Why Me? Pastor Otis Amey | Midtown Church Sacramento

We've been in a sermon series called God Is, talking about who God is, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nisi, all these things that we've experienced him to be.

But we've transitioned out of that.

We're about to go into a sermon series called Go, about the Great Commission.

So these next two weeks today and next Sunday are standalone messages.

The issue with the standalone message is you can preach whatever you want.

And so, my God, what do I preach?

Sometimes it's easier to give you the outline and say, here's what you're preaching, you know, build it out from there.

And so I began to pray and consult the Holy Spirit and say, What do you want me to talk about today?

And the first thing that popped in my mind was John 15, which is my favorite book in the Bible.

Abide is my favorite word, cling to, trust in, rely on.

And then Job popped up, and I was like, nah, nah, that's that's a lot.

That's heavy.

But then the minute Job popped in my mind, I said, I know this is where I'm supposed to go.

And so I believe that there will be something for you today.

The title of the message is Why Me?

Why Me?

Have you ever had a why me?

That's a rhetorical question.

You've all had why me.

Maybe today.

These kids, it's taking too long to get why me?

Right?

I I had a why me morning.

And so my wife, my wife and kids were in Oakland last night, celebrating her grandma's birthday.

Uh, and you know, I got home and it's about eight o'clock, and I said, I'm gonna spend an hour looking over the message, and I'm gonna get some good rest.

I'm gonna sleep for like eight hours.

Next thing I know, it's 1:30 in the morning, and uh I finally am drifting off to sleep, and then I set my alarm, and the Lord wakes me up an hour before my alarm goes off.

And it's one of those times where the Lord wakes you up and you know that he woke you up, and it was like, no, I'm you're up because I need to show you something.

So I said, man.

And so uh I hate waking up tired.

So I woke up tired, like, bruh, what is going on?

And and I woke up angry, like, why?

Why do I have to deal with this?

And so then I'm like, okay, I'm up, let me go get something to eat.

I stop by this little spot I go to all the time.

I order the same burrito, and then I'm a third of the way into eating the burrito, and there's avocado in it, and I'm allergic to avocado.

And what usually happens is my glands start swelling up, and eventually, and so I'm getting ready to preach, and my body's and I'm crying out to God, like, why would you allow this to happen to me this morning?

But when you think about the question why, you usually think about kids, right?

Uh, kids begin asking that simple why question around the age of two to three, right?

Uh with the nonstop why phase that we usually can't deal with uh the age of three to five years old.

Why?

Why?

Why?

And I've had to reprogram my mind to use that as teachable moments because it's not a bad thing, they want to know.

Thing the synapses are starting to line up, and they want to know why things happen like this, daddy.

You're kissing mommy, ooh.

I'm like, hey son, this is the first step to you being here.

Um why do these things happen?

Their brains are lining up together, cause and effect, and they want to understand how things work.

But I don't think that this is just a childhood thing, and I'd even argue that the why phase should never end.

There is a very healthy side to curiosity, and we're even instructed in scripture to change and become like what?

Like little children, if we want to enter the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.

Change the fact that most of us trust ourselves way too much.

See, a child, this is the imagery, the picture, a child is completely dependent upon his parents for everything, right?

Uh looking to them for wisdom, for guidance, for protection, and food.

Jesus is pointing us back to the reality that to the reality that Pastor Susie so vividly illustrated last week.

And it's this we are all sheep, desperately in need of a shepherd.

And our shepherd can handle our why questions.

See, for me, playing football produced plenty of why moments.

I thought I was gonna play big-time football, got hurt, and had uh made my way to Sacramento State.

So I'm like, I'm in Sacramento State, I'm about to be a starter right off the bat.

Coach has said, no, son, you're redshirting.

Didn't know what redshirting means meant.

But it ended up taking a whole year of getting bigger, faster, stronger, learning how to navigate through college, didn't realize it was a blessing at that time.

But every single day I practiced, I would say why, because there was some real adversity I would deal with.

