Open your Bibles please to the 23rd chapter
of the book of Job.
Job chapter number 23 tonight in your Bibles
please.
Job chapter number 23.
A lot of times when the Robertsons are
with us I'll ask for the dole sometime
either over dinner before we have the service
that night or sometime throughout the day.
He'll ask me, what do you think you're
preaching on?
I'll ask him, what do you think the
family will be singing?
And we've done that several times even in
the staff training but we failed to do
that today.
And I believe I know why because the
Lord could not have fit a song and
a message from the Word of God together
more reverently if you will than He has
tonight.
I was poring over the book of Job
tonight.
I have several messages that I've preached out
of the book of Job.
But I was in the office in a
little trailer today and I was poring over
it there and I was reading Job chapter
number 23 and I'm not exactly sure why
the Lord directed me there.
But as I began to read it, it
just kind of began to unfold and outline
itself before my eyes and in my heart
and so this is just as new to
me tonight as it is to you.
But I feel that the Lord knows exactly
that somebody in this auditorium needs this message
tonight no doubt because He's taken the music
and He's taken the message of God's Word
and He's put it together like a hand
in glove.
So I hope it'll be a blessing to
you.
I hope it'll be a comfort to you.
But yet I hope it'll be something that
is convicting and something that is impacting to
your life as well.
And this is one of those messages that
God first really works the preacher over before
He's able to get in the pulpit and
preach to other people about it.
And so I hope tonight that you'll take
some handy dandy notes down, write some things
down in your Bible because I believe it'll
help you tonight.
Job chapter 23, let's stand please.
Out of respect for God's Word.
17 verses long, I'll read the entire chapter.
Job chapter number 23 and verse number 1.
The Bible says, Then Job answered and said,
Even today, as my complaining bidder, my stroke
is heavier than my groaning.
Oh, that I knew where I might find
him, that I might come even to his
seat.
I would order my cause before him and
fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which he would
answer me and understand what he would say
unto me Will he plead against me with
his great power?
No.
But he would put strength in me.
Verse 7, There the righteous might dispute with
him.
So should I be delivered forever from my
judge.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not
there.
And backward, but I cannot perceive him.
On the left hand, where he doth work,
but I cannot behold him.
He hideth himself on the right hand, but
I cannot see him.
But he knoweth the way that I take.
And when he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps.
His way have I kept and not declined.
Neither have I gone back from the commandments
of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food.
Verse 13, But he is of one mind,
and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, even that he
doeth.
For he performeth a thing that is appointed
for me, and many such things are with
him.
Therefore am I troubled at his presence, when
I consider I am afraid of him.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the
Almighty troubleth me.
Because I was not cut off before the
darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from
my face.
Please go back to verse number 3 again.
Verse number 3 of Job 23, where he
lifts up his voice and he says, Oh,
that I knew where I might find him.
But tonight I want to bring the simple
message.
What do you do when you can't find
God?
I think I want you to maybe seated
and let's bow our heads in hearts.
And let's pray and ask the Lord to
bless our time together tonight.
Lord, we thank you for the day and
for the great things that we've been able
to accomplish.
For your glory, it's been a profitable day,
and for that we're grateful.
Lord, tonight our hearts are ready for the
service.
And I pray, Lord, that as we've had
the singing, as the choir has sung so
beautifully, and we thank you for that.
But, Lord, as we've had the fellowship, we've
had announcements, we've had offerings, we've had all
of these things.
But, Lord, tonight our hearts need to be
in tune with thy precious word.
So, Father, I pray that you would remove
all the distractions, the discouragements and the things
that would deviate our hearts and minds and
eyes from the Word of God for the
next few moments.
And you would help this congregation as they
listen to the Bible.
And, Father, help me as I preach this
message that you've laid upon my heart.
And, Lord, we thank you for the testimony,
for the character, the life and the admonition
of a man by the name of Job.
And I pray tonight that it would challenge
us greatly to want to do more for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we do realize that troublesome times come.
And so tonight, would you allow us to
keep this message burning within our hearts that
truly when these trials do come, we'll be
able to still glorify God.
And as the Bible says twice about Job,
he did not sin foolishly with his lips
against God.
So, Lord, help me tonight as I preach.
And please help these, my hearers, as they
listen.
And we'll thank you for everything that you'll
say and do, for it's in Jesus' name
that we pray.
Amen.
Years ago, St. Augustine was the one that
said, God had only one son without sin,
but never a son without suffering.
And certainly the book of Job is a
great amalgamation of all the turmoil, of all
the suffering and of all the hardships that
God's people is going to have to face.
You know us being in Bible college, I'm
sure you study your Bible long enough and
you'll find out that the book of Job
is the oldest book in your Bible.
It is pre-flood, it is pre-law.
In Job 1, just to have a quick
rundown and overview of the book, we find
out in Job 1, there was a man
in the land of Oz whose name was
Job.
And that man was perfect and feared God,
one that eschewed evil.
And the Bible says that it repeats the
same thing in verse 8, and then repeats
the very same character and testimony in chapter
2 and verse 3.
But although we have his testimony in chapter
1, we also have the first of a
series of two trials that is in his
life.
Number 1, we find out that he loses
his finances.
Number 2, we find out that he loses
his seven children or his family.
And then in chapter 2, we have two
more trials that are yet Job has to
face.
We see that the devil once again goes
before the presence of Almighty God on His
throne.
And he said, yea, skin for skin, a
man will give all that he has for
his own life.
And God said, you go down and touch
his body, but you cannot touch his life.
You cannot kill him, if you will.
And so the Bible says that Satan went
forth from the presence of the Lord and
he smoked Job with sore boils from the
top of his head to the sole of
his feet.
And now we see that he was afflicted
in his flesh.
But then your Bible tells me that he
was also afflicted in his friends.
For the three friends, those miserable comforters, who
were supposed to be a great comfort, those
who went to college with him, if you
will, those who he knew very well, they
saw him, they lifted up their voices, for
seven days they sat down, the Bible says
they wept, and nobody even opened their mouth.
And that must have put a very grueling
and bad, terrible situation for four buddies to
get together and nobody to say anything to
one another for seven full days.
But yet then the Bible says at the
end of chapter 2 that here his own
friends turn against him.
If that's not bad enough, losing most of
your family, your finances, your flesh and your
friends, his own wife even turns against him.
