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We didn't practice how great that will work, we practiced it and it's going to be my left hand that you're sitting on. Alright, good evening everybody, welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. If you would please take your seats and take your hymnals please. Let's turn to hymn number 30. Hymn number 30, Nothing But the Blood. Let's sing it out on that first verse. What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus, number 30, sing it out on this verse. What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make evil again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make evil again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus For my part in this I see Nothing but the blood of Jesus For my cleansing this I bleed Nothing but the blood of Jesus All precious is the flow Makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Nothing can force in atone Nothing but the blood of Jesus Not of good that I have done Nothing but the blood of Jesus All precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my righteousness Nothing but the blood of Jesus All precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Let's sing it on that first verse, number 167. All hail the power of Jesus' name Let angels far straight fall Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all Ye chosen seed of Israel's grace He ransomed from the fall Hail him who saves you by his grace Hail him Lord of all Hail him who saves you by his grace And crown him Lord of all Let every kindred, every tribe On this terrestrial ball To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all All that with yonder sacred throng We at his feet may fall We'll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all We'll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all All right, 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 is our Bible study. This week will be in Judges, chapter 9. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And then next Sunday morning, show up early on Sunday morning if you want coffee and donuts starting at 10 a.m. to celebrate the birthdays in the month of February. And then congratulations to those who retained all of the Bible memory passages from 2020. They're listed there, and there's going to be a special outing for them also next Sunday at 1 p.m. at Andy's Frozen Custard. And then the Bible memory passages for 2021 will start next week. On the back, the weekly singing classes have resumed every Sunday at 5 p.m. So jump into that if you want to improve your singing, learn a little bit about music, the theory, the singing, etc. And then keep praying for Pastor Bruce Mejia and First Works Baptist Church. Son, how was it? How are things going out there? Good. Everything good? All right. Well, he made it back between the services. So you went the speed limit the whole way, though, right? Right? I mean, come on. All right. We'll check out the GPS later and see if that's even humanly possible with the time change. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, keep praying for all of our expectant ladies that they would have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. Other things coming up, we've got the Spanish night on the second Thursday of every month. This time it's February the 11th. And then a homeschool field trip on the 18th for the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Monday, or no, not Monday, I'm sorry, Thursday. All right. Anything from Thursday? Okay. Gotcha. All right. Anything else from Thursday? What about Friday? Okay. Gotcha. Anything else from Friday? What about Saturday? Got it. Got it. Okay. Gotcha. I see that hand. Yep. There we go. Okay. Anything else from Saturday? And then what about today, Sunday? We've got one here. Is that a five? One. Brother Scott. Okay. Three. All right. Scott, did your soul winning partner tell someone that they weren't straight today? Well, that kind of is an answer then, isn't it? All right. It's funny. I get all these voicemails from like disgruntled people from the soul winning, you know. All right. So keep up the great work on soul winning. With that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. What's it going to be? How great thou art. How great thou art. There we go. All right. You should find the sheet of that hymn. If you don't have one, please raise your hand. Singing out on that first verse. Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder. How great thou art. Singing out on this first verse together now. Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder. Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. My power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. When through the woods and forests glades I wander. And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur. And see the earth and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. And when I think that God his son not sparing. Sent him to die, I stares been taken in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing. He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation. And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration. Proclaim my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Amen. In your hymnals now, please turn to hymn number 262. The light of the world is Jesus, number 262. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus, number 262. Sing it on this first verse all together now, 262. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, it's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus abide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, it's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Ye dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. Wash at his name, life will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, it's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No need of the sunlight in heaven, we're told. The light of the world is Jesus. No lamb is the light in the city of gold. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, it's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one. Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads. Job chapter 29, starting in verse number one. Job chapter nine, the Bible reads, Moreover, Job continued his parable and said, O that I were as in months past, as in the day when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me, when I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil, when I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street. The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up. The princes refrained talking and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me. When the eye saw me, it gave witness to me, because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was eye to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out, and I braked the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days at the sand. My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. After my words they spake not again, and my speech dropped upon them. And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. If I laughed on them, they believed it not, and the light of my countenance they cast not