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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen, up to hymn number 406. Number 406. Who is on the Lord's side? Hymn number 406. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the king? Hymn number 406. Sing it out nice and strong. On that verse together now. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the king? Who will be his outburst? Other lives to bring. Who will leave the world's side? Who will face the foe? Who is on the Lord's side? Who for him will go? By thy call of mercy. By thy grace divine. We are on the Lord's side. Savior we are thine. Not for weight of glory. Not for crown and hall. Enter within. Enter with the army. Raise the warrior's song. But for love that's claiming. Lies for whom he died. In whom Jesus' name it must be on his side. By thy love constraining. By thy grace divine. We are on the Lord's side. Savior we are thine. Jesus thou hast bought us. Not with gold or tin. But with thine own life blood. For thy diadem. With thy blessings failing. Each who comes to thee. Thou hast made us willing. Thou hast made us free. By thy great redemption. By thy grace divine. We are on the Lord's side. We are on the Lord's side. Savior we are thine. Here's may be the conflict. Strong may be the foe. But the king's own army. None can overthrow. Drown his standard raging. Victory is secure. For his truth unchanging. Makes the triumph sure. Joyfully enlisting. By thy grace divine. We are on the Lord's side. Savior we are thine. Isn't that a good singing? Alright this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service times. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7. Normally we have our Bible study. This week we will be having a special guest preacher. Pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church in Anaheim, California. Is going to be preaching this Wednesday night. So even if you don't normally come on Wednesday nights. Make a point to come this Wednesday night. So that you can hear Pastor Mejia preach in person. And meet him. Shake his hand. And again that is this coming Wednesday night. Below that we've got the soul winning times listed below. As well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page we've got the birthdays and anniversaries for the month of April. This afternoon at 2 o'clock right here. We are going to be having the baby shower in honor of Shannon Betty. And so cake and punch will be provided. Please bring a dish to share. Don't be shy at all if you don't know Shannon Betty. Show up and get to know her. It's great to show up at these kind of events to make friends. So all teen girls and ladies are invited to that. On the back speaking of ladies and teen girls. We also have the mother daughter tea party coming up. There are two different options on this. One is on April 27th. One is on May 4th. So whichever of those works out the best for you. Be sure to RSVP and give a detailed RSVP about who's coming and how old they are and everything. So that we can accommodate everything with that. And follow the instructions there in that announcement. Again we already talked about Pastor Mejia coming this Wednesday. Other upcoming events. On April the 25th which is a Friday night. I'm going to be preaching in Seattle, Washington. I've never preached in Seattle. I've always loved Seattle. I've gone there a lot for work. But I've never actually preached there. But there is a church plant up there. Sure Foundation Baptist Church has a church plant up there. And the guy who preaches there on a regular basis. Brother Sean Conlon. Many of you know him because he went to our church for a while. And his wife is from Arizona. And speaking of Brother Sean Conlon. He just finished up a phenomenal missions trip. With Brother Daniel Reiter. And Brother Kenton Knowles. And Brother Kevin. So we just had an awesome trip there. They had over 300 salvations. They went to like six different countries. Just hitting all these different stops in the Caribbean. So they did a phenomenal job working really hard. Long days of soul winning. And so great work on that end. So that's Brother Sean Conlon. And he is now preaching on a weekly basis up in Seattle. So that's a great place for people to go to church if they live in that Seattle area. And I'm looking forward to going and preaching there on April the 25th. And then of course we have the KJV conference. Seemed like it was a really far out thing. But it's actually coming up because it's already happening in May. So you can make plans about that. And then. What's going on? About the bakery stuff? We're not there yet. Just slow down. Alright. Let me get there. I want to talk about Pastor Dylan Oz preaching. Okay. First on May 25th. Is that alright? From Anchor Baptist in Oklahoma. No, I'm just kidding. My wife just wanted me to announce that there are some leftover baked goods that she put over there. That are like a day old. And so from her bakery. So there's some of my wife's stuff over there. In case you didn't already, you know, carbo load with all the donuts and everything. Where there's some cookies and cheesecakes. Is that right? Oh sorry. Strudel. It's just strudel. Not cheesecake. Strudel me line. So. Yeah. So anyway. Be sure to carbo load over there after the service. And that's about it for announcements. Alright. Let's sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright. You should find the answer in front of your hymnal. With the hymn entitled Brighten the Corner. If you don't have an answer you can raise your hand. And we'll sing it out together on that first verse. Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do. Brighten the corner. Sing it out together now. Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do. Do not wait to shed the light of heart. To the many duties that were given now be true. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar. Brighten the corner where you are. Just above are clouded stars that you may help to clear. Let the narrow self your way depart. Though into one heart alone they call your song of cheer. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar. Brighten the corner where you are. Here for all your talent you may surely find a need. Here we flag the bright and morning star. Even from your humble hand the bread of life may feed. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Brighten the corner where you are. Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar. Brighten the corner where you are. Man, good singing everybody. Take your hymnals now and go to hymn number 244. Number 244, Amazing Grace. Hymn number 244. Let's sing this out together now. Number 244, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. Let's sing the wretch like me. 244. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Let's sing the wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. To me, how I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. Twas grace that brought me safe thus far. And grace will lead me home. And even there, ten thousand years, I'm shining as the sun. With low escapes to sing God's praise. And let me first be gone. Amen. Good singing this morning. All right, at this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Job chapter 1. Job chapter number 1, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Corbin Brock as he reads Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household. So that is, this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. And thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. 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 messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away. Yea, they have slain away. They have slain the 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 fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, 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. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Lord, we thank you for being in your house today. I just pray that you can fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit, and help us be attentive to the Lord today. I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, the book of Job here, starting out in chapter one, has always been one of my favorite books. When I was a teenager, and I was reading through the Bible, cover to cover, repeatedly, I remember I had a Bible reading plan, where I would be in several books at once, because I found that I read more Bible if I ended up reading what I wanted to read, or reading what I felt like reading. And so, instead of just being on some kind of a strict schedule that told me exactly what to read, I would have seven books going at a time. That way, I could pick from any of these seven books. And, you know, if I would feel like reading the four Gospels, reading the Epistles of Paul, something from Psalms, and whatever. But, the one thing that was always on that list was the book of Job. The book of Job was just on repeat for years. I would just read the book of Job literally every single day, because it's just one of my favorite books. I think it's a fascinating book. So, starting out here in chapter one, we have the opening scene here, just sort of setting the scene for the scenario that the whole book of Job is about. It starts out in verse number one. 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. Now, the importance of this verse is because later on throughout the book, Job is going to continually be accused of wrongdoing. He's going to be called a wicked person, and he's going to be criticized heavily. So, right away, the author is letting us know that these criticisms of Job are not going to be legitimate. The idea here is not that Job is sinless. Every single person is a sinner. The Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. The Bible says, There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Everyone is a sinner. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But the idea here, when it says that Job was perfect, the biblical usage of the word perfect does not mean sinless. It means complete. And the idea here is that this guy is the whole package. He's not just serving God in certain areas of his life, and then in other areas, he's really sinful or doing wrong. He has the whole package. You know, today, we would look at this as Christians in 2025 and say, Hey, this guy's not only reading his Bible, but he also attends church. He also prays. He's also living a clean life. You know, he's kind of checking the boxes, as it were, of living a good Christian life. And so he's a perfect and an upright man. He fears God, and he eschews evil, meaning he avoids evil. He turns away from or stays away from evil. So he does right, and he avoids doing wrong. He's just a great guy. In fact, later, God is even going to say that there's nobody else like him in the whole earth that fears God and eschews evil, meaning that he is literally the most righteous person living on earth at this time. He's the greatest Christian we could say. Obviously, anachronistically, we could say that he's the greatest Christian on the planet, right? The Bible says in verse 2, There were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. Which makes sense because the Bible talks about children being a blessing from God. And so this guy's kind of got everything going for him because not only does he have seven sons and three daughters, but verse 3, his substance also was 7,000 sheep. And it goes to catalog how he owns all these animals. And that is obviously a sign of wealth. Animals are expensive, and if he has this gigantic operation with just thousands and thousands of heads of livestock, then obviously he's extremely wealthy. Not only that, but his portfolio is diverse because it's not all in one type of animal or something like that because he's got 7,000 sheep, he's got 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, and a very great household. And then it says this at the end of verse 3, So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East and greatest in that context is referring to his financial prosperity, right? The Bible often used the word great to refer to someone who has a lot of money. And that's what this is saying. He has all of this cattle and no one else has more. So not only is he the most righteous man, but he's also doing extremely well financially. He's not the most rich man in the entire world, but he's the greatest of all the men of the East. So he's got quite an enterprise going here when it comes to wealth. It says in verse number 4, And by the way, before I get into this, I want to say this, that we know what's coming, spoiler alert, but he's going to end up losing all of his wealth. And this goes to show that no matter what position you're in financially, you may think that you're invincible and that you have your finances in such a way where you could never lose everything, but yet Job does lose everything. And the idea here is that if God wants to, God can take everything from you at any time, no matter how healthy you are, right? Like I preached on Wednesday night in that news article, the so-called healthiest man in the world is being destroyed right now, okay, because of his wickedness, because God can take down anybody anytime he wants to. In this case, it's a righteous man, Job, but it's the same thing for wicked people. God can snap his fingers and your wealth will evaporate. God can snap his fingers and your health is gone. God holds our destiny in his hands. No matter how great you are, you are not immune from God's judgment. The Bible says in verse 4, his sons went and feasted in their houses. Everyone is day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. So the idea here is that he has seven sons and three daughters and they each feast on their day because there are seven days in a week, right? So you got seven sons, seven days of the week. So it's like we're going to party at his house on Monday. We're partying at his house on Tuesday. We're partying at his house on Wednesday. And so each one, his day, they go feast in each of their houses and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So here we have the children enjoying the prosperity provided for them by dad. I mean dad's really wealthy and so he has provided for them. They're growing up and enjoying all this bounty to where they can just party for the whole week and just Monday we're at his house, Tuesday we're at his house and so forth. And then the three sisters are coming and partying and enjoying. And it says in verse five, it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and arose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. So not only is Job interested in keeping himself right with God and doing the right things for himself, he's also offering burnt sacrifices on behalf of his children. You know, he doesn't have to do that but he's just thinking about other people. He's just super afraid that maybe they offended God and he has so much bounty and abundance. He might as well just offer some extra burnt sacrifices just to cover them in case they're thinking something stupid in their heart. And obviously cursing God in your heart would be a pretty major sin and I don't think we see Job here just taking for granted, oh, because I'm a righteous guy, of course my kids are all going to be righteous too. No, there's still a possibility that they could have some wicked thought in their heart or be cursing God in their heart which is obviously a horrible thing to do. And so he's just offering burnt sacrifices like preventatively, prophylactically, right, offering burnt sacrifices. So this guy's going above and beyond in his service for God. And it says he did this continually. I mean, this isn't a one-time thing. There are other times when he worried, hey, what if my kids are wicked in their hearts? What if they're going the wrong way? Let me offer these sacrifices and just try to get God to be merciful unto them, right? That's what Job did continually. It says in verse 6, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. The Lord said unto Satan, when's comest thou? Now that means where did you come from? So Satan shows up and the Lord asks him, hey, where did you come from? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job that there's none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught? And of course Satan loves to ask questions, right? Instead of just coming right out and saying something wicked, he'll often start out by just phrasing it as a question, right? Because if we go back to the very beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden when Satan tempts Eve with the fruit, he asked this question, Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of all the trees of the garden? I mean, did God really say that? Are you sure? And then he's asking, you know, did he say that? And then he's like, well, you know, you're not surely going to die. He doesn't even say you're not going to die. He just says, like, you're not for sure going to die if you eat of the fruit. So the devil's kind of subtle in his little jabs and criticisms and temptations that he does. And so he just kind of puts this question out there. Well, is Job fearing God for nothing? Does Job serve God for naught? Is he doing this because it's the right thing to do? Is he doing this because he loves you, Lord? Or is he perhaps just doing it because you're blessing him so much? I mean, why not be thankful to God and serve God when things are going great? I mean, if things are going great for you, of course you're going to be thankful to God and serve God and praise God. Job's doing it for the wrong reason, according to Satan. Job is supposedly only serving God just like a quid pro quo. If I do this good thing, God's going to give me this good in return. And he's not really doing it out of love from the heart. Now, this is a stupid argument anyway because, frankly, if you're doing the right things and you're serving God, you're following God, you know what, I don't really care why you're doing it. If you're doing right, that's better than doing wrong. You know what I mean? Like different people could be motivated in different ways. Because what if somebody says, well, you know what, I love God and I'm serving God because I'm scared that if I don't, he's going to cloud up and rain on me. That's a pretty good reason to serve God. All throughout the Bible, the Bible admonishes you to serve God because if you don't, he's going to kick your butt. Right? And really, that's where serving God starts for most people. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. Obviously, we should graduate to a place where we're doing things more just out of love and we're moving more away from fear and more toward love. But there's nothing wrong with serving God because he said so and because you know if I serve God, I'm going to be blessed and if I don't serve God, I'm going to be cursed. If that were a bad reason to serve God, then why does God just spend chapter after chapter telling the children of Israel in the Mosaic law, these are the blessings that are going to happen if you serve me. And then these are the curses that are going to happen if you don't serve me. And then they come along and say, well, the only reason that they're serving you is because they want to get those blessings. Well, that's a pretty good reason. Well, I mean, they're just serving you because, you know, they don't want anything bad to happen. Yeah, you better know I don't want anything bad to happen, so I'm going to keep serving God. So this is a, in my opinion, this is a very foolish criticism from Satan. And so as we're reading the book of Job and we read the words of Satan, we want to remember this is Satan talking. So we don't want to take what he says too seriously. We want to understand all of the subtle things that he's trying to do here with his evil speech. He is a liar. He's the father of lies. And when he's speaking lies, you know, that's the most natural thing in the world for him to be doing. And so his criticism ends up, of course, not being legitimate because newsflash, the guy who's doing the right things because God's blessing him for it is also the same type of guy that's going to keep doing the right thing even when things go bad. Because guess what? Your average Christian, when things go really well for them, they actually get more backslidden. You know, so to sit there and say, oh, of course Job's serving you. Everything's going great for him. Well, that's funny because what I've seen a lot in my life is that when people have everything going good for them, that often makes them get backslidden and start thinking less about the things of God because they get all puffed up and high and mighty in themselves. Because just as easily, Job could have just looked at all his flocks and herds and said, you know what? I have so much wealth. I have so much gold. I'm untouchable. I'm indestructible. You know, I don't have to do all these sacrifices to God and stuff. You know, I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. I mean, what does the Bible say in Proverbs chapter 30? Give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or, lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. The Bible's saying here that when you get rich as a Christian, you could have a tendency to start thinking that you don't need God anymore. And then when you're poor, you could get a tendency of getting really bitter because you're just, you don't even have food to eat and you're struggling and you get mad and get upset at God. And so that's why the author of Proverbs 30 is asking for that middle way of neither poverty nor riches. But in this passage, this is what Satan has to say against Job. Notice that Satan is not actually bringing up some concrete sin in Job's life because there really isn't one. There isn't some big glaring sin for him to bring up. Again, not to say that he's sinless, but there's not some huge thing that Job's doing wrong. So he has to just come out with this weird accusation of, well, does Job fear God for not? Like, is he really doing it for nothing? I mean, you're rewarding him. Of course he's working. He's getting paid. Okay, what's wrong with that? Hast thou not made, verse 10, an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he has on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And of course, Satan is completely wrong about this because God's going to do just that. And what's Job going to do? He's going to keep on serving God, keep on praising God, and he's not going to break. So the devil is 100% wrong here. His argument is wrong. His accusation is wrong. His prediction is wrong. Everything he just said there ends up being wrong, okay, in his analysis. Now, keep your finger here in Job chapter 1 and go to Revelation chapter number 12. Revelation chapter number 12. I heard probably over the last week or so, I heard probably the dumbest, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, one of the dumbest doctrines that I've ever heard. And this doctrine is so weird that, like, I felt like it was almost like Mormon or Scientology levels of weirdness. But the gently led mister, you know, if you know, you know, he preached and said that this confrontation between the Lord and Satan in Job chapter 1 is not taking place in heaven, but that it's taking place on earth. And that there's just a place on earth where the Lord is physically there present on earth, and the sons of God, the saved Christians, are just coming and presenting themselves before the Lord, and that's where Satan shows up. I mean, it's got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And then he's explaining how, oh, even all the way back in the days of Cain and Abel, there was a tabernacle. You know, because remember, the tabernacle goes back to Moses and Mount Sinai, right? Moses, Mount Sinai, build the tabernacle, and so forth. He claims that, oh, no, the whole time there's a tabernacle, and that, you know, that's just when it gets kind of transferred over to Moses and Aaron. But it was already just always there. And that when Cain, you know, departed from the presence of the Lord and went east of Eden to dwell in the land of Nod, he was leaving like a, he was probably leaving like a physical tabernacle, where there was like a house of God, physical tabernacle. And this is because of his weird obsession with this stupid hole in the ground that they call Temple Zero, okay? Now, this is what this is, is that, you know, they claim that the Temple Mount is not the actual location for the temple, which it is the actual location for the temple, but they're claiming, no, no, no, it's this other place down south here in the city of David, and they dug up this really ancient Temple Zero, the Temple of Melchizedek. Now, last time I checked, reading my Bible, there's no mention of any Temple of Melchizedek. It's a bunch of made-up, nonsense, garbage doctrine that's not in the Bible, Temple Zero. And this is how they know it's Temple Zero. They have this archaeologist pointing at a hole in the wall and saying, this is where they had a metal ring here because they tied animals here. This is a hole in the wall. It's like, oh, this hole in the wall, tied animals