly left Job breathless and silent has now left his friends also silent.

[8:00] We will not hear from them the rest of this book. And the Lord addresses them speaking to the friends and he singles out Eliphaz first. Eliphaz who is the first speaker, likely the oldest, the most respected of the group.

[8:14] He's the one who supposedly got this word that was brought stealthily to his ear, a spirit, remember, who glided past his face and this word that was delivered to Eliphaz and then communicated to Job.

[8:29] And God leads his communication, his word, with this statement, my anger burns against you and against your two friends. Remember, God did not say that to Job.

[8:42] God's anger did not burn against Job. Well, God corrected Job and God reminded Job of the ways that he got things wrong. His anger was directed towards Job's friends.

[8:55] One commentator says, when we read of God's anger against his friends, we have to reckon that their fault is no small one. If Job has been obscuring the divine plan in some way, they have been actively assaulting it.

[9:13] Job, in claiming that the world is not governed by justice, though he meant it as a complaint, had really put his finger on the truth of the matter. They, though, in defending the doctrine of retribution, were advocates of a theology hostile to the divine design.

[9:30] And those of you who are just kind of catching up, this theology of retribution is a theology of cause and effect that we reap what we sow. And that was the design of the truth that they, or the messages that they gave to Job.

[9:48] And here God is. His anger burns against them. Those of you who have read the Old Testament will know that God's anger is something that we are acquainted with on a regular basis especially through the Old Testament.

[10:02] That passage after passage we find that God's anger burns against his people. But it is a perfect anger, a righteous anger, an expected anger, and I would say unnecessary anger that God has against sin.

[10:21] Yet what we'll find this morning as we look at this passage that God's anger is always accompanied by patience, by endurance, by mercy, that in his anger he invites those whom he's expressed his anger towards to enjoy the benefits of sacrifice and the provision that he's made for them so they can enter in and be invited back to relationship and friendship with God.

[10:48] We've seen God's anger and you're acquainted I'm sure with God's anger in Exodus 32 for example. That story of God who has led the children of Israel out of this land of bondage out of Egypt and there they've made their way to Mount Sinai this mountain of God and God will speak to Moses there and he'll speak to reestablish his covenant relationship with his people and while Moses is there with God receiving these ten commandments you remember what the people of Israel are doing.

[11:22] Rather than worshipping God they're worshipping a God of a graven image this image of gold of a cow Moses is on the mountaintop and God's anger burns we see that in Exodus 32 verses 9 and 10 The Lord said to Moses I have seen this people behold it is a stiff necked people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you but as you remember Moses stood in the gap recognizing the proper and righteous anger of God but also reminding God which God didn't need to be reminded of but reminded God of his promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and because of God's promise and mercy he relented from his righteous anger against his people here we are again

[12:27] God's anger is burning again his righteous anger is meant to point us to something the anger of God is not meant to exterminate us but to draw us to understand what we really deserve so that we can come to a place of recognition a couple of chapters from Exodus 32 God will show up to Moses again and he'll remind Moses in Exodus 34 something about his character something about his anger something about his desire to demonstrate mercy and love in spite of his right anger towards his people Exodus 34 5-7 says the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there speaking of standing with Moses there and proclaim the name of the Lord the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation it's important to understand that

[13:48] God's anger is right God's anger is something that we deserve and God's anger is not something that's simply contained in the Old Testament but it's an anger that describes the character of God from eternity past to eternity future it's not what some might say well the Old Testament God is a God of wrath the New Testament God is a God of mercy there is something different it's not that God's righteous standard has been softened it's that God has provided a way for his righteous anger to be vented so that his anger doesn't have to be extinguished on us we find from Romans 6 23 the wages of sin is death the penalty for your sin and my sin is the wrath of God that comes and obliterates us but the verse continues it says but the gift of God is eternal life through

