[0:00] If you take your Bibles to go with me to Job chapter 2, he is a good and a gracious king. But you know, oftentimes your life is kind of falling apart.
[0:11] You don't know how to deal with it. And so we're in a passage in Job where I think it really helps us to learn what's going on. We've lost loved ones. I remember sitting beside my dad's bed as he ebbed into nothing and died.
[0:28] I have seen this very week one of our church folks had a family member have a wreck late at night, run into a tree and die. Death, financial problems, marital problems, children problems.
[0:43] How can I deal with crisis? How can I have victory? Well, you're in a book that is full of a guy who had more problems than any of us could ever imagine.
[0:54] You remember the story. God and Satan are having a conversation. And the accuser, Satan, is saying to him, you know, Job's not what you think he is. God says to Satan, he says, have you looked at my man Job?
[1:07] He loves me. And Satan basically replies and says, well, of course he does. Everything in his life goes well. And you're good to him. And you protect him. And he lives a blessed life.
[1:19] And you have this hedge around him. And everything's going great. Nobody could ever complain about that. No wonder he loves you. He doesn't love you. He loves what you do for him. So God says, well, you go take everything he's got away from him.
[1:31] He said, well, if I do that, he'll hate you. He'll curse you. God said, well, go do it. He does. And you get to Job chapter 2 and verse 3. God and Satan or the accuser are talking again.
[1:43] And the Lord says, well, I guess you notice there's none like him. There's none like him. Boy, he loves me. And he hates evil. And no matter what you've done to him, he still owes fast to your integrity.
[1:54] And then God says, you caused me to move against him and destroy him without a cause. And Satan looks at him and said, well, biggie whoopee. Skin for skin.
[2:05] If you take his life, if you start affecting him personally, he will still curse you. Look at verse 4. Skin for skin, he says. And in verse 5, he said, he'll curse you to your face.
[2:18] The Lord said to Satan, well, go do everything you want to, but you can't kill him. Do everything else, but you can't kill him. And so in verse 7, he gets so sick, he's lost everything now.
[2:30] He's lost all of his wealth. He's lost everything. He's lost his children. Now he's lost his health. And he is sitting there with balls, sores, pussy bleeding sores all over his body.
[2:44] He is itching so much that he's picking up broken pieces of pottery as he sits in a garbage dump, basically scratching himself. And his wife comes out and says to him, don't you think it's about time to just get this over with?
[2:59] You can't go lower. You can't hurt more. Why don't you just curse God and die? So how did he deal with crisis?
[3:10] Let's have a word of prayer, and I want to show you five things I think could really help you today. Father, I love you, and I thank you for your people. God, these people love you. You know that. They come.
[3:21] They give. They're faithful. They invite their friends. They are living for you. And God, I'm asking you now to encourage them and to help them as they deal with crisis. And I will give you honor and glory and praise for all you do.
[3:33] In Jesus' name, amen. Take your Bible now and go with me, if you would, to Job chapter 2 and verse 9. I'm going to give you five statements that I believe will help you learn how to live with crisis.
[3:44] Number one, we need to be prepared to live confidently. Would you write that down? We need to be prepared to live confidently. So here's what happens. Whether we realize or not before this crisis ever starts, old Job has already got some things settled.
[4:01] You can't really maybe stand up in the crisis if you don't already have some things. God knew those things were already in his life. That's why God said, try him if you want to. Try him some more if you want to.
[4:11] I know this guy, and he knows me. Look, if you would, at Job chapter 2 and verse 9 and just underline this. Underline, retain thine integrity. Look at it.
[4:21] Then said his wife on him, do you still retain your integrity? Do you still hold on to the fact that you're right with God? Do you still hold on to the fact that you're the man of God?
[4:32] Do you still hold on that God loves you? Do you still hold on to that? So he had to be prepared for that. So here's what I want to show you, some Bible verses. I want to warn you, all of us, crisis is coming.
