The Revival Hour, all the children 3 years
old up through the 4th grade can be
dismissed at this time.
Good group of them tonight.
Praise the Lord for all of the little
children that'll be going tonight.
While they're finding their place, you find yours
if you would please, in the book of
Job chapter number 1.
The Old Testament Bible just before the book
of Psalms, the book of Job chapter number
1.
So good to see you tonight.
Thank you so much for being here on
this Tuesday night of our Revival Meeting or
Evangelistic Crusade.
Thank you so much for being here this
week, and I hope that you'll do your
dead-level best to not only come for
the rest of the week through Friday night,
as Pastor said, but also that you'll do
your best to try to bring somebody with
you, co-worker, family, friend, or neighbor.
There will be a couple of nights this
week, and more than likely on Friday night
I'll be preaching a gospel-oriented message, not
just for God's people, but also for all
people.
So I hope that you'll do your best
to get someone under the sound of the
gospel or the preaching of the Word of
God, that the Spirit of God could arrest
their attention and convict their hearts of their
utter desperate need of Jesus Christ.
The book of Job chapter 1.
Let's all stand, please, out of respect for
God's Word.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I've struggled greatly today with that which the
Lord wanted me to preach.
I've been just praying and seeking the Lord,
and I had some new messages that I
thought maybe that I'd preach a little bit
more, as I did last night through the
week.
But it seems like the Lord has just
directed me back to the book of Job.
And just a little while ago, Brother Robertson
was talking to me about the Psalms and
asking me if I knew.
And I said, well, I know I'm going
to be preaching to God's people tonight.
And I had a different sermon in mind
then, from Matthew chapter verse 6.
But then when I got up and sang
a moment ago, I felt like the Lord
just directed my heart and has moved me
to preach in the book of Job chapter
1.
Would you look at verse number 1, please?
We're only going to use one verse for
our text, because we're going to have a
lot of Scripture in the book of Job
tonight.
Job chapter 1, verse number 1.
The Bible says, There was a man in
the land of Uz whose name was Job.
And that man was perfect and upright, one
that feared God and eschewed evil.
Tonight, I want to bring you a simple
message entitled, When Things Aren't Good, God Still
Is.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and ask
the Lord to bless our time together, shall
we?
Father, I pray that you would help me
tonight as I preach.
And Lord, I pray that you would help
these dear people in this congregation before me
as they listen.
And Lord, I just feel that you would
have me to be an encouragement tonight.
And Lord, no doubt, perhaps there's people here
that are burdened down with troubles and concerns,
hardships, and the cares of this life and
this world.
Father, I pray tonight that the Spirit of
God would comfort in areas that need comforting
and convict in areas that need conviction.
And Lord, use the testimony and the example
of a man by the name of Job
in our hearts and lives tonight, that we
may realize that no matter what we go
through, no matter what type of fiery trials
that we have in the Christian life, or
certainly we'll have them, I pray that we'll
realize that when we come out on the
other side, that you were always with us,
that you never left us, you never forsook
us.
And Father, you were always good to us
and you did everything for our benefit and
for our best and for thy glory.
Now, I pray tonight that you would help
me now as I preach this message, you
would help these people as they listen.
Also be with my wife and those that
help her in the children's meetings, in Jesus'
name, amen.
If you know anything about your Bible, especially
your Old Testament, you're going to find out
that there was a man that was pre
-flood and pre-law, the oldest book in
your Bible, although not the first book in
your Bible, obviously the oldest one ever written,
was the book of Job.
And here in the book of Job, we
have a man who did not just have
merely problems.
He did not just merely have some unexpected
circumstances in his life.
He had the bottom fall out of both
ends of his boat.
I was listening to an old black fellow
preach on the radio not long ago, and
he was kind of one of those sing
-song guys, and they can say it so
beautifully.
And I mean, they can just get up
and have a text, and I mean, they
can just preach circles around myself.
And I was just enamored with what this
guy was preaching about.
And he was talking about Matthew chapter number
7 and Matthew chapter number 10, and he
was preaching about the judgment seat of Christ.
And he said, ladies and gentlemen, one day
when we stand before God and we hear
those wonderful words, well done, thou good and
faithful servant, he said, you can know one
thing for sure, you will be well done.
And I thought to myself, friends, you know,
we're going to have trials, we're going to
have hardships, and we're going to have troubles
and heartaches and persecutions.
And the Bible says that we are supposed
to suffer not as a lost person, but
to suffer as a Christian.
Even Peter said himself that those times will
come, those trying times, and those times that
God is working in our heart and working
in our family and working in our life.
And we think that it's terrible, and we
think that there's no light at the end
of the tunnel, but God said there are
just seasons that are coming and that are
going to pass away.
And here in the book of Job, here
was a man that had some struggles, but
he remained before the struggles, during the struggles,
and after the struggles.
He remained true and faithful and devoted to
Almighty God.
There are three things about the life of
Job I want you to see tonight.
Number one, I want you to see what
I call Job's approval.
Job's approval.
It's given for us three different times.
Look at Job chapter 1 and verse number
1, would you please?
Job's approval.
The Bible says there was a man in
the land of Uz.
Now, how'd you like to live in a
town like Uz, all right?
Uz was what I consider a poking plum
town.
You poke your head around the corner, you're
plumb out of town, all right?
So it's a little bitty place, all right?
There was a man in the land of
Uz whose name was Job, and that man
was perfect and upright, one that feared God
and eschewed evil.
Chapter 1, verse number 8, please.
The Bible says, Chapter
number 2 and verse number 3, please.
Job chapter 2 and verse 3.
So I'm not going to approve and applaud
Mr. Job tonight.
I'm going to let God do that.
He said several things about Job in his
approval.
Would you look again at verse number 1
and see what he says?
He says, Now, the word perfect here has
the idea of spiritually mature, not the fact
that he was sinlessly perfect.
Now, until you and I die and go
to heaven and kick up glory dust on
the streets of God, we're going to struggle
with our flesh.
We are going to struggle with our minds.
We are going to struggle with the world.
We are going to struggle with the temptations,
if you will, of the devil.
And so it is not referring to the
fact that he was perfect and that he
did not sin or he never did wrong.
He struggled with his flesh just as much
as any believer in this room tonight.
But it has the idea that he was
mature.
He was complete in his faith.
He did not fall all to pieces when
bad things came.
He did not fall all to pieces when
he had financial instability.
He did not fall all to pieces when
it seemed like that God was removing everything
away from him.
And God said one thing I appreciate about
Job is that he is perfect, he is
spiritually mature in his faith.
But he goes on and says something else.
Not only was that man perfect, it also
uses the word and upright.
The word upright is an interesting Old Testament
word.
I don't know a whole lot about being
a doctor or nurse or anything like that,
but my mother is a chiropractor.
And if there is anything I do not
like going to, it is the chiropractor.
That Dr. Minstrom fellow, he lays me down.
My mom's boss, he lays me down.
He says, now Greg, this is not going
to hurt.
All right, that is a lie because it
hurts every time.
And he lays me down.
He grabs my neck and he says, I
want you to be very, very limp.
It is hard to be very, very limp
when you got this big, huge doctor's hands
on your head.
And you know he is getting ready to
crack your neck to the left and crack
your neck to the right.
And so here I am laying the best
that I can.
But every time I come out of that
place, man, it hurts while I am there.
But man, when I come out, I feel
better and I feel what they call adjusted,
whatever that means.
All right, so here is the same picture.
Here is a picture of somebody that has
some back trouble.
Somebody that has some backache and then they
get it fixed and they stand erect or
they stand upright.
For lack of a better terminology, basically God
is saying this.
Job kept his nose clean.
He was not only a good Christian in
the house of God, he was a good
Christian on the job as well.