And she says, do you still retain your
integrity?
She said, why don't you look at yourself,
Job?
Why don't you take a good close look
in the mirror, son?
Why don't you just curse God and die?
And he said, you speak like one of
the foolish ladies.
He said, what?
Shall we receive good at the hand of
God and also not receive evil?
He said, you speak like a lost woman,
and it's a pretty bad faith when lost
people can suffer trials and go through trials
better than God's people can go through trials.
And Job said, what's your problem?
He said, listen, you're suffering as if you
were a lost person.
He said, we must receive good at the
hand of God, but sometimes we also receive
hardships, what he referred to as evil things
at the hand of God.
It got so bad at the end of
chapter 2 that you read chapter 3 and
you will find out that Job cursed the
day in which he was born.
He was in utter despair.
He was in utter disrelevance.
I mean, you talk about the bottom of
the barrel, friend.
He was scraping the bottom thereof.
He was in complete turmoil.
And he cursed the very day in which
he walked forth from the womb of his
mother.
In chapters 4 and 5, we have two
chapters that deal with the same person.
It is a gentleman by the name of
Eliphaz the Timnite.
Now, Mr. Eliphaz the Timnite was supposed to
be a friend.
He was supposed to be a comforter, but
he began to ridicule and he began to
say that Job had sin in his life.
In chapter 6 and 7, we find out
that Job gives a rebuttal, if you will.
He rebukes this guy for all of his
vain words.
And he rebukes him for saying that he
has sin in his life, and he's trying
to declare his innocence.
In chapter number 8, we see that then
a young man by the name of Beeldad
opens his mouth and he begins to accuse
Job of having sin in his life.
And then in chapter number 9 and chapter
number 10, we see that Job also gives
a rebuttal and a reputation of that which
he had to say.
Then in chapter number 11, to top things
off, Zophar the Naamathite had to open his
mouth and he then began to say that
you've got sin in your life, that you've
been doing things that are wrong.
In chapter number 12 through chapter 14, he
does not answer Zophar, you read your Bible,
he answers all three of them.
He calls them all vain.
He gets to the place basically where he
says, listen, you're a bunch of miserable comforters.
I'd have done a whole lot better if
you'd never even showed up to begin with.
I've lost my flesh, I've lost my family,
and here I am about to lose all
of my finances.
It's gone and now my own friends have
turned on me.
And he answers all of them in those
few chapters.
Then in chapter number 15, chapter number 16,
chapter number 17, and chapter number 18, it
all starts over again.
They all start ridiculing him, he fights back.
They ridicule him, he fights back.
Then in chapter number 19, he changes his
tactics.
He does not give a refutation to that
which they said, but in Job chapter number
19, he begins to declare his faith and
he says, I know that my Redeemer liveth.
Then in Job chapter 20 and Job chapter
21, chapter 22, we see that Job again
begins to go back to refuting what these
men are saying.
You will find out that Zophar the Namathite,
that Bildad the Shuhite, and that Eliphaz the
Timonite, all three of them, each speak against
Job three different times.
Then in Job chapter number 23 and chapter
24, we have two paramount portions of Scripture.
That's where we are tonight.
In Job chapter number 23, he is longing
to see God like he's never seen Him
before.
He is searching for God.
He is trying to find God in all
of these trials, in all of this heartache,
in all of this discouragement that he's in,
and he's seeking for God.
And as we read a moment ago in
verse number 3, it was very obvious that
it seemed like to him in his humanity
that he could not find Him.
In chapter number 25, we have the shortest
chapter in the book of Job.
It is six verses long.
And again, Eliphaz and others begin to ridicule
him.
Then in chapters 26 through chapter number 31,
there is another young man who has not
been named beforehand.
His name is Elihu.
There are two reasons that Elihu did not
speak according to the Bible.
Number one, he had not yet spoken because
he was the younger of the other three.
Actually, four of that was there.
We find that out.
He was the youngest, and since he was
the youngest, he was going to let these
aged, wiser men speak.
But then his wrath began to be kindled
in his heart, and for all of those
chapters, he had a twofold pronouncement.
You know what it was?
Number one, he rebuked Job for defending himself,
and he rebuked Job for glorifying himself.
But secondly, he rebuked the other three buddies,
those miserable comforters who were not comforters at
all, he rebuked them for bringing allegations against
Job without having any proof or any factuality
whatsoever.
Then in chapter number 32 through chapter number
38, we see that they continually have this
speech, and it goes on and it goes
on, and it's just kind of endless.
But yet in chapter 38 through chapter number
41, the story changes because then God steps
on the scene.
And in Job chapter 38 through Job chapter
number 41, you will find out that God
begins to speak to Job out of the
whirlwind.
And here Job is astounded.
He sits back, his eyes are bugged open.
I mean, God parts his hair right down
the middle and asks him, if you were
to circle the question marks in Job 38
through Job 41, you will find that there
are 84 questions that God asked to Mr.
Job.
And you will find out that for most
of them, there is no answer whatsoever.
I call it the 84 question quiz.
And so God gives him the SAT, if
you will, and God gives him the big
math quiz, asks him 84 undeniable, irrefutable questions
that Job simply cannot answer.
And then at the end of that, Job
realizes that he's had pity upon himself.
And in chapter number 42, the last chapter
of the book, we have three great things
that happen in that chapter.
Number one, he glorifies God.
Number two, the critics are silenced and judged.
And number three, God honors him greatly.
And the Bible says that the latter end
of Job was greater than the first.
And in Job 42, verse number 17, the
Bible says, so Job died being old and
full of days.
And so God blessed him in a great
way.
But no doubt, as I made the statement
last night, the bottom of Job's boat did
not fall out.
Both ends of the bottoms of Job's boat
fell out.
I mean the front and the back.
Here is a guy that is the epitome
of God's people going through heartaches and going
through trials.
Look at your Bibles if you would.
We're going to go through chapter number 23.
I'll give you just a few thoughts and
we'll be through, alright?
Job chapter number 23.
Look what he says in verse number 1.
Then Job answered and said...
So he's talking again back to Eliphaz and
the rest of those rebels that are rebuking
him.
Then Job answered and said, even today is
my complaint bitter.
My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
All that I knew where I might find
Him.
Who is he talking about?
He's talking about God.
