296 ~ FEAR OF GOD ~ Part Three

We welcome you to the Via Zayan Sermon podcast.

We are a church based in Chennai, India.

We are so happy that you tuned in today and hope that as you

listen in, you will be inspired, strengthened and empowered to

live for Jesus everyday. As we enter 2026, we believe

that this is the year of a divine takeover.

We believe that when we surrender our lives to Him, He

will take over every aspect and bring breakthrough and blessing

like only He can. Today we look at how we hand

over the details of our lives before He takes over.

Would you keep your eyes, ears, and hearts tuned into God today

and every day of this year? Would your hands and feet be

strong to do what you have been called and created to do?

So as you know, we're doing a divine takeover.

We're doing this whole theme centered around divine takeover.

And you know, the essential, we realized the primary essential

that God was highlighting to us was the fear of God.

And many times in today's world, we feel it's kind of a wimpish

to have a fear of God. You know, we are like, you know

what? I'm made in the image of God and

probably like God in so many ways.

I'm the righteousness of God and therefore the fear of God has

diminished sometimes. And I believe God is calling us

into a fresh season of experiencing what it's like to

live in this awe and reverent fear of him.

And last week we looked at this book, at the book of Ezekiel and

how Ezekiel talks to the people and says, this is what God says,

that if these three men, Noah, Job, and Daniel, are in this

place still, I will not relent and take away the punishment.

And today we're going to be looking at Job.

And I can tell you this, I was dreading reading it because I

just felt like I would leave with more answers than

questions. And was I write the book of Job

is what, 42 chapters? It is a poetic masterpiece.

And yet there is so much that it leaves in in in a blurry state

that when I went in with questions, I came out with more.

I, I thought I understood some parts of it and I came out

wondering if I really did understand it.

And so I want to ask you this. How comfortable are you with

mystery? How comfortable are you with

just not knowing everything there is to know about a

particular topic? And I believe suffering is one

such topic. Every Christian can trust that

God has their back, that God is fighting for them.

But The thing is, every believer, just like every human

on the planet and every believer in Jesus, is going to face

suffering at some point of their life.

The question is, how do we suffer?

Do we suffer well or do we suffer in such a way that His

glory is not made evident? We suffer in such a way that

people wonder who our trust and faith is in.

And so we're going to with this idea in mind, how comfortable

are you with mystery? We're going to get into the book

of Job. I'm reading from Job chapter 1,

Job 1:1–12

verses 1 to 12. This is what it says.

In the land of earth there lived a man whose name was Job.

This man was blameless and upright.

He feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three

daughters and and he owned 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of

oxen and 500 donkeys, and had a large number of servants.

He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

His sons used to hold feasts in their home on their birthdays,

and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink

with them. When a period of feasting had

run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be

purified early in the morning. He would sacrifice a burnt

offering for each of them, thinking perhaps my children

have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

This was Job's regular custom. One day the angels came to

present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with

them. The Lord said to Satan, Where

have you come from? Satan answered the Lord From

roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it, and

the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?

There is no one on earth like him.

He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns

evil. Does Job fear God for nothing?

Satan replied, Have you not put a hedge around him and his

household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his

hands so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the

land, but now stretch out your hand and strike everything he

has, and he will surely curse you to your face.

The Lord said to Satan, very well, everything he has in your

is in your power, but on the man himself, do not lay a finger.

Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Wow, when you look at this what ensues is just literally havoc.

It's like chaos bursts on job and his wifes life.

He loses everything, he loses his children, he loses his

properties, he loses his servants, he loses his cackle,

his livestock, everything. This is his response in Job 1

Job 1:20–22

verses 20 to 22. He says as this Job got up, tore

his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in

worship and said naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked

I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has

taken away. May the name of the Lord be

praised in all this. Job did not sin by charging God

with wrongdoing. Wow.

You know, sometimes when we read the book of Job, because we know

the end from the beginning, we don't actually get into the

depth of what he lost. But as a mum, as a wife, as

someone who is in in the lives of people, as a pastor, as as a

leader in in our company, I can imagine the depth of grief to

lose everything that you know to be very close and dear to you.

Later on chapters, what happens is Satan again comes to God and

God gives him permission to lay his hands on Job.