down. I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to be here this evening, and I pray that you would fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, and please help us all to be edified by the sermon tonight. It's in Christ's name I pray, Amen. Man, in Job chapter 29, what we have here is kind of a catalog of everything that Job has lost and he's longing for the way things used to be and talking about how great things were because if you don't know the story of the book of Job I'll just quickly bring you up to speed, but Job was the most righteous man living on the face of the earth at that time. He's a very godly man. He feared God. He eschewed evil. And of course God is testing him. And so he goes through pretty much every horrible tragedy that you can imagine. He ends up losing all of his wealth. He loses his employees. His children all die. His wife tells him to curse God and die, so he's lost the respect of his wife and the support of his wife. And then not only that, he's physically afflicted with boils all over his body. And so he has literally lost everything. He's been brought as low as you can go as a human, whether it's physically, socially, emotionally, financially, I mean he's just at rock bottom in pretty much every way possible. So in this chapter he's reflecting back and saying, oh man, I miss the way things were. And then in chapter 30 he says, this is what things are like now, and he describes his current situation. Chapter 28 is about something else completely different. So I want you to get the picture here. Chapter 29 is, this is what I've lost. This is the way things used to be. And in chapter 30 it's, this is how things are now. Now the reason I want to emphasize this chapter tonight is that when we lose everything it could cause us to think about what's really important to us because if Job is looking back and saying, oh man, I wish things were the way they used to be, then by looking at what he brings up we can kind of see what was really important to him because he's obviously missing the things that are the most important to him or that matter to him the most. And you know, as you read this chapter you find that the things that he missed, most of them are really good things. It's not just that he missed, you know, the wining and the dining and living the good life, but if you look at the things that he missed in chapter 29 it's actually a lot of righteous things. And it kind of shows what was important to a godly man like Job because we want to be like Job because like I said earlier, the Bible tells us that Job was the most godly man on the earth at that time. So Job is definitely a role model for us. He's definitely someone we want to look at and say, hey, I want to be like Job, I want to think like Job. So the question that I would have for you tonight is, what was important to Job? What mattered to Job? Well, chapter 29 explains that to us. Look at verse number 1, it says, Moreover, Job continued his parable and said, O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness. The first thing I want to point out is that Job misses the most the feeling that God is blessing him, that God is pleased with him, and that God has taken care of him. So when you read this, obviously we know the story. We know that God has not actually forsaken Job, and we know that God is pleased with Job, and that he's going through these trials and tribulations for a different reason. Not because God's angry with him or upset with him. It's not that God has actually turned his back on him, but that's how it feels. And obviously Job in this sense pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in the Old Testament is of course pointing us to Jesus. Think about how Jesus, he knew no sin, and yet he became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus obviously did nothing wrong to cause him to be hanging on that cross and saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And in the same way, Job didn't really do anything wrong to deserve these things, but yet he's enduring these things ultimately for other people, because he endures these things so that we can learn from them. And so there's a little parallel with the Lord Jesus Christ there, but the point is that even though Job had not truly lost God's blessing or God's favor, he thinks that he has, because that's what his friends are telling him, and obviously he doesn't feel like he's being blessed by God when everything's going wrong in his life, literally everything. And so he says, oh, that I were as in months past as the days when God preserved me, when his candles shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through the darkness. You know, what Job starts with shows that's the most important thing to him. You know what, that ought to be the most important thing to us. When we measure the success of our life, when we measure how good life is going, what we really ought to ask ourselves is, is God's light upon us? Is God blessing us? Is God the one who's preserving us and guiding us and shining the light on our path? You know, the most important thing in our life is whether God's pleased with us. That should be our number one priority with the decisions that we make and the things that we do. You know, when I get up to preach on Sunday morning or Sunday night or Wednesday night, sometimes the sermon's going to be popular, sometimes it's going to be unpopular, sometimes people are going to like it, sometimes people are not going to like it, but at the end of the day what really matters the most is whether God liked my sermon, whether my sermon was pleasing to God, whether it's the sermon that he would want me to preach on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or Wednesday night, if it's something that's his will or according to his will or within what God has commanded me to preach. That's what matters the most to me. And when it comes to any other area of life, whether it's marriage or child rearing or business or studies or whatever, you know, we need to ask ourself, is this pleasing to God? Is God pleased with us? Because let me tell you something, if God is pleased with you and God is blessing you, if God causes his face to shine upon you, everything else in life is going to be fine. Everything else will fall into place. All things work together for good to them who love God. And to them who are called according to his purpose. And so when Job is regretting his past condition, the first things he brings up have to do with, man, God was blessing me. You know, God's candle shined upon my head. By his light I walked through darkness. Verse four, as I was in the days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. You know, these are the things that are the most important to Job. Notice that this conversation doesn't just start with, man, I miss all the good food that I used to eat. And man, I miss going out with friends and being able to just throw those $100 bills on the table and just pick up the tab and the dancing and the partying and the gambling. You know, that's not what was important to him. First of all, he wasn't even doing that. He didn't live that kind of a lifestyle. But he misses his walk with God. He misses