He is looking for the Lord in the
midst of all this heartache.
He is looking for the Lord in the
midst of all of his trials, in the
midst of all of his discouragement, and he
says, all that I knew where I might
find Him, that I might come even to
His seat.
That is an interesting phrase.
He's not talking about coming and finding some
little seat that God's sitting in.
He's literally talking about the throne.
He says, I want to appear before the
very throne of God that I might give
Him my complaint, that I might plead my
cause before the great Judge.
Where is He when I need Him in
this awful time?
Where is He when my heart is filled
with discouragement and my heart is filled with
bitterness, and it seems like the world has
turned their backs and forsaken me?
Job even said it one time, that my
breath is strange to my wife.
You ever thought about that?
Job said, I have been so forsaken by
people that my breath is strange to my
wife.
He said, I can't even lean on my
wife.
I can't even lean on my friends.
He said, I have nobody, and now it
seems like God is a million miles away.
He said, men, I'd love to come before
His seat and plead my cause.
Look in your Bibles at verse 4.
He said, I would order my cause before
Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which He would
answer me and understand what He would say
unto me.
Will He plead against me with His great
power?
No.
But He would put strength in me.
What he's saying is this, is God trying
to use His power against me?
No, no.
He's trying to use His power for me.
He's saying, listen, all of this is for
a purpose.
All of this is for a reason.
There's a reason that I'm going through this
hardship.
There's a reason that I'm going through these
trials.
And Job is scratching his head, and he's
just about ready to pull his hair out,
and he said, but I sure do wish
I could figure out what the reason was.
Let's keep reading, please.
Verse 7, it says, that there the righteous
might dispute with Him.
So should I be delivered forever from my
judge.
Verse 8, Behold, I go forward, but He
is not there, and backward, but I cannot
perceive Him.
On the left hand, where He doth work,
but I cannot behold Him.
He hideth Himself on the right, that I
cannot see Him.
Job said, listen, when I'm progressing in my
spiritual walk, when I'm looking to God and
I'm doing what's right and I'm walking in
the path of righteousness, when I'm trotting upon
the highway of holiness, He said, I can't
even find God in all of this trouble.
He said, if I look to my left
where God is working, I do not see
Him there.
Although it's evident that He's working in my
life, I just can't sense His presence.
He said, I look to the right, and
He says, I cannot find Him.
He said, I look before me, I look
behind me.
He said, it's almost like God's playing hide
and go seek.
And He says, Lord, I just don't quite
understand where You are.
I just don't quite understand why that You're
doing this.
Why am I going through all of this
linicule?
And I'll be honest with you, because you
live the Christian life long enough and you'll
just about be ready to pull your hair
out sometimes and you'll think to yourself, Dear
Lord, why?
Why is it that I'm going through these
troubles and why does it seem like Your
presence and Your power is a billion miles
away?
Where are You when I need You most?
And I'll be honest with you, even as
the psalmist, the sweet shepherd of Israel, David,
he even thought sometimes that God hid His
face from him.
He said, I will be satisfied when I
awake with that likeness.
But yet in the same chapter, he said,
there's sometimes when God hides Himself in the
shadows, when God withdraws Himself and puts Himself
in the darkness, and it's hard for us
to understand why we're going through these troubles.
But right in the midst of friends forsaking
Him, right in the midst of this attitude
of rebellion that had crept up in His
friends, and they were pointing the fingers and
they said, Listen, you're wicked.
You've broken the covenant of God.
You've been ungodly.
Perhaps you've cheated on your wife or you've
been rebellious.
You've been a drunkard.
I mean, they just gave him all kinds
of things.
They even used oriental proverbs to try to
prove their unscriptural point.
You've got to be careful, fellows, when you're
preaching out of the book of Job because
if you're not careful, you're going to end
up preaching something you don't mean to preach.
Let me tell you what I mean.
A lot of the things that Eliphaz, that
Zophar, that Bildad said were very unscriptural.
Although they are contained for us in the
Word of God, what they were saying and
the logic that they were using was very
much wrong.
It was very ungodly.
They were using proverbs that weren't from the
Bible.
They were using traditionalism and they were using
their rational, logical thinking, but yet it was
very, very unscriptural what they were doing.
And so Job said, listen, everybody's turned against
me.
Everybody's forsaken me.
My wife's not helping me in this.
I'm to the bottom of the barrel when
it comes to the bank.
I have no money.
I just about have no flesh left.
He says, Lord, where are You in all
of this?
But I want to show you what Job
did when it seemed like he couldn't find
God.
Look in your Bibles, if you would please,
at Job 23 and verse 11.
Job 23 and verse 11.
The Bible says, My foot hath held His
steps.
His way have I kept and not declined.
I want to remind you, he is speaking
to his buddies.
He's declaring his innocence and his faithfulness and
his utmost reverence for God.
My foot hath held His steps.
His way have I kept and not declined.
Verse 12, Neither have I gone back from
the commandment of His lips.
I want you to see number one.
When Job could not find God seemingly, first
and foremost, he was committed to keep doing
right.
Did you get that?
He was committed to keep doing right.
Here all of his buddies sat around Indian
style, if you will, and they were sitting
there and they were talking and they were
reminiscing about the past.
And they said, You know what, Job?
It's obvious, son, that you've got sin in
your life because God would not be judging
you if you did not.
It's obvious that there's things wrong in your
life and they kept trying to draw all
these logical conclusions.
Well, if you study the Bible, you'll find
out they were greatly illogical.
But yet, they were trying to allow Job
to search himself.
They were probing his heart, trying to make
him actually and honestly believe that there was
sin in his life.
And Job said, Listen, fellas, I've had enough
of this business.
Just sit there.
Keep your mouth shut.
I'm going to tell you something.
Although I can't find God in this, and
although I can't understand this, he said, I
am committed to keep on doing right even
if it kills me.
You know, he said the same thing in
Job 13, 15.
He said, Though He slay me, yet will
I trust in Him.
But I will maintain my ways before Him.
What was Job saying?
He said, Listen, although I can't see God
in all of this, although I'm having troubles
and trials, and although this is coming upon
me and to me it seems unfair, if
you will, he said, My feet have clung
to His commandments.
I have listened to the commandments of His
lips.
My feet have not slid away from that
which is right.
He said, I am committed to keep on
doing right.