And Job is covered from head to toe with painful sores.

So he rips his clothing, sits in the ashes and scrapes himself

with pottery. I'm guessing the skin was

festering and itchy. And that's when his wife, him

herself, says, what are you doing?

Are you still maintaining your integrity?

Curse God and die. And he says, are you a crazy

woman? Will we accept good from God and

not bad? What faith?

What tremendous trust in the God who had blessed him with all

that he had. What an understanding of what we

receive from God and when you there's a reason why Job was

mentioned. There's a reason why his

righteousness is made note of and when we look here a couple

of things that really irked me. First thing was why would God

highlight a good person to Satan's view?

You don't want him highlight God had put a hedge around him like

Satan had said. Why would he highlight him to

Satan? And my, my thought on this is

God was so proud of him. God was so proud of him and the

way he lived and he was highlighting this man to the

enemy to say, look at how this guy lives in the midst of

perversity and depravity. But does God actually listen to

Satan? Satan says, you know what, take

the hedge off, let's destroy him.

Does God actually listen to Satan?

So what's actually happening there, I believe is that God is

not destroying him directly. He's giving permission to Satan

to do what he needs to do. But the whole time, God is

sovereign, right? God seems to have so much trust

in Joe, in his integrity, that he knows no matter what Satan

does to him, he will uphold God. He will not sin against God.

What confidence? When you and I fear God, He can

entrust us with huge assignments.

But in the meantime, with those huge assignments will come huge

burdens, huge trials. Can God trust you and me to

carry the burden, to carry it with integrity, To not curse

God, but to trust Him? And, you know, the most

disturbing narrative, which comes from his friends and from

Job a couple of times, is how it feels like the wicked are

prospering. They get to have, you know,

safety. Their children are well, their

feels are good. But somehow the good, you know,

people who are good suffer. And I've heard this a lot in my

time as ministers. We hear this a lot.

Lot of people turn away from God because they say, you know what?

I turned away from God because some bad things have happened to

good people. But I want to read this quote

for you which undid me. RC Sproul says why do bad things

happen to good people? That only happened once and he

volunteered. Jesus is the only one who

entirely defines the word good. None of us, none of us, the best

of us, the most, the person with most integrity, the most with

greatest fidelity. None of us come close to good

like the way Jesus. Jesus epitomized good, and

therefore he was the only one who was a good man who suffered

and died. So we need to come to a place.

You know, when I was reading this, I read the whole book

multiple times this week, feel a bit tired.

But what really stood out to me was that I have to come to this

place where I cannot explain away suffering.

I don't have trite answers for it.

When I go and sit in the hospital with someone, I try as

far as possible to shut up because I don't know what landed

them there. I don't have any wise answers as

to whether they're going to come out, how it's going to look, why

this happened. I don't step into that.

Neither does any of our leaders because you know what?

Suffering is so complex, and yet suffering is ordained by God.

It's not something that happens when God was looking away from

us. It's not something that just

kind of snuck under when God was not paying attention.

God is watching over us the whole time and if something has

touched us, something has come into our life, something that

has caused tremendous suffering, it is under His watchful eyes.

God has not left. God is not distracted.

God has not washed his hands away.

And that I think is something that we can take consolation in.

Another thing that I have to say is, is suffering enjoyable?

A lot of people say, oh, God's glory is evident in our

suffering. When we suffer well, it brings

Him joy. All of that said and done, I

believe that suffering is not fun.

It's not something that we look forward to.

But I believe that when we do go through suffering, we are really

and truly united in Christ and that should be the source of our

joy that we are closest to Him. Like CS Lewis says that, you

know, pain and suffering is God's megaphone to a world.

You know, He is close. He's close in beauty and times

of of enjoyment, but he is shouting in our pain.

God is getting our attention. And so when we go through

seasons of suffering, it's not for not, it's not for nothing.

And in the context of the New Testament, there is a reason why

we go through suffering. Those who fear the Lord go

through suffering. And it might sound like an

oxymoron. How can someone who fears the

Lord go through suffering? Well, that's just the way it is.

There are two reasons why the apostles write about it in the

book of James and in the book of Peter.