We I went up against an all-world linebacker named uh Anthony Daisley.

One time I was running a crossing route.

I didn't even think he saw me, he just did like this and it flipped me.

Right?

Then we had one of the hardest hitting safeties ever.

I've ever played against.

I'm talking about him, Roy Williams, named Cam Baywall from Murilloma.

Then I went up against uh uh an all-American caliber uh cornerback named Elton Gabriel.

And if you just see his picture, I think we have a picture of him, he just looks like he don't like nobody, right?

And he was always cussing at me, yelling at me, but I was bowling against him, so there's times where I would catch a touchdown in one-on-ones or seven-on-seven, and on the way back, he would yell in my ear and push me down.

But when I played football, I never talked, I would just smile at people and then go score another touchdown on them.

And so what I didn't realize, God was probably in heaven saying, My son, I'm setting you up for greatness, you just don't see it yet.

Because that entire year, the quarterback that came in also red-shirted.

So me and him were together all day, every day, going up against an elite level defense, and so going into the next year, I actually was the team MVP as a redshirt freshman.

I was prepared to play against anybody, any stadium, anytime.

But it's hard to see the picture when you're in the frame.

And we often say, Why are you allowing me to go through this?

Why is this dude who looks like he's mad at the world?

Why doesn't he like me?

I've done nothing wrong to him.

See, the adversity that I face every single day set me up for success.

But after playing at Sachs State and playing professionally for seven years, I had to retire because my left ankle.

Uh I went and saw the doctor and showed me the the picture or the scan and said, it is almost bone on bone.

And I cried because I was young.

I'm too young for that.

I have three kids that all play different sports, and there's times where I wept because I can't even go outside and run around with my kids.

Why, God?

To this day it hasn't been healed.

I don't know if God will ever heal it, but I trust God that even if he doesn't, he's still good and he's still worthy to be praised.

So I pray and I ask for healing, amen.

Even amidst my uh amongst my why, I still ask.

So now my my my my kids, my family, they think they're slick, they think that they could beat me in a race.

And if you follow us on Instagram, they race.

And my wife, you know, she ran track at sack state, and she thought she still had it, and so she's trying to race against my daughter, but then my son comes out of nowhere and beats everybody, and I'm just sitting watching it like they don't even know I'll beat them all.

But I'm not gonna take a chance on proving what I already know to them.

Mess up my ankle, have me in these streets feeling like Odysseus, we won the battle, but at what cost?

See, I I also keep feeling disrespected because I keep getting these ads from sketchers.

And in my mind, you gotta be 50 plus to wear sketchers.

I'm like, they try to make them look cool.

I'm like, nah, those are sketchers, dog.

You can shoot me some hoca, some on clouds, you know, 30, 40, but I gotta wait until I'm 50, because when I play golf, usually the OGs they either have sketches or when they're done golfing, they put on some sketch.

I'm like, you gotta be an OG.

I'm an unk.

I'm not an OG.

You can miss me with the sketchers.

But I keep getting these ads.

I'm like, God, what are you saying?

Just because Snoop Dog is a big in the no, no.

But seriously, I want to set the stage and let you know that if you've ever wrestled with why something happened, or maybe you're struggling with why right now, it's okay.

Jesus can handle our cries and our wives.

He said, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, I can give you rest.

I can give your soul rest.

Name someone that you deal with that can give your soul rest.

Only he can do that.

See, Mary and Martha come to Jesus after their brother, after their brother Lazarus dies.

How they approached and responded to Jesus is a good picture of the internal battles that we fight when life starts life and throws us unexpected situations.

See, life will throw grief at you like an alley.

Like, here you go.

Just the other day.

No, my wife's planning on going back to Oakland to see her grandma, knowing what she's dealing with.

She gets a call on the way to work that her grandma passed.

Life will say, Here you go, now go to work, deal with this.

How do you respond?

See, Lazarus had already been dead for four days when Jesus came to town.