I'm going to hunker down.
I'm going to stay in the Word of
God.
I'm going to fight as we talked and
preached about last night.
And he says, No matter what happens, you
can ridicule me.
You can turn against me.
I may never get my family back.
I may never get my finances back.
My flesh may always be riddled with boils.
He said, But I am committed to doing
right.
Now, friend, that right there is backbone.
That right there is grit, gall, and courage,
and that courage can only be given by
the great Spirit of Almighty God.
And here is a man who says, Listen,
I do not care what the trials are.
I do not care what the hardships are.
He says, My feet have not slipped.
He said, I am committed to continually doing
what is right.
As Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. used to get
in that pool pit, and he said, Do
right, do right, do right, till the stars
fall.
What was he trying to illustrate?
What was it that he was trying to
give the world of young people who he
was preaching to on that day to understand?
That no matter what happens in life, and
no matter if the stock market crashes, no
matter what happens in the White House, in
the church house, or at your and our
house, he says, Listen, just keep on doing
right for the glory of God.
And here is a man that said, I
am committed.
I am determined.
I am not going to turn back.
Though none may join me, still I will
follow.
And Job was committed.
Even when he couldn't find God, even when
his heart was seemingly going to burst within
his chest, Job said, My feet have not
slipped.
I have not altered my ways, if you
will, from the commandments of His lips.
He said, I will do what's right.
You know the first thing you're supposed to
do when you go through trials?
Just commit that you're going to keep on
doing right.
Just commit that you're going to keep on
serving the Lord when it gets a little
tough this summer.
And even when it gets tough out of
the summer, you say, Well, I'll be honest
with you, Brother Locke, I'm not going to
do a trial, and I don't need this
message.
You better tuck it away in your pocket,
friend, because you'll be put out before the
summer's over.
I promise you that right now.
You will go through trials.
I believe it was C.H. Virgin, perhaps
D.L. Moody.
I don't remember my reading, but they said
this.
They said either, Number one, you are going
into a trial.
Number two, you are in a trial right
now.
Or number three, you are just coming out
of a trial.
But the Christian life is a life of
ups and downs.
The Christian life is a rollercoaster effect ride,
if you will.
There are times when, man, it is going
well, but yet there are those refining times
that the Robertsons sing about, when in those
times, we must be just as committed and
just as dedicated to serve Him in the
good times, and just as dedicated to serve
Him as well in the bad times and
in the off times.
So Job said, Listen, I'm dedicated.
I'm committed here.
My feet are not going to slip.
Look at verse number 12, if you would,
please, again.
Not only has he said in verse 12,
Neither have I gone back from the commandment
of His lips, but he also said, I
have esteemed the words, get it, of His
mouth.
Who is he speaking about?
Almighty God, obviously.
I have esteemed the words of His mouth
more than my necessary food.
Number one, he was committed to keep doing
right, but number two, he was confident that
the Word of God was true and faithful.
Here is a man that in the midst
of utter discouragement, here is a man that
right in the midst of utter despair, he
says, Fellas, I want you and all the
world to know, I have esteemed the words
of His mouth more than my necessary food,
which I have to have to live on
a daily, daily basis.
Have you ever thought about food?
Some of you think too much about food,
but have you ever thought about food for
just a moment?
You think about something.
Food is necessary to your life.
I mean, you've got to have certain type
of nutrients in your body if you're going
to survive.
I mean, I'm not a real big breakfast
eater.
My breakfast consists of about a pot of
coffee.
I enjoy coffee.
I like it.
You say, that's wicked.
Well, amen, it doesn't make any difference.
I still like coffee.
But nonetheless, coffee is good.
I really enjoy it.
I suppose if I'm hungry, I can eat
scrambled eggs.
I'm one of these guys that likes breakfast
in the middle of the night.
I like breakfast food at 12 o'clock
at night.
That's why I love the Waffle House.
I call it the awful house, but I
like to stop there at 2 or 3
o'clock in the morning, eat something off
a greasy spoon.
I love it.
But nonetheless, food is good for you.
There's some food that's not.
I'm a noodle lover.
I love noodles any way you can give
them to me, any way you can slice
them, any way you can dice them.
I've had noodles 2 or 3 times today,
and I could probably have noodles 2 or
3 times before I go to bed.
I enjoy noodles.
Now, I know that's probably not the healthiest
diet in all of the world, but the
truth of the matter is this.
It does have some type of nutrition to
my body, I'm sure, because I'm still breathing.
I'm still ticking.
But you've got to have vitamin A.
You've got to have vitamin B.
You've got to have vitamin C.
And you've got to have all type of
nutrients.
You just think about food.
I mean, food is good for you.
Most people like to eat, and that shows
by our lifestyle, and it shows by our
demeanor.
But you know what Job said?
He wasn't negating the fact that food was
good.
He didn't say that I hate all food.
He didn't say that at all.
I'm sure Job loved a good Papa John's
pizza every now and then if somebody would
deliver it to his doorstep there in the
Middle Eastern desert.
But I'll be honest with you, he did
not say that I hate food.
He just said in the midst of this
trial, in the midst of this discouragement, he
said, I have esteemed the words of God's
mouth, the very Word of God, more than
the food which is necessary for my daily
living, for my bodily strength, for the nutrition
that I need to keep going.
He said right now, I have got to
the place where not only am I committed
to do right, he said, but I am
confident that God's Word is going to pull
me through this trial.
You know, there's only one thing that'll get
you through hard times.
Now, friends can be a comfort if they're
true friends indeed and they can help you
through.
Family can be a comfort and they can
pull you through and they can help you
indeed, thank God for that.
But I'm telling you, there's only one real
thing that you can base your faith on
when it comes to real rough times and
trials.
There's only one thing that is going to
keep you above water, if you will, and
that is the rock bed, solid foundation, the
anchor, the anvil of the Word of God.
You know what Job said?
He said, Listen, I am convinced of the
fact that if I stay in the Word
of God, if I get my nose out
of the newspaper and put it into the
Bible, I am convinced that if I esteem
the words of His mouth more than my
necessary food, that He will bring me through
to the other side and He was confident
in the Word of God.
And how God's people have lost their confidence
in the Bible in the day and age
in which we live.
We think, as I preached on last night,
that the only thing we use the Bible
for is just to read a little bit.