[4:47] Problems are coming. Loved ones are going to die. Children are going to go astray. Financial hard times are coming. Any kind of unimagined thing that could happen is going to happen.
[5:01] So you need to be prepared. I believe that Job was prepared, and that's why he could still hold on to his integrity. So let me give you some Bible verses you can write down and study and help get you prepared.
[5:13] In Acts chapter 14 and verse 22, you know, somehow, somewhere along the way, we get this idealistic Pollyanna picture of Christianity. If you serve God, your kids will always turn out right.
[5:25] If you serve God, you won't ever die. If you serve God, you won't ever get sick. If you serve God, your life won't fall apart. If you serve God, everything's going to be great. That's simply not biblical.
[5:36] That is simply not biblical. Look at the Bible, if you would, in Acts 14, 22. The Bible says, the last half of the verse, if you want to just start adding that, we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
[5:50] Paul sat down and said, guys, I need to help you. I'm discipling you, and I'm training you, and I'm preparing you, and I'm confirming your souls, and I'm making sure you're really right with God, and I'm making sure you really got faith, and I'm making sure you're ready, because you need to know bad times are coming.
[6:05] You need to know that bad times are coming. You need to know that crisis is on its way. In the Bible, there's a clear teaching that we are going to deal with junk.
[6:17] In the Bible, there's clear teaching that crisis is on the way. The Bible says in John 16, 33, Jesus was talking, and he said, in the world, if you live on this planet, you shall have tribulation.
[6:29] But be a good cheer. I have overcome the world. Now, there's something really important in that. He said, I have overcome the world. That's good. But he threw in a little thing in there that you got to notice.
[6:39] He said, but you're going to have problems. You're going to have problems. You need to go ahead and be prepared and be ready so that when the time comes, you, like he, can say, I maintain my integrity.
[6:50] I know who I am. I know I'm a child of God. I know I'm on the way to heaven. I know God's done a work in my life. And my life may be falling down all around me, but I know Jesus, and he knows me.
[7:02] Problems should not surprise us. I wish you'd look this one up in your Bible. I know sometimes I go too quickly. You can't keep up. But look up 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. 1 Peter 4 and verse 12.
[7:14] There ought to be a clear understanding in your heart that we're going to go through junk. We're going to go through junk. We're going to have car accidents. Our financial situations are going to go crash. The government may move on us.
[7:26] Bad things may happen. Health may fall apart. Health may be a Christian. Problems should never surprise a Christian because he's warned. If he's a Bible reader and a Bible studier, he knows that bad things happen.
[7:41] 1 Peter 4, 12, the Bible says, Beloved, hey, brothers in Christ, people that I love, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.
[7:54] He looks at him and says, Guys, I know, I know your life's falling apart. I know you're in the middle of a mess. And I know you got a crisis. And I know a fiery trial. You could be being persecuted. You could be going through a mess.
[8:04] And you're at the point of saying, I don't think I can carry on. He said, Don't be surprised. Got your Bible underlined here. He said, Think it not strange. Don't act like I'm the only one that's ever gone through this.
[8:17] I'm the only one that's ever had this happen. Everybody else says, Mom and Dad have never died. Huh? Everybody else says, Brothers and sisters never had a problem. No one's ever had a financial crisis. I just can't understand why it's happening to me.
[8:29] He said, Think it not strange. Don't act like something wild and crazy is happening to you. It's called life. Life is happening to you. Look at verse 13.
[8:40] But rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Then he goes on in verse 14 to say, You are reproached for the name of Christ, that the Spirit of God can rest on you.
[8:53] That none of you suffer. If there are problems, here's what he says in the passage. If there are problems, at least let them be problems that happen to you and it's not your responsibility.
[9:03] Basically, let me read you the verse. Look with me if you would at verse 15. Guys, you're going to have problems, but don't suffer as a murderer or a thief or a gossiper who goes around talking about other people at church.
[9:16] Watch. Here's a guy that's a drunkard or a drug addict. And he said, Man, I'm suffering. You don't know. I've lost all my teeth. My life's falling apart. I don't have any money.