here. And then there's just like a long line, there's just like a little channel in the floor that's like a rectangular channel, like few inches deep, few inches wide. And they're like, oh, this is the channel for all the blood to run out when they kill the animals, okay? And then there are like these Vs in the ground, and they're like, oh, this is where they set up tripods to skin animals. And then they have like a little round thing, and they say, oh, this is an olive press to press olives. And I'm thinking to myself like, okay, so you found this tiny little structure of a couple of rooms underground. You dug up a couple of rooms underground in Jerusalem, and what do we have here? We have an olive press, we got three tripod areas for skinning animals. We have supposedly a blood gutter and another place to tie up animals. It's all just like food prep related stuff. It could be a restaurant, for crying out loud. Do you understand what I'm saying? Hmm, I wonder where they skin animals, kill them, and make olive oil and all this stuff. It could be a restaurant, could be some kind of a food prep area, a kitchen, or even if it were a temple, which I don't believe for one second that it was any kind of temple. But let's say it was a temple. How about it could just be some pagan temple? Because didn't the Bible say that they were setting up their shrines to their false gods on every street corner in Jerusalem? And just constant idolatry, every street corner has a thing. And this is how archaeologists always are. They love to just tell stories. Hole in the wall? Oh, let me tell you exactly what that is. Little ditch in the ground? It could be anything. Oh, let me tell you what it is. Oh, look, they killed animals there. And this is what Breaux says also. He says, you know, oh, you must have an olive press in the house of God because, you know, you anoint the house of God with oil. And you cannot wait with olive oil. Olive oil must be used immediately. You cannot wait with olive oil. And this is why they have to have the olive press right there. Has this guy ever seen the inside of a kitchen? Because, you know, you ladies out there, you know that olive oil is pretty stinking shelf stable. I mean, back then and now, olive oil, yeah, eventually it will go rancid, but it could last for months and months and months. It's been a trade good throughout history, people selling big barrels of oil. He's acting like you just got to just smash the olives and just quick, quick, use it quick. You cannot wait with olive oil. Like he's just some kind of a Gordon Ramsay in there or something. Is that that guy's name? He's just like, you waited too long on this olive oil. You took 15 minutes. It had to be used in seven minutes. Like what is this? But again, it's just people just making things up. You cannot wait with olive oil. Interesting. No, bro's just trying to make a bunch of money because he dug up a restaurant and it's not that cool. So now it's got to be Melchizedek's temple. It's In-N-Out Burger. But because they have this weird obsession with this location, this temple zero, the true location of the temple, then it's like, I guess just literally everything in the Bible happened there. And so the gently led Mister said, you know, this place where Job 1 took place, where Satan and the Lord faced off, he said, I've been there. He said, I know this happened on earth because I've been there. I stood where Satan stood and confronted the Lord. This is madness because guess what? Everybody, I've never heard anyone teach this weird doctrine of just like continuous tabernacle from Adam and Eve to Moses. And, or this idea of just like, I guess, pre-incarnate Christ just being on earth for thousands of years continually. And Christians are, you know, are God's people just showing up and just presenting themselves. It's madness. But let's show some biblical proof that this actually took place in heaven. Besides just the obvious plain reading of Job 1, we actually have a clear example of this in Revelation Chapter 12. Look at Revelation Chapter 12. It says in verse number 7, Revelation 12, 7, it says, there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. So you have this war going on in heaven between Satan and his angels, right? The fallen angels, the one third of the angels that went with Satan versus Michael, the archangel, the good angel and his armies. And they're fighting and battling in heaven. And it says that the devil, the dragon, prevailed not, verse 8. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. So notice, they were located in heaven. The war is going on in heaven. But then when Satan is defeated, now his place is no more in heaven. And it says in verse 9, the great dragon was cast out. So he's cast out of heaven. That old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. So notice, the devil is up in heaven accusing the brethren before God day and night. So this thing where he comes and talks smack about Job and says, oh well, you know, Job is serving you but it's for the wrong reasons, right? Is that something that's taking place in heaven just with Job and no one else? Or is that something that Satan is doing to all of us all the time? Think about it. Because if the devil is in heaven and he's accusing the brethren before God day and night, then that means that this thing with Job is not an isolated incident where he says, oh, you know, well, Job is doing it for the wrong reasons. He's obviously bringing up stuff about you. He's bringing up stuff about me. Just all Christians are continually being accused by the devil up in heaven. So if it's taking place in heaven in Revelation chapter 12, why would we think it's taking place on earth in Job chapter 1, aside from the giant elephant in the room that God is just hanging out on earth and people are just coming up and talking to him on earth? Back in the Old Testament, continually, that makes no sense. But it's clearly happening in heaven because here's the thing, once the devil is cast out of heaven, it stops. The point is, the devil's up in heaven accusing the brethren before God day and night. Now we're excited, we're rejoicing, we're happy. Why? Because he's not doing it anymore. Because he's now cast out. Okay. Now, this might surprise you or shock you, but this is a future event in the book of Revelation. This has not happened yet. Okay. The devil is still today up in heaven accusing us before God day and night, even right now. Okay. And here's the thing, when he is cast out, the Bible says that he has great wrath. Look at verse 12. Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. So when he's cast out of heaven, he knows he only has a short amount of time. Okay. So this didn't happen thousands of years ago. This is talking about a short amount of time that he is cast down to the earth. And during that time, he does activities that the Bible describes as taking, you know, 1260 days, 42 months, right? Because it's actually a total of seven years. It's two halves that are three and a half years each that are described. And so when the devil is cast out, you know, then he goes out to persecute God's people. He puts the antichrist into power. You know, when is the antichrist going to come into power? Well, Satan being cast out is what triggers those. And he knows he only has a little bit of time. So then he mobilizes all the forces of evil, puts the antichrist power. And I'm not going to make this a big revelation sermon, but I'm just giving you the basics here of Revelation chapter 12 that where does the devil accuse the brethren before God? It's in heaven. And when he's cast out of heaven, it stops happening because that's where it happens. Now, let's go back to Job. Obviously, we could just, you know, party in Revelation for the rest of the service, but we need to go back to Job and stay on task here. But in the book of Job, it says in verse 6 of chapter 1, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. So Satan walks into the halls of heaven to accuse the brethren before God to talk a bunch of smack about God's people. Okay. And then God suggests to him, Well, have you considered my servant Job? I bet you don't want to talk about him. Right? Because he's probably talking about, you know, whoever usually, and maybe even bringing some legitimate criticisms of God's people. But then God says, Oh, let's talk about Job. There's none like him in all the earth that fears God and