He was a good Christian at the post
office.
He was a good Christian at the Harvey
grocery store.
He was a good Christian everywhere that he
went.
He paid his bills on time.
He showed up at work on time.
He was faithful to the house of God.
He was faithful to his wife.
He spent time with his children.
And he was a man that was upright.
He lived above reproach.
He was a peculiar man, not imperfect in
the fact that he was sinless, but he
was mature and he was upright.
He did things right for the glory of
God and God commended him for it.
Now, I think that would be a wonderful
approval.
I would love for God to be able
to say, Gregor DeWayne Locke, you are mature
in your faith.
You are complete in your faith.
You don't fall all to pieces about things.
And young man, you are upright and you
do things right and you do things not
slipshod and half-hearted, but you live for
God with your whole heart.
I'd love to hear God say that.
You know what, I'm sure Job was excited
that God was saying these things about him,
but it even got better than that.
Look what the Bible says.
There was a man in the land of
Oz whose name was Job and that man
was perfect and upright and one that feared
God.
Boy, there's a lost art in the day
and age in which we live in America.
The Bible says in Proverbs 1, verse number
7, that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom
and instruction.
And might I just say, and it won't
take you very long to figure out, there's
a lot of foolish people in America and
a lot of foolish people in our churches
that don't fear Almighty God.
Now, I'm going to tell you a definition
that God gave me one morning in my
devotions.
It's nothing spectacular.
It's nothing grandiose.
And you'll probably hear it and say, whoopee
-dee, but it means something to me, alright?
I'm going to give it to you two
times so you make sure you get it.
Sometimes we have the idea that the fear
of God is towering down in a corner.
Now, I didn't read my Bible and God's
going to blow my brains out with some
type of heavenly, sovereign, lightning bolt.
That is not the fear of God.
That is Christian stupidity.
The fear of God is nothing more than
this.
A proper respect for the holiness of God
that makes me love doing right and hate
doing wrong.
A proper respect for the holiness of God
that makes me love doing right and hate
doing wrong.
Now, how do we know that it worked
that way in the life of Job?
Look at the end of the verse, would
you?
It says, "...one that feared God and eschewed."
The word eschewed has the idea to reject,
to despise, to rebel against, or to put
away evil.
Because he feared God, he hated wickedness.
Because he loved God, he hated his sin.
And that which bothered God, that which hurt
God, and that which grieved the heart of
God, bothered, hurt, and grieved the heart of
Job as well.
So he feared God, and that is Job's
approval.
But that is not going to be the
crux of my message tonight.
I want you to look, if you would,
please, at Job chapter number 1 and verse
number 13, where I begin to show you
tonight what also I call Job's affliction.
Old Job had an approval.
Old God commended him and said, Job, you're
doing some wonderful things.
And he even told the devil two times,
listen, there is no servant under God's heaven
like unto Job.
He said he's devoted.
He said he's different.
He said he is a dynamic servant of
God.
But even Job had some hard times.
Look at verse number 13 of Job chapter
number 1, through what the Bible says.
And there was a day when his sons
and his daughters were eating and drinking wine
in their eldest brother's house.
And there came a message unto Job and
said the oxen were plowing and the asses
feeding beside them.
And the Saviour fell upon them and took
them away.
Yea, they have slain thy servants with the
edge of the sword, and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also
another and said the fire of God is
falling from heaven.
And it burned up the sheep and the
servants and consumed them.
And I only am escaped alone to tell
thee, verse 17.
While he was yet speaking, third time that
phrase is used, there came also another and
said the Chaldeans made out three bands and
fell upon the camels and have carried them
away, yea, and slain the servants with the
edge of the sword.
And I only am escaped alone to tell
thee.
And we'll pick up in verse number 18
in just a moment.
So number one, Job's approval.
Number two, Job's affliction.
The first thing that Job was afflicted in,
first and foremost, was his finances.
Here was a man that if you study
your Bible, you will find out he was
the most well-prospered man in all of
the city at this time.
For that matter, he was probably the most
well-prospered man on the face of God's
earth.
And here was a man that had crops.
I mean, he was one of these fellas,
if you give him a rock, a stick,
and ten-ten fertilizer, he could grow anything,
anytime, anywhere.
This was a man that had a green
thumb.
And he had corn.
I mean, he had riches.
And I mean, he had what we call
maters and taters.
And I mean, he had the green beans.
And he had the peas.
And I mean, he had it all.
And you talk about a watermelon patch.
Here was a man that had all types
of fruits and vegetables.
I mean, here was a man that made
money on livestock and on everything you can
imagine.
I mean, here was a frugal man.
Here was a man that had a lot
of money, more money than any person in
the whole region.
And in five minutes' time, three messengers knock
on his door.
And it's hard to tell you, big boy,
every bit of it's gone.
The bank account's dry.
Your checking account's dry.
Your saving accounts are dry.
Everything that you had in the stocks and
bonds is gone and crashed.
The cows are dead.
The donkeys are dead.
The dogs, the cats, everything that you have.
The fire of God's fallen from heaven.
And every single crop that you had that
was making you some money and allowing you
to live and to eat and to breathe,
it's all gone.
Every single bit of it.
And in five minutes, three messengers told Job,
You've lost all your money.
But you know what I respect about Job?
He didn't get all mad and bitter and
start bellyaching and say, God, I'm going to
tell you something right now.
I can't believe that you allowed the fire
of God to fall out of heaven.
I can't believe that you would do this
to me and put me in such financial
straits.
And here I am.
I've been able to take care of my
wife and take care of my sons and
my daughters.
And now we're all going to starve to
death.
It's going to take me a whole other
year to get those crops to grow again.
And Lord, what do you expect me to
do?
I don't have any money to buy back
the horses and the cows and all the
things that you brought up.
He never did that.
He had something in his mind and in
his heart that was bigger and better than
his problem.
He knew, the Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
You see, he had the idea that I
believe a lot of Baptists need.
That we don't own anything anyhow.
And everything that we have is owned long
from Almighty God.
He owns everything and I own nothing whatsoever.
And my Bible tells me that He even
owns a cattle and a thousand hills and
the wealth in every mine.
And here was a man that knew that.
And he did not get mad and bitter
and bellyache and complain.
He just simply realized, God is going to
have to meet my every need.
Now, you are not going to be saved
very long before you realize that yes, even
God's people have financial troubles.
I don't care what Benny Hinn and Peter
Popoff and Dan Stewart and the rest of
those crooks on TV get up and they
say, Oh, I'll tell you what, you send
me a hundred dollars and God will send
you ten thousand.
And you send me this and God will
send you that.
And God never wants you to be sick.
And oh, by the way, if you're sick,
you're not right with God.
And if you don't have all your bills
paid, you're not right with God.
And if you don't have hundreds of dollars
in the bank and hundreds of dollars in
your pocket, you are not right with God.
And they must have overstepped or just completely
tore the book of Job out of their
Bible.
Because here was a man that was right
with God.
He was honoring God.
He was faithful to his wife.
He loved his children.
He was doing everything possibly he could to
serve God or else God would not have
said he was.
But he still had financial instability.
And God took all of his money away
just to show the devil and to show
you and I what kind of character Job
really had.
His character was not in his pocketbook.
His character was not in his wallet.
His character was in his heart between him
and Almighty God.
You know, it's interesting to me, you know,
God meets everybody's needs.
But it's interesting to me, as my wife
and I travel around the country, it is
unique to see how God meets individual needs.
Now, I could preach all night.
I'm not going to, but I could preach
all night how God met our needs when
it's Bible college.
I mean, when you're married, you're in Bible
college, you don't have nothing.
I mean, I could have sat sometimes on
a dime and dangled both legs.
I mean, low to the ground, friend, nothing
whatsoever.