See, Martha doesn't wait for Jesus to arrive at their home.

She pulls up on him.

She says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

And in Jesus' mind, he's already thinking, I'm gonna raise him from the dead, it's all good.

He's just sleeping.

What she's really asking is, why weren't you here for your close friend whom you loved?

Why'd you leave him hanging?

But please catch this.

Because the very next thing she said should be our heart posture, even in the midst of our wives.

The very next thing she says is, but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.

So in the midst of her brother dying, in the midst of her challenging Jesus, she says, I still know who you are.

Even if you don't decide to raise him from the dead, you'll meet him in the afterlife.

In the resurrection, he says, No, I am the resurrection.

So she still trusts him in the midst of her trauma, in the midst of her agony, in the midst of her pain.

So before we go any deeper into this message, I want to be clear that I'm not minimizing anyone's pain, your grief, your situation, or your trauma.

Some of you in here right now have gone through unspeakable things, and others in this room are in situations right now where you're probably regularly asking God why.

So I submit to you that God knows what you're up against, but He promises to be with you in your trial.

See, we serve a God that is known to cause all things to work together for our good.

I stand on that truth.

I have testimonies and receipts of that truth.

I don't know if my ankle will ever be healed, but because I have receipts, I trust whatever God's plan and will is for my life.

So even, amen.

So even after all my whys and all my cries and all my prayers, I still humbly say thank you, Lord.

This is the day that you have made.

Chronologically, Job is the oldest book in the Bible predating the Torah, which is the first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

So the author is anonymous, uh, and there's no clear historical focus, uh, no, no clear historical setting.

Maybe because the author, whoever it may be, wants us to focus on the main theme, which is human suffering.

Loss, grief, pain, trauma, and how we deal with it.

I believe that at least one reason why Job was written was to help us to learn how to navigate through tragedy while still trusting God.

This story is crazy because this is initially at least a riches to rags story.

You usually hear about a rag to riches.

This is wealthy to broke, this is ballin' to broke.

In the 42 chapters of Job, 39 of the chapters are conversations in the form of dense Hebrew poetry.

And so it's not rhythmic in the way we're used to, where every line rhymes.

A heap and helping a fried chicken, macaroni, and beans, and collagen, too big for my jeans.

It's not like that.

There's a cadence and a rhythm to how the conversation goes.

And when you hear me, uh what God says to Job, you'll you'll you'll see it later.

There's 330 questions asked in the book of Job.

That's a lot of questions and 42 chapters, just to compare and contrast.

Genesis has 50 chapters and only 160 questions.

So Job was like, hey, hey, hey, God, I have some questions.

But in Job's case, with all the questions, the one about why he had to suffer actually never gets answered.

That's a tough pill to swallow.

So the big idea of this message is give God the control he already has.

Stop trying to be the CEO of your life.

Relinquish to God the control he already has, anyway.

Point number one is this we don't even know.

We don't even know.

Uh, Job chapter 1, verses 1 through 11, it says, In the land of us there lived a man whose name was Job.

Job 1:1–11

This man was blameless and upright.

He feared God and shunned evil.

He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred 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 homes 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.

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

Hold up.

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.

And Satan replies, Does Job fear God for nothing?

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, Lord, stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.

So the exact location in the beginning of this land, the land of Uz, was uncertain, and it's only mentioned two other times in Scripture.

So despite the fact that we don't know where Uz was, it's obvious that Job was sitting on some serious acreage.

He had to be.

Again, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 500 donkeys, and a massive staff of servants.

I don't know where you live.

But in North Notomas, we might be able to put six sheep in our backyard.

The book opens up by letting us know that Job was incredibly wealthy and he was a great man.

Verse 3 says, he was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

And you have to dive deeper and get all the way to chapter 29 to see what it's talking about.

In Job chapter 29, verse 11 through 17.

Job 29:11–17

I'm not going to read it, but it says it talks about how he fought against injustice, how he helped the poor, how he helped the fatherless and ministered to the orphans and the widows.