Preachers get up there, they loosen their tie,
they take off their shoes, get in the
microphone, spit and holler and yell, get red
in the face and everybody gets right with
God and gets saved.
That's the only thing the Bible's good for.
The only thing the Bible's good for is
a little bit of memorization.
But can I remind you, James 1, verse
22, Be ye doers of the Word and
not hearers only.
Joshua 1, verse 8.
Do you remember what happened in the first
part of Joshua?
The Bible says, Moses, my servant is dead.
And Joshua, the son of Nun, now took
about four million rebellious Jews, led them around
in the wilderness, and it was his job
to remove them, take them across the Jericho
to the Jordan River into the first place
called Gilgal, the first place in the Promised
Land, and bring them into Canaan Land, the
land flowing with the milk and honey where
they drove out the giants and they had
the great grapes and everything that was there.
And now it was Joshua's responsibility that Moses,
the servant of God, was dead because you
remember the end of the life of Moses.
God said, you can look in off of
Mount Nebo, but son, you can't go in
because of your utter rebellious and your disobedience
to Me because you smoked the rock twice
when I told you to smite it once
and speak to it once.
And so nonetheless, we know the story in
verse number 7 of Joshua 1.
You can almost sense the utter discouragement that
is in the heart of Joshua.
And he says, Fear not, Joshua, as I
was with Moses, so will I be with
thee.
Then verse number 8.
I love this verse.
This book of the law.
This book of the law shall not depart
out of thy mouth.
Thou shalt meditate therein day and night that
thou mayest observe and do according to all
that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous
and then thou shalt have good success.
I sat in this morning on the task
force chapel when Brother Norris got in.
He began to preach and he began to
teach on the importance of the Word of
God and how we should devour the Word
of God.
And he quoted Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man that walketh not on
the couch of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful.
His delight is in the law of the
Lord.
And in His law doth he meditate day
and night.
He should be like a tree planted, rooted
down, if you will, planted by the rivers
of water that bringeth forth His fruit and
His seeds.
And His leaf also shall not wither in
whatsoever He doeth shall prosper.
Verse 4, The ungodly are not so, but
are like the chaff which the wind driveth
away.
Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish.
Have you ever thought about why in the
very first Psalm, in the Hebrew hymn book
of your Old Testament Bible, have you ever
thought about why in verse 4 and in
verse 6 of the opening chorus that David
called those people ungodly?
Have you ever wondered that?
Have you ever wondered why he called them
ungodly and said twice why they were going
to perish?
You study the context of Psalm 1.
It was because of their attitude towards the
law of God.
Jesus said in John 17, 17, Sanctify them,
Father, through Thy truth.
Why?
Thy Word is truth.
A verse you're going to know and a
verse your teenagers and your young people are
going to know all summer long.
Ephesians 6, 17, The sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 15, 16, Thy
words were found and I did eat them.
They were unto me the joy and rejoicing
of mine heart.
For I am called by Thy name, O
Lord, God of hosts.
Jeremiah 20, 9, It is not my word
like unto a hammer that breaketh the rock
in pieces and like a great fire.
The Bible goes on and tells us in
Hebrews 4, 12, The Word of God is
quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the biting of slender
and swollen spirit, and of the joints and
the marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and the intents of the heart.
Psalm 119.
Did you know there's 176 verses for him?
And every single one of them have one
theme.
Psalm 119, verse 9, Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way by taking heed according
to thy word.
Isaiah 40, 8, The grass withers and the
flower thereof fadeth away, but the Word of
our God abideth forever.
And God liked that verse so much, He
repeated it again in 1 Peter 1, 16.
And friend, I've got news for you.
You can, in trials and out of trials,
be confident of the fact that God's Word
is true, that God's Word is faithful, and
if you sing the words of His mouth
more than your necessary food, you get your
spiritual nutrients and your spiritual roots deep down
into the soil of the Word of God,
and I promise you, God will bring you
through to the other side.
And Job said, I keep doing right.
And he said, I am convinced of the
fact that God's Word is true and God's
Word is faithful.
And he said, you may ridicule me.
The world may ridicule me.
He said, everything may pass away and there
may be nothing left.
He said, but I'll have one thing left
and that is the precious words of His
mouth.
How much do you esteem the Word of
God?
Let's just get real bold and plain about
it.
How much do you really love the Word
of God?
You come to a Bible camp just because
you feel like coming to a Bible camp?
You go to a Bible college just because
mom and dad put the bill for a
Bible college?
Or do you go to a Bible college
and come to a Bible camp so you
can be a Bible believer?
I wouldn't give you the flip of a
wooden nickel for somebody that always walks around,
they talk about how much they love God
and how much they love Jesus Christ and
how much they want to do what's right,
but they're not avid students of the Word
of God.
Hey, friend, that's a contradiction.
You know what Jesus said?
If you love Me, say it with me,
keep My commandments.
Can I ask you a simple heavenly question?
How are you going to know the commandments
if you're not reading them in the Word
of God?
And don't tell me that you love God,
but yet you don't esteem the Word of
God greatly in your life.
And Job said, fellows, you can say anything
about me you want to.
The tabloids can write things about me and
you can put me in the U.S.
today, the Time, the News, the U.S.
In World Report, whatever you want to put
me in.
He said, I could give a flip.
He said, it doesn't make any difference.
He said, I'm going to tell you something,
fellows, I'm committed to do right and I'm
convinced that the Word of God is completely,
totally true and faithful.
It will bring me through to the other
side.
Keep reading your Bibles if you would, please.
Chapter number 23.
Not only was he committed, not only was
he confident, but I want you to see
thirdly that he was content that God was
in control.
He was content that God was in control.
Say, what do you mean?
Let me share what I mean.
Chapter number 23 and verse number 13.
It says, but He, obviously God, but He
is in one mind and who can turn
Him?
And what His soul desireth, even that He
doeth.
For He performeth a thing that is appointed
for me and many such things are with
Him.
You know what kind of brought him great
comfort in his time of grief?
Not only that he was committed, not only
was he convinced, but he was content with
the fact that, hey, God's in control.
God knows the end from the beginning.
God has the helicopter view, if you will.
We've got what I call the train view.
Man, we're just riding through life.
We're going up and around the curves and
then throughout the tunnels and in and out
and up and down through the rain and
we can just see what's right ahead of
us.