[14:51] Jesus Christ our Lord there is a right punishment for sin that results in physical death and spiritual death of those who do not believe in God but those who embrace Christ the gift of Christ the forgiveness that he seeks to provide for us through his death and through his resurrection the wrath of God is vented now on his son and Jesus stands in the gap for us so that we can enjoy the benefits of forgiveness and mercy in God's anger he addresses these three men but I take encouragement that God does not obliterate them even as Eliphaz had predicted earlier in his speech he talks about the breath of God and the wicked will perish but by the blast of his anger they're consumed that's what Eliphaz predicted that's what he knew what he deserved and yet God was here in his anger to make a provision for anger that's what we see next what will

[15:58] God do his stern rebuke we find at the end of verse 7 at the end of verse 8 God's stern rebuke notice he says my anger burns against you and against your two friends for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has now at the end of verse 8 for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has God has repeated this twice for effect he wants to reinforce the point that there is something wrong about the way that you represented me you misrepresented my truth you misrepresented my heart and you misrepresented the message that I sought to give to Job through his trial it does raise a question for us in what way did they misrepresent God in what way were they wrong and

[16:58] Job was right well first they had a warped theology they misunderstood God they recognized his justice but they assumed that God in his justice would always bless those who were obedient and always curse those who were wicked and so if your life was cursed it was indicative of a life that was out of step with God they misunderstood God's heart they misunderstood that some trials happen and we don't understand the reason why Eliphaz will say in Job chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 he says remember who that was innocent ever perished or where were the upright cut off as I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same you reap what you sow you get what you deserve this cause and effect kind of situation with God build will say in Job 8 verse 5 if you will seek

[18:05] God and plead with the almighty for mercy if you're pure and upright surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation behold God will not reject a blameless man nor take the hand of evildoers Job if you were righteous if you were truly blameless you wouldn't be experiencing the hard things of this life they missed and misrepresented the theology the truth about who God was they also misunderstood Job's situation and in several instances they actually assume things about Job that are just simply not true an example of that is found in Job 22 verses 4 to 9 Eliphaz will speak again he says is it for your fear of him that he repute repute you and enters into judgment with you is not your evil abundant there is no end to your iniquities for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing you have given no water to the weary to drink you have withheld bread from the hungry the man with power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it you have sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless were crushed oh really

[19:27] Eliphaz where do you get your proof how in the world do you derive this information of course none of it was true it was baseless these accusations that were derived out of nothing because it had to meet with his own theology had to confirm the things that he believed to be true about God of course Job felt their attacks Job understood that there was no mercy coming from them but while their theology was poor and while they were a poor reflection of God I believe there is something deeper something that goes to the core of who they are God contrasts their words with Job's words he says you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has well what is God referring to and I believe it goes deeper to the very heart of Job we find from Job from the very beginning this posture of humility we find from

[20:29] Job from the very beginning one who is sensitive to the will of God but also sensitive to his own sin we see on several occasions both at the beginning of Job's discourse and also towards the end of Job's discourse where in his pleadings with his desire is to know how he stepped out of fellowship what he has done to break this relationship in Job chapter 10 verse 15 he says if I am guilty woe to me if I am in the right I cannot lift up my head for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction in Job 13 verse 23 Job says how many are my iniquities and my sins make me know my transgression and my sin throughout the testimony of these discourses there has been sensitivity in Job's heart towards his sin any possible sin that might be there disrupting his communion with

[21:32] God if he could just hear from God and understand what that sin was that he could make that right and he could restore that relationship this really was an issue of the heart I believe Job spoke what was right because Job fundamentally understood his position before God he understood that God being righteous and being perfect was higher and that as a creature he was below he was humble and he was accountable to God himself and yet the number of times that Job will confront his friends for their wicked counsel Job chapter 13 verses 7 and 10 I don't think I have this in the slides but listen to how Job kind of summarizes his argument he says will you speak falsely for God will you speak deceitfully for him will you show partiality towards him will you plead the case for