And so you don't have a whole lot.
And I could tell you a bunch of
stories how God took care of us.
I'm going to tell you one story about
how God took care of us one month
before we purchased our truck and travel trailer,
just a little over a year, year and
a half ago, how long it's been now.
But just before we purchased that, we had
a green minivan, an Astro van that we
drove around in for a year and a
half, two years.
And we were getting started in evangelism.
And we drove that thing everywhere.
I about drove the wheels off of it.
I mean, 100,000 miles on that thing,
175, whatever it was when I finally got
rid of it.
But we drove and drove and drove.
And I remember we got to the place,
Pastor, when we knew we were going to
have to get another vehicle.
And I knew if I kept driving mine,
it's not going to be worth a whole
lot on a trade-in or anything like
that.
I mean, the thing's already just completely depreciated.
I got so many miles on it, who's
going to want the thing now?
And so I sold it to my stepfather.
Now, to make a long story short, I
mean, it's a long story and I'm not
going to deal with it.
They gave us a little beige-looking, call
it wine-colored type of a Ford, a
Sable, whatever that thing is.
It's a little long station wagon, looked like
a spaceship, you know, but it was a
cool-looking thing.
Had leather interior, had heat and air, AM,
FM, cassette and CD.
I mean, this thing was loaded up and
it was the same year as my minivan.
But I didn't care about a newer year.
I just wanted something that had a lot
less miles on it.
And I think it had like 15 or
20,000 miles less than mine.
So I said, hey, I think I'll take
it.
He said, listen, it won't cost you a
dime.
No money will be exchanged.
And we went to this dealer and he
knew my stepfather real well.
So he said, Joe, listen, he said, I'm
going to give Greg this thing as an
even...
You don't expect that kind of stuff sometimes,
all right?
So here we are.
As a matter of fact, Brother Ben Eckbrad's
here tonight.
He's the only one that could come from
Fairmont, who was here last night.
But I was on my way to their
church to start a nine-day revival meeting.
We were going to go Sunday through Sunday,
and then the following Monday, which was a
Memorial Day or something like that, was going
to have a big patriotic rally.
And we did.
Had a wonderful meeting.
But I called up Brother Eckbrad and I
said, I want to tell you something.
I said, I'm in Sellersburg, Indiana.
He said, where's that?
I said, exactly.
I said, it's a tiny little place that
I've never heard of and I've never been
in my life.
It's outside Louisville, Kentucky.
And if you blink two times, you're out
of the city.
I'm sorry.
It was a tiny place.
I mean, there was nobody to help me.
I've never preached in Sellersburg, Indiana.
I've never preached in Louisville, Kentucky.
And I've still never preached in either one
since this took place.
And so here we were.
We break down on the side of the
road.
And my wife, when the smoke starts coming
up, you know, and when the thing won't
start and start making all these noise and
start slipping back and forth, my wife just
said two simple little words, uh-oh.
And I thought to myself, uh-oh, Greg.
And so I pull off the side of
the road.
I flip up the hood and I just
pretend like I'm a mechanic trying to try
to impress my wife.
You know, hey, honey, try to turn that
thing over.
You know, I'm up rolling up my sleeves.
Here I am.
I'm messing with wires.
I don't know what a spark plug for
my gas can is.
And so I'm in here looking around, you
know, hey, try to turn that thing over.
And she thinks, you don't know what you're
doing.
I said, you're right.
All right.
Swallow my pride.
Burst my head open.
Okay, let's go take this thing to somebody
that does.
And so we got it started.
I don't know how we got it started,
but we got it started enough to get
up an exit ramp and to pull off
at this little store.
And I went in there and I said,
listen, I need somebody to tell me.
I said, it's Saturday night.
And I said, it's Friday night.
I said, I don't matter to me if
it's Friday night or not.
He said, it's going to be hard to
get somebody to tell you.
And if you do, it's going to cost
you a lot of money.
I said, well, my father will take care
of that.
He said, your father around?
I said, no, he's real close by.
He'll take care of it.
And so I went in there and I
said, listen, I called this guy and I
said, listen, I have got to.
I have got to have you told me.
He said, if you want me to tell
you, he said, not only is it going
to cost the regular fee.
He said, it's Friday night and I'm off.
And here it was like 637 o'clock
at night.
He said, I've been off for a couple
of hours.
He said, it's going to cost you mega
bucks.
He said, you do not want me to
come.
I said, you're probably right.
I don't.
So I hung up the phone and I
got down and I said, Lord, what in
the world am I going to do?
Me and my wife and I started praying.
I called my mom and I said, mom,
you're not going to believe this.
I said, but that car y'all just
traded with me.
The transmission just fell out of the bar.
Oh boy, what are we going to do?
What are we going to do?
I said, that's why I called and asked
you, what are we going to do?
What are we going to do?
I said, I got to be 15 hours
away from here to start a revival meeting
on Sunday morning.
And I said, I've got to be there
somehow.
And so we found this little hotel place.
We had a little bit of cash left,
$65, something like that.
And I said, honey, we're just going to
stay the night.
And so we took the last cash that
we had.
We pulled this little Hampton Inn or whatever
it was, this little Daisy Inn.
There was nothing in this town.
Now, there was this little Daisy Inn.
There was a little store that we pulled
in, tried to get told, didn't do any
good.
I didn't see any churches.
I didn't see anything around.
And there was a Kentucky fried chicken and
a pizza hut.
And the town was so small, they were
in the same building, okay?
This is the gospel truth.
And so here I am, thinking to myself,
what are we going to do?
And so we pull in there.
I take the last $65, whatever it is.
I got to get the room, you know?
And so I give them the money.
And I say, listen, I need to use
a phone call.
Is there anywhere I can get a phone
card, you know?
They gave me this real cheap phone card
and they were real nice to me, you
know?
So all my cash is gone.
Have no cash in my pocket.
I've got a long ways to drive the
next day.
And I don't know what in the world
I'm going to do.
Well, I call up my mother.
She gets ahold of the guy that made
the Eve and Stephen trade.
And they said, exactly, where are you?
I said, I'm in the middle of nowhere.
I don't know if I can explain to
you how to get here.
They looked it up on a map and
they said, we'll bring you your van back.
We'll rip up the agreement.
And you can have your van back.
We'll tow the car back.
No questions asked, even Stephen.
So I said, man, praise the Lord for
that.
Well, as they were coming, it took them
till probably 3.30 or 4 o'clock
in the afternoon to get there.
And so here we were.
We're waiting.
We're twirling our thumbs.
We're starving to death.
I mean, we don't have anything to eat.
We have no cash.
And I'm thinking to myself, there is no
way in the world that I'm going to
walk all the way four or five miles
down to that crazy bridge and walk all
the way into Louisville, Kentucky to get myself
something to eat.
I said, I'll starve to death or be
a cannibal before I do that.
I said, that's a long way, honey.
And so she said, well, why don't you
go on over to their Pizza Hut or
their Kentucky Fried Chicken and see if they
take the little debit card, you know, the
little Visa deal.
And so I said, well, that's a novel
idea.
They probably want fast food.
Man, we walked in there.
Sure enough, they took it.
So I thought, man, this is wonderful.
And so we sit down.
Here we are.
Can I remind you?
In the middle of nowhere.
Never preached there in my life.
Don't know anybody from Adam's house.
Can't we sit down?
We start praying.
We're eating this little Kentucky Fried Chicken buffet
and I'm having something to drink.
And I say, honey, what would you get
me something else to drink?
She stands up and she walks over to
get something to drink.
And I look out across this little auditorium,
whatever you call it, this little lobby that
I'm sitting in.
I had myself something to eat.
And there's this little elderly lady and she's
sitting down in a chair and she's staring
holes through my wife.