One Peter chapter 1, verses six to seven, says this.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while

you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith

of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though

refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor when

Jesus is revealed. He's saying, though you have had

to suffer, this has happened so that the genuineness of your

faith is tested. Is my faith genuine that is

tested in the midst of suffering, in the refining fire

of suffering. Suffering is when God is

closest, when his voice is clearest, his love is the

greatest. Smith Wigglesworth says this.

If you knew the value of trials, you would praise God for them

more than anything. So the first thing that you know

suffering actually does for us, for us, is it tests the quality

of our faith. If you're going through a season

of suffering, I want to want to be encouraging you right now

that your faith's quality is being tested.

It's a quality check. God is checking, hey, you say

you believe me, you say you trust me, you say you love me.

We're going to test that now because anything that is tested

is proven. Things that are not tested

aren't proven. You look at any theorem in math,

you know, I used to love writing, hence proved at the end

of these theorems. And there's the sense of

satisfaction when you get that equal to sign with the two sides

of the equation fitting perfectly.

And that's what it looks like when faith is tested and tried.

It is true, and that's what God does during suffering.

The second thing that God does with suffering is he tests the

quantity of our endurance. He tests the quality of our

faith. He also tests the quantity of

our endurance. James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4

James 1:2–4

says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever

you face trials of many kinds because you know that the

testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and

complete, not lacking anything. God's desire is for each of us

to move from being baby Christians to mature Christians,

Christians who have been there done that, but are moving

towards a greater goal of knowing Christ in greater

capacity. And for that the giants only get

bigger. We're in the season when we say

divine takeover, and our thoughts have been towards

possessing the promise that God has kept.

But, you know, possessing the promise means you face the giant

that have already, you know, infiltrated the land and the

giants are bigger than in the previous season.

And so you need to have endurance to pray and push

through every set back that comes at you.

You develop this ability to push through suffering.

Test the quantity of your endurance.

What is your endurance? If you've been a believer for

any length of time, is your endurance today greater than it

was when you started out? If it is, it means maturing is

happening. You're growing in maturity.

Brother Yoon says this. We shouldn't pray for a lighter

load to carry, but an stronger back to endure.

Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to

live in a way that reflects His love and power.

How many times have we been praying?

Lord, take away this this obstacle, this load is too

heavy. But God doesn't exactly let

lighten the Lord. He strengthens us.

He puts muscle into our spiritual being.

And I pray that you will not give up in times of suffering,

that you will allow God to test the quality of your faith and

test the quantity of your endurance.

But why do these two qualities matter?

You might ask me what is the use of testing the quality of my

faith? It's not like I'm in a factory

setup where you know, you need to get the quality check.

That's it's not important. Why do I need it?

Well, in the Book of Revelation chapter 14 verses 12 to 13, I

Revelation 14:12–13

periodically read Revelation just to keep me.

It's like a reality check. This is our future.

This is where we are heading. And 14 says this.

This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God

who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, write this.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor, for their

deeds will follow them. What is he looking for?

People who have endured and people who have stayed faithful

to God. Hence quality checks

periodically in this life are important.

Hence, checking the quantity of our endurance is so important

because at the end, eternity is all that counts.

At the end, this is what we're going to be weighed on.

But coming back to the book of Job, coming back to the life of

Job, few things that I saw. This is a man who feared God.

And if you and I want to allow this divine takeover in our

lives, there is going to come seasons of suffering.

There is going to come seasons of hardship.

Maybe you're still in a season like that.

And I want to encourage you from Job's life because there are

three things that I found in Job's life.

There are so many things actually that we could go into,

but I just wanted to narrow it down to three things that I

found very intricate, intricately beautiful about

Job's life. The first thing is he kept his

gaze on God. Think about it.

He had his wife and then she just got utterly devastated with

the losses. She's not mentioned again until

the very end. And then he had four friends,

Three friends old, as old as him.

One young friend. They come over, they're quiet

for a week and then they start talking and you wish they

stopped. He had so many people who used

to be around him which are no longer, who are no longer with

him. He talks about that.

He says, my wife considers my breath loathsome.

My friends don't talk sense, My siblings are not coming to see

me. And yet the whole time his

discourse is targeted at God. He keeps addressing God, Who am

I that you are mindful of me? Why are you picking on me?