So he was somebody that didn't just come to church, he lived that life of a real follower of Christ even after he left the four walls of the building.

So highlighting this is important to the story because Job and his friends were operating from this huge wrong assumption that how God treated suffering was based on a strict principle of justice, meaning that if you're wise and you do good things and you honor God, good things will happen to you.

And God must reward you.

But if you're evil and foolish and do sinful things, then God will punish you.

So Job's argument is that he's innocent because he's innocent, then his suffering is unwarranted and it's not divine justice.

Eventually, though, as Job is on this roller coaster of emotions and trying to figure out God, he ends up jumping to the conclusion that God does not run the world according to justice.

Or maybe God is unjust.

From a logical standpoint, Job is not off because God himself says this about Job.

He is blameless and upright, a man who fears me and shuns evil.

But from a theological standpoint, Job makes the mistake of trying to place boundaries on an infinite and eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient God.

And at some point, you gotta make time to pull out all the receipts of all the times that God came through for you and covered you and blessed you and watched over you and opened doors for you that you never even knew existed.

And come to the realization that you'll never be able to fully understand or comprehend God, so stop doing it.

But he fully understands and knows you because he shaped you and he formed you while you were in your mother's womb and he gave you specific gifts, talents, and abilities to give him honor and glory.

And he has a purpose and plan for your life, regardless of the opposition you will face.

Maybe you need to hear that.

You will face opposition.

But you gotta have receipts.

If you have receipts, why receipts, then you'll more likely stop asking the why.

It'll be less.

Let me give you an example.

I remember this is my uh my NFL why receipts, right?

I remember having instant success, ESP and all those things.

Very next year I get cut.

So I'm like, God, I'm literally one of the best in the world at returning punts.

I'm not on a team.

Why?

It took 10 years later for me to realize at that point in my in at that point in my life, I was not ready to have$5 million signing bonus.

I was not ready to deal with women the right way.

I was not ready to deal with finances the right way.

And I gave my life to Christ after I got released.

And so now it's hard to see the picture when you're in the frame.

Now I look back on it and I say, hallelujah.

Thank you, God, because you set me on this path to do what I'm doing right now.

I remember when I got fired from my comfortable after I finished playing football, my comfortable corporate job.

And I was, you know, I thought I was on the way to getting a promotion.

And I go home and my wife is uh uh she's on maternity leave with our baby.

And I'm like, what am I gonna do next?

My brother says, pray and fast for five days.

And after I do it, I end up getting a call from this organization that says, You're gonna go do campus ministry and share your testimony.

I didn't know it then.

I thought everything was over.

I'm panicking.

I'm a new father, we have a baby on the way.

This is our first home.

What am I gonna do?

Why, God?

Ten years later, as I look back, I say hallelujah because more than 5,000 students all throughout Greater Sacramento have surrendered their life to Christ, and more than 10,000 Bibles have been distributed.

It's hard to see the picture when you're in the frame.

I'm sure you have testimonies where you can say, back then you were saying why, but now you say hallelujah.

So you don't have to trust me.

Trust what Paul says that we know about God.

And God is so amazing and present that while he's working all things together for our good, he's also simultaneously in the mess and the stress with us.

He's in the pain and the addiction and the trauma.

Pastor Christian said it earlier in Psalm 46 and 1, it says, God isn't ever present.

Ever present.

He said, You want to make your bed in hell?

I'm yeah, I'm don't do it, but I'm still right there with you.

Ever-present help in times of trouble.

So even when we're in trouble, he is still there.

Peter only starts drowning, starts sinking when he takes his eyes off Jesus.

When he gets distracted by everything else that's going on around him.

Verse 6, it it transports us into the heavenly realm, into what could be described as a courtroom scene.

This is what God and the angels and Satan.

Uh painting this picture makes sense because there's a judge, jury, prosecutor, and defendant.

Satan or Satan means the accuser.