God blessing him. He misses having God near unto him. When the Almighty was yet with me, in verse five he says. That's what he longs for, the presence of God. When the Almighty was yet with me. And then he says, when my children were about me. You know, what else is important in our lives are the people of our lives, right? So out of the things that Job has lost, first of all, obviously, it's the presence of God that he misses the most because he feels forsaken by God. And of course, he's foreshadowing Jesus Christ literally actually being forsaken on the cross when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not did you forsake me, why have you forsaken me? Because Jesus Christ was forsaken because there's that separation that took place between God the Father and the Son because of the fact that, you know, God had to punish Jesus for the sins of the world. You know, God the Father is punishing the Son of God for the sins of all mankind. And so they had had such sweet fellowship and communion for so long, and then that's broken by sin. And so Jesus Christ is the object of the wrath of God. Not through any fault of his own, but he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Job, number one, uh, is missing the presence and power of God in his life. But then number two, he says, my children were about me. You know, children are more valuable than any material possessions that you could own. Your children are more valuable than that. And this is something that we've lost sight of in our society because today children are seen as a liability, as a burden, or, you know, it's almost considered like an STD, getting pregnant. Okay, like it's just some kind of a thing to be avoided at all costs. And people strive to only just have one or two children. Now look, if that's all God blesses you with, well then great, you know, be thankful for that one or those two or whatever God blesses you with. But, you know, when people have this mentality of I don't want to have children, or, you know, I just only want to have one or two and that's all I want to do, you know, it doesn't seem like they have a biblical perspective on what's important in life. Because in the Bible, the Bible says children are a heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. It doesn't say happy is the man that has two arrows and then stops. Happy is the man that has one and then stops because all things in moderation. No, you know, I believe that God wants us to be fruitful and multiply, and I believe that having a multitude of children is a blessing. Now, is it hard to have children? Absolutely. Do they bring pain and suffering and, I mean, even just, it all starts with the pregnancy and the birth. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, the Bible says. So obviously there's pain and suffering, but here's the bad news for you mothers out there. When you give birth, the pain is just beginning. No, I'm just kidding. You know, there's more pain to come through just, you know, just disappointment and heartbreaks and just pain and, and just sleepless nights and just work and toil of having children. But you know what? The things in life that matter the most and that are the most valuable, they often take a lot of investment of time and work and effort. And so having children is a blessing, and Job saw it as a major blessing. That's why Job had ten children. I mean, you see, Job having ten children, that obviously shows that Job is a guy who values his children because he keeps having more, and then when they're taken away from him, second only to the presence of God, he misses his children. I mean, that makes sense, right? The next thing he would bring up is the children. And then not only that, but even though his children all sound like they're all grown and he's kind of out of that phase of life, you know, after everything's all said and done, and when he gets his health back and his wealth back and everything goes well, in the end of the book, you know, he ends up having ten additional children. So this guy just doesn't know when to quit, does he? But that's the point is that, you know, from a biblical perspective, if he gets all his wealth back, you know, if he's really going to be restored to his former situation, then he needs to have more children. And you say, well, why did God give him back twice as much money? Because the inflation was so incredible. In the time, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, today you'd have to get twice as much back just to break even. You know, he'd have to give you like four times as much to actually have double. But, you know, the reason why he only gets ten additional children is because the first ten children aren't really gone. So his number of children has still been doubled because they're in heaven. So let's keep reading here. This is the only thing that he really says that points to material position in verse number six. He says, when I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil. That's really the only hint that we have of, you know, that he kind of misses the luxury of his former life. But the main thing he's bringing up is the presence of God, his children. But, you know, hey, the butter is pretty nice too, right? Buttering the toast is pretty nice. And so the butter and the oil. Verse number seven says this. When I went out to the gate through the city when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves and the aged arose and stood up. So we see the next thing that's important to Job that he misses having is people's respect. Having a good reputation, having people respect him and that he has a good name. You know the Bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than silver. And here we see the young men hiding from him. Why are young men running and hiding from him? It's not because he's so scary but it's rather because he's so important and he's so respected that they don't feel really worthy to just kind of walk up and hang out with him. They're too respectful. They realize, like, whoa, this guy's on another level. Okay. And then it says that the old men, the aged men, stood up. You know, basically they stand up just showing their respect for him and deference for him. The princes refrained talking and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me. And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. He's talking about having respect from other people. Now why does he have respect from other people? Is it because he's such a big shot and such a big spender and he throws down so many Benjamins? Look what the Bible says. It says, because I delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind and feet was eye to the lame. I was a father to the poor and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I break the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. Now here's the right way to get respect in life. I think all of us as human beings have a certain desire to be respected. Now obviously one of the major sins that we're supposed to watch out for is the pride of life. Right? Remember the things that characterize this world when God says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So what are the three big things that this