Lord Almighty, I can feel your Spears in me.

Why has God done this to me? Every other sentence is directed

at God. You can see that He kept his

gaze on God even in the depths of his wrestle.

Most of the chapters where he writes is almost like a lament.

And lamenting is such a good thing because at the center of

your lament is Jesus. Many times when we are ranting,

at the center of that rant is usually ourselves or someone

that we are ranting to, who we want Pity from Oregon, sympathy

from. When I lament, I'm lamenting

before God. He is the focus.

Lord, you see what I'm going through.

Lord you, you can see the reality of the situation.

This is not what I expected and it all comes back to God and me

and that's the beauty of what Job did.

Job chapter 19 verses 26 to 27. He says, For I know that my

Job 19:26–27

Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth

after my skin has been thus destroyed.

Yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and

my eyes shall behold and not another.

My heart faints within me. This is literally like a

psalmist saying that like the deer pants for water.

So my soul longs after you, Job saying I long to see him.

Basically he's saying I'm not afraid of death.

At this point. The quicker I go home, I get to

meet my Redeemer. He calls this God his Redeemer,

even though he has not yet redeemed his situation.

He has not yet seen restoration. And yet Joe, because his eyes

are on him, is able to see him for who he is.

Whom you wrestle with matters. If you're in the process of

deconstructing your faith, who you are deconstructing it with

matters. Who the deconstruction is

targeted at matters. If you're deconstructing it with

you in the mirror, it's a problem because you will pick

what works for you. But if you deconstructed with

Jesus at the center, you're safe.

Who you're wrestling with, you know, matters of faith.

I have a couple of friends we wrestle with matters of faith.

We talk to each other and invariably there's always this

moment when God steps into that relationship, into that

conversation and says this is what is happening.

He explains it through the mouth of a friend.

Make sure you're wrestling with those who love God more than

you. Make sure you're wrestling with

those who have journeyed longer than you with Jesus to hold you

accountable in the midst of your wrestle.

The side you choose to camp out on during suffering matters

because if you choose the side where you say God is against me,

I don't want any of this. It's a dangerous slope.

But when you sit with God in the suffering because he meets you

there, God doesn't say you come out of the suffering, I'll meet

you at the other end. He walks with us in the

suffering. The first thing is he kept his

gaze on Jesus. He kept his gaze on God, who you

behold. What you behold is what you

become. If you behold Jesus, you become

more like Him. You behold yourself and your

needs and your ambitions and your expectations less like

Jesus. You become.

The second thing is he knew God's ways because he knew God's

heart. You know, many times because

maybe we've not read enough of the Word or we haven't meditated

on it, we haven't actually sat in a dialogue style prayer with

God, we don't seem to know God's heart for us.

But if you read the Word of God from start to finish, God's

heart has been spilt on the pages.

As a writer, when I write a book, the minute the book comes

into print version, I always get emotional with the two books and

our third book which I'm working on the IT is such a vulnerable

thing when I give my book to someone because I have spilt my

heart on the pages and God has done that and more in the Bible.

He has spilt his heart on the book so that when you open it,

it's his love letter to you. And so the more you're reading

it, the more you're sitting in dialogue style prayer with him

when you're speaking and letting him speak back.

You begin to know his heart. You begin to understand what he

desires for you. You begin to see his hopes, his

dreams, his desires for you. You begin to slowly understand

his ways. Tim Keller says this.

Tim Keller wrote this. He said suffering is unbearable

if you aren't certain that God is for you and with you.

I remember the season in my life.

I had walked through trauma counselling.

I just come through it. I had just, my brain had kind of

exposed the fact that I'd walked through trauma when I was a

child. And so I went in for counseling

for two years. I spent time wrestling with so

many questions. I realized I had so many

faith-based questions, most of the questions, where was God

then? Why didn't God protect me and

things like that? So my counselor walked me

through that space of healing my relationship with God again.

And so at the end of it, I'd come to this place of believing

that, you know, when by his stripes we were healed was

literally the stripes that he endured covered my trauma as

well. So I came to this place of

believing that God understood what I went through.

He never left me. He never abandoned me.

And so I came to this stronger place of faith.