I mean, just staring.
And I'm thinking to myself, man, this woman's
got a complex.
She's going to kill my wife.
She's going to rob my wife.
She's going to get no money, but she's
going to rob my wife.
She's going to do something.
I mean, she's looking at, I mean, she's
just staring holes in my wife.
And all of a sudden, I see her
stand up.
And man, my heart started beating so hard,
I thought people would see it coming out
of my chest, you know.
All of a sudden, my shirt start moving.
This woman starts saying, she starts walking towards
my wife.
And I'm thinking, what's going on?
So I've stood up by this time.
I start walking over there.
That woman taps my wife on her shoulder.
She turns around there, eyeball to eyeball.
And that elderly lady looks at her and
says, are you Miss Locke?
And she said, what?
And she said, are you Miss Locke?
And she said, well, yes, I am.
And I walked over there.
And at that time, I didn't know who
in the wide world they were.
We've been in their church since this took
place.
And I found out their name was a
Morrison.
But anyhow, I'm looking at this old lady.
And then this elderly man comes up and
he shakes my hand.
Hey, brother Locke, good to see you.
And I hate it when people know me
and I don't know them.
All right.
I knew their face, but I didn't know
their name.
And so I said, hey, brother, how are
you doing?
Good to see you.
And so we're trying to fill out the
situation.
Hey, how far do you live?
I'm trying to figure out when I was
in their church and where it was.
And it was a good few hours away
from there.
It was in Bean Blossom, Indiana, at the
Bean Blossom Baptist Church.
Pastor James Brown.
That's got two strikes against him.
All right.
And so here I was.
I was trying to figure out when I'd
preach to these people, where these people were
at.
And so they said, hey, what are you
doing here?
And I said, well, it's interesting you ask.
I said we wouldn't be here.
I said we'd be in Fairmont, Minnesota if
we wouldn't broke down and blah, blah, blah.
And he said, well, God bless you.
And he left.
We sat down.
We kept on eating.
I don't know, probably five, six, ten minutes
passed.
All of a sudden, this fella came running
back in.
He said, brother, I'm going to give you
something.
Handed me something in my hand, and he
walked out.
While he was there, I stuck it in
my pocket.
You know, I'm spiritual.
I didn't look at it right in front
of me or anything like that.
You know, so I stuck it in my
front pocket.
He goes walking out, and I reach in
my pocket.
You know, and I'm thinking, man, what is
this?
You know, five dollar bill, something.
And I was excited for anything at that
time, you know.
And so I pulled it out, and I
began to flip through it.
Sixty-five dollars in cash.
Can I remind you, I was in the
middle of nowhere.
I didn't know anybody.
I'd never preached within two and a half
to three hours of anybody in any church
around that area.
Whatsoever.
And here I am, broken down.
What's the chances that I'm going to meet
some dear elderly couple that I met at
the Bean Blossom Baptist Church?
And they're going to have sixty-five dollars
to give me.
Guess what?
They brought our vehicle, got there at four
o'clock.
We drove all night long.
I got to Fairmont, Minnesota at 635 in
the morning, and we had Sunday school at
915.
I had time to put on a suit,
catch a quick little nap, and jump up
and preach.
And man, I was dog tired for the
next two or three days.
But you know what?
Thirty miles.
Did you hear me?
Thirty miles from Fairmont, Minnesota.
I put the last five dollars of gasoline
that that elderly gentleman gave me in the
gas tank to get me where I was
going.
It cost me exactly sixty-five dollars to
get to the Fairmont Baptist Church of Fairmont,
Minnesota and have our revival.
Hey, friend, that's not happenstance.
That's not coincidence.
That's providence.
That's Almighty God.
And the next time you have some financial
straits, the next time you get to the
place where you think you're unable to pay
your bills.
Hey, they're God's bills.
Let him pay them anyhow.
He said he'd take care of you if
you ever need.
He said that the Bible has said in
Philippians chapter four, verse number 19, my God
shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
And so I get the bills, man.
I get the truck bill.
I get the trailer bill.
I get all the insurance bills and all
these kind of bills.
I just spread them out before the Lord.
I said, Lord, I told you there's coming.
Here they are.
You have to take care of them.
And God meets our needs.
And he's never one time let us down.
Here was a man that had nothing, but
he still praised God.
Now, it seems like maybe the story would
have stopped there and God would have gave
him everything back.
But God doesn't give him everything back to
the very end of the book.
I want you to look if you would
now, please, at verse number 18.
Something else happens in his life or it
gets worse.
It doesn't get better for a long time.
It gets worse.
Bible says in verse number 18, while he
was yet speaking, that's the fourth time that
phrase is used.
If I dove, I'd quit answering the door
because, you know, it's going to be bad
news.
While he was yet speaking, there came also
another and said, my sons and my daughters
were eating and drinking wine.
And their eldest brother's house.
And behold, there came a great wind from
the wilderness and smoked the four corners of
the house.
And it fell upon the young man and
they are dead.
And I only am escaped alone to tell
thee.
Then Job arose and ran his mantle and
shaved his head and fell down upon the
ground and worshiped and said, naked came I
out of my mother's womb and naked shall
I return.
This is the Lord gave and the Lord
has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Verse 22.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged
God foolishly.
Number one, he was afflicted in his finances,
but now secondly, he's been afflicted in his
family.
The very dawning apple of his eyes, his
boys and his girls are eating and drinking
wine in their eldest brother's house.
And the Bible says that an east wind
comes.
It blows the house over.
It blows the walls over and the bricks
and the mortar and the draw wall fall
upon his little children, fall upon his boys
and his girls.
And a servant comes just after telling him
that he's lost everything financially, that he has
no stability.
The bottoms fell out.
Then somebody else knocked on the door and
gives him some more good news, if you
will.
Guess what, Job?
Your sons and your daughters were eating, drinking,
having themselves a jolly time.
And now they're four o'clock in the
morning.
I will say Job sat down, sat clothed
in ashes, shaved his head like a Marine
and said, naked, I came into this world
and naked shall I return there.
And the Bible says in all this Job
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
You know, we're not promised all the time
that it's going to be a bed of
roses in the Christian life.
More than likely, you have or you will
be standing before the cabinet of somebody that
you love very dearly.
Perhaps it's a husband.
Perhaps it's a wife.
Perhaps it's a child.
Perhaps it's a little baby.
Perhaps it's a grown up child.
Perhaps it's a grandparent.
I don't know.
Perhaps it was a dear friend.
But no doubt death is the inevitable.
And it doesn't care how old somebody is.
It doesn't care if somebody's lost.
It doesn't care if somebody's saved.
It doesn't care if they were in church
or out of church.
When death comes knocking for him, he grabs
a hold of a person and he takes
them down and they die.
And no doubt one day you'll stand before
somebody in a casket that you dearly love
and you'll look into their face and you'll
think to yourself that you are excited that
you are a friend of them.
You help them or you love them or
you will regret that you were such a
vagabond, such a mean person, such a mean
spirited, bitter person to that type of a
person that's laying there dead.
But no doubt you will meet people that
you love very dearly that die.
There will be times in your Christian life
when your heart gets broken too.
There will be times in your Christian life
when it feels like that you just can't
go any further and you think to yourself,
God, why?
Why in the world are you putting me
through this?
I remember for two years I was the
staff evangelist for the Somerville Baptist Church in
Somerville, Alabama.
I remember when I first went there, you
know, I was just recently out of Bible
college and we was booking some Sunday meetings
and we had a couple of week meetings
our first year.
You know, man, we was all excited.
And they let me come down the church
as an assistant when I didn't have meetings.
I'd be home kind of assistant pastor and
fill the pulpit.
My pastor, Brother Royce Teague, he's about 35
years old, but he can't see out of
one eye.