world is going to try to use to get us sucked in so that we don't serve God and bring forth fruit as Christians? He's going to use the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So this is a bad thing, the pride of life. What does that look like, the pride of life? You know this is your rock stars and Hollywood stars and millionaires and billionaires that are full of themselves. They think they're so cool and they think they're so great. Or you can even look at televangelist type preachers that are filled with themselves and full of pride. The pride of life. Because some people aren't just interested in just gratifying the flesh, the lust of the flesh, or just gratifying their eyes with the lust of the eyes. But you know for some people it's just about puffing themselves up and having fame and glory. You know you look at politicians, obviously you know a lot of what they're doing is for financial reasons. You know they go into Congress and the Senate or President or Vice President in order to enrich themselves through dishonest gain, through insider trading in the stock market, through just other shady backroom dealings, taking of bribes. That's why these people they go into Congress and you know they come out, they go in with a normal income and then they come out like a multi-millionaire. And it doesn't really add up on paper like where did you get all this money? It's because they're thieves. But I'll tell you a big motive for these people isn't just financial. They get into politics for personal glory. I mean why do these rock stars want to be up there on stage? It's not just for the money, it's also for personal glory. They want to glorify self. And obviously we're not on this earth to glorify ourselves, we're here to glorify God. And we should be giving him the praise and the glory. And you know, I know that people don't like to necessarily hear this, but this is one of the big things that I didn't like about President Trump is that he's so full of himself. And I don't care if you're the biggest Trump fan ever, I don't care how Republican you are or whatever, you have to admit that Trump is full of himself. Come on. The guy is prideful. He's arrogant and full of himself. Now here's the thing about Donald Trump. You know, he crashed and burned a couple weeks ago. You know, I mean he, his name is Mud now. And look, honestly, watching the media just go after him and just destroy him and seeing his own friends and associates just throw him under the bus and turn on him and trash him. You know, if you look at just that one incident, you'd say like, man, this guy's not getting a fair shake. But what you have to understand, though, is the big picture that this man has lived a life for decades and decades of sin and not glorifying God. Think about that. This guy spent decades and decades worshipping, not the Lord, worshipping money and teaching other people to do the same thing. That's what he did for decades. And when he was elevated to the highest office in our land, when he's the leader of the free world, the President of the United States of America, I didn't see him giving the glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but rather bragging and promoting himself and not giving God the glory. I mean, he makes Nebuchadnezzar look humble in Daniel chapter 4. I mean, the guy is praising and glorifying self. And so you might look at what happened to him and say, that wasn't fair. The election was stolen from him and everybody threw him under the bus and the media just lied and mistreated him and they covered up everything about Biden and everything like that. But you have to understand that at the end of the day, though, America got what they deserved. Creepy Uncle Joe is what we deserve. We deserve that evil pervert as our president because our country has turned away from God. And we have representative government. And that's who represents our nation right now. Joe Biden. So did America get what they deserved? Yeah. Did Trump get what he deserved? If you look at the big picture of him loving money, folks, the love of money is the root of all evil. Loving money, glorifying himself, prideful, arrogant. I mean, have you seen those montages where it's just people just put together minute after minute of him saying that he knows more about every subject. I know more about nuclear power than pretty much anybody. I know more about this than just about anybody. Oh, you want to talk about, I know more about that than everyone. I know, oh, believe me, I know everything. I mean, the guy is full of pride and arrogant. So look, when we talk about having the respect of other people, we're not talking about being a prideful, arrogant guy who's trying to glorify himself. That's not what Job's saying. You know, Job was someone who was respected not because he made a bunch of money or successful in business or something. He did those things. He did make, Job did have money and Job was successful. But why was he respected? He was respected because he helped people. You know, because, why? Because he said he delivered the poor. He delivered the fatherless. He was eyes to the blind. He was feet to the lame. He did good deeds. He did good works. And he was a blessing to people and he actually helped out the downtrodden and people that were having problems. He figured out what their problems were. He helped them out. And he break the jaws of the wicked. You know, he fought for what was right. He fought for good. He fought against evil. And that's why he had the respect of others. So, you know what? We should never become prideful. We should never seek to glorify ourselves. But here's the thing. We should want to have a good reputation among people that actually matter. And we should want to actually have a reputation for good and not evil. You know, and the Bible says that as Christians, we're going to be lied about and slandered and people are going to say all manner of evil against us falsely for Christ's sake. But you know what the Bible says in 1 Peter 2? It says, look, if you suffer for your faults, there's no glory in that. If you do good and people lie about you and attack you and criticize you, then you know what? There's glory in that. You get a reward for that. So what I'm saying is, you know, we should strive to have a good report, a good reputation by doing good and eschewing evil. I mean, think about people that have a bad reputation. Why do they have a bad reputation? You know, there are people that have a bad reputation for going out and getting drunk and doing stupid things. There are people who have a bad reputation because they get drunk and they get on the road and they get the DUI or they get in an accident or they have a bad reputation for taking drugs or for stealing or because of the fact that they sleep around or because they cheat on their spouse, right? Aren't these things that would give someone a bad reputation or someone has a bad reputation because maybe they stole money on the job or they slack off at work, they're constantly cheating at school or cheating on the job, fudging their time sheet, doing bad work, doing a poor job, right? Just doing things that are not done in a workmanlike manner as the code book says. And