And thank God I did because soon after that I had a brain

aneurysm and was in the hospital.

And when I was there, not for a minute, not for a minute did I

doubt God's intentions for me. Had I not walked through two

years of trauma therapy, had I not gone back to understanding

God's heart for me when I lay in the hospital with three kids, at

home with my husband, and in the hospital waiting for surgery, I

would have absolutely doubted God's goodness for me.

I would have thought, you know what?

God's just left me. God hates me.

He has it out for me. But not for a second did I doubt

God's heart because I kept remembering this.

Lord, I believe I still have so much work to get done.

I believe we're just starting. I believe that You're for me.

I believe that you love me and You have knit me together and

that this too shall pass. That was what I held onto.

And so it's so important to understand God's heart so that

you know God's ways, so that many times God's ways is not

what we want Him to do. Because like the prophet Isaiah

says, his ways are higher, his thoughts are higher.

So I want him to give me the promotion in this way.

But God does it like this, still a promotion, but the process is

different because it's God's way.

I want to have a child in this method.

But God does all over the place. You know, that is our God.

He loves variety. He loves to surprise us, and so

if I know God's heart for me, His desire is to bless me.

His desire is to heal me. His desire is to enlarge my

territory. If this is my God, I can trust

His ways. Job chapter 23, verses 8 to 10.

Job 23:8–10

Behold, I go forward, but he's not there and backward, but I do

not perceive him on the left hand.

When he's working, I do not behold him.

He turns to the right hand, but I do not see him, but he knows

the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall

come out as gold. Job knew that God was trying

him, that what looked like desolation and absolute chaos

was actually God trying him almost in a refiner's fire so

that he will emerge as gold. Can you believe that this comes

from someone who knew God? In another chapter he says that

my delight has been God's word. His words are like honey to my

mouth. This is how he delighted in God

and therefore he knew God's heart and he could identify

God's ways. Let me ask you this.

When you see things happen, you feel like chaos has just

exploded over you. You feel like none of your plans

are working, but something else is happening.

Are you able to identify God in the process?

Are you able to see God's ways? Because if you know his heart,

you will start to know his ways. The third thing is, first thing

was he kept his gaze on God. Secondly, he knew God's ways

because he knew God's heart. And the third thing was he

killed his pride. He killed his pride and

entitlement. What does that mean throughout

the book? One thing is very obvious, that

we can talk a big game about what we know about God.

Or you know what? He's this, He's magnificent,

He's awesome. We don't understand his ways.

He does miracles beyond number. We can say all of these things,

but in reality, we know so little.

We know so little and Job kept justifying himself towards the

end in chapter 30 and up, he keeps talking about, you know

what I have done. I live right, I do right.

I'm kind to the widow, I'm kind to the orphan.

I do right by people. Why did this happen to me?

I don't deserve this. And you intend there's a small

moment when entitlement has creeped and he is justifying

himself. So God, when he starts talking,

he says, stop justifying yourself.

What is it to justify ourselves? Many times in an argument

between Geshom and me, I'll usually tell Geshom, stop

justifying yourself. Just say, sorry, I don't know if

it's the best parent, you know, marital advice, but it's a human

tendency to say, hey, I don't deserve this.

I don't deserve this accusation. I don't deserve this treatment

because I didn't behave in such a way to get it because you know

the the way we all think is cause and effect.

If I did this wrong, I deserve this punishment.

But here job rightfully so, saying I've not done anything

wrong. Why would you punish me like

this? Why would you take out, you

know, wrath on me and just drop fireballs on me?

What's going on? And he kept saying he was

blameless, he was pure. And inevitably this little bit

of entitlement creeps in. And I think all of us have that

where we say, Lord, I go to church, I read your word, I

pray, I'm kind to people, I tithe, I give, you know, arms to

the beggars. I'm trying to do everything

right, Lord. But why this?

Why this nagging ailment? Why this suffering, Lord?

Why this relationship crisis? Because we somehow think if I do

these things right, I'll have a cushy life, I'll have a pain

free existence. When God finally speaks, I think

it's in chapter 40, Chapter 38, God starts by saying, who is

this? That darkens my counsel with

words without knowledge. He only addresses Job.