That's what he calls him in Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, or the prosecutor.

Revelation 12:10

See, God summons Satan to give an account of himself.

He allowed Satan, gave him permission to come and do what he did.

So while he's temporarily allowed to be in God's presence, there's an entire discussion about Job's righteousness and loyalty.

Satan is up there accusing Job, doing what he does best, of uh only following God because of the blessings he's received.

He thinks Job is a front runner and that he has impure motives.

And so while all this is happening, this heavenly spiritual conversation, Job is down on earth living his blessed life, completely unaware of what's about to happen.

So every time I read this, my initial uh knee-jerk reaction is dang, that's cold.

Hell yeah, no.

But then something else hit me.

We usually have no idea that tragedy or a setback or an injury or a loss is right around the corner.

But how many times has God prevented tragedy from even arriving on your door?

Step.

I don't know if you caught it in this story, but Satan has the full scouting report on Job, his family, his wealth.

After he says, Have you considered my servant Job?

He's like, Yeah.

I completely plan to kill all of them.

God, why are you playing with me?

You know, you got a hedge of protection around, you got a hedge of protection around his family and his wealth and his cattle.

Job would have already killed him.

All these weapons formed, but none of them prospered because we serve a God that protects us.

So how many battles, have you ever considered this?

How many battles has God won for you that you were completely unaware?

How many times was someone gonna come and try to cause harm to you or your children, and you have no idea because God said, Nope, she is mine, he is mine.

How many times has he covered you and clothing in your right mind when you thought you were gonna go crazy?

Said, Nope, he is mine, that's my daughter, that's my son, and we have no idea.

So we should say hallelujah.

Thank you, Father.

We don't all, we don't know what's going on in heaven.

We don't know what conversations are happening about us, even in the earthly realm.

There's conversations happening about you in rooms you're not in.

We also don't know what's going on here all the time, but we have to trust God and believe that whatever He's cooking up is seasoned so perfectly.

So let God cook.

Point number two is this we often respond incorrectly, especially when you're younger.

You uh often succumb to the peer pressure, you let people gas you up.

Remember one time I got gassed all the way up, and then I got humbled.

Uh when I was running, when I could run and I was running track in high school, I would run the four by four.

So it's the last race of the meet.

It's usually one of the best races, and we were at Newark Memorial, and a few meets prior, I would watch this race that was before it called the 3200 or the two mile.

And I would watch them like, man, why are they on the track jogging?

They're running so slow.

So one of my friends hears me saying this, he's like, Why don't you do the race?

Why don't you run it?

And I'm like, I will win, it's easy.

Um, so that race, that that track meeting in Newark, I wasn't running the four by four, so I let everybody else gas me up and I said, Coach, let me run the 3200.

And the coach was like, Okay.

So I line up and I'm like, in my mind, it's finna be a breeze.

I line up, the gun goes off, I take off like I'm running the 800, not the eight laps.

And by the time I get a lap and a half in, I feel like I'm moonwalking because everybody's passing me up.

But then my pride kicks in because it was a co-ed race.

And I said, Oh no, I'm not letting I'm not letting no girls beat me today.

Uh and so I think I barely beat the fascist girl.

But either way, uh, it was a reminder.

You gotta learn how to respond correctly.

When people try to throw you off or take-to-do X, Y, and Z, you have to say, This is what thus saith the Lord.

This is what Jesus does in Scripture when He's in the desert 40 days and he comes out, and he used Jesus uses scripture to back the devil up.

It's the same thing we have to do, we have to respond correctly.

Let's take a look at how Job responds to a situation I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

In verses 12 through 22, it says, The Lord said to Satan, Very well then, 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.

One day, when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabians attacked them and made off with them.

They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you.

While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you.

While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them.

They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you while he was still speaking.

Yet another messenger came and said, Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house.

It collapsed on them, and they are all dead.

And I am the only one who has escaped to tell you.