so, you know, these are things that spoil your reputation. And, you know, you young people, you don't want to get a bad reputation when you're 16, 17, 18. You know, that might follow you around for a long time. You want to get a reputation as a thief? You want to get a reputation as a liar? You want to get a reputation as a drunk? Do you want to get a reputation as someone who doesn't care about the things of God or doesn't love the Lord? No. You want to have a good reputation of being clean and sober and a hard worker. You know, some people have a reputation for knowing the Bible. Some people have a reputation for not knowing anything about the Bible. You know, some people have a reputation for being a good electrician. Some people have a reputation for being a bad electrician. You know, some companies have a good reputation on Google or whatever because they get all the five-star reviews of everybody saying, hey, you know, the food was good and everything was great and I had good service and whatever. Other people have a bad reputation on Google because, you know, they cooked it with margarine instead of butter. Folks, it's right here in the Word of God in verse 6. Notice he didn't say, I washed my steps with margarine. He said, I washed my steps with butter. All right. And the thing is, you know, some restaurants, look, when I go to a restaurant, I typically check the Google reviews and usually they're pretty spot on. You know, if something has four and a half stars or higher on Google, it's probably a pretty good restaurant. And when you see something with a look, now look, our church doesn't have a very good Google rating. You know, I don't know, I don't think Verity does either. You know, Verity Baptist Church, I think, I think it got down to like 1.3 stars at one point or something like that. Okay. But that's for a different reason. But what I'm saying is, you know, reputation matters. And look, it's good, look, if your reputation gets spoiled because people are attacking you because you preached the Word of God or won souls to Christ or stood up for the Word of God, that's good. Happy are ye if that's what happens according to the Bible. But if you have a bad reputation because you're an idiot, because you're lazy, because you're immoral, because you're criminal, there's no glory in that, that's not what you want. You want to be like Job where you have a good reputation because you typically help people and you're generous and you're kind and you're loving and you're knowledgeable and you do the right thing. You know, these are good things to do to get a good reputation. And you know what, Job cared about his reputation because one of the things that he emphasizes in chapters 29 and 30 is that his reputation is destroyed. Everyone thinks that he's bad now. Everybody thinks there's something wrong with him. And he's used to being treated with respect. It's not that he's proud or full of himself or, you know, it's just he wanted to be treated with respect. And I think we all want to be treated with respect. We all want to have a good reputation. You know, obviously we don't mind suffering for the cause of Christ or being falsely accused because, you know, it's persecution and we glory in persecution. We leap for joy when we're persecuted but we don't want to have people disrespect us because we're dumb or because we're lazy or because we're immoral. I mean, look, when people insult me, you know the insults that hurt the most is when there's a little bit of truth in it. Am I right? I mean, if somebody insults me with just some off-the-wall insult, some crazy insult that's not even close to being true, I just laugh at that. The insults that really hurt us are the ones that are actually kind of true or at least partially true where it's kind of like, ouch, you know, that's a little close to home. And so Job wants to have a good reputation and be respected. I think that's normal. I don't think that's the pride of life when Job just says, you know what, people used to listen to my opinion. They used to care what I said. You know, when I spoke up and gave my opinion about something, it was like people got quiet because they wanted to hear what I had to say because they respected his knowledge and they respected his works, his deeds. They respected his love for the poor and his charity and the things that he did well. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to have a good reputation and wanting people to listen to you. I remember I had a guy at one point in my life that taught me a lot of good things from the Word of God and he knew that I was going to be a pastor someday and he taught me a bunch of good things from the Bible that I learned and that I later preached and he said, he said, yeah, he said, you know, I'm glad that you understand what I'm saying and that I'm able to teach you all these things from the Bible because he said, I just have a reputation that screams don't listen to this guy. I've just ruined my testimony. I've been in jail a bunch of times. I've done a bunch of stupid things in my life. And so even though later in life I've discovered a lot of good biblical truths, nobody will listen to me. I'm, you know, and I'm disqualified. But he said, you know, you can preach this stuff because you haven't ruined your reputation. And you know what, that's a great illustration of what Job's saying here. You know, he liked the fact that people listen to him. It's a blessing when people are willing to listen to what you have to say because they know, hey, this is a good source for information. This is a good source for wisdom. Or they're willing to look at you as someone that they can respect because they see your life. They see your work ethic. They see your testimony. They see you on the job and so they listen to you. That's the way I interpret this where he lists off, you know, all the people respecting him because he did these works. Jump down if you would to verse 21. It says, unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at my counsel. After my words they spake not again. Basically like, you know, people are debating something. They ask his opinion. He gives his opinion and everybody's just like, well, there it is. Case closed. You know what I mean? Like people really respected his view. They thought like, wow, this guy knows his stuff. You know, they kept silence at my counsel. After my words they spake not again. My speech dropped unto them and they waited for me as for the rain and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. If I laughed on them, they believed it not. So basically when somebody came up with flat earth or something, if Job made fun of it, everybody's just like, it's stupid. You know what I mean? Like if he laughed at, you know, if somebody starts talking about Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, as soon as Job said, no, what a joke, that's ridiculous. If he laughed at it, if Job laughed at it, they don't believe it. They're like, well, if he's making fun of it, it's probably stupid. If I laughed on them, they believed it not. In the light of my countenance, they cast not down. I chose out their way and sat chief and dwelt as a king in the army as one that comforted the