He's not talking to his friends at this point, but he's asking

Job. You have darkened my counsel by

speaking without knowledge, and it's interesting because Job

will eventually tell him, I will clap my hand over my mouth.

I am going to keep quiet. I don't know anything.

Job chapter 42 verses one to six.

Job 42 · chapter mention

He says this. Then Job answered the Lord and

said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of

yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel

without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered that

what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I

did not know here, and I will speak.

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

I had heard of you by the hearing of the year, but now my

eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and

repent in dust and ashes. I want you to repeat this after

me. I know nothing now.

This is not putting ourselves down.

This is not saying I'm useless. No, I want us to remember this,

that we truly don't know everything about everyone.

We truly don't know everything about everything.

You know, on my family, my side of the family, we are very

confident about certain topics when it comes to politics or

health or this or that. My husband's side, they are very

confident about certain topics. And the way we all debate and

talk will be loud, will be opinionated.

But I'm sure if someone was recording us, the general theme

would be people with a lot of knowledge and also can have a

hashtag attached of quacks. Because we have a theory on

everything. Not necessary that the theory

carries weight, that it is true. It is scientifically proven.

No, And I wonder how many of us actually go through life

thinking that we know everything.

Oh, I know so much in the text space.

Oh, I'm incredible in my space of knowledge, my space of

expertise. But I believe that there's a

time when we have to kill pride in its place, where we keep it

in its place. Pride for a believer, for a

follower of Jesus prevents us from living in the fear of God.

Because with pride comes in entitlement where it says, you

know what? I don't deserve to suffer.

I, I'm too good for this. I, I do everything right.

Why did this happen to me? The first thing we need to do in

a more in a season of suffering, in a season of hardship is to

lay it down before God and say, you know what, Lord, here I am.

I am no one. I am nothing without you.

I am nothing without your Spirit breathing wisdom into my mind.

I know nothing. It's good to come to a place

where we lay our pride down. It's time to kill pride.

Without him, our lives are useless.

Our lives are frail. But with Christ we can do all

things, you know. And sometimes we presume that we

know everything about our health, about our future, about

our desires, our dreams, how we're going to accomplish it,

how, you know, how our career path has to go, how we need to

get married and when we should have kids and buy that house and

a car. And we have these things planned

because, you know, we have knowledge of the of our

financials, we have knowledge of our health.

We have knowledge of our family genetic makeup.

But here's the thing, none of it compares to the majestic wisdom

of a sovereign God because pride has to be laid down so that the

sovereignty of God can come in. We have to lay down and say,

Lord, do as you will surprise me.

I was recently listening to a story of a person who was just

sharing how she had her children.

She had cervical cancer when she was young and doctor said you

will not be able to have children.

And so she decided, well, it's fine.

You know, I'll travel the globe, I'll do my own thing.

I don't need kids. Inevit inevitably she found

someone. She got married and she told her

husband, hey, you know what? Our children won't be on the

table for me because I have had this health issue.

And he said, that's fine. Let's travel the world.

Let's do the things that you know we desire to do.

They were saved. They came to Jesus and she asked

God to heal her womb. And imagine her surprise when

she got pregnant a few years later.

And she didn't end up pregnant with just one.

She even eventually went on to have 4 kids.

This is our God. Doctors limit us with their

knowledge. Our theories limit us.

We think we know how things should go.

But the beauty is we have a God who can completely circumvent

our plans because of his sovereignty.

A God who can trump every, every plan and process we have with

the divine process that he has. And so I want to ask you this,

will you be ready to kill your pride?

Maybe you think you know everything there is to know

about your marriage to make it work, but obviously it's not

working. What if it's time to bring it to

the one who actually brought you together in marriage?

Maybe you're saying, I know what, how to bring up my kids.

You don't need to give me advice.

Nobody needs to give me advice. Lord, I've got this.

But what if God is saying, Hey, I gave you those kids, I'll help

you. What if we need to lay down our

pride in our degrees, in our achievements, in our income and

say, Lord, I invite you in, come in, take over.

So even as I begin to wrap up, I just want to give you a side

note about the friendships that happen that sometimes end during

suffering or begin Job had these friends who I think I can call

them Fairweather friends. Some of the accusations they

throw at Job towards the middle of the book are are appalling.