[9:27] And he said, Well, we don't suffer like that. That's not the kind of suffering we're going to go through because you ought not be like that. You ought to know to do right. Amen. But while you're doing right, you shouldn't be surprised that really bad stuff happens to you.
[9:40] You shouldn't be surprised that really bad things happen. Suffer as a Christian, verse 16. Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf. You see, here's the whole deal.
[9:51] When things start going wrong, you start thinking, God doesn't love me. My life's falling apart. Everybody knows I'm not a good guy. Everybody knows things are going wrong, and they only go wrong because I'm not prosperity gospel preacher enough.
[10:04] He said, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. When things go wrong, you handle it like a man of God. You handle it like you are. You be prepared. And I would warn all of our church because I love you, but I would warn all of you, trouble sometimes are coming.
[10:19] And they're always coming. And it's going to happen to all of us. We need to be ready. So how can you be ready? Number one, you've got to know your relationship to God. If you're here this morning, do you know that you're saved?
[10:31] I'm telling you that a crisis, the shoe is about to drop. I'm telling you that the problem is about to come, and you need to be ready. His wife's like, My husband's always been a man of integrity.
[10:43] My husband's always stood for what's right. My husband's always been a man of God. Now his whole life's falling apart. His kids are dead. His riches are gone. His health is gone. And she looks at him and says, Now don't tell me you still think things are okay.
[10:57] And he's going to end up saying, Yep, they're all right. In fact, he says, I'm going to argue about that the rest of this book. Because we're fixing to get into the big arguments. His three buddies are going to show up, and the whole time they're going to say, You're not a good guy.
[11:08] And Job's going to look at him and say, Oh, yes, I am. And they're going to say, No, you messed up. Job's going to say, Oh, no, I didn't. And they're going to say, Bad things happen when you do wrong. And Job's going to say, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't know why this is happening.
[11:19] I'd sure like to talk to God about it. I'd tell God, Tell me why it's happening. Because I didn't do nothing wrong. I maintain I'm a man of God. I've done the right thing. That means bad things happen when you don't really deserve bad things to happen to you.
[11:33] Are you living in obedience the best you can? You see, we need to be prepared to be able to walk confidently with God in the middle of the worst crisis possible.
[11:45] Our friends are wagging their heads and talking about our failures. People are mocking us. And people are saying, Well, if he was a real man of God, bad stuff wouldn't be happening to him. But Job was like, Don't talk all you want to talk.
[11:57] You bring four guys to spend 40 chapters telling me I'm a bad guy, but I'll give you what I got. I am not. I'm a man of God. That's what the books of Job's are going to be about. Job knew the suffering wasn't because of sin in his life.
[12:10] He didn't know, but he knew God did. Now, you know what you can do right now? We need today, if we're going to live a life of integrity, we need to be praising and thanking God today.
[12:25] Bad things are coming. And if you're not used to praising and thanking, what are you going to do when it really gets bad? When all of your life falls apart and your wife is sick and your children have all died and all your money is going to the stock market crash, the business went under, you're now bankrupt.
[12:41] And everybody in the community is talking about, he used to claim to be such a good Christian, but his whole life fell apart. He's a nothing. He's a nobody. He's not what he said he was. Job's going to be like, Oh, I was thanking God when it was good.
[12:53] And I'm thanking God while it's bad because I'm in love with God. You retain your integrity still? Oh, yes, I do. Memorize scripture to be ready.
[13:05] Fill your heart with the word of God because the world is going to come against you. And even people are going to come and quote scripture to you and quote Bible truths to you to convince you of not being the man of God.
[13:18] That's what's going to happen in the book. So memorize scripture, fill your heart with it and live out in holiness who you are. Go back with me to Job chapter 2 and verse 9 if you would. In Job chapter 2 and verse 9, if you remember it said, Then said his wife on him, Does thou still retain thine integrity?