eschews evil. But notice, where did the devil say that he came from when God asks him, you know, Hey, where did you come from? He says, I came from going to and fro in the earth. Because they're not in the earth, they're in heaven. And he's saying, Well, here's where I came from. I was in the earth going to and fro and walking up and down in it. And so no, the plain reading of the text here is not that this is happening on earth, but that it's happening in heaven. And then Revelation Chapter 12 seals that beyond any shadow of a doubt. And now we don't need to come up with some weird doctrine about some weird situation where the sons of God are constantly presenting themselves before the Lord on earth. Because he's saying that the sons of God are saved Christians, God's people, you know, children of God, which is true. That's what the Bible does teach that we are the sons of God. We are the children of God. But guess what? When you're in heaven, you're not going to believe this. Saved people are up in heaven. Sons of God are up in heaven. And they could easily come and present themselves before the Lord in heaven. Hey, I can't wait until, well, I can wait and I will wait, but I can't wait until I'm up there in heaven. And you know what? I'm going to be face to face with Christ my Savior. But no, there's no place on earth where you can go do that right now. And in Job's day, you couldn't go do that then either. You didn't just go to some, you know, you just got to go to the Gihon Spring and go to Temple Zero, you know, Melchizedek's Barbecue and go there and, you know, just hang out with the Lord on earth. It just doesn't work that way. That's a made up, weird doctrine. And like I said, it's almost like Mormon level, Scientology level weirdness to add all these layers of things in the Bible that just aren't there, all this exotic teaching. So in Job chapter 1, the devil is accusing Job. Well, here's what the Bible says in 1 John. It says, My little children, these things write I unto you that just sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So you could think of this as a courtroom analogy where God the Father is the judge, Satan is the prosecutor. He's the accuser of the brethren, which accuses them before God day and night. And then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So Jesus Christ is the defense attorney. I mean, talk about having great representation when Jesus is your lawyer. And here's the thing. If you go into court and you have a great lawyer, you know, you feel pretty good. You feel pretty confident, don't you? And when you're just kind of stuck with the public defender, you know, you're a little nervous and you don't know, hey, is this guy really going to go to bat for me? Is he going to work hard? Is he going to phone it in? But when you shell out the big bucks and you got Mark Victor and Associates or whatever in there, and you got somebody in there that's a bulldog attorney, you're like, hey, I don't have to worry too much because I've got the best attorney. And we've all seen, you know, attorneys get people even that were super guilty off the hook. Well, guess what? We're all super guilty and Jesus is getting us all off the hook. It's like we're like a spiritual OJ over here. And we got, you know, well, I don't want to compare Jesus to Johnny Cochran or anything like that. But I'm just saying, hey, we got the ultimate lawyer. We're so ridiculously guilty. And yet we're getting off the hook through the blood of Christ. So and obviously I'm being facetious. I'm joking a bit. But I'm not kidding about the fact that the devil is the prosecutor up there accusing us before God and that Jesus is our advocate with the father. And Jesus is defending us before the devil's accusations. And so the devil says, has not thou made a hedge about him in verse 10 and about his house and about all that he hath on every side. Thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thou thine hand and touch all that he has and he will curse thee to thy face. And of course, this isn't true, but this is the accusations that's made. And, you know, the only true thing here is that God really does have a hedge around Job. Like God really is protecting Job because, you know what the Bible says? The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. And so when you fear God, the Bible says you are under divine protection and people talk about guardian angels. Well, guess what? Guardian angels are biblical because the Bible says that the minute that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation. And the Bible says the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. And so if I fear God, I love God, I serve God, then I do have a guardian angel or guardian angels protecting me and keeping me safe. And I wouldn't want to go through life without that. I wouldn't want to get on the road and drive the car without that because I want to be safe. I want to be protected. I want that hedge around me. I want God to bless everything that I do. I want everything that I do to prosper. And that's what Job had going for him. Satan is begrudging him that. So what is the Lord's response to this? Verse 12, the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And so the idea here is you can take away everything that belongs to him, but you can't actually touch Job himself. Because remember Satan saying, well, he has all this stuff. He's not doing it for nothing. He's got all this wealth. He's got all these possessions. If he loses that stuff, he'll curse you to your face. And so the Lord gives him permission to take away everything that Job has, but not to touch his physical body or to touch him personally or harm him in any way. That's the initial agreement here. Okay. And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And then as we go through the rest of the chapter, we see that actually carried out. We see that actually happen. Okay. And the idea here is that the devil is on a leash, right? The devil doesn't have the kind of power that God has. God is allowing Satan to do something bad that he wants to do. But if God doesn't give him permission, he can't do it. Right? So, you know, God has to give Job or Satan permission to hurt Job and say, okay, here's what you can do. You can take away his wealth, but you can't touch him personally. And then Satan goes and does only what God has given him permission to do. And so here's the thing. We shouldn't be scared of the devil or fear Satan because God is the one who ultimately is worthy of our fear. Because, you know, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Whereas if you're in Satan's hand, because what does he say in verse number 12? The Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he has is in thy power. And then later on, look what he says in chapter 2 verse 6. The Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So would you rather be in the hand of the devil or the hand of the living God? You know, here's the thing. If you're in Satan's hand, if God says, okay, Satan, insert your name here, is in your hand, there's going to be a limit. Only mess with his stock portfolio. You know, only mess with his bank account. Only mess with his family. Only mess with this or that. Or maybe even, well, mess with his physical health, but don't kill him. There's always a limitation. But here's the thing. If God is upset with you, there's no limit on what God could do to you. If God decides to, he could make you lose everything or he could even kill you. He could do anything. There's no limit. Whereas Satan's power is very limited. And really, this whole scenario, even though what Satan is proposing is wrong, what he's saying is inaccurate, and what he does is evil and wicked, at the end of the day, all of this brings glory to God. Because we've got the book of Job, which is such an awesome, amazing book. We wouldn't have this book if this hadn't happened. So ultimately, even Satan is fulfilling a role in God's grand design. Not to excuse his wickedness, but just to say it's all kind of part of the plan. Because if God wanted to, God could just eliminate the devil right now. And in fact, even in the end times, we know that for a thousand years, the devil's going to be bound for a thousand years. He's going to be put into hell and shut up in hell and not allowed to leave for one thousand years so that he cannot deceive the nations anymore. Then why wouldn't God just do that now, right, if he can do that? Well, the reason why is because the devil fulfills a purpose ultimately in God's plan. God allows him to exist because he ultimately fulfills a purpose. And then at the end of the thousand years, God, he's already got the devil locked up. He lets him out on purpose in order to go out and deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the battle, the number of whom is at the sand of the sea, and on and on. So the idea here is that the devil ultimately is fulfilling a function or a purpose. He's kind of like a trash collector to help gather all the trash and to deceive the wicked and so forth. And so then we see the execution of this. It says in verse 13, there was a day when his sons, Job's sons and his daughters, were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they've slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And so it's just all of these catastrophes all end up happening at once. Okay, the first thing that happens is you've got foreigners coming in, right? The Sabeans are coming in, foreign raiders come in, and they kill all of Job's servants, and they steal their stuff, they steal the cattle, and only one guy escapes, you know, just to tell Job about it. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Now this is his perspective, you know, we don't know exactly what happened. It could be some kind of a forest fire or something, but there's some kind of a fire. This is what the servant considers it, fire fallen from heaven. But honestly, we know that the devil's the one doing this, and so it's probably some kind of a forest fire or who knows exactly how this was physically carried out. But the sheep end up being destroyed, the servants end up being burned up. And then verse 17, while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands, more foreigners, 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. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. So not only, because when you're reading the confrontation between the Lord and Satan, you might think to yourself that this is only going to affect Job financially because of the fact that he can't touch Job personally. So he thinks like, you know, you might be thinking as the reader, like, okay, this is just, he's going to lose all his wealth. But also, all ten of his children are killed, so it's not just that he loses his wealth, he also loses his children. So God just said, well, you can't touch Job. But he didn't say anything about Job's kids, and so therefore, the devil ends up, you know, sending this wind, you know, he's the prince of the power of the air, and he obviously does have some powers over this natural world. And so he ended up knocking down the house on them, and the house collapses, and all ten of Job's children die in one day. And obviously, this is just super extreme, right? He has all this wealth, he has ten kids, so he spends his whole life working and doing all this and raising kids and, you know, building a business and all this stuff, and it's all just wiped out in one day. Now, the reason why this is so extreme is because it's meant to be an example for us, so that when we go through things, we can always look at Job and say, okay, no matter what I'm going through, it's not as bad as what Job went through. Because, think about it, let's say the story were less extreme, then we'd constantly be thinking, well, what I'm going through is worse than Job. You know, and look, there's been a time in my life when I thought to myself, you know what, what I'm going through is worse than Job chapter one. I've definitely felt that way, and in many ways, I do feel like I've been through something worse than Job chapter one, but you know what, then you get to Job chapter two, and you're like, no, no, what happened to Job is worse than what happened to me. So, you're totally covered. You know what I'm saying? Like, no matter what happens to you, you can always look at the book of Job and say, okay, book of Job is worse. Because by the time Job is covered in boils head to toe, and he's lost his children, and his wife is cursing him and telling him to curse God and die, and he's lost all the wealth, it's just like everything's covered at that point. You know. And look, no matter what happened to me, you know, I don't want those boils. Right? I mean, you'd rather lose all your money than to be just covered in, you know, burning, painful skin disease. That's way worse than some of these other things. And so, the Bible says here, at the end of chapter one here, you know, after he hears this news, which is kind of the coup de grace, the worst thing, right? Because losing your money is one thing. Your ten children just died. Obviously that's the coup de grace. That's the worst thing that happens to him in chapter one. And so, this is horrible, and it says in verse number 20 that Job arose and rent his mantle. So that means he tore his garment. This is a sign of mourning in the Bible, right? They would rip their clothes like Hulk Hogan. And it says he rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground, and worshiped. Right? So he's not cursing God. He's not bitter. He's not mad at God. He just says, I'm going to worship God. And he said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Another way of saying charged God foolishly is blamed God. He didn't foolishly blame God. And let me tell you something. When you are blaming God when things go wrong in your life and getting angry and bitter at God, you are wrong. And not only that, you're stupid because the Bible says charge God foolishly. It's stupid for you to lash out and get angry at God when things go wrong. You know the Bible says the foolishness of man perverted his way and he fretted against the Lord. Right? So basically people do something stupid and then they screw up their way. They pervert their way. They make their path crooked. And then they get, they fret against the Lord. Right? You have women out there committing fornication. It's like, I don't know why God's doing this to me. You know, giving me this life of a single mom. It's like, well, you did commit fornication, so there's that. Right? It's just like people bring problems on themselves. Right? They go out and they get drunk. Something bad happens. God, why are you doing this to me? Take drugs. Something bad happens. Oh, why is this happening to me? Right? When you sin and you reap the consequences of your sin, then, you know, you can't get mad at God or get bitter against God. Right? It's the foolishness of the heart of man that is perverting his way and then he frets against the Lord. Makes no sense, does it? But how much more when the Bible is showing us an example where the guy didn't even do anything wrong, bad things happen to him and he still isn't charging God. Do you see what I'm saying? Like even when he really did do nothing wrong, because most of the time our problems end up being self-inflicted. We, you know, are like that meme where the guy sticks the stick in the back of his wheel, the bike crashes and it's like, oh, why did God do this to me? That's typically what's happening. But how much more in this situation would you expect Job to say, God, I did everything right. Why is this happening? But you know what Job's attitude is? Well, naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You see, even if something bad happens to us, we can't forget all the good blessings that God has given us up to this point, right? So I'm, I'm 43 years old and I look back over my life, I can just count like so many wonderful times, wonderful days, wonderful blessings, prosperity, successes, all of the glories, right? But even if my life just absolutely just went to heck in a hand basket, right, for the next whatever years, I couldn't really complain and say that I had a bad life. Because even if my life were just an absolute disaster from here on out, I would have to say, well, you know what, I came into this world naked and look at all these blessings that God gave me. I mean, here's the thing, most people have never been as rich as, as Job. So Job got to spend many, many years being rich and having a big family and enjoying everything, right? And then it's all taken away from him. You know, it said he's just like, well, yeah, but it was a great run. You know, I, God gave all this stuff, you know, instead of getting mad that God took it away, I'm just going to be thankful