# Job 11-14

Sermon transcript from Cross Church El Mirage.
Series: Job
Date: October 11, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/el-mirage/episodes/the-core-sermon-title-is-job-11-14

## Summary

What happens when life feels heavy and hope seems distant? Are we truly ready to confront our struggles with honesty and faith? Join us as we explore Job 11-14, where we discover the power of prayer and the importance of redirecting our hearts to God. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

That's funny. 
 Thanks. 
 Welcome to Cross Church. My name is 
 Tyler and I serve as campus pastor right 
 here at Cross Church Elmarrage. And I 
 want to welcome you to service today. 
 Before we get started, I want to make 
 you aware of a couple of ways that you 
 can connect with us today. The first, if 
 you have a phone with you, you can send 
 a text message with the word crossurch 
 no space to the number 9400. 
 Or if you'd like to use the cards that 
 are in the seat back in front of you, 
 we've got three cards that'll direct you 
 on you can connect with us. The first is 
 the new card. If you're new to Cross 
 Church over the last few weeks, we would 
 love to connect with you. Take some time 
 to fill out that card during our service 
 today and drop it in one of the black 
 boxes and then we'll follow up with you 
 this week with some more information. 
 The next card is the next card. Take 
 some time to use that card if you're 
 interested in taking some next steps in 
 your faith journey. Things like baptism, 
 joining a group, or even serving. And 
 then lastly, and I believe most 
 importantly, is the prayer card. And I 
 want to guarantee you that if you take 
 time today to fill out that prayer card, 
 all of those come to me and I get to 
 pray over each of them individually. So 
 if you've got things big or small going 
 on in your life, please feel free to 
 share those with us. We'd be happy to 
 pray over them. Hey, as we get prepared 
 for some God-honoring worship, I want to 
 encourage you to go into service today 
 with an expectant spirit. We know that 
 God will do big things in our midst, and 
 so I want to encourage you to enter this 
 time with an expectant spirit. Now, 
 let's get prepared for some God. 
 Hey, good morning cross church. Let's 
 all stand to our feet. Let's all give 
 our God praise because he has given us 
 freedom because of Christ 
 on the cross. So, this is a new song, 
 [music] but I wanted to introduce it to 
 you guys. 
 I'm shaking off the heaviness. 
 I'm dancing out [singing and music] of 
 my regret. 
 I'm throwing caution to the wind. 
 No, I [singing and music] am not ashamed 
 to praise like this. Some say it's 
 foolishness, [music and singing] 
 but I say it's worth the risk. 
 I'm giving you 
 though I [music] am not ashamed to break 
 my 
 Where are [music] those dreams that tell 
 me I'm free? I'm free. I'm free. I'm 
 free. My sin is gone. How can it be? 
 [music] 
 I'm [singing] free. I'm free. I'm free. 
 I'm free. Look at what the Lord has 
 [music] done. I'm never going back to 
 the way I was. I'll sing. I'll dance. 
 I'll be I'm free. [music and singing] 
 I'm free. Thank God I'm free. 
 I've got a friend that never quit. 
 [music] 
 No one loves as good as this. 
 And I don't care [singing] what anyone 
 says. 
 I'll never [music] be ashamed to praise 
 thy 
 are those that 
 I'm free. I'm free. I'm [music] free. 
 I'm free. My sin is gone. I can't. I'm 
 free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Look 
 [music] at what the Lord has done. I'm 
 never going [singing] back to the way I 
 was. I'll sing. I'll dance cuz I'll be 
 I'm free. I'll reach. Thank [music] God 
 I'm free. You took the cross and you 
 broke [singing] your body. 
 You [music] shed your blood. Now the s 
 can. 
 My debt is paid [music] and my record is 
 I couldn't do it so you did it [singing] 
 for me. You took the cross and you broke 
 your [music] body. 
 You shed your blood. When I was in a 
 cancer, 
 my debt is paid [music] and my record is 
 clean. I couldn't do it, so you did. You 
 [music] took the [singing] cross. You 
 took the cross and you broke. 
 >> You shed your blood. 
 >> You shed your blood. 
 My pain. 
 >> I couldn't do it. 
 >> I couldn't [music] do it, so you did it 
 for me. 
 >> You think I can do it? 
 >> I couldn't do it, so you did it for me. 
 >> You think I can do it? 
 So you did it for 
 you. 
 >> So [music] you did it for where are 
 those chains that tell me I'm free. 
 [music] I'm free. I'm free. [singing] 
 I'm free. My sin is gone now. 
 I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm 
 [music] free. Look at what the Lord 
 [singing] has done. I'm never going back 
 to the way I was. I'll sing and I'll 
 dance. Yes, I'll be I'm free. I'm free 
 to thank God. You took [music] the 
 cross. You took the cross and you broke 
 your body. 