I completely can't see out of one eye.
And the other one he can barely see
out of it.
He's a wonderful golfer.
How he does it, I can't figure it
out, but he can barely see and he
can't drive.
He's not driven since he was a wee
little guy when he was about 17 years
old.
He had a wreck and that was it.
He ain't driven since.
And so his assistant has to drive him
everywhere that he goes.
And so I'd always take him on his
visits.
I'd always take him here.
They would do a hospital visit.
I'd take him to all the funerals.
He'd preach at funerals.
I'd take him all over the place.
And as an evangelist, I appreciate that couple
of years because, man, it really showed me
a lot of things about the ministry that
a lot of evangelists don't get to see
on the inside of a local church.
And so I was there and I remember
one morning, about 5 30 in the morning,
the telephone rang.
And I dragged out and I picked up
the phone.
I said, hello.
And he said, Greg, this is Brother Royce.
He said, I know it's early.
He said, you got to come pick me
up.
He said, get some coffee, whatever.
He said, I'm going to shower real quick.
He said, get your suit on.
He said, we've got a little baby in
the hospital and we don't think he's going
to make it.
There was a family there by the name
of the Goreys and they had a little
baby or they were going to have a
baby.
And we knew there were going to be
some great, great complications.
They didn't know if the baby would be
born, stillborn, or if it would be retarded.
They didn't know.
They didn't have any idea.
But they said, there's going to be some
great complications.
And here he is calling in 5 30
in the morning.
And he said, these complications have been proven.
You're going to have to get here quick.
I pick him up, man.
We rush down there.
We're praying all the way, dear God, please
save this little baby.
Please help this little baby's life.
Please help these parents.
Man, these were some godly people.
I mean, these were some people that loved
God.
He was a song leader in a fundamental
Baptist church.
Man, she could play the piano, the organ.
He could play the violin.
They could sing and he could preach.
I mean, just a wonderful godly couple that
loved God.
And I remember we pulled in there and
Pastor Michaels, I remember we walked in and
you've had many a visit like this, I'm
sure.
And I remember we walked in here with
some of the family.
They were in one of these like waiting
rooms, but it was a little bit different
of a waiting room because when the mother
was out of the surgery, they had to
take the baby by a cesarean section.
When the mother was out of surgery, they
would wheel her in there and have all
the hookups right there in the waiting room.
So it was a larger type of a
room.
And we were all standing around.
We was all sitting around and all of
a sudden they wheeled her in and she
was still under the anesthesia.
And she didn't have any idea what was
going on.
She was still sleeping.
So we're sitting around and the father walks
in.
He comes over and he sits down and
he's holding this little baby in his arms.
And he's got this little baby.
He's got a little towel wrapped around her
head, you know.
He's just rocking her back and forth like
this and everybody's just kind of looking.
And I'm thinking to myself, well, glory to
God.
I mean, praise be to the Lamb.
This little baby lived.
We've been praying this baby would make it.
And now the baby's okay and the baby's
alive and there's no problem whatsoever.
There wasn't really that many complications, although it
was a C-section.
And here he is over there.
He's just holding that little baby.
And I remember Brother Royce walked over there
and put his hands on top of that
fellow's shoulders.
And I'll never forget that guy looked at
Brother Royce and he said, you want to
hold her?
And immediately, obviously, when somebody says, hey, do
you want to hold her?
What's going to be your response?
No, I don't want to hold your baby.
Of course, he said, yes.
Here's people that are more faithful than most
of the people that I preach to in
a lot of churches.
Here's people that are tithers.
They are givers.
They are goers.
They are prayers.
Here's a man that can preach.
Here's a man that can sing.
Here's a girl that can sing and play
the piano and play the organ and play
all these things.
Lord, why in the world would you let
something so despicable happen to these people?
And all day long, I'll be honest with
you, I had the pooch mouth disease.
You know, I'm walking around with my lips
hanging out.
You know, if I just stepped too much,
I'd walk all over my teeth.
You know, here I am looking around.
I'm all mad at God for what he's
done.
Why in the world do you do this
to these people?
I remember I went to the funeral a
couple of days later and I've never in
my life seen a casket as small as
the one that they placed that little...
I mean, just a little bitty tiny white
casket.
Didn't even have a big funeral.
Just had a little graveside.
And I remember Brother Royce got down there
and he started crying and he started preaching.
He started preaching about that day of resurrection
when the bodies would come out of the
grave.
And man, everybody got to crying and people
were amening.
But when that happened, it was on a
Wednesday morning.
That Wednesday night, I was closing a revival
meeting at my home church, Somerville, Alabama.
They had just tore down the old auditorium
that they had for years and they put
up a new auditorium.
And I was preaching the opening dedication revival
from Sunday school, Sunday morning through Wednesday night
for their new building.
And that Wednesday night, I had absolutely no
idea what I was going to preach.
The only pastor I got in the study
and I began to pray and I began
to go over some things.
And I thought I was going to preach
that week, maybe that night on revival or
something like that.
Some sinful issues that I thought needed to
be dealt with.
And it just seemed like the Lord just
kept driving me to the book of Job.
Driving me to the book of Job.
And that night I got up and I
preached the message that I'm preaching to you
right now.
Just kind of off the cuff.
Just kind of built it as I was
preaching.
And then I went home and kind of
wrote the outline down a little bit later.
But I'll never forget, I was in my
study that day and I was praying over
the message.
And man, I was still a little bit
grieved and bitter in my heart.
And I kept thinking to myself, God, why
in the world did you do something to
these people like this?
And I just couldn't understand why that would
take place.
And all of a sudden, it came just
an overwhelming experience.
You've had them, I'm sure, if you've been
saved any amount of time.
Oh, I'm not talking about God came down
and sat down right beside me.
We talked face to face over coffee.
I'm not talking about God just audibly spoke
to me out of heaven.
That didn't happen.
God speaks through one place and that's through
his word.
And that's the only place that he speaks.
But it was one of those times when
you almost thought he did.
And I'll never forget inside my heart, Pastor
Joe, I just knew for sure that the
Holy Spirit of God convicted me and said,
Son, you don't have any business asking me
why.
I'm sovereign.
I know the end from the beginning, the
beginning from the end.
I've never made a mistake.
I made man 6,000 years ago and
I haven't had to make a recall yet.
And you have no right to ask the
sovereign God of heaven, why?
Because I'm in complete control.
And I changed my attitude that day.
And I'm no longer in trial.
Say, God, why?
But I believe the scriptural thing that we
should say as God's people is, God, what
are you trying to show me?
What are you trying to remove from me?
What are you trying to do?
What is it that you want me to
do?
What are you showing me?
Not God.
Why are you doing this to me?
Because God's in control and we, as little
peon, finite people, have no right to shake
our little fist in the face of a
holy God and say, God, what are you
doing?
He knows exactly what he's doing, whether you
do or whether I do or not.
God is in control.
I want you to look back in your
Bibles, if you would, please, because all of
a sudden from heaven, did you hear me?
From heaven, another blow comes to the life
of Job.
Job chapter number 2, if you would please,
and verse number 4.
Job chapter number 2 and verse number 4.
The Bible says, and Satan answered the Lord.
Here's Satan standing before God.
He's saying, listen, there's nobody that loves you.
There's nobody that's going to live for you.
And Satan answered the Lord and said, skin
for skin, all that a man hath only
give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now and touch
his bone and his flesh and he will
curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto him, said unto
Satan, behold, he is in thine hand, but
save his life.
Verse number 7.
So went Satan forth from the presence of
the Lord and smoked Job with sore boils
from the sole of his foot into his
crown.
And he took him a puncher to scrape
himself of all.
And he sat down among the ashes.