[22:33] God will it be well with you when he searches you out or can you deceive him as one deceives a man he will surely rebuke you in secret if in secret you show partiality Job recognized that in their theology of retribution their cause and effect they were willing to foist on Job and claim that Job was responsible for some egregious sin because of the situation that he was in and yet they could not see their own unworthiness they could not see their own sin they could not recognize that just because they were enjoying the blessings of God that it was a grace of God that was on them not something that they deserved so here Job is calling attention to the sin of their life how are you going to do when he searches you out and yet in spite of that challenge they continue to advocate for their own righteousness they could not see the wickedness of their own heart and because of this core issue though

[23:50] God provides some instruction God gives some gracious provision that we find in verse 8 and verse 9 in his anger God does not obliterate them in God's anger he warns them and now he instructs them and makes way for them to enjoy a reestablished relationship with him again notice this provision that begins in verse 8 God says now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves and my servant Job shall pray for you for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has so Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite went out and did what the Lord had told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer God's provision is amazing

[24:53] God's provision should be an encouragement that even here in an Old Testament setting that God had made a way for them to be reestablished in relationship with him and who does God choose to use to bridge the gap who does God choose to use as a priest like mediator between them and God the very one who they accused of being wicked the very one whom they accused of being out of step with God God says okay fine you think this to be true of my servant Job well Job is actually going to be the one who's going to plead for you Job is going to be the one who will advocate for you Job will be the one who represents you before me take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer this burnt offering one commentator says the number of seven bulls and seven rams in atonement for the wrongdoing of the three friends is astonishingly high we might compare the seven bulls and seven rams offered for the whole people of Israel on each of the seven days of the

[26:04] Passover in Ezekiel we find a sacrifice of seven bulls and seven rams in three other places in the Hebrew Bible in the narrative of Balaam and Balak at the installation of the ark of the covenant in David's time in the cleansing of the temple in Hezekiah's time and on all three occasions the stakes are much higher than they are for just three friends seven bulls seven rams offered for the sake of an entire nation now are being made for the sake of three but God has made a provision this high cost is something that will help them come to terms with the sin that was so true of their lives but God has made a way it's fascinating because it was Job who had asked for a mediator through the course of his pleadings Job 16 20 he says my friends scorn me my eyes pour out tears to God oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads with his neighbor and here is Job having pleaded for a mediator

[27:11] God has installed him essentially as a priest like mediator for his friends Job prays for them never once had Job's friends prayed for him but here is Job Job is in a place of being able not to return the favor not to hold a grudge but to willingly embrace with obedience the task of pleading on behalf of his friends he mediates for them this repentance which they had recommended for Job is now something that they themselves will have to do and finally they've come to terms with their own need for God and Job will stand in the gap he stands in the gap for these men who had heaped insult upon injury to him God's rebuke of them was sufficient you see it's a reminder of the ministry that God has also entrusted to believers to those who live in this day and age who call

[28:14] Jesus their Lord we have been given this ministry of turning enemies into friends it's called reconciliation it's allowing there to be peace between two parties that once had experienced hostility against one another and God has given to us those who have enjoyed now peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ have been given the responsibility the privilege and the joy now to act as this kind of mediator as it were in a message of reconciling broken wicked men and women to God we find that in 2nd Corinthians 5 17 to 19 it says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old is passed away behold the new has come all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in

[29:16] Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation I know that's a big word reconciliation essentially it's allowing there to be friendship now where there once was a hostility where once there was anger where once there was enmity and you and I now as friends of God because of Jesus Christ get to usher in and invite others to participate in that same friendship moving them from enmity or becoming from an enemy of God to now becoming a friend of God through faith in Jesus and forgiveness of sin God's word that he's given to his friends and because of this word now we find what God will do to provide restoration God's lavish restoration is detailed for us in verses 10 to 17 his lavish restoration notice in verse 10 what is this first piece of restoration we find it says and the