mourners. But now, they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. He's like, I don't, you know, their dad, I wouldn't have even had their dad, you know, taking care of my animals, not even take, I wouldn't even have, I wouldn't even trust him to take care of my dog. The guy's such a derelict. And now his son is making fun of me. He has me in derision. Yea, thereto, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished. For want and famine, they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness in former time, desolate waste, who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper roots for their meat. They were driven forth from among men. They cried after them as after a thief, to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth and in the rocks, among the bushes they braid, under the nettles they were gathered together. He's basically describing people, they're just so derelict, they're driven from town, they're living outside, they're living out in the wilderness like an animal. They're just so derelict. Verse 8, they were the children of fools, yea, children of basemen. They were viler than the earth, and now am I their song. Am I their byword? They abhor me. They flee far from me and spare not to spit in my face. Basically just the lowest, most derelict, just total losers, are basically now they're too good for Job. They're spitting in his face, you know, they're making fun of him and singing songs about him, and so forth. Because he, God, hath loosed my cord and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. Upon my right hand rise the youth, they push away my feet, they raise up against me the ways of their destruction, they mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper, they came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters, in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. Terrors are turned upon me, they pursued my soul as the wind, and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. And he goes on and on about just how bad he has it now. So what are the things that are important to Job? You know, Job, when he's looking back on what he's lost, the first thing he says is, you know, man, I remember when God's light shined on me, when God was blessing me, when the secret of the Almighty was upon my tabernacle. And he's, you know, when God revealed things unto him, when God shined the light on his path, when he was learning from the Bible, when he had close fellowship and communion with God. That's, and then the other thing he misses is what? He says, when my children were about me. And you can extend this to just any family relation. You know, what's really important in our life are the people in our life. Our spouse, our children, brothers and sisters, parents, friends. These are the people that are important to us, and people are more important than things. And so Job, number one, misses the fellowship with God. Number two, he misses the people that are important to him. And then the third thing that he missed is the respect that he had from his fellow man. But I think it goes deeper than just that he misses the respect that he had from his fellow man, although those three things are all important. You know, having God pleased with us, having the people in our life that matter the most around us, and having the respect of others for the right reasons. I mean, these three things are all important. But you know, I believe that Job also missed the opportunity to do all these good works because he's bringing up all these good works that he used to do. He used to be able to help people. Now he can't really do anything for anybody because he's so messed up he can barely even survive and even help himself because he's in such physical pain and misery and his health is so bad. And so what are some of the things that we can learn from this? You know, we need to understand that we're pretty blessed even if we feel like, oh, things are so bad in my life right now. You know, we're actually pretty blessed if God's pleased with us. And no matter how poor you are, no matter what problems you have in your life, you can always be right with God. You can always get on your knees and make things right with God and at least always have God shining on you and God's presence. And you know, if you have a spouse who loves you, then you know what? You're living a pretty good life. That's a big blessing. Job didn't have that. He wished he had that. He wished his wife wasn't telling him to curse God and die. You know, and if you have your children surrounding you, that's a blessing. You should be happy. You're blessed. And don't, you know, it's always easy for us to get depressed because something in our life isn't perfect. And we can always find the negative things in our life. And you know what? There are two kinds of people in this world. There are the people who focus on all the negative things about their life and the people who focus about all the positive things in their life. And the Apostle Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. And the Apostle Paul could be in jail with a beating and a bloody maimed back and praising God and happy and having a good time because he's focused on the positive things. He's thinking about the rewards. He's thinking about the people that are getting saved. He's thinking about God being pleased with them. He's not focused on the dungeon. He's not focusing on the fact that he's chained between two guards or something. You can always choose to dwell upon the negatives in your life. And you know, there could be people, maybe there are people in your family right now that are giving you grief or that are causing you pain and misery, whether it's siblings or children or parents or cousins or whoever, right? But I bet you you could probably think of other people in your life that are actually refreshing unto you. So why not just be thankful for that? You know, yeah, we have people that are maybe being a pain in our neck right now, but what about all the people that are being a blessing to us? Focus on that. You know, and even if all your relationships are messed up, well, how's your health doing? Because there are some people right now that are laying in a hospital bed half naked with a tube shoved down their throat right now, just struggling to breathe. And look, I'm thankful tonight that that's not me. I'm thankful that it's not you. I'm thankful that it's none of my family members, you know, laying in some hospital bed, half naked, with a tube shoved down their throat, struggling to breathe. But you know what? For thousands and thousands of people right now, that's what they're doing. And I'm glad I'm not one of them. And I'm thankful that God has kept me safe and kept my family safe and kept our church safe. I'm glad that God has given us our health tonight. So even if your relationships are falling apart, you know, just being in good health, man, there are some people that just wish that they would be in good health right now. You know, just having the Lord at your right hand and you're healthy, you know, that's a blessing that you could be thankful for. Or you say, well, you don't know what I'm, you don't know, Pastor Anderson, because my health