Then said his wife, his own wife.
Then said his wife unto him, dost thou
still retain that integrity?
Curse God and die.
But he said unto her, thou speakest as
one of the foolish women.
He said, listen, you speak like a lost
woman.
What shall we receive good at the hand
of God and shall we not receive evil?
And all this did not Job sin with
his lips.
Number one, he was afflicting his finances.
Number two, he was afflicting his family.
But now number three, he's been afflicting his
flesh.
The devil comes to God and he says,
OK, God, you got me on the first
two.
He still serves you when he lost his
finances, his money.
He still serves you when he lost his
family.
But you let me touch his body.
Hey, every man loves his body.
Every man loves himself.
You let me come down there and touch
his skin and touch his bone.
And I guarantee you, God, he'll spit in
your face.
He'll curse thee to your face, the devil
said.
I'm glad God knew Job well enough and
knew Job's character well enough to let the
devil go ahead and have his heyday in
the life and the body of Job.
The Bible says he came down and he
smoked Job with sore boils from the bottom
of his feet to the top of his
head.
And excuse me, ladies, for being gruesome, but
here was a man that sat down and
he broke some dishes.
He broke some clay.
He broke your best china ware, if you
will.
And he took that china and he scraped
those oozing, pussing, scabbing, nasty sores all over
his body from the bottom of his feet
to the top of his head.
I mean, no pain.
He lays down, he's in pain.
He stands up, he's in pain.
He doesn't eat, he's in pain.
He does eat, he's in pain.
Everything Job did, he was in continual pain
day and night, day and night from all
these boils that were on his body.
But the Bible says for the second time
that he still did not sin and charge
God in the matter foolishly.
Hey, let me tell you how bad he
looked.
Let me tell you how bad the situation
was.
His own wife came to him and said,
Job, I believe you've had just about enough,
son.
Why don't you just give up?
Why don't you just give in?
And why don't you, big boy, just curse
God and die?
Modern day terminology, she basically said, why don't
you look at yourself, honey?
Look at yourself in the mirror.
Look what a man you have become.
Look at all these problems we've got.
No kids, no money.
You're about to die from this terrible disease
that you've got all over your body.
She said, why don't you just curse God
and die and give the whole thing up?
And you know what he said?
He said, you speak like a foolish woman.
He said, you speak like a lost woman.
He said, you mean to tell me that
God's going to be so good to us
and when a few trials and heartaches come,
you mean to tell me that you're going
to get mad and bellyache and bicker against
God and blame God?
He said, this is not God's fault and
he did not charge God foolishly.
This portion of Scripture, at least this part
of this portion of Scripture about his flesh,
was revealed to me, and if you'll pardon
me again, it happened also at the Fairmont
Baptist Church the first year I was there.
We've been there for two revival meetings already.
The first year I was there, we started
the meeting on a Monday night and we
went through a Sunday night.
I was at the Temple Baptist Church of
Manchester, Tennessee on Sunday, did everything I could
to get away, but I just couldn't do
it, so I did that Sunday there.
On Monday, my wife and I went to
the airport.
We flew in, they took us to the
Mall of America.
I couldn't stand it.
My wife thought it was the wonderful thing
in all the world.
And so they took us there.
We stayed for a couple of hours.
They bought us some Chinese food, made me
happy.
I had some noodles, you know.
And so then we got in the vehicle
and they took us back.
We started the meeting and I mean, we
were having a wonderful time.
I mean, teenagers were coming, people were getting
saved, people were getting right.
The crowds seemed to be doing well.
The church there in Grenada, Calvary Baptist, was
coming out and bringing their young people and
bringing their families, you know.
I mean, we were just having just a
go-at-it meeting, like seven takes, man.
People were getting right, people were getting saved.
The crowds were going, people were singing.
Man, it was wonderful.
We was having a time.
On Friday night, I'll never forget, I preached
on Luke 16, 23.
And in hell, he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment.
And said, Abraham, I fall off.
And Lazarus in his bosom.
And I preached on the torments of hell
for about 35, 40 minutes.
I knew that there was a young lady
who was going to be coming to that
service, a little five-year-old black girl
in a wheelchair.
Her body was all emaciated up.
She's had a surgery since then, made it
somewhat better.
But her name was Anastasia.
The reason I knew of, I did not
know her yet.
But the reason I knew of her is
because Ms. Eglant is a nurse, worked with
her several times.
And another dear lady in the church was
also one of her home health care nurses.
And we had a dinner with him at
Perkins.
And they said, please pray.
Our mother's a Lutheran, doesn't want her to
come to a Baptist church.
But please pray that this little girl will
be able to come to the service on
Friday night.
So we prayed fervently that that little girl
would get to come.
And so I preached.
The people that were here last night from
Sheldon, Iowa, they weren't there at the meeting.
But their pastor, Pastor Marcus Moffitt from Calvary
Baptist, came that night.
And we went downstairs for a time of
fellowship.
Now, that don't mean you talk when you're
Baptist.
That means when you go have fellowship, you
go downstairs, you have some food.
Amen?
So we went downstairs and we were eating
food.
We were drinking coffee and we were doing
some talking.
And Brother Moffitt said, hey, you got your
calendar?
I pulled out my calendar and we were
scheduled a meeting for when I was going
to be there this past January.
And I was oblivious to everything that was
going on.
I wasn't paying any attention to anybody.
I was talking to him and I was
talking to Pastor Rex Black.
You know, sometimes out of just kind of
the side of your eye, kind of your
peripheral vision or whatever you call that stuff,
you can kind of just see somebody coming,
but you just don't pay any mind.
I knew who it was because I'd previously
talked about her and seen a picture of
her, but I'd never met her.
She had came in later in the service,
Anastasia, that is, the little girl.
She had came in later in the service
and went ahead.
Her mother came in and sat in the
back, but she went ahead and slipped downstairs.
They took her downstairs into my wife's Children's
Revival Hour where her and Miss Amy are
right now.
And so here I was up for preaching,
had myself just a good time.
Man, people getting right, people getting saved.
I'm sitting down there talking to some preachers.
I'm drinking some coffee.
All of a sudden, out of the side
of my eye, I see this little girl
went up in the wheelchair.
And she gets closer and closer and closer.
So finally, I turn around and she comes.
I mean, she has never met me in
her life.
And she comes right up to me and
she takes it in the wheelchair.
Wham!
Just kind of knocks my legs out.
And I turn around.
Oh, and oh, I made a big deal
out of it.
Oh, honey, thank you for coming.
And I knew her name, but I pretend
like I didn't.
You know, I asked her what her name
was and she just kind of nodded her
head.
You know, she kind of told me.
I didn't realize that she couldn't talk real
well at that time.
Now, that's what they hadn't told me.
I wasn't expecting that.
And so here she was.
She had these little green leaves pressed on
fingernail things.
You know, these girls like, you know, this
kind of hanging off.
Boy, I made a big to do about.
Oh, honey, those are the prettiest fingernails I've
ever seen.
My wife loves fingernails like that, you know.
Oh, that's pretty green.
That matches your pretty eyes.
I'm just trying to be as sweet as
I could.
I want her to know that we loved
her.
We were so excited that she was there.
What she did not have in a body,
buddy, she had in the brain.
I mean, I'm talking about an intellectual, smart
little five-year-old.
And I'll never forget what she did.
I was making a big to do, thanking
her so much for coming.
And she took her little hand.
Her body was all contorted up.
Her hands all emaciated.
You know, and I'm not making fun of
her.
It's exactly what she said.
I'll never forget it.
She took her little hand and she put
on that little thing.
You know, boy, she could drive that thing
everywhere.
I'm just do circles and all kind of
stuff.
She pushed that little button.
She kind of scooted back three or four
feet so she could see me real good.