[13:35] And she goes, Curse God and die. Second thing, learn and grow from problems. Learn and grow from problems. I've been married for 46 years in just a few days.
[13:52] Eighteenth, a week from today, Betty and I will have been married 46 years. And so I would just say to you that we ought not be quite as hard on Mrs. Job as we often are.
[14:04] She's hurting. She's beyond hurting. All her kids are dead. Her position is gone. She at one time was the wife of the richest man in the whole country.
[14:19] Nobody was like him. She once was a lady when she walked down the street. Everybody said, Whoa! There comes Miss Job. There comes a lady. And now her husband's lost everything. Her husband has lost his children.
[14:30] And now his health is gone. And she's like, Curse God and die. She's having to watch her husband go through horrible suffering.
[14:42] I can kind of understand the lady. Just get it over with. Just get it over with. No one can hang through all this junk. Look at Job chapter 2 and verse 7.
[14:53] Satan smote. So went forth Satan from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore balls from the sole of his feet to his crown. Job didn't have an issue on his hand or his leg.
[15:05] Job didn't have that disease that comes around there. When you get all nervous and torn up, it comes around you. What's that called? See, he didn't have shingles.
[15:16] This guy got shingles from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. This guy is in agony. He's lost his kids. He's lost his wealth. And now every part of his body is hurting.
[15:29] She's watching that. In chapter 2 and verse 8, he's picking up pieces of pottery to scratch himself. And he's sitting among ashes. Here's the point. Like Job's wife, most of us want to get out of the problem rather than through the problem.
[15:45] You might as well write that down somewhere. We want to get out of the problem rather than through the problem. But here's what we want to do biblically. We want to let God do whatever it is he's wanting to do in us.
[16:00] Up in heaven right now, Job doesn't know what's going on. All Job knows is I've lost it all. My wife is telling me to curse.
[16:11] My kids are dead. All my wealth is gone. My body is racked with pain. My breath is stinking. And people don't even want to be around me because my whole body is putrid. That's it later on in the scripture.
[16:27] But in heaven, there's a big contest going on. If you read the Bible here. In heaven, God's going, he'll stand. He'll stand.
[16:37] The devil's going, no, he won't. God said, watch him. He will. On earth, Job's just like, I don't know what is going on here, but it ain't fun.
[16:48] But Job's like, I'm going to let God do in me whatever he wants to do. That's a New Testament principle, by the way. Go with me if you would to James chapter 1 and verse 3.
[17:02] James, you need to look these verses up. I'm really trying to be a blessing to you and help you. James chapter 1 and verse 3. Our goal is to allow God to do whatever he wants. Look at what James said. Know this, that the trying of your faith works patience.
[17:19] That word patience there, by the way, is endurance. When things go wrong, you learn to endure. But let patience, endurance, have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
[17:37] Now, I hope you got your Bible open. Look at this. He said, guys. He says, guys. He says, guys, listen to me. The trying of your faith. This stuff is so bad, I'm beginning to wonder if I even believe in God.
[17:50] How could this be happening? If God is real, if he's up there, why doesn't he hear me? Why doesn't he answer my prayer? Why is he letting me hurt?
[18:02] My kids are dead. I've lost everything. I got my body's wracked with pain. My wife, oh, God. Come on, be honest. Isn't that how he's probably feeling? And here's what James said.
[18:14] I wish you'd underline this in your Bible. The trying of your faith. The testing of your faith. Write that there in the margin. Trying. Testing. The testing of your faith.
[18:24] You have real faith? God says, oh, check him out. My man will stand. He was testing his faith. The trying of your faith. The Bible says, works patience.
[18:36] Verse 4, though, is crucial to understanding these great truths. Let patience have her perfect work. Underline perfect work. See, you got to let the surgery finish.
[18:48] You got to let it go all the way through the process. You don't want to get out of it. You want to get through it. You don't want to quit. You want it done. The perfect work. Look at that. Let it have her perfect work.