I mean, just track after track after track.
But God doesn't have the train view, friend.
God's got the helicopter view.
He can see the end from the beginning,
the beginning from the end.
Somebody says, I'm so worried about next week.
Don't need to worry about next week, friend,
as a child of God because God's already
been there.
Remember, He said, I am hath sent you.
He didn't say, I was hath sent you.
He didn't say, I will be one day
hath sent you.
He said, I am right now.
I've always been.
I am right now and I forevermore will
be.
And Job said, listen, He is of one
mind and you're not going to change His
mind.
Now, that's an interesting portion of Scripture.
I mean, Job looks wild-eyed at his
buddies and says, you know what, fellas?
You know what I'm content with?
He says, I'm content with the fact that
God's a big God, God's a huge God,
a supernatural God, God's a sovereign God and
you are the devil or nobody else is
ever going to change His mind.
Nobody's going to turn Him.
And he says, I'm content to believe.
I'm content to trust.
And I'm confident in the fact that God
is in control and everything I'm going through,
although I don't understand it, although no doubt
my flesh bucks and kicks against it and
does not like it.
He said, I'm content with the fact that
God knows exactly what He's doing.
He made man 6,000 years ago and
hadn't had to make a recall yet.
He's never made a mistake.
And sometimes we think to ourselves, Lord, I
know You're sovereign and I know You're big
and I know You're supernatural, but do You
really know what I'm going through?
Where are You, Lord?
Why aren't You playing these hide-and-go
-seek, count to ten, count to a hundred
games with me?
And Job said, Lord, I don't understand everything.
I know one thing.
You're in complete control and I'm not going
to change your mind about anything.
And You're working and You're molding and You're
making and You're doing something in my life
that perhaps I do not understand.
But Job says, there's one thing about it
I do understand.
You are in control.
Now, friend, that gives me great comfort.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
God is not a heavenly puppeteer.
That is not what the word sovereignty means.
The word sovereignty literally has the idea that
He's all-powerful, that He's all-knowing, that
He is all-majestic, all-holy, all-righteous,
and all-supernatural.
God is everything.
He is all in all.
But He's not up in heaven just kind
of moving us like a little chess.
I remember there was a little gal that
came over to my wife and I about
a year ago.
And she knows us real well.
She stayed with us before when we lived
in Shelby when I was in Bible college.
And this little girl, she came in and
she said, Greg, she said, now, did you
know that we're just little pieces on a
big chess board and God is the great
Master in heaven and He's the one that's
just kind of moving all the pieces around.
And I just kind of said, why don't
you hear that?
Just kind of like this, you know.
And she could kind of see the apprehension
in my voice.
She said, my mama told me that and
don't you tell me it's not so because
I believe what my mama said.
Now, I'll be honest with you.
I don't believe life is a checkerboard.
I don't believe life is a chessboard.
But I do believe God's something.
And I do believe God sometimes moves us
in certain directions.
He puts us sometimes in tight squeezes.
He puts us sometimes in what we like
to refer to a predicament or a pickle.
He puts us in hard times.
He presses the vices down on us so
we can get content with the fact that,
hey, God's never made a mistake.
He knows exactly what He's doing and He's
not going to lead me astray one single
bit.
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart and lean not
into thine own understanding and all thy ways.
Acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.
I tell you, I read the disciples sometimes
and read about the disciples in Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John and I think to myself,
Lord, how in the world did You use
a bunch of those backward, illogical, redneck hillbillies
ever in Your ministry?
And then I wake up and look in
the mirror and I say, oh, that's exactly
how You did it.
Amen?
But nonetheless, I'll be honest with you.
You think of the disciples sometimes.
I mean, Jesus came to them.
He had been preaching in Mark 4.
Don't turn to everybody, but in Mark 4,
all day long, He had been preaching in
Capernaum.
I mean, here He was preaching, the Bible
says, teaching the parables of the kingdom.
He was raising the sick.
He was causing the blind to see, causing
the deaf to hear, causing the dumb to
speak, casting out devils all day long.
And nowhere does it ever say that He
stopped for a piece of KFC, Kentucky Fried
Chicken.
It doesn't say that.
He never stopped for any lemonade, never stopped
for any bread.
Now, I'm sure in His humanity, He was
tired and He was hungry.
The Bible says that finally, close to the
break of the day or the ending of
the day, He got in a ship and
it says specifically there were other little ships
with Him.
He cast out a little bit and here's
what He told His disciples.
He said, get in the boat.
We're going to the other side.
Now, if that is hard language to be
understood, if you can't understand get in the
boat, we're going to the other side.
Would you please put your hand high in
the air?
Okay, I didn't think anybody was in here
that would raise their hand.
He specifically said, bold letters, get in the
boat, we're going to the other side.
Did they get in the boat?
Oh, yeah, we'll commend them for that.
Now, He didn't say anything about what would
happen when they got in the boat before
they got to the other side.
Did He not?
He just said, get in the boat, we're
going.
So they got in the boat.
Jesus, in His humanity, was tired, no doubt.
Been preaching, teaching, healing, doing all these things
all day long.
People have been thronging Him.
I believe that would tire me out.
The Bible says He's in the hinder part,
the back part of a ship, and He's
asleep on a pillow.
And all of a sudden, boy, that thing
gets to be tossed around like a toothpick
in a bathtub and you talk about discouraging
it.
You talk about getting upset.
You talk about getting to the place where
they thought all hope was gone as they
did in Acts chapter number 27.
These fellows thought they were, well, now I'm
fixing to be dead.
I mean the swells was coming up.
Boom!
Inside the boat, the lightning was crashing and
the thunder was rolling.
It sounded like a glorified bowling alley.
Everybody was getting all spooked and getting all
scared.
They didn't know what to do and the
wind was blowing like some kind of wild
coyote on the backside of a desert.
And then they got so scared they ran
in there and they began to knock on
the door and they banged on the door
and they said, Jesus, get off the pillow.
Tear us down, not that we perish.
The Bible says that Jesus just stood up.
It doesn't say He said anything at this
point.
He just stood up, walked out there and
said, Peace be still.
The Bible says that the winds and the
waves ceased from their raging.
Now that perplexed them a little bit.
They scratched their chins, they looked at one
another and they said, What manner of man
is this that even the very winds and
the waves obeyed His wishes?