 You shed your blood. Now the sinner 
 can't see. My de is paid. And my record 
 is I couldn't do it. [music] So you did. 
 You 
 took the cross. 
 You shed [music] your blood. 
 >> You shed your blood. 
 My name [music] 
 is 
 >> I couldn't do it. So you did it for 
 I couldn't do it. So you did [music] it 
 for 
 you. 
 >> I couldn't do it like you did it. 
 I couldn't do it. 
 Look at what the [music] Lord has done. 
 I'm never going back to the way I 
 [music] look at what the Lord has done. 
 I'm never going back to the way. Oh, I 
 love [music] you what the Lord Look at 
 what the Lord has done. I'm never going 
 [music] back to the way. I love you with 
 the Lord. [singing] 
 I love you what [music] the Lord has 
 done. 
 >> [music] 
 >> Yeah, let's give him some praise. We are 
 free because of him. We see what he has 
 done for us. And there [music] is no one 
 like our God who would give up his one 
 and only son for us so that we may have 
 eternal life. 
 Sing this out. 
 [music] 
 >> [singing] 
 >> the fullness of God 
 in mercy. 
 showed us [music and singing] 
 your heart, 
 your love, 
 your love [music and singing] poured out 
 for all 
 [singing and music] 
 the Lord our God. 
 You've been faithful every day 
 [music and singing] of my life. 
 >> [music] 
 >> I could search [singing] the world and 
 find 
 another like you. 
 Nothing like you. 
 [music] 
 You invite us [singing] to go. Your body 
 broken. 
 Your blood [singing and music] was 
 enough. 
 This love upon the [music] cross. 
 Oh, [singing] 
 this [music] love poured out for us. 
 There is no one [singing] like [music] 
 the Lord our God. 
 You've been [music and singing] faithful 
 every day of my life. 
 I [music] could [singing] search the 
 world and never 
 find 
 another like [singing and music] 
 you. 
 Another like you. 
 [music] 
 There is no one [singing] like the Lord 
 our God. [music] 
 You've [singing] been faithful every day 
 of my life. 
 I could [music and singing] search the 
 world and never 
 find 
 another [singing] like you. 
 like you 
 [music] 
 like 
 the lamb 
 is the king 
 who reigns [singing] 
 forever. Forever 
 sitting on the throne 
 high above [singing] it all. 
 Everyone will know 
 you're [singing and music] 
 like no other. 
 Worthy is the lamb. 
 Worthy is [music and singing] the king. 
 Worthy is the one 
 who reigns forever. [singing] 
 Seated on the throne, 
 high above [music and singing] it all. 
 Everyone will know 
 you're like [singing] 
 no other. 
 Worthy is a [music] man. 
 Worthy is the king. 
 [music] 
 Worthy [singing] is the one 
 who reigns [music] forever. 
 seated on the throne. [singing] 
 [music] I above it all. 
 Everyone will know. 
 You're like no other. 
 [music] 
 There is no one like the Lord our God. 
 [singing and music] 
 And you've been faithful every day of my 
 life. [music and singing] 
 I could search the world [singing] and 
 never 
 find [music] 
 another like you. 
 Another like [music] 
 you. 
 There is [music] no one like the Lord 
 our [singing] God. 
 You've been [music] faithful every 
 [singing] day of my life. 
 [music] And I could search [singing] the 
 world and never 
 find 
 another like [music] 
 you. 
 Like you 
 [music] 
 like you. 
 Like you 
 [music] 
 like you. 
 There is [singing] no one like the Lord 
 our God. 
 You've [singing] been faithful every 
 [music] day of my life. 
 >> I could search [singing and music] the 
 world and 
 find 
 another. [singing and music] 
 I could [singing] search [music] the 
 world and never 
 find 
 another like [singing] you 
 [music] 
 like. 
 >> Amen. As you grab a seat, we're going to 
 enter into a time of prayer today. I'll 
 direct your attention today to Psalm 
 102. And so, if you want to flip there 
 and join me, be looking at three 
 different sections of Psalm 102. And I 
 love what we find from the psalmist in 
 Psalm 102 that is so um heavy but 
 hopeful is the best way to describe this 
 psalm. And Psalm 102 offers us I think 
 three really unique perspectives. 
 And the first thing we actually find in 
 the first few verses of Psalm 102. In 
 Psalm 102 verse one the psalmist opens 
 with uh a bit of thanksgiving bit of 
 context actually as a matter of fact. 
 And so in Psalm 102 beginning of verse 
 one here's what we see. 
 Lord, hear my prayer. 
 Let my cry for help come before you. 