At this, Job got up and 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 of this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Now I won't put this on any of you, I'll just speak for myself.

This is not how I would have responded.

I'm being so serious right now.

About a year or so ago, I read this story.

I was in uh Orange County and I was up till 4 30 in the morning.

For whatever reason, God directed me to the story and I was weeping.

I said, as much faith as I think that I have, I'm not here.

It broke me.

Not because of any possessions that I have, because one of my favorite things to do every day is to come home and hug my kids.

When I was up last night working on my sermon and they came back from Oakland, the very first thing I did, grab my daughter, take her upstairs, help her get ready for a shower, hug and kiss my babies.

So I cannot even fathom receiving news like this.

But we have an enemy.

We hear it in church all the time, steal, kill, and destroy.

But maybe you need to hear this.

When when when when God says, have you considered?

the word that he's using in consider is a military term that generals use when they are scouting out a city planning to destroy it and attack it.

So this is what the Satan, this is what Satan is regularly doing.

Chapter one, chapter two, it says, What are you doing?

I'm going to and from considering who I can get.

Ooh, I know what her weakness is.

I know what his weakness is.

He would love to get a foothold in your life in an area where you struggle.

So you lose your job, lose your sanity, lose your finances, lose your family, lose your life.

This is the enemy that we're up against.

So how should we respond when tragedy strikes?

Job does something that's unexpected and something that's expected.

What was expected is he tore his robe, which was a sign of pain and grief, and he shaves his head, which was a sign of humility.

In those times that was to be expected, but what he did next was not.

He falls to the ground and worships.

Just for a second.

Imagine you heard this news.

Falls to the ground and worships?

See, power and pain are two great revealers.

Just watch how people act when they're put in a position of power or when they're forced to deal with great pain.

The real them comes out.

The insecurities, the unchecked trauma, the self-control or lack of it, the the the anger, the peace, the grace, the lack of it, all these things.

And pain either pushes us towards God or away from it.

If you believe you can handle it, you'll stay away from God.

But when you know that He's the only one that can change and transform and liberate and set free, then you'll run to God even in the midst of your suffering.

It says that he fell to the ground in worship.

Sometimes God will change the situation around you, but sometimes he won't, but he'll change you.

He'll change your soul in the midst of it.

See, Job is actively experiencing the peace that surpasses all understanding.

See, in a world where people will go to church and not engage in worship because, oh, I don't like this song.

Job is worshiping in the midst of unspeakable pain because he realizes who God is.

Have you ever been there before?

Where you just say, God, you don't care who's around.

God, I don't understand this.

Why is this happening to me?

But you're still worthy to be praised.

Everything is yours.

So how I don't want to, I don't even know, but have your way.

That's how we respond correctly.

By realizing who is ultimately in control of all things.

Going back to this morning in my why me morning, my why me moment, I'm mature enough now to know what to do when things happen.

So I ate the burrito, I'm I only slept for four and a half hours, I'm tired.

So instantly, I have a Spotify playlist, and I put it on, and the very first song that on the on the shuffle that comes on is a song by Todd Galberth called Come In.

It says, Let the King of Glory.

It says that over and over again.

And I'm like, Yes, King of Glory, come in.

And you know what happens?

Everything begins to shift inside of me.

You know why?

Because that is a promise of scripture.

Scripture says that he inhabits the praises of his people.

I don't know if this is theologically accurate, but I've never been able to complain while I'm worshiping God.

And so as I'm driving here, all of a sudden I'm no longer tired.

You can't tell that I only slept for four hours last night because the Holy Spirit is using me.

The supernatural spirits when you decide to give up and stop trying to be the CEO of your life.

We have a supernatural God that gives us a supernatural spirit.

Why would you want to do it on your own?

Everything shifted.

The moment I started worshiping him, he began inhabiting, taking over, giving me peace, giving me energy, renewing my strength.

Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not get weary, they shall walk and faint not.

The Lord renewed my strength this morning because I stopped trusting in myself and put my faith, hope, and trust in him.