And the chapter ends there.
But you know what Mark chapter 5 and
verse number 1 says?
And when they came to the other side,
in the midst of the storm, into the
country of the Gadarenes.
And I'll tell you, I know a lot
of God's people who just need to get
content with the fact that God's in control,
quit running their mouth, bickering, trying to do
all the two and two and all this,
that and the other and they just need
to get in the boat.
He didn't say that it was going to
be always easy.
He didn't say it was going to always
be simple and there was never going to
be swells and never be storms.
We are promised hard times in the Word
of God and don't you ever let some
liberal preacher tell you otherwise.
But they are seasons.
You know spring and summer and fall and
winter.
They come and they go.
Winter likes to stick around a little bit
up here but none the less they come
and they go and seasons are here for
a while and seasons leave.
And God said, you will go through these
seasons of trials.
You will go through these temptations.
You will go through these hard times.
But yet God tells us in 1 Corinthians
10, 13 that He will make a way
of escape.
We've got to get to the place where
we are content enough to say, God, I
know You're in control.
You have not most of me, not part
of me, but all of me.
I'm going to get off the shore.
I'm going to get in the boat.
And I'm going to be content with the
fact that You are in control.
You know exactly what You're doing.
And Job said, He is of one mind
and who can turn Him.
Now look in your Bibles if you would
please at verse number 15.
Verse number 15, Job then says, Therefore am
I troubled at His presence, when I consider
I am afraid of Him.
Let me say quickly, fourthly, that Job was
consecrated to the fear of God.
He was committed to keep doing right.
He was confident that God's Word was true
and God's Word was faithful.
He was content with the fact that God
was in control.
But yet now we see he was consecrated
to the fear of God.
What Job said is not something you would
hear most Baptists saying in most churches nowadays.
I mean in church, in school, wherever it
is.
You know what Job just said?
He said, I considered His presence if you
will.
I mused, the psalmist used that word many,
many times, mused to think about.
He says, Listen, I thought about how big
God is, Job said.
I thought about how majestic God is and
how righteous He is upon His throne.
He said, When I thought about the goodness
of God, when I thought about the eternal
existence and the presence of God, He said,
I am afraid.
You know the Bible says in Proverbs chapter
1 verse number 7, The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools
despise wisdom and instruction.
I'm going to be honest with you, America
is filled with a lot of fools that
don't fear God.
Now when He says, I am afraid of
Him, I don't think that means He's cowering
down in a corner because He didn't read
His devotions and God's going to blow His
brains out with a lightning bolt.
That's not what He's saying.
I believe when He says, I am afraid
of Him, He says, Listen, I have seen,
I have sensed the great majesty of God,
the great power of God.
I've seen what God is trying to do
in my life and though I may not
understand it, and though He hides Himself from
me and it seems like I just can't
find Him and it seems like the vice
grip is getting tighter and tighter.
He says, the more I think about the
bigness of God and the more I think
about this huge plan, He said, it's not
just some little small thing that God is
doing.
He's got a big, huge plan in mind.
He said, the more I think about this,
I get such an overwhelming fear and reverence
of who God is.
And I tell you, America lacks a reverence
for God.
America lacks a fear for God.
You know what the fear of God is?
It's real simple.
The fear of God is simply this, a
proper respect for the holiness of God that
makes me hate doing wrong and love doing
right.
Let me give it to you again.
I see some of you are writing.
A proper respect for the holiness of God
that makes me hate doing wrong and love
doing right.
And Job said, I am consecrated to the
fear of God.
He looks at his critics who, mind you,
are telling him that he's in open, vile
sin.
He looks at his critics and he's sitting
there and they are looking at him and
for chapter, after chapter, after chapter, they have
ridiculed him.
They have stripped him of all of his
self-righteousness and they keep on shooting the
gospel gun, if you will, and they say,
Job, you've got sin in your life.
And Job looks at him and says, listen,
fellas, I'm committed.
I'm going to keep on doing right.
I don't have any sin in my life.
And he said, I'm going to tell you
why I don't have any sin in my
life.
He says, because I've got such a reverential
fear of who God is.
And I've got such a respect and such
a passion for God's holiness.
He said, it makes me want to hate
doing wrong.
It makes me want to love doing right.
And I want to remind you, Greg didn't
say it about Job.
God did three times.
He eschewed evil.
It means to reject, to put away, to
throw out, to reject, to completely annihilate.
No, he was not perfect in the sense
that he was sinless.
But he was perfect in the sense that
he was mature and wanted to sin less.
And here was a man who said, I
am afraid of Him.
It scares me to death to think that
I would displease a holy, righteous God.
And he was consecrated to God's fear.
But there's one more thing I must show
you before we close.
It's in verse 12.
It's in verse 16.
And we also back up to verse 10.
But look in verse 16.
He said, For God maketh my heart soft.
Isn't that interesting?
He said, listen, through all of this, God's
just kind of softened me up.
You know, God's got a way of humbling
you.
I mean, God has got a way of
humbling you like nobody else can humble you.
There's been times in my ministry when God's
had to bring me real low.
There's been times in my life when God's
had to humble me.
When He has to just kind of squeeze
on the old sponge of the heart, if
you will, until the tear juice runs out
of your eyeballs.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, Job
said, after all of this, I see that
God's working on me.
I see that God's squeezing on me.
I've had a hard heart towards the things
of God and He says He's making it
soft.
But here's the real reason.
Look in verse 10 if you would please.
But He knoweth.
What is the but there?
What's the contrast?
Why did He put it there?
I just want to remind you.
He said, when I go to the left,
He's not there.
When I go to the right, He's not
there.
North, south, east and west.
I can't find Him with a pack of
bloodhounds.
God, where are You?
Verse 10.
But He knoweth the way that I take.
When He hath tried me, Job says, I
shall come forth as gold.
What do you do when you can't find
God?
Lastly, He was comforted by the fact that
God was cleansing Him.
He was comforted in all of His trials,
in all of His afflictions by realizing, hey,
God's not doing this because He's some heavenly
overgrown bully in heaven that wants to beat
me over the head and make me submit.
He said, the reason He's doing this is
so He can put me in those refining
fires that we heard about.
So He can burn off the dross.
So He can burn away the impurities and
the imperfections and the unholiness and the unrighteousness
and the bitter, cantankerous attitudes.