[30:23] Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before I believe what we find here in verse 10 is not just restored possessions but especially restored fellowship with God that is the best and greatest restoration that Job has experienced because that has kind of been the tension of his heart the struggle through this entire time of suffering where are you God why have you become my enemy you were once my friend things were so great before what is in the way now and now Job has this assurance that God has never departed from him God has never left him God has always been present even though Job has felt like God was distant and through this experience of God showing up in chapter 38 through chapter 42 and now

[31:24] God reestablishing Job as this man who's able to act as a mediator between his friends and God to help Job understand that relationship that you enjoyed that ministry that you had in chapter one for your family and sacrificing for them is a ministry that you can have again now for your friends you see Job the greatest anguish in the suffering was an anguish of a broken what he believed was a broken and severed relationship with God notice in Job chapter 29 verse 2 he says this oh that I were as in the months of old as in the days when God watched over me when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness!

[32:11] as I was in my prime when the friendship of God was upon my tent when the almighty was yet with me when my children were all around me what I craved the most what I enjoyed the best was this treasure of relationship with God and now that I have that back now everything is okay and nothing has really changed for Job up to this point at least in terms of his circumstances except that now he knows that God is present and God was enough for him this restored fellowship with God was really what he was after what he craved the most and notice what God says about Job here at the end of this narrative and how it compares with what God said at the beginning in chapter 1 verse 8 when God spoke to Satan he said to him have you considered my servant Job my servant Job one who worships me one who's devoted to me one who has this relationship to me have you considered

[33:19] Job my servant then in chapter 2 verse 3 where Satan presents himself before the Lord again God says once more have you considered my servant Job and what seemed to be broken in all the chapters in between is now restored so that in chapter 42 verse 7 we find that God will repeat this title and he will place this on Job to reaffirm once again he is my servant notice verse 7 you have not spoken what is right about me as my servant Job has then in verse 8 go to my servant Job then my servant Job shall pray for you and then you have not spoken right as my servant Job this relationship that seemed to be severed is now restored and Job his heart is full his posture has always been to want

[34:20] God to yearn for God to long for God and now God has restored the beauty and the experience of that relationship once more and finally this restored relationship that now Job will have with others restored relationship with others and I know on the surface as we read through these verses what we see is the stuff but I want you to read this or at least listen to this with new ears this morning as I read through this passage from verse 10 to verse 17 what I want you to hear is how all the things that God will bless Job with is encouraging and amplifying accentuating community relationship with others and that should make a lot of sense to us because the first two commands that God has given to us love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself the outflow of our love for God shows up in how we love others and we draw others into seek to draw others into relationship with God and that's what Job will do with his restored possessions notice so the

[35:35] Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends restored relationship notice and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before now verse 11 so then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and they ate bread with him in his house they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him and each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold family that's restored brothers and sisters and any of us in that position might have thought well where were you all this time it's kind of convenient that you're here now but you don't detect that heart in Job at all it was this welcoming heart this inviting heart and I would say a godly heart that loved the community the family that God had brought near him verse 12 and the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning he had 14,000 sheep 6,000 camels 1,000 yoke of oxen 1,000 female donkeys which is a double of everything that we read back in chapter 1

[36:45] God doubled it all why well this is the reason in verse 13 he had also seven sons and three daughters and he called the name of his first daughter Jemima and the name of his second Keziah the name of his third Karen Hepuk and in all the land there was no women so beautiful as Job's daughters and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers God blessed his family through Job's generous heart that he didn't just share his heritage and the inheritance to his sons but there was so much wealth that Job was happy to share that with his daughters as well that God allowed Job out of the abundance and the overflow of the blessings that he enjoyed Job's heart was to bless indiscriminately!