One of them actually says, you know what, you lent money with

interest, you extorted things and this is not who Job was.

Why did this man think he could say those things to Job in his

worst moment? How can someone judge someone at

that level? And as I was reading, I took

time to make a note of what every friend said.

Elifa has said a bunch of things.

Bildad said a couple of things so far, said a couple of things.

And it felt so unfair. They had not lost ten children,

They had not lost health, they had not lost cattle and

livestock in houses. They were coming in as

spectators. Their best gift would have been

silence and justice presence. Yet they decided to open their

mouths and puffed up. They were puffed up with self

righteousness. And I want to ask us this, what

kind of friends are we during suffering?

What kind of friends are we? Do we puff up with self

righteousness instead of just quietly journeying with those

who are going through hardship? Do we amplify their sins, their

mistakes, the stuff that you think they're messed up?

Are you waiting for them to trip up so that you can point out

just how wrong they've been? My question is, can we journey

with people in silence and justice, intercession if need

be? It's interesting because Job

maintained his integrity before God.

And the beautiful thing is at the end in chapter 42, God says

this beautiful thing He says, he says to Eliphaz, I am angry with

you and your two friends because you are not spoken of me.

What is right as my servant Job has for these three men.

They thought they knew God better.

They felt they could point out Job's sins in this moment, in

his darkest moments. And yet God says, you don't

speak right about me. How many of us have been giving

God a bad rap with what we speak about him to others in their

moment of utter desolation? I want to turn that around.

How many of you actually lost faith in God because of those

fair weather friends? How many of you have actually

said, you know what, God, I don't want this Christian

journey because the people in that church, that Christian

friend denounced me so much. That friend looked down at me.

That friend said all kinds of things which could have been

true, but I didn't need to hear it at that point.

And therefore I didn't want your community.

I didn't want fellowship with you.

Maybe you've turned away from God because of certain

friendships, but I want to bring it back to this.

This is what God says to Job. He says you need to pray for

them. My servant sacrifices, burnt

offering, He's telling Eliphaz go to him.

He will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal

with you according to your folly.

Verse 10. After Job had prayed for his

friends, the Lord made him prosperous again.

I want to stop there. After Job prayed for his

friends. Why did Job have to pray?

Job was modelling to us what Jesus taught us in forgiving our

transgressors of their sins. And some of the hardest things

sometimes what people put us through, what people do to us.

It is so difficult to forgive because, you know, you feel like

I didn't do anything deserving that.

I didn't deserve that kind of betrayal.

I didn't deserve that kind of statement.

I didn't deserve that kind of hate.

But this is what CS Lewis writes.

He said to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable

because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

So when you forgive, it doesn't mean you know, one of the

reasons I oftentimes withhold forgiveness is because I think,

oh Lord, the minute I forgive, that person will want everything

to go back to normal. It doesn't work that way because

forgiveness is such an internal process more than a physical

access. Sometimes God asks you to

forgive them verbally, but I have found most often it is a

private conversation in a prayer closet between you and God where

you actually lift that person from that hole they've created

in your heart and say, Lord, I forgive them.

I bless them, I release them to you.

Because unforgiveness digs a deep hole in our soul.

It darkens us internally. It makes us suspicious.

It makes us untrusting. It makes us faithless many times

and I think it's important that we begin to forgive people.

Jesus. Jesus spoke to his disciples and

says forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass

against us. If I want the Father's

forgiveness, it begins with me consistently 70 * 7 forgiving

those who've transgressed against me.

When you look at Job's life in the midst of his suffering, he

hadn't yet got his restoration. In the midst of his suffering,

he had to forgive his friends and pray for them, right?

How does one have the ability to forgive when you yourself are at

your wits end, when you yourself are exhausted from the trials

that you walked through? It's possible.

And you know, not just because of Job, because of Jesus.

Jesus on the cross. He looked at the ones who had

stripped him, who had beaten him, who had spat on him, who

had nailed him to the cross, and said, Father, forgive them, for

they know not what they are doing.

If Jesus did that, who was sinless and pure?

Who am I to withhold forgiveness from anyone?