Here's the last point.

We need to let God be God.

After going back and forth with his friends who became frenemies and lamenting and expressing all these things, his displeasure with God and how he operated with justice and injustice, the Lord spoke to Job.

Imagine you're walking down the block and all of a sudden it starts raining, and there's a storm, and you hear God speaking to you through the storm or through the whirlwind, that scripture says.

The Lord asked Job a bunch of rhetorical questions.

And you can tell God's not mad at Job, but he's challenging him, he's checking him, or as we say, he's clapping back.

He desires for him to open his eyes and come to the reality, son, I am God.

Let me be me, you be you.

Let's look at what what God says to Job.

I'm just gonna read the first 12 verses.

The Lord speaks.

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.

He said, Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man.

I will question you and you shall answer me.

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?

Tell me if you understand, who marked off its dimensions?

Surely you know.

Who stretched a measuring line across it, on what words footing set, or who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Who shut up the sea behind doors?

When it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed its limits for it, and set its door and bars in place, when I said, This far you may come and no farther, here is where your proud waves halt.

Have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place and it keeps on going?

God's response to Job is a powerful reminder that the universe is vast and in many ways incomprehensible, but God knows all, is everywhere, sees all, and will always be in full control.

And so my closing thought is this the title of the sermon was Why Me?

I want you to leave from here, maybe considering why not me?

Why not me?

If you read the first two chapters of Job, it'd be hard not to be depressed.

Because in the second chapter, God allows Satan to afflict his body.

But you have to keep reading because it gets greater later.

In verse 42, after God is talking to Job, uh uh, Job responds.

It says, Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things.

No purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, Who is who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

You said, Listen now, and I will speak, I will question you, and you shall answer me.

My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.

Then in verse 10 it says, After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored for the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

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

He had 14,000 sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.

And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

In verse 16, it says, After this, so after all of this, Job lived uh 140 years.

He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

And so Job died an old man full of years.

See, Jesus made it plain when he said in John 16, 33, in this world you will have trouble.

But take heart because I have overcome the world.

So the real question, the question isn't if you'll end up winning, it's are you on the right team?

What if you went into the game, knowing that no matter what, we're gonna win?

What if, what would that be like the drive to the arena, the drive to the state, and the drive to work, knowing that no matter what, no matter what adversity we face, we're going to win in the end.

Uh uh, it wouldn't bother you so much because you know I'm on the winning team.

This is the reality for those that follow Christ.

Uh there's a picture, this is what I picture in my mind of if I operated with the God consciousness of knowing I'm gonna win.

I'll be like my son who's in this picture.

I have sunglasses on, brushing my teeth every single morning.

Like, hey, it don't matter what I face today, I'm good.

I have a supernatural joy because I am on the right team.

Nothing can phase me, nothing can stop me because I am with the Lord.

This is the case for all of us who follow Christ.

We already won, we are winning, and we will win.

Our job is to continue to live by faith and keep on abiding in Christ.

We serve a God that can give us double for our trouble.

So relinquish the control that you think that you have and give back to God the control He already has.

Some of us we need to stop living in what I call little brother mode.

And I'm the youngest of four.

So back in the day, when I used to get my chance to play the game, I used to think I was doing something on Contra, up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right.

And then all of a sudden I would look down and I would see that the controller wasn't even plugged in.

A lot of us think that we're in a control of life, and God's like, you ain't even plugged in, dog.

I'm the one that promotes, I'm the one that demotes, I'm the one that opens doors, I'm the one that closes doors.

You may be in a position of power, but I have all the power.

All power in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Your power is to go.

And I, you know what?

I'm gonna give you my spirit.

Why not me?

God got me.

So, this is the altar call.

This is for everyone wrestling.

I still ask the question a couple times a week: why can you please fix my ankle?

I'm tired of swimming all the time.

I want to run again.

Can you please for those that are wrestling with the question, why did I have to go through that?