that the Lord gave. You know, the Lord gave and the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And here's the interesting thing, you say, yeah, but Job lost everything. You will lose everything. Not maybe, not maybe you will lose everything and so will I. It is a guarantee. I've got bad news for you guys, you're going to lose your wife. Bad news for you ladies, you're going to lose your husband. Bad news parents, you're going to lose your children. Bad news for you, all your friends are going to die. Bad news for you, all the wealth that you have is going to be gone someday. Everything is going to be gone someday. And here's the thing about Job. Job has 10 children and Job's 10 children die. Well, guess what? Job's 10 children would be dead in 2025 no matter what the devil did or didn't do. I mean, it's 2025. Is there any possible way that Job's 10 kids would be alive right now? So weren't they always going to die anyway? They were always going to die. They died early. In the scheme of things, it doesn't really change anything, does it? The Lord gave, the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, and when we go through life with this mentality that we're just going to hang on to everything forever, guess what? You're not going to hang on to anything forever. The Bible says the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. And so, you know, obviously we love our spouse, we love our children, we love our home, we love our job, we love our business, we love our church, we love all these things, but every single one of them is going to be taken away from us someday. Right? All of us one day are going to die. You know, unless of course Christ returns in our lifetime, we should not all sleep, but we should all be changed, but even then you're still shedding this physical body. This physical body is going to be gone. So here's the thing. Let's say you lose a limb, right? That'd be a tragedy. I would hate to lose a limb. I'd hate to lose my leg or lose my arm or something, but here's the thing. I'm not going to get, oh God, why did you take away my leg? It's like that leg was going to go eventually anyway. Nobody from the book of Job has a leg anymore. You know what I'm saying? Nobody does. It's all gone. And that's what you have to understand is that Job is looking at the big picture of things and saying, you know what? I was born into this world with nothing and no matter how rich I am when I die, I'm going to leave this world with nothing. The Bible says we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out and having food and raiment therewith, let us be content. And so therefore, Job gets the big picture that we came into this world naked and we're leaving naked. He's not going to bring anything with us. And so we should just be thankful for the good times. And you know, here's the thing. I love my wife. I'm going to enjoy as much time with my wife as I can and, you know, but someday that relationship is going to end. You know what I'm saying? But we're going to enjoy it as much as we can while we can, you know? And it's the same thing with your children. It's the same thing with whatever things you enjoy physically in this world, your friends, family, church, all these things are going to come to an end. And you know, Job is really wise. Even in an emotional time, you'd expect him to just kind of flip out. He's calmly looking at things. Even though he's upset, he's tearing his clothes, he's on the ground, obviously this hurts. But he has the perspective to say, you know what? I was going to lose all this anyway. Right? And obviously don't take the Bible too literally because, you know, Job is not literally going back to his mother's womb. Okay. Obviously this is poetic language, right? Naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The idea here is that the womb now is representing the grave. You know, it's going into darkness, confinement, the end, you know, physically, right? Because you start out your life confined in darkness, hidden from the sun, then you're born, you see the sun, you live your life, you labor, you travel, and then you go back into, as it were, a womb in a sense. And then of course you could think of that also as the picture of the fact that there's going to be a bodily resurrection for the saved. It's almost like, you know, the body is being reborn from that womb of the earth. Okay. And that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But he says, naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. It says in verse one of chapter two again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, Oh, I was just down at temple zero. No, I'm just kidding. And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job that there's none like him in the earth? A perfect and upright man that feareth God in his shoe with evil. And still he holds fast his integrity, although thou moveth to me against him to destroy him without cause. He said, Look, even though I brought all of this destruction into his life for no reason, he is still maintaining his integrity. Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he 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 Satan, Behold, he's in thine hand, but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils. Right? So some kind of sores or lesions or whatever horrible, painful, itching, burning skin situation from the sole of his foot unto his crown right to the top of his head. And he took about pot shared. This is a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself with all. And he sat down among the ashes. And now, of course, his wife hits the breaking point. You know, his wife already saw him lose all the money. The kids are all dead. Now she looks over at her husband and he's just covered in boils from head to toe. So now she reaches the breaking point and she says, Does thou still retain that integrity? Curse God and die. Don't you hate it when your wife says that to you? Curse God and die. And then Job is still pretty cool. Yeah, he's you know, he's going to he's going to really let loose. You know, about a week from now in Chapter three, a week later, he really, you know, expresses himself. But at this point, he's still pretty chill. He says, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. I mean, that's that's a nice way of putting it. 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 like like like so. So we're just only going to receive the good things from God and not the evil. Because here's the thing. I bet you we get a bunch of good blessings in our life and we don't thank God for them. And then when something bad happens, we complain to God. So it's just complaining, complaining, complaining. Right. And think about this with your physical children. How about if your physical children just they're not thanking you for anything. They're not happy when you take them places or do nice things. And then you just complain about all the bad things. Right. It would make you upset, wouldn't it? Well, how do you think God feels in heaven when we're not thankful for the good things and then we're complaining about all the bad things? And then we have this attitude of, well, we're going to take all the good from God, but then we're not going to take the evil. Guess what? Life is a mixed bag. OK, the best that you can hope for in life is a mixed bag. There's two kinds of people in this world. There are people whose life is just all bad. And then there's people who have a mix of good and bad. So if you have a mix of good and bad, be thankful because some people it's all bad and then they go to hell when they die. OK, so you should be thankful for the good and realize that life is good and bad. You know, the Bible says that there's the day of prosperity and the day of mourning and that God has set the one against the other. You know, if today is a good day, tomorrow is probably going to be a bad day. If tomorrow is a good day, then, you know, the day after that is probably going to be a bad one. And if today is bad, well, tomorrow is going to be good. I hope it's not bad, you know, sitting and listening to a sermon about Job. Hopefully that's putting things in perspective for you. But the thing is, we are going to go through stuff in our life. Period. Fact. You're going to go through health things. You're going to go through financial things. You're going to go through family things. Period. It doesn't matter who