is totally messed up right now. Okay, your health is totally messed up, but do you have family who loves you? Do you have friends who love you? Are you surrounded by people that love you? Because if so, you're still blessed. You know, I mean, we could all talk about the different areas of our life, and I'd be surprised, I'd be surprised if anybody here tonight would say, I have no financial problems, no relationship problems, no health problems, no spiritual problems. Is anybody like that? I mean, probably not. I mean, maybe there is one, but you know what, enjoy, because it's probably going to be over in like a week. I mean, think about it, like, you know what, maybe this week you do have all your ducks in a row in all of those areas. But you know, I look back over my life, and usually over my life, one of those things is messed up at all times. I mean, isn't that just reality? We either have work problems, or relationship problems, or health problems, or physical problems, you know, problems with the law, hopefully not, but you know, being sued, being audited, getting into trouble at work, or you know, you got to do inventory, or you got to work all night, or you're behind, or people called in and you got to work the double shift, or how about just health problems? I mean, you know, I feel like I always have at least one minor health problem at all times, and a lot of people have worse health problems, you know. I just have, you know, I'm okay, folks. But I'm just saying, like, it's always something. You know, for a long time, my finger was messed up, and it was like, for almost ten years, my middle finger on my right hand was damaged and almost unusable for almost ten years, and it just literally healed like a year and a half ago. I had given up, like, I thought, like, this thing will never be normal because I couldn't make a fist normally, I had a horrible grip, and for, like, almost ten years, it was messed up, and then it just, it got better. And I'm not going to explain how it got better, but there was a method to it. But anyway, I was like, wow, this is so great, my hand's back, my finger's back, and then just right around that time, my collarbone just went like boing, because there's, like, this little tendon thing that holds it down, it's like a little rubber band, and just snapped. You can even see it, all right? There's, like, a bump right here, where it's just, like, poking out and sticking up, and it can never be, like, the only way to get it fixed is some invasive surgery that's not worth it, okay? And so it's just like, so now I have this weird kind of, you know, you know, can't bench press anymore, okay? But the point is, it's like, I have this finger thing for, like, almost a decade, and then as soon as the finger thing's gone, then the shoulder's just like, all right, I got something for you, boing. It's just always going to be something, but that's just how life is, right? But here's the thing, I enjoyed the ten years with a messed up finger, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my life with a messed up collarbone, and you know what, you can enjoy life and serve God and be blessed even with messed up finances. I mean, what if your finances are messed up all the way until Jesus comes? You can still win souls. You can still read your Bible. You can still worship the Lord. You say, oh, my marriage is messed up. Well, what if your marriage is just messed up all the way until Jesus comes? You can still read the Bible. You can still pray. You can still win souls. You can still enjoy serving God. Look, I'm not saying that you can just serve God and just, you know, kind of just grit your teeth and get through it. Hey, you can rejoice in the Lord. Even when your health is bad, even when your relationships are bad, even when your finances are bad, even when you've got this problem or that problem, you know what, you can still serve God and you can even enjoy serving God because the joy of the Lord is your strength. You've got to enjoy serving God or you're not going to do it for the long run because the joy of the Lord is your strength, the Bible says. And so what's truly important? I feel like one of the strong messages from Job chapter 29 is what is truly important? You know, what's truly important is having God pleased with you. What's truly important is being surrounded by the people that you love. What's truly important is having the right reputation because you did right. Aren't these the things that are truly important in our lives that we should strive for? You know, I'm not interested in being rich. Job was rich, but I don't really see him going on and on about his riches. I mean, he mentioned the butter and oil. We all want to have those things on our food. None of us wants to eat a fat-free diet. But I don't see him just going on, oh, the gold and the silver and what. You know, in chapter 28 he talked a lot about gold and silver, about how wisdom is more important. But I don't see him going on and on about the wealth and the riches and the money and the fun. I see him valuing the Lord, his relationships, his godly reputation, and having people listen to him when he spoke because he was a source of wisdom. Where when he makes fun of something, it must be stupid because this guy knows what he's talking about. Or when he comes in and steps into an argument or something, he provides sound doctrine and sound wisdom. This is a smart guy. Hey, hey, quiet down. Job's got something to say. That's what was important to him. And so what's important to us, you know, it's easy for us to get down in the mouth when things are bad, but you know what, if we still have our health, we're blessed. If we're surrounded by the people we love, we're blessed. If people listen to us, if people come to us, look, if people come to you at work and ask you for advice, you're blessed. Because it means that they respect your opinion. That's why they're asking you for your opinion. You know, someone coming to you and asking for your opinion is a vote of confidence. It's a blessing. It means, hey, this person respects my views. And you earn that respect by giving sound wisdom and having knowledge. And so, like I said, there are two kinds of people in this world. There are the people who just focus on every negative thing. Now, look, Job, he has a right to be upset because he really is in a bad position. But you know, so many of us, we have these things that Job misses. We are surrounded by loved ones. We are blessed by God. We do have a good reputation. And then we're whining about these little circumstances in our life. You know, these are the things that are truly important, my friend. These are the things that are truly important. And these things are available to everyone. You know, we can all be pleasing to God. We can all make things right with God whenever we want. I mean, isn't God ready to accept us back whenever we want to get things right with him? Isn't he like the father of the prodigal son who's always waiting for us to come back and come home and make things right? God, you could make things right with God right now and have God pleased with you because his mercies are new every morning. You wake up tomorrow morning and have a brand