[19:00] Let it have complete work. Fulfilled work. Everything. God's got a program. He's working in your life. And if you'll just let him finish. Huh? Look at it.
[19:10] If you'll just let him finish. Now look at the rest of the verse. You will be perfect. That doesn't mean perfect like not sinless. It just means you'll have grown up and you'll have matured.
[19:21] And you'll be an entire person. You'll be integral. You'll be what you're supposed to be. And you won't be needing anything. Because God says, I'm putting you through the mess. But when I get through the mess, you're coming out on the other side.
[19:33] Military man joins the military. Walks in cocky and smart. And got his hair long. And wearing his pants down to where his underwear shows. Halfway down his backside.
[19:45] And then the sergeant walks out there and says, watch this. Let me get my full job done. And when I get through with you, you won't look nothing like you look right now. But you will be one lean, mean fighting machine.
[19:57] My God of heaven looks down and says, I'm working. I'm working. That's not an accident, Job. That's not an accident, Job. In fact, I already know what the last part of Job says, Job. I already know because I'm God.
[20:09] I know everything. I'm working, Job. Let me work. What he needs to do is James chapter 4 and verse 6. If you take your Bibles there. James chapter 4 and verse 6. Look what it says.
[20:22] See, he needs God to do his work. So he needs to seek the Lord. Chapter 4, verse 6. He gives more grace. Wherefore, he said, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.
[20:36] There's a very good chance that when you're Job, you're walking around going, I'm a man of God. I got integrity. Me and God, see how he blesses me?
[20:49] I'm a man of God. See my work? Man of God. And you just might need a little humility because the blessings of God got you feeling pretty good about yourself.
[21:02] And he says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Hey, Job, call on God. Job, admit you need God. Verse 7.
[21:12] Submit to God. Obey God. Do what God's calling on you to do. Resist the devil. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
[21:24] Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted. Mourn. Weep. And laughter be turned to mourning. And joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves. So here's what ends up happening.
[21:37] Problems come our way. You know what we do? We walk around like, I'm a good man of God, good man of God. You see my life, man? Got my nice car. Got my nice house. Got my nice wife. Got my nice kids. Richest man around here. Everybody knows that. And as soon as bad stuff happened, we're like, hey, what you doing?
[21:51] You know who I am? You better remember who I am. And we get proud and haughty. And we quit on God. We don't want to go to church anymore. We don't want to read our Bibles anymore. We don't want to be in the ministry anymore.
[22:01] We want to back off from God and say, God, God, you know you were lucky to get me. Hmm? He said, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.
[22:12] Stop looking for the fast way out of problems instead of learning from the problem. Start trusting God and what he's doing in your life. Go back with me, if you would, to Job chapter 2 and verse 9.
[22:24] 10. Job chapter 2 and verse 10. You got to get your act together and be ready to face each day. Look at Job 2.10. See, when she says, and I don't know that she literally looked, I'm not sure she went, curse God and die.
[22:40] I think she might have been trying to hug him and said, baby, nobody can take what you're taking. It's too much. Just end it. I'm not sure how that went.
[22:50] But he was ready. In Job chapter 2 and verse 10, he says, lady, you speak like a girl that don't know God. Look at it. You speak as a foolish woman speaks.
[23:02] I just don't know that word foolish. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. You know what the beginning of wisdom is? The fear of God. So don't act like a fool trying to get a person to deny God or rebel against God.
[23:17] Don't act like and think like a lost person. Can I just be honest with you? Sometimes when junk happens to us, we start acting like lost people. I ain't got time to go to church.
[23:30] I got problems. You don't know how much junk I'm going through. Oh, my life is so hard. If God loved me, he wouldn't let me go through this.
[23:42] I don't know if there's a God anymore. Come on. Come on. All that junk they preach at church.
[23:56] It must not be true. That's acting like a lost person, isn't it? Y'all mad at me yet? I'm just really reading, I think, what the scriptures say here.