She was up real close to me at
this time.
And she kind of scooted back so she
could see me real good.
And just looked right up at me.
And I'll never forget what she did.
She had one of them little shoestring things
tied around her neck.
And it was tied to one of them
little white voice box.
I didn't see it at first.
And she kind of pulled her collar down
a little bit.
And she took her little finger, little five
-year-old crooked emaciated finger.
And she put it over that little thing
right there over her throat.
And it's exactly what she said.
I'll never forget it.
She said, Brother Greg, God really spoke to
me.
And I said, Brother Greg, I appreciate you
coming to my heart tonight.
I appreciate you letting me come to the
church service.
And I'm going to tell you something, friend.
By the time that little black girl got
through talking, God had been speaking to somebody
else in that service as well.
And it wasn't her.
It was me.
And I thought to myself, here I am.
I get all mad and blowed out and
frustrated when things don't go my way.
Oh, I get all mad and upset when
I get a bit of a fever.
Oh, and I come down with a little
bit of a cold so I can't get
up in the pulpit and preach the way
I want to so people can see me.
Oh, and I get mad when things go
wrong.
And I get mad when all these sicknesses
come.
Or maybe when our bills aren't being paid
the way that they should be.
Or when you have a $2,800 bill
when your clutch goes out and you're caught
in a ticking truck and you don't expect
that.
Oh, and I get mad about all these
things.
But can I remind you, friend, you might
as well quit your bellyaching because there's always
somebody that's got it worse than you.
And there's always somebody that's got it worse
than me.
And here was a young lady that was
all contorted up.
And all crooked and all just...
Her body was emaciated, but she was excited
to be in the house.
And here was a man that had some
terrible flesh problems, but it didn't keep him
from his service and his devotion to Almighty
God.
If that wasn't enough...
Hey, to be honest with you, I think
it should have been enough.
But if that wasn't enough...
Would you look back at chapter number 2
and verse 11?
Chapter number 2 and verse number 11 of
the book of Job.
And look what the Bible says.
Now, when Job's three friends heard of all
this evil that was come upon him, they
came every one from his own place.
Eliphaz the Timonite and Bildad the Shuhite and
Zophar the Naamathite.
For they had made an appointment together to
come to mourn with him and to comfort
him.
So their intentions were good.
Verse 12.
And when they lifted up their eyes afar
off and knew him not, they lifted up
their voice and wept.
And they rent everyone his mantle or his
clothes and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward
heaven.
So they sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none
spake a word unto him.
Why?
For they saw that his grief was great.
Actually, I want you to see tonight, friends,
at Grace Fabulous Church, that he was afflicted
in his friends.
Men that possibly, very possibly, that he knew
for a long time.
I'm talking about good friends.
His three friends, the Bible says, and another
one comes in a couple of chapters.
We can't deal with him.
But his three friends came.
Perhaps they went to high school together.
I mean, maybe they signed one another's annuals.
I don't know.
Maybe they were in vacation Bible school together.
You know what I'm getting at.
But they knew this man for some time.
And it surprised them when they saw him.
They saw his poverty.
They saw the death around him.
They saw his body.
They saw all the things that he was
going through.
And the Bible says when they lifted up
their eyes, then they lifted up their voices
and they wept and they rent their mantles
and they sat down.
Now, can I remind you, if you have
a family reunion or, man, if you have
a high school reunion or a college reunion,
and, man, you get with some people that
you used to love and you used to
admire and you used to love being around
and you get with them, man, you're going
to talk and you're going to fellowship and
you're going to eat and you're going to
enjoy the company of that friend.
But the Bible says for seven days and
seven nights everybody sat in a semicircle and
nobody opened their mouth.
That's how bad, that's how desperate, that's how
terrible this situation was.
And that's how bad the body of Job
looked.
They wept and nobody opened their mouth for
seven days.
But, oh, after seven days, those three big
boys thought they got real spiritual.
And they said, Job, you know, we've been
praying about this and we've been assessing the
situation.
And they said, Job, we think the reason
you got all these problems and troubles and
persecutions and hardships is because you got sin
in your life.
And for the next several chapters in the
Word of God you see these people jumping
on Job, biting Job and chewing on Job,
telling him he's got all these sins, all
these wickedness, all this immorality, telling him he's
unfaithful to God.
And they tell him all of these things
and his own friends, his buddies, turn around
and stab him right in the back.
You know, I've had to learn something the
hard way in the ministry.
I've had to learn something the hard way.
And I'm going to be honest with you.
There is a different calling between a pastor
and an evangelist.
There's a complete different calling.
There's a complete different mindset.
Let me tell you what I mean.
A lot of times it can be summed
up in this.
Somebody said it best, I guess, where they
said that an evangelist comes to town, he
blows in, he blows up, and he blows
out.
All right, that's not always true.
But you know what?
I'm going to be honest with you about
something.
These are men on the pastoral staff that
God has given a unique ability to sit
down across from you, look you in the
eyes, open a Bible, and counsel with you
about your problems.
To pray with you about your problems.
Oh, I do some praying, I do some
counseling.
But you know what?
These are men that God has put it
within their heart and designed them to be
more people-oriented than an evangelist.
A pastor sits down, let's see what the
problem is.
It's A, it's B, let's go to some
bursary.
Hey, you come back next week, we'll do
the same thing.
And you do it over and you do
it over and you do it over.
An evangelist sits down, he opens the Bible,
says, listen, this is what the Bible says,
get right with God and get over it.
That's what an evangelist does.
There's a difference between an evangelist and a
pastor.
A big, huge difference.
But I have learned this.
That people, to be honest with you, people
can be very, very harmful to you.
I don't see how pastors can go for
years and years and years and years with
all the stabbing in the back and all
the heartaches and all the Band-Aids and
all the bullets and all the blood and
all the things that...
I admire men like your pastor, as a
man of God that's been here for 28
years, I guess, that he's been here so
long and has went through all these heartaches
and all these struggles and all of these
trials.
But you know what?
I've learned that the people I've loved the
most in the ministry, people I've done my
best to help, friends that I've given money
to, friends that I've done things for, friends
that I would pick up at 2 or
3 o'clock in the morning when they
were in trouble.
I mean people I would do anything and
everything for.
You know, it seems like when things go
bad, they're the first ones to stick you
in the back.
And I'm gonna be honest with you, if
you don't think that hurts, you're not a
human, friend.
And here was a man that had 3
pals, 3 buddies, 3 guys that were his
friends, because the Bible says they were, and
they turned their backs against Job.
But I'm so glad to tell you that
if the whole world turns their back, if
you turn your back, if all my family
members turn their back, if everybody I've ever
met on the face of God's green earth
turns their back on me, I'm glad, dear
friend, I've got a friend that's sick of
closer than a brother.
I've got one that said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you.
He said, I'll be with you in the
lion's den when you've got those hungry ravenous
roaring lions.
He said, I'll be with you in Daniel
chapter 3 when the furnace has been heated
7 times hotter than it's ever been heated
before.
I'll be with you like Peter when I
pick you up and Peter said, Lord, save
me!
And I pick you up and put you
back in the bowl.
I'll be with you like the apostle Paul
in Acts chapter 27 and 28 when he
was a knight in the day in the
deep floating around on a piece of driftwood,
a piece of oak wood from some old
torn-up piece of bunk from some great
big hurricane that came through, floating around like
a toothpick in a bathtub.
He said, I'll be with you when your
back's bloody and raw as Acts chapter 16,
Paul in silence sang and prayed at midnight
and the prisoners heard him and Almighty God
heard him as well and shook that place.
And God said, listen, I'm going to be
with you.
I'm going to be with you in the
high times and the low times.
I'm going to be with you when you've
got money, when you don't have money.