He said, the reason He has me here
is so He can cleanse me.
And I'm telling you, sometimes we get so
mad and we throw up our hands and
we say, God, where are You?
Where are You when I need You most?
And I'll tell you where He is.
Many times, He's stoking the fire.
He's putting another log on.
He's letting the flame get a little bigger
and a little more intense.
A little more smoke because He knows there's
some impurities that must be burned off.
I'll tell you something, you won't go to
Africa tonight and dig up a nice-looking
diamond.
You'll go to Africa tonight and you'll dig
up a rock.
And you'll knock a piece here.
You'll knock a piece here.
You'll blow a piece here.
You'll torture a piece here.
And then you'll get to the place where
you have a beautiful work of art that
is worth millions.
But you don't make a diamond overnight.
It takes pressure.
It takes softening.
It takes knocking and a little bit of
hardness away.
Last week before I came here, I was
in an eight-day revival meeting at the
Parkview Baptist Church of Ardmore, Alabama.
I've been there many, many times and we're
scheduled pretty much to be there every year
around the same time, the week just before
I come here until Jesus comes.
A dear pastor friend of mine has been
there for, I guess, 25 or 26 years.
It's just a small church.
I suppose on Sunday morning, on a good
day, they'll run about 35 people.
But nonetheless, I've preached there many times and
I was preaching and the pastor had me
every day.
We had the Sunday through Sunday meetings and
from Sunday to Sunday, we had 23 Bible
preaching, gospel preaching services from Sunday to Sunday.
So to say the least, I was a
little bit tired.
But I remember they had me on the
radio every day, live, 4 o'clock, boo
-boo-boo-boo, preaching every day.
They had me in the services, had three,
four, five services every Sunday.
I was going to different Christian schools in
the area when I was there.
And I mean, they were just working me
and working me, but I enjoyed it.
I certainly did.
God knows my heart.
I love to preach.
But he came to me on Wednesday, I
suppose it was, and he said, tomorrow being
Thursday, he said, I want to take you
to the nursing home.
It's kind of a nursing care facility.
It's not really a nursing home per se,
but it's where a lot of crippled people
are.
Well, a lot of elderly are as well
who just can't take care of themselves.
He said, there's a gentleman I want you
to meet.
I remember meeting him about two years ago.
I cannot remember his name.
I apologize for that.
But nonetheless, he said, I'd like to visit
this guy.
He had led him to Christ in that
bed.
In 1989, he had a terrible, terrible tractor
trailer accident.
Flipped his motor in several times and now
he's a quadriplegic.
He can't move from his neck down.
He just lays in the bed.
He's got a little tube that comes around,
wraps to about right here.
And when he needs to get where the
saliva has so built up in his mouth,
this little tube is right there by his
face and he'll just completely fill that thing
up with spittle.
And I don't mean to be gruesome or
anything, but I mean, he lays there in
that bed and that's the way he is
all the time.
He's got a Bible laying right beside him.
He's got a great big radio laying there
and the whole stack of the Alexander Scorby
Genesis 1-1 through Revelation 22-21 Bible.
And he's been listening to that Bible when
he's got this little TV and had it
on when we walked in and had a
little ball game, a little NFL game going
on.
He was just watching, but he can't turn
his head.
He can just turn his eyes like this.
And they told me that after he got
saved that they put him on this big
swing board and they put him in an
ambulance because his desire was to be baptized.
And they thought, how are you going to
be baptized?
And he said, well, there's a will, there's
a way.
And they took him down to the Baptist
church and they realized, hey, the Baptist church
is not going to be big enough and
so they took him across town to one
of their member swimming pools.
And this man was on a swing board
and Brother Gary, he wanted to be so
faithful to his Lord and be obedient that
they took this man.
They had two on this side, two on
this side, one man on his head, one
man on his feet and they dunked this
man down in a three foot swimming pool,
pulled him back up and they said when
they pulled him up a couple of years
ago, he said, amen, when they pulled him
out of the water he can't move from
his neck down.
So I went and visited.
You ever been to visit somebody and go
to encourage them and when you leave you
feel like you've been encouraged?
I mean, you go visit some elderly person
that's known God all their life and I
mean, they've got God all over them and
you can just see it when you walk
in the room.
And you walk in and you think, whew,
I'm going to be an encouragement to this
dear old lady and you walk out and
you feel about that big because she knew
more about the Bible than you know in
your fingernail.
And I mean, she completely just encouraged you
all over.
Well, I was away with this man.
I remember I walked in and began to
talk to him and the pastor said, won't
you pray with him?
And I prayed with him.
Read a couple of verses from the Bible
and I'll never forget what he said.
We got ready to leave and he's a
very emotional man, very emotional to be around
him.
It's hard to be around somebody like that
without big tears welling up in your eyes.
If you can keep from crying from being
around somebody like that then you need your
heart softened by the vice grip of God
for sure.
These big old tears were swelling up out
of his eyes.
His roommate just passed away just a couple
of days before and he's in there all
by himself, no nurses.
So we'd been in there about 15 minutes
by this time big old tears welling up
in his eyes and he had us turn
the TV off and he told us when
we leave that he wants to turn on
one of them tapes so he could listen
to the Bible on tape before he'd go
to sleep.
And he'd go and keep on doing that
as the saliva would fill up and filter
down through his throat couldn't hardly breathe and
here's what he said, I'll never forget it.
Big old tears welling up in his eyes
and he said, Brother Greg, he said, I
don't think I'll ever know why I had
a truck wreck in 1989.
He leaned his head up just a little
bit and that thing shook it out of
his mouth.
He said, but I'll be honest with you,
if I could just lead one person to
Jesus Christ laying in this bed, all the
pain from all the years would be worth
it.
And I remember I walked out of that
place and I thought to myself, God pity
me.
When I complain and get mad and frustrated
and bitter when some little trial of affliction,
when the fiery trial which is to try
you does come.
And here's a man that has been a
quadriplegic has not moved the limbs of his
body since 1989.
And he said, every bit of the trial,
every bit of the pain, every bit of
the affliction would be worthwhile.
If laying in this bed as a quadriplegic
never to move again, I can lead one
person to Jesus Christ.
Now friend, that's a scriptural attitude in the
midst of trials.
What do you do when you can't find
it?