[24:07] He says in Philippians 4, 6, be careful for nothing. Don't worry about anything. But with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
[24:18] And God will give you peace that nobody can understand. Peace which passes all understanding. Learn to think on these things. Too often you respond before taking the time to figure out what's going on.
[24:32] I've been through some crisis. I've been through some hard times. I remember sitting on a hill outside the Hunter Church in my truck early in the morning and thinking my life was over.
[24:47] My ministry was over. I was publicly humiliated in the whole country on national television. And I was standing up on a hill probably 150 feet above the church, looking down at the church.
[24:59] I could see all these people, dozens of people coming and going from the Bible college and the Christian school. All the ministers we had going on in that building. And all I could sit up there and think was, what in the world, God, where are you?
[25:11] Why are you letting this happen? But you see, he said, now look to me, lady. Listen, honey. Listen, sweetheart. Don't talk like a lost girl. Don't talk to me like a lost woman would.
[25:25] Don't do that. Because he said, I know this. I'm not sure how he's going to do it. God's going to do something in this. He's going to work this out. In Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.
[25:38] All God's doing, verse 29, is conforming me to the image of his son. God will not do wrong. So you're not being unjustly treated for no reason.
[25:53] By the way, this is happening in the lives of other people all over the world. And God will not always get us out of our trouble. By the way, we don't ever quit trusting him.
[26:04] Job's in pretty happy when we finish this book. I'm not sure he doesn't sit at night and look at pictures of 10 kids that are dead. I'm not sure he doesn't have to think about that.
[26:20] You need to know something, people. It's really not about us and our comfort. It's about him and his glory and his purpose in our lives. Number four.
[26:34] Job chapter 2 and verse 10. Trust God and believe he'll work it all out for your best. In Job 2.10, Job says, what?
[26:45] Shall we receive good at the hand of God and not receive evil? You see, everything I have is coming from God. Everything that's going on is coming from God.
[26:56] And I trust God. And God's bigger than everything. God's almighty. God's completely powerful enough to do anything and everything that needs to be done in my life. So I need to have confidence in God.
[27:08] I need to have faith in God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 17, the apostle Paul summed it up like this. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
[27:27] What you can see and what you can feel hurts so bad. When you compare it to August the 11th, 2019. When I look around and I say, this is August 2019.
[27:41] My life's falling apart on August 11th, 2019. But Paul said, if you consider this in terms of eternity. If you consider this in terms of God almighty.
[27:53] This is but a light thing. And I don't know what God's doing. But I know this. Far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Verse 18, he said.
[28:04] While we look not at the things which are seen. But the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal. So while Job's over here suffering and everything in his life is falling apart.
[28:18] If Job focuses on Job. And if Job focuses on what Job's feeling. And if Job focuses on what Job wants. And if that's Job, Job, Job, Job. All I can think about is Job, Job, Job.
[28:29] Then it's a terribly horrible weight. But when Job stops and says, I am not sure what's going on here. But there is a God in heaven. And I am going to trust him and believe him.
[28:40] And look to him. And God will do something great with this. You need to know. That the fact that things are falling apart in your life doesn't mean he doesn't love you.
[28:54] In Romans chapter 8 and verse 38. The apostle Paul said, I am persuaded. That nothing. And he lists a whole bunch of junk. Shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
[29:06] Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So I know you're hurting right now. And I know things are falling apart in your life. And I know Job's wife has torn all to pieces. And I know Job is all distraught.
[29:19] But here's what we can know. Not one time did the God of heaven quit loving him. Not one time did something step in between and darken God's love for him. So you need to know God is ultimately in control of everything.
[29:34] And nothing's happening in my life by an accident. And God's going to work through everything that goes on in my life. He knows where you are. And he knows what's going on.
[29:44] And here's where you want your focus to be. On him. On him. The Bible says in Isaiah 26.3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee.
[29:57] Because he trusts in thee. So in the middle of the dark moment. In the middle of the day. When your kids have run away from home. When your dad is dying. When your ministry is falling apart.