I'm going to be with you when you
feel good, when you feel bad.
And God said, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee.
And I'm glad I've got a friend tonight
that's sicker closer than a brother.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
If I were Job and more than likely
if some of you were Job, I would
have thrown the towel in about right then.
I said, that's it.
I'm sick of it.
I'm tired of it.
And I'm going to be honest with you.
I would like to think in my mind
that I would have responded the way that
Job did, but knowing myself, to be honest
with you, I don't think I would have.
I think I would have got upset and
mad and bellyaching, but can I give you
lastly what I call this?
And it's one verse and we're through.
It's what I call Job's announcement.
Job had something to say about all this,
and I think very well he should have.
Chapter 13, verse number 15.
Would you look there, please?
Job chapter number 13, verse number 15.
We're through and we go to the house.
Job's approval, perfect, upright.
Feared God, issued, hated, rejected, or despised evil.
Job's affliction, afflicted in his finances, in his
family, in his flesh, and now in his
friends.
But I want to give you what I
call Job's announcement.
Let's see what Job had to say about
this.
Job chapter 13, verse number 15.
The Bible says, Though he, speaking of God,
slay me, speaking of Job.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him.
You can't always trust God, but you can
always trust God.
Look what he says.
But I will maintain mine own ways before
him.
You know what Job said?
Job said, if God kills me in this
whole ordeal, if I lose everything that I
got and I'm rock bottom and I'm on
my back and the only place I have
is to look up, he said, if God
kills me in this whole ordeal, he said,
I'm going to tell you one thing and
one thing only.
He said, I will maintain my ways before
him.
You know what that means?
Job said, no matter what takes place in
life, I'm just going to keep on doing
right.
I was doing right before these troubles and
trials came.
I was doing right when they were here
and when they're long gone, if they ever
leave, Job said, I'm still going to maintain
my ways before it.
I'm just going to keep on living right.
I'm going to keep my eyes on the
prize.
I'm going to keep loving my wife.
I'm going to keep reading my Bible.
I'm going to keep praying.
I'm going to keep going to the house
of God.
I'm going to keep on doing what I
was always doing before.
And because Job had that attitude, at the
end of his life, we're not going to
preach on it.
At the end of his life, God gave
him double everything that he ever lost in
chapters one and two.
I read a story not long ago, and
this brings our entire message to a conclusion.
I read a story not long ago, and
I guess it probably happened 15, 20 years
ago.
I don't know.
A true story could probably be repeated many,
many times, perhaps even in this room.
A little boy was standing by the graveside
of his mother, and his father was standing
there, big tears in his eyes, and he
didn't know how in the world he was
going to explain to the little boy that
here's this mother that's gone.
She's dead and she's with Jesus now.
That's about the only way he could explain
it.
He said, but son, don't let that bother
you.
I know you love mommy, but daddy's going
to be the best daddy he can be,
and we're going to go home and tonight
we'll order pizza and we'll start over.
He said, we'll stay up late and we'll
have ourselves a slumber party, just me and
you.
And he was doing his best to be
the daddy that he knew his son was
going to have to have now.
They went home that night, and he didn't
know much about cooking because his wife had
always done it.
He didn't know much about cleaning because his
wife had always done it.
He didn't know much about taking care of
all the ins and odds and outs of
having a little boy around the house because
his wife had always done it.
He realized for the first time how much
that his wife had really done around the
house.
He lay there that night, and they talked
for a little while, and they tossed and
turned a wee bit, and they talked there,
and finally the man turned out the little
lamp that was beside him, and he sung
his boy a lullaby, and they started to
go to sleep.
And in the darkness, after about five or
ten minutes, just complete dark in there, the
little boy said, Daddy, it sure is dark
in here.
Are you looking at me?
Are you looking this way?
You know how little boys are, just want
to make sure his daddy was looking at
him in the dark.
That was better than any night light he
could ever have.
And his daddy said, you can go to
bed, son.
I'm looking at you, Junior.
Just go to sleep.
All night long that man tossed and turned,
couldn't sleep.
First night he'd been away from his wife
for years and years, and now he's not
going to be reunited until he goes to
heaven.
And now she's dead and gone.
He wakes up in the middle of the
night, and he stands up, and he takes
his big feather pillow, and he sticks his
face in it, and he weeps and cries
like a baby.
He doesn't want to wake up his little
boy, and startle him, and ask him all
over again, why are you crying, and where's
mommy?
He don't want to start all that again,
so he'd just cry and cry and cry.
As the sun began to rise on the
eastern horizon, he got up and he stuck
his little flip-floppers on, his little shoes
on and on, and he got up, and
he walked over to the edge of the
window there, and he put his fingers in
the Venetian blinds, and he looked out across
the sunrise, and he said, God, he said,
no doubt this is one of the darkest
days of my life.
He said, are you looking this way?
And friend, I've got good news for you.
When it seems like there's no way out,
and it seems like you sit in a
service like this and hear a message like
this, and it seems like that it's just
you're coming down to your last rope, and
you don't know what you're going to do,
and it seems like that you don't know
how you're going to pay your bills, and
you don't know what you're going to do
with this sickness, and you don't know what
you're going to do with this child, you
don't know where God's leading you and why
God's doing this, and you're thinking to yourself,
what am I going to do next?
Can I please give you some wonderful, wonderful
encouragement tonight that God is looking your way,
and when things aren't good, God still is.
Your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed,
please.
There's no one looking, there's no one talking.
Your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed.
No one's looking, no one's talking.
Thank you for listening tonight.
Not exactly sure who's in the room tonight
that's having some heartaches, some persecutions and trials,
but I know God wanted me to preach
this message.
And so I hope tonight that this message
would have been just a little bit of
a help.
I'll tell you what our problem is many
times.
Many times we tell God that He can
have our burdens, but to be honest with
you, we don't normally, and we don't really
give our burdens to Him.
But I promise you something, friend, God can
do with your burdens what you and what
I cannot.
Maybe perhaps here tonight there's a teenager, there's
a man, a woman, perhaps a family, needs
to come and lay some things on the
altar tonight and say, God, you can have
it.
I'm not going to pick it up and
take it back to my seat.
I'm going to roll it off.
God, I'm going through some trials.
Maybe there's some people here, you don't know
how you're going to get out of the
fix that you're in, and I mean you're
going through some fiery trials right now.
Friend, I'm here to tell you, when things
aren't good in life, there'll never be a
time when God ever ceases to be good
to you.
He does everything for your good and for
His glory.
I want everyone standing, please.
There's no one looking, there's no one talking.
As Miss Robertson begins to play in just
a moment, Brother Doyle will begin to sing,
but before he does, let me just say
this, dear neighbor, if God, if God has
touched your heart tonight in this message, there's
some things that you need to pray about.
Oh, we didn't preach on sin tonight.
We preached on trials tonight.
And if you're a child of God, you're
either going to go in one, you are
in one, or you better hold on real
tight to this message because you're going to
be going in one real soon.
Oh, dear friend, if God speaks to your
heart tonight, if He's spoken to your heart,
as our brother begins to sing tonight, why
don't you lay those burdens down on the
altar?
Would you do that tonight?
Would you come?
Lay those burdens on the altar and let
God do with them what you cannot do
yourself.
Have I no way, Lord?
Have I no way?
God bless you, you are the runners that
need to come tonight.
Thou art our Father.
What about it for him?
Let's just be honest with God tonight.
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me.
After thy will.
While I am waiting.
Yield head and ear.
Perhaps tonight you're not going to a trial.
To be honest with you, I know everybody's
going to a trial.
Have I no way, Lord?
Have I no way?
Search me and find me.
Faster today.
Whiter than snow, Lord.
Wash me just now.
As in thy presence I
stand.