And even as I was preparing this, I made a list of people

that I've had to forgive because I felt entitled to not forgive

because of the magnitude of the things they have done and

because I felt I didn't do something to deserve what they

meted out to me. But God reminded me, if I have

forgiven you, you have no business to withhold forgiveness

from another. Forgiveness does not mean that

you have to invite those people back in.

If there has been toxicity, if there's been evil, there's been

malicious talk. You don't let them back in, but

you do release them into God's hands for safety.

You bless them, you bless their family, you bless the work of

their hands, and God does a work in you.

God does a work in you. Jesus led the way in praying for

those who hurt him, praying for his persecutors.

So I want us today as we begin to close up, that I'm going to

pray for you, that you're going to, you know, be able to forgive

whoever it is that injured you and hurt you beyond words can

say. I'm also going to pray that like

Job, in the midst of suffering, you will keep your gaze on

Jesus, that you will know God's ways because you know God's

heart, and that you would kill your pride and your entitlement

and surrender yourself to his sovereignty.

And this is what I want to end on.

I want to leave this message of hope with you because it can get

so dark listening to this. But Job 42 verse 10, it says

Job 42:10

after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him

prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had

before. All his brothers and sisters and

everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in

his house. They comforted and consoled him

over all the trouble the Lord brought upon him, and each one

gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the

first. And then it goes on to describe

how he got He had 10 more children, and he had double the

amount of sheep and oxen and goats and all of that.

A season of restoration is coming.

We've probably already entered it.

Would you take the first step of in forgiveness, releasing those

who have hurt you, releasing those who owe a debt, a great

debt against you. Would you release them because

one Peter chapter 5 verse 10 says and the God of all grace

who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you've

suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you

strong, firm and steadfast. What an amazing promise.

Suffering does not last forever. Restoration is coming.

Would you stand in obedience in the fear of the Lord and keep

your eyes on Jesus? Can I just pray for you?

Father, we just thank you for Your word.

We thank you for the life of Job.

We thank you Lord, for all that the gold we got from his life.

And God, I just pray for each of us right now.

The Lord, we would freely forgive.

You have forgiven us of such unspeakable things, Lord.

So we freely forgive people, we release your forgiveness towards

those that have hurt us, backstabbed us, maligned us, and

we bless them in Jesus name. We bless those who have stolen

from us. We bless those who have, Lord,

taken away our peace, our joy, our prosperity.

We bless them in Jesus name. We pray that Lord, you will care

for them. You will look after them, remove

every brokenness that has come because of our unforgiveness,

Lord, cleanse our hearts, cleanse our minds, renew our

thinking, Lord, every time we think of them.

May forgiveness be the anthem of our soul.

Lord, I just pray for anyone who's right now walking through

suffering that they would keep their gaze on you, Jesus.

They will wrestle faithfully, they will lament, but you will

be front and center. I pray that, Lord, they will

know your heart so that they will recognize your ways.

And I pray, O Father, that any pride will be killed so that

they can lay down in complete surrender and allow your

sovereignty to rule their lives. We thank you, God, for we can

trust you with our lives. We thank you, Lord, that you are

sovereign over evil. You are sovereign over

suffering. You are sovereign over

brokenness, That, Lord, you are a Redeemer.

When you are done with us, we will emerge as gold.

We thank you for that. We thank you Jesus, for you are

our mediator. You stand in the gap interceding

for us to the Father. We praise you for that.

We thank you God, We pray that you will lead us, You will guide

us, you will go before us. We love you Lord.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I just want to encourage you

even as you get into this week that you would recognize that

God is sovereign over the most harmful things that have touched

your life. Nothing is out of the realm of

his control. When you read the chapters

about, you know, where God is describing the leviathan and the

behemoth. I think the deeper meaning on

that is that these huge creatures which he created

symbolic of chaos, you know, in in mythological, the

mythological sides, they're actually beasts of chaos.

And even when our life looks chaotic, out of control, God

keeps everything under his control.

And I want you to be encouraged about that.

Nothing in your life is beyond his control.

So even as you go into this week, that is what I pray for

you, that you will trust God with the chaos, with the madness

that he is with you in all of it.

Remember this, that whoever finds Jesus finds life.

God bless you. Have an amazing week.

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