you are. You're going to go through bad things. You're going to go through physical pain, psychological pain, emotional pain. You are going to go through bad times in your life. Okay? Some of those things are going to be self-inflicted. Some of those things are going to be through no fault of your own. Like Job, right? Job didn't do anything wrong. Some things are going to be through no fault of your own. So it doesn't matter how godly you are, you're not immune from this. You're going to go through bad stuff. Satan's up there right now saying the same thing about us that he said about Job. And by the way, I've even heard some of Satan's minions down on this earth saying the same thing that Satan says. Right? And here's what they say. Oh yeah, you know, I've had somebody say this about me personally. Somebody said, well, you know, the only reason that he serves God, it's not because he loves people or anything. It's just because of the rewards. You know, he just wants the blessing. He just wants God to bless him and to be rewarded. Right? This is what someone close to me said and accused me of. They were talking crap about me in the family saying, well, he serves God. Yeah, he does a lot of great works for God, but it's for the wrong reasons. It's just for the rewards. It's for the blessings, but it's not because he has real love in his heart. But here's the thing. That's the same exact kind of garbage that Satan is saying. Well, sir, this guy's doing good stuff, but it's for the wrong reason. You know, and it's funny when people try to read into the reasons, reasoning of others, and then they want, and then they're the first people to call everybody judgmental. Oh, you guys are so judgmental. You judge so much. And then they'll like x-ray vision into your heart and tell you why you're doing things. You know, and here's the thing. I have my reasons for why I do what I do. You have your reasons for why you do what you do, but you know what? At the end of the day, you want to know what matters? What you do is what matters. Okay? So it's like, here's the thing. Maybe I'm going soul winning because I'm motivated by the fact that God commanded me to go and I want God to bless me and I want to get the rewards by going. Right? Maybe I'm going because I'm afraid that if I stop, God would punish me for disobeying the Great Commission as a man of God. Maybe that's why I'm going. Maybe I'm going because I just genuinely just want to get people out of hell because I'm worried about them. And I'm scared that these people are going to hell. And if I can save them, man, I want to pull them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. You know? And hey, maybe I'm just going because I just love the gospel and just enjoy talking about it and just have fun soul winning. At the end of the day, guess what? These are all legitimate reasons and it really doesn't matter which one. It's true. Who cares? But you know, a bunch of non-soul winners, a bunch of do-nothing or very low-achieving Christians sit around pondering the reasons why people go soul winning or serve God or whatever. And they're going to do the same thing to you and pick you apart. It's of the devil. It's of the devil who says, oh yeah, well of course, yeah, does Job serve God for none of these? He's getting all these blessings. He's not doing it for the right reason. And all this stuff. And look, obviously, yeah, there are wrong reasons for doing things, but there are also a lot of different right reasons. And here's a right reason. Because you want God to put a hedge around you. Great reason to serve God. Oh man, I want God to put a hedge around me and protect all my stuff. Great reason to serve God. If not, then explain all the chapters that tell you, hey, you better do what's right because if you don't, all these bad things are up. Oh man, I don't want those bad things up. I better serve God. Oh, it's the wrong reason. Hey, if you serve God, you're going to get all these rewards. Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his works shall be. Oh, just kidding. That's a bad motivation. Shame on you for taking those rewards seriously. I mean, isn't that kind of dumb? Now look, if you want to, you know, peer into my heart this morning and see what's going on inside here. You know, honestly, I'm not really motivated by heavenly rewards that much. The thought never really enters my mind. I'm kind of more of a here and now kind of a guy, to be honest with you. You know what I mean? The thing that motivates me about soul winning is getting people out of hell. That's the main thing. The main thing is I want to get people out of hell. That's the main thing. And then the other thing is I don't want God to discipline me right now. I want God to bless me right now. I want the hedge. I want what Job had, the protection, the blessings. That's the kind of stuff I think about. But here's the thing. If you say, well, I'm super motivated by heavenly rewards. I can't wait to be ruling and reigning with Christ and I can't wait to, you know, be given authority over 10 cities or something. Hey, that's a great reason to serve God. That's why I was accused. I was accused of having that reason. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, I almost wish I could say that it were true. That that's a big because I think that a person who really thinks that way is really exercising a lot of faith. And they really have a great attitude if they're if there's if their heart is on the things above and not on the things on this earth. That's probably like a higher level of spirituality. I feel like, you know, I feel kind of guilty that I'm not living up to the criticism here. You know what I mean? Because it's like it's like they're I guess they're overestimating my godliness that I'm just that heavenly minded. I wish I was that heavenly minded. Maybe I'll work on it. But, folks, there's this obsession with everybody's motives. And I'll tell you what this obsession comes from. It comes from. Well, you know, I know he's doing all the right things, but he started to lean on the pulpit like, bro. But the thing is, you know, oh, you know, I know he's doing all the right things, but why, though? Isn't that what Satan's saying? It's like that meme. Why, though? Yeah, I know Satan. I know I know Job is doing everything right, but why, though? Don't be that guy, my friend. Don't be like Satan. Don't be accusing the brethren, you know, unless they actually did something wrong. Don't be just accusing them because of your evil surmising about what you think is going on in their heart or mind. And the biggest takeaway from this is that, look, no matter what you're going through, Job went through worse. He pushed through. He made it. You can do the same thing. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great passage, Lord. Help us to be men and women like Job. Help us to be strong. And in the evil day, help us to be able to stand, Lord. Help us to have Job's wonderful attitude about how we brought nothing into this world and that everything we have is a bonus. And, Lord God, if we have a beautiful day today and enjoy the beautiful weather and enjoy our beautiful families and eat wonderful food, Lord, help us to realize that this day is a gift. This day is a pleasure. This day is a blessing. This is the day that you've made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And if tomorrow is a disaster, help us to realize that we had a wonderful day today on April 6th. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals, please. Go to hymn number 86. Number 86 will be dismissed in singing In the Garden. Hymn number 86, lift your voice together on that first line. Come to the garden alone. Hymn number 86. I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear on my ear The Son of God discloses And He walks with me And He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known He speaks and the sound of His voice Is so sweet the birds touch their singing And the melody that He gave to me Within my heart it's ringing And He walks with me And He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known I stay in the garden with Him Though the night around me is falling But He makes me gone Through the voice of hope His voice to me is calling And He walks with me And He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known Amen. Good singing this morning. We are dismissed. We are dismissed. Thank you.