For those asking, why, God, did you deal me this hand?

Why did the relationship end that way?

Why am I still struggling with this addiction or whatever it may be?

Why do you feel so distant at times, God?

I feel like I don't hear you, or any other why you may be wrestling with.

We would love to pray for you.

The altar's open, and as you come forward, I want to share one more thing.

I remember for the last seven years, I would be behind the scenes mentoring student athletes in Sack State for multiple sports, primarily football.

And I will always be like, Man, I only have a few hours here, a few hours there.

Why can't they have the help that they really need?

I wish there was a way for me to be around more.

I don't know how that works, but there's no such thing as a uh chaplain that's there.

I I don't know, but it was a why prayer.

And I begin to have it, I begin having some conversations with people, and I just took it to the Lord in prayer.

There's unspeakable things that happen to some of these athletes, and they'll call me and they'll be like, Man, I know you're not, I don't I don't want to talk to my coach about this, I want to talk to you.

I know you're a pastor, uh, and I will have meetings and coffees with players for the last seven years, and most people don't even know that.

Then a new coach comes in, and I'm planning on asking him, like, hey coach, I want to start Bible studies again.

And then he says, Hey man, how would you feel about being the direct uh director of player development?

And as we navigated through the conversation, I realized that man, this would be an amazing way to be the person I wish I had when I was there.

So, still, right now, on a regular basis, there are probably a bunch of them that are here right now, behind the scenes conversations, at the hospital with players, checking on them, counseling them, but more most importantly, pointing them to who their real identity is.

Sports ends, but you need to know Christ, you need to be rooted in that.

So God answered seven years of why, God answers by opening up a position at Sack State that never even existed.

So we serve a God that can do that.

So again, the altar is open.

We want to pray for you.

If there's anything you're wrestling with, why did I have to go through that?

Why am I in this season of life?

When will it end?

We want to touch and agree and pray with you before we close our service.

We're grateful that you are the Omni God, you are all powerful, you are all knowing, you are everywhere, you are an ever-present help in times of trouble, you're an ever-present help all the time.

Grateful that we can turn to you, Father God.

I pray that now in this moment, for your sons and daughters that have made their way to the altar, that you would meet them in the midst of whatever their why is, that you would comfort them like only you can, that you would give them peace that surpasses all understanding, that you would empower them, that you would give them faith and courage to live out what you've called them to do.

I know people in this building are dealing with grief right now from the loss of a loved one or a family member.

I know it's in my home right now.

Pray that you would comfort everyone that needs it, you heal the brokenhearted when we commit our ways to you, Holy Spirit.

You you you change, you transform us, you deliver us.

So be with everyone dealing with trauma, be with those who are exhausted, pray that you would renew their strength.

For those that have questions of why I'm dealing with this, why I'm struggling with this.

I pray that you would give them the wisdom and insight that they need.

Put the people around them, seasoned saints to pour into them, to counsel them, put their shoulder around them and to do life with them, Father God.

Grateful for who you are.

We have so many receipts as we look back and think about all the wives that we had, that you met us, and you had a better plan for us than we could ever have for ourselves.

You created things, you opened doors, you closed doors that we shouldn't have ever walked through, and we we're grateful for that.

So I pray, Father God, that you would do what only you can do, that you would heal, you would deliver, you would be Jehovah Jira.

You would be Jehovah Nisi.

For those that need healing, you would be Jehovah Rapha.

For those in here that need protection, you would be Jehovah Nisi.

You'd be the Lord, our banner, the one that fights for us.

We're grateful for all the battles you fought and the one for us that we had no idea that you were fighting.

Let us represent you well as we leave from here.

Let us commit to the process of continuing to come to the altar, continuing to engage in scripture as you renew our minds.

Let us represent you well.

Let us not just be hearers of your word, but let us do it faithfully.

Let us be known for being your followers.

Thank you and praise you, Father God.

Heal us.

Do whatever it is that you need to do in us so that you can use us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.