[30:07] When your business is going under. When life is falling apart. And everything. You got to say. I can't think about those things. I got to think about my Savior. I got to think about my God. I got to keep my mind focused on.
[30:18] God I know. I don't understand what's going on here. But I know you. And I will keep thinking about you. Because this stuff down here is about to kill me. But I will trust you. That's what the story is about.
[30:32] Go with me to Job chapter 2 and verse 10. And I will finish right here quickly. Give God glory through it all. Job 2.10.
[30:42] In all this did not Job sin with his lips. You know that Job never accused God. Bad things do happen to good people.
[31:00] Everything in life is about Jesus. Until we get that straight in our heads. We're not going to be able to deal with junk. Unless we're going to do it like everybody else does. Psychiatrists. Psychologists. And drugs. Alcohol.
[31:13] Crazy living. Bitterness. Anger. Arrogance. That's where we'll be. But not us. Not us. Not us. We're all going to face cancer.
[31:25] Or death. Or sickness. Or our loved ones are. We're all going to have horrible tragic events happen to us. But we can trust. And we don't have to accuse God.
[31:37] Fact is. You know what God's will is for you today? That in everything. 1 Thessalonians 5.18. In everything. Give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
[31:51] You know what I'm supposed to be doing? Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you for being good to me. Thank you for my wonderful wife. Thank you Jesus.
[32:03] You gave me those kids. I might have lost my kids. But I had 10 kids. Thank you for the time you gave me those kids. Thank you for the time you gave me those blessings.
[32:14] Thank you. And even in the midst of all my junk. I want to thank you. I want to praise you. Because I'm living for you. Last verse.
[32:26] Romans chapter 5 and verse 3. Did you know that as you go through all this mess. God's going to work love into you. And he's going to take it out of you. And spread it all over everybody. When you learn to love God in the middle of all your junk.
[32:39] All the stuff that's happening. Look at it. Romans 5.3. And not only so. But we glory in tribulations. Apostle Paul's like. Hey guys things go wrong.
[32:50] I know how to be a base. I know how to not have any money. I know how to not have anything to eat. I've been beat up. I've been left for dead. I've been shipwrecked. My life's falling apart. Sometimes things are.
[33:00] Nobody likes me. My best buddies turn on me. But I will glory. God. You trusted me with this tribulation. I will glory in my tribulations. Because I know. Tribulation works.
[33:13] Patience. And patience. Experience. You know what that experience is. It is. I went through a lot of mess. And it took a long time to get through it. But by the time I got through it. I figured out something. He was there.
[33:25] He was there. He took care of me in the middle of it. He answered my prayers in the darkest night. He was there. I got experience. I got experience when I wanted to die. He was there.
[33:36] And that experience will make you have hope. You'll be like. Next time you're in a big mess. You'll be like. I remember last time. And hope makes not ashamed. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
[33:50] By the Holy Ghost which is given to us. So we walk out of the room saying. Oh I know you're hurting. I know you're hurting. I know your life's falling apart. I've been there. I tell you what. You can be happy about this. Because God's working in you. And before it's all over.
[34:01] God's going to do something big in your life. And you're going to have more blessings. And more help. And the love of God. Is going to spread out of your heart. And spread around the people. God's at work in you. Glory. In your tribulations.
[34:15] Where are you today? Some of you are hurt and bitter. Anxious. Distraught. Frustrated. Feeling like God's not there.
[34:25] Feeling like your hope is gone. Your joy is gone. Your life's crashing. Somebody you love is dying. Somebody you love is sick. Your financial situation is almost in complete reversal. And you don't know what you're going to do.
[34:38] I'll tell you what you're going to do. Maintain your integrity. Know you know God. Know you know God. Don't you dare curse God. Don't you listen to those who would make you think God's not real.
[34:50] And God's not powerful. And just decide. I don't know what he's doing. But I know he's still there. And I know he's still working. And I know that he's only doing what's good.
[35:04] For his kingdom. And for me. I will trust him. I will trust him. You