new slate, brand new start with the Lord. And you say, well, you know, you understand, my children are already gone. I already lost my children. Well, you know, so did Job. But you know what he did? Even though his children are gone, they're dead. They're not coming back. But you know what he did? He just went out and had more children. That's what he eventually did. And you know what that tells me is that, you know, if you're not surrounded by loved ones, get some new loved ones. And you know, you say, well, how do I just get new loved ones? Well, you know, the Bible says a man that have friends must show himself friendly. You know, if you're a kind person, if you're a generous person, if you're a loving person, if you're a friendly person, if you reach out and help other people and care about other people and do the, you know what, you're always going to have friends. You know, if you're one who does for others and you care about other people, you know, people will surround you if you are a person who actually truly loves and cares about other people because a man that have friends must show himself friendly. You know, some people, they could go to a church like ours for years and never make friends. But it's pretty easy to make friends at our church. It's pretty easy to make friends at our church because, you know, you can show up in any of the soul winning times and just be a silent partner and you're going to get to know different people every week that way just by getting paired up with them. Or maybe fellowshipping in the van or something, you know. And also, you know, you could always walk up to somebody and start the conversation too. Instead of just, oh, nobody ever talks to me, nobody greets me, nobody cares about me. Well, who do you care about? You know, ask not what your church can do for you, ask what you can do for your church. And so we can be surrounded by loved ones. We can have the blessing of God. And you say, well, I've already destroyed my reputation. Do you know what, then start building a new reputation. Why don't you rehabilitate your reputation by being honest from here on out? Because, you know what, you can live things down. Now, there are going to be some people who will never let you live things down. They will never let you live it down. But here's the thing. That's not the people that you care about. Christians will forgive you. Godly Christians will forgive you. Am I right? Because forgiveness is one of the most important Christian virtues that we could have. And so are there always going to be those people who will just never take you back, never forgive you, never let you live it down? Sure. Well, you know what, just don't worry about those people. Because I guarantee you, you start living for God, you start doing right, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him work with his hands and give and be generous and hard work. You know, you can rehabilitate your reputation. No matter how bad you've messed it up in the past, you can build a new reputation with God's people, build a new reputation in the local church. And you can make a new reputation on the job and amongst your family. And you know what, eventually your old past will be forgotten. But you know what? Sometimes people, they just want maybe their old past to be instantly forgotten. And here's the thing, in a perfect world, if everybody were just like Christ, our mercies would all be new every morning. And we would all push the reset button every single day and whatever. But here's the reality of human beings is that most human beings, you're probably going to have to earn a track record or you're probably going to have to rebuild a reputation that might take some time. But you know what, it can still be done. You can still show them, you know, maybe your family thinks of you as a drunk or a drug addict. You know, once you show them a few years of sobriety, then you've built a new reputation. Once you show them, you know, maybe you have a reputation for somebody who's constantly getting fired and can't hold down a job. You know, you could show a reputation of, hey, this is me sticking with a job and excelling at it. Maybe you have a reputation for being a whore or a whoremonger. Well, you know what, why don't you be pure for a few years and lay down a new reputation and say, hey, you know what, yeah, that was me back then, but I've changed. And here's the fruits meet for my repentance. Here's the evidence that I've changed. And so, you know, we can't all have the money that Job had, right? Very few of us will ever be a millionaire, thank God, because it would ruin us because, you know, when people get a lot of money, usually it messes them up, if anything. We're not all going to have the wealth that Job had and we're not all going to have the herds that he had, but, you know, we can all have the blessing of God. We can all have loved ones around us, whether it's our literal children or whether it's our spiritual children or whether it's just brothers and sisters in Christ, friends, family, cousins, whoever. And, you know what, we can all build a godly reputation through doing what's right. And according to Job, you know, those are the things that really matter. Anyway, that's what he really missed the most, not the wining and dining, but rather these spiritual things that actually matter the most. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and Lord, thank you that Job went through all that stuff so that we don't have to go through all that because he went through all that so that we could learn from that and grow from that. And, Lord, we know that, of course, Job is just a picture of Jesus. Jesus is the one who really suffered, he even suffered more than Job did so that we could be saved. And so, Lord, thank you for Job's faithfulness that we could learn from as he went through that trial. Thank you for Jesus Christ being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Thank you for saving us and blessing us. And, Lord, help us to count our blessings and focus on the things in our life that really matter and not to go after the things that the world says matter, like money and fame and good looks and things like that. Lord, help us to focus on spiritual things like Job did. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 402. Hymn number 402, our best. Let's sing it out on that first verse. Hear ye the Master's call, give me thy best, number 402. Sing it out on this first verse together now, number 402. Hear ye the Master's call, give me thy best, for be it great or small, that is his best. Do them the best you can, not for reward, not for the praise of man, but for the Lord. Every work for Jesus will be blessed, but he has strong, every one his best. Our talents may be few, these may be small, but unto him is due, our best are all. When not for men too long be not their sign, winning the smile of God brings man's delight. Making the good and true, there goes our blast. All that we make for him be it the best. Every work for Jesus will be blessed, but he has strong, every one his best. Our talents may be few, these may be small, but unto him is due, our best are all. Amen. Good singing this evening. You are dismissed. Amen. .