[37:44] without partiality especially in a culture like this for Job to bless his daughters was shocking and yet that's what those who love God will do they will see the resources that God has given to them as he means to distribute the kindness of God to those around them verse 16 and after this Job lived 140 years God doubled his life it's probably safe to assume that Job was 70 when all this went down God added 140 years and what was the reason for the doubling well here it is he saw his sons he saw his sons sons four generations this investment of people investment of relationship investment of pointing his sons to God the blessing was just a conduit a conduit to bless others a conduit to draw others to the God that Job loved and Job died an old man in full of days it's interesting the author mentions the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before and

[39:01] God used all of this abundance for Job so that Job could be a conduit of blessing others and pointing people to God it really is a reminder of what we see in James chapter 5 verses 10 and 11 and I'll close with this the writer James in commenting about Job's life says this my brothers take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience indeed we count them blessed who endure you have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord what was that end what was God's purpose in allowing Job to suffer it's this so the world would see that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful your testimony of the goodness of God will be amplified through suffering and not necessarily through good times because when good things happen to us then everyone celebrates but when bad things happen to us and we still depend on the kindness and goodness compassion and mercy of God it helps people who are outsiders to see that faith is genuine that life is genuine that commitment to God is sincere and genuine and we have the privilege and opportunity to point to God when things are really hard

[40:38] I'm going to pray for us we're going to close with a song that helps remind us of the significance of the testimony that we can have about God in hard times let me pray for us and the manwellers will come forward they'll sing and then I'll close this when they're done Father thank you thank you that you consistently use hard things to prove that you are a God who is compassionate and full of mercy really the essence of it is it demonstrates that you're enough not our stuff not our prosperity not our good health not all the the great positions and the the family and the the good things that we might enjoy that while those are good blessings of yours it's it's the gift and we as your people should celebrate and call attention to the giver of good gifts I pray that you help us to do that faithfully and thanks for the reminder of this song that we're going to hear and for the privilege that we have as your people through suffering to point to you help us to do it faithfully amen do you remember how Mary was grieving how you wept and she fell at your feet if it's true that you know what I'm feeling could it be that you're weeping with me arise oh Lord and save me there's nowhere else to go you're always good always good well somehow the sorrow is shaping my heart like it should you're always good always good always good well it's so hard to know what you're doing why won't you just tell it all plain but you said you'd come back on the third day and Peter missed it again and again so maybe the answer surrounds us but we don't have eyes to see that you're always good always good good this heartache is moving me closer than joy ever good you're always good good my God my God be near me there's nowhere else to go and Lord if you can hear me please help your child to know that you're always good always good good

[44:40] as we try to believe what is not meant to be understood will you help us to trust your intentions for us still good cause you laid down your life and you suffered like I never could you're always good always good always good always good always praise the Lord he's always good maybe maybe you've gone through a time right now where you don't feel like God is so good well you're not a stranger to Job

[45:43] Job understood that but by God's grace there is a way a way for us to enjoy goodness and by the way it's not a goodness that we deserve right that just like Job's friends and just like Israel so often did we deserve condemnation we deserve judgment we deserve the hand of God and the wrath of God to come on us that's what we deserve but God has made a way he's made a way for his goodness to be known through through Jesus and I don't know where you are this morning I'm not sure if you've experienced and enjoyed that goodness that forgiveness but it's available whoever believes on the name of the Lord will be saved will be forgiven do you need to enjoy that fresh start of forgiveness and goodness the mercy of God on your life and maybe maybe this morning you are already a believer but you need to that reset as it were you need to experience that fresh wave of God's kindness and goodness for you don't leave this morning without finding somebody to share with and to pray with so they can encourage you pray with you and introduce you reacquaint you back with our merciful and good faithful

[47:16] God thanks for coming this morning and I trust that our time in Job has been a good reminder of his goodness and blessing so that we can enjoy this happily ever after that is not like the happily ever after of this world but it's the happily ever after that even when things are really hard in this world you have him and that's what makes it happy that's what makes it full of joy that's what gives us peace and strength and I trust that if you are in a place today where you need to experience and enjoy be reacquainted with the joy that God desires to lavish on us through his son that you don't leave without talking to me or talking to someone else who can point you to him thanks for coming God bless you be a messenger of reconciliation be an advocate for friendship this week

[48:16] God bless you