 Don't hide your face from me in my day 
 of trouble. Listen closely to me. Answer 
 me quickly when I call. Uh it's the 
 psalmist offering this honest prayer, 
 but one that actually gives us a great 
 measure of hope because it is one that 
 we know without a doubt because of the 
 context of scripture is true. As a 
 matter of fact, we know for a fact that 
 God does hear our prayers. Amen. God 
 hears our prayers. And that's a matter 
 of hope because 102:es 1 and two give us 
 this psalmist perspective saying, "God, 
 simply hear my prayer." And so, as we 
 pray individually today, we're going to 
 start and I want to ask you to start 
 focused on a simple prayer of gratitude. 
 And so, in this moment, I just want you 
 to thank God for the fact that he hears 
 our prayers. So let's pray through that 
 now. 
 The second section of this psalm I want 
 to bring to your attention is found in 
 Psalm 102 beginning in verse 8. Says 
 these words, "My enemies taunt me all 
 day long. They ridicule and use my name 
 as a curse. I eat ashes like bread and 
 mingle my drinks with tears." As we read 
 Psalm 102, here's what we find to be 
 true. Some of us are much like Job and 
 are much like the Psalmist. We find 
 ourselves in difficult moments where we 
 are eating ashes like bread. And this is 
 such vivid imagery, but it reveals to us 
 that the psalmist is going through a 
 heavy dark moment. In this portion of 
 prayer, I simply want to ask you to 
 think about what your ashes are. What is 
 the thing that you're holding on to 
 that's heavy, that's dark, that's 
 difficult, that you feel like you can't 
 do it all by yourself? Maybe it's the 
 test results that you've been waiting 
 for and received but just aren't what 
 you wanted or expected. Maybe it's as 
 you continue and think through it, maybe 
 it's the thing that you've been 
 wrestling with that's so heavy and 
 difficult, a relationship that's ending, 
 a season that's over, whatever the case 
 may be. What are the ashes that you are 
 eating right now like bread? And as you 
 think about that, in this second prayer 
 prompt, I'm going to ask you to take all 
 of those things before God, the God who 
 hears us and answers our prayers. Let's 
 take this to him now. Let's pray through 
 those things. 
 The last portion of this psalm that 
 we'll read for today begins in verse 15. 
 And the psalmist changes tone from 
 talking about the difficulty and the 
 sorrow. The psalmist switches in 102 
 vers15 to saying this. Then the nations 
 will fear the name of the Lord and the 
 kings of the earth your glory. 
 For the Lord will rebuild Zion. He will 
 appear in his glory. And as a matter of 
 fact, verse 17 would go on to say this. 
 He will pay attention to the prayer of 
 the destitute. Amen. God pays attention 
 to our prayers and he will not despise 
 their prayer. As you look at this psalm 
 today, this final section of the psalm, 
 here's the tone we're going to take in 
 this last psalm. And I'm actually going 
 to spend time praying over us as a 
 church. Simply that you and I would 
 understand and be thankful for the fact 
 that God is in control. That God is in 
 control. That he hears our prayers. He's 
 on his throne and knows exactly what 
 he's doing. So, let's gather together 
 and pray for that now. God, we come 
 before you, God, as a church. And we 
 simply thank you for the fact that as 
 your word says here in Psalm 102 that 
 you are in control, God. We thank you 
 for the fact that you hear our prayers. 
 God, we thank you for the fact that 
 while you hold the galaxies and the 
 stars together, you also care for us and 
 what's going on in our lives. God, as we 
 brought things to you today, we pray 
 that you would move powerfully in each 
 of our situations and that you would get 
 all the glory in each of our lives. God, 
 we pray all this in your name. Amen. 
 Let's stand as we continue in worship. 
 [music] 
 [singing] 
 knew [singing] 
 [music] 
 nothing like I thought you were better. 
 What a god. What a 
 god. What a 
 What God 
 [music and singing] shows 
 [music and singing] 
 for the 
 [music] 
 overcome [singing] 
 the sinner. 
 Oh, you say, 
 "No, it's not. [music] No, it's not." 
 You say, "No, it's not. No, it's not." 
 What [music] a God. What a God. 
 Oh, what a God. [music and singing] What 
 a God. 
 Oh, 
 what a God. What a God. [music] 
 Oh, who you are. What a god. What a god. 
 [music] 
 [music] The highest place I reached is 
 at your feet. And I've done it all. If 
 the best thing that I've seen is your 
 glory. [singing] 
 And I've seen it all. 
 Your love has changed my life forever. 
 satisfy [music and singing] 
 God. You are my everything. 
 If the highest place [music] I reached 
 is at your [singing] feet and I've done 
 it all. If the best thing that I've seen 
 is [music and singing] your glory. And 
 I've seen it all. 
 Your love has changed my life. Forever 
 [music] 
 satisfied. [singing] 
 God, you are [music] my air. everything 
 cuz one word is [music and singing] the 
 only thing you speak then I've heard it 
 all 
 your heart and never see your end I 
 still have it all 
 no treasure is mine [music] could ever s 
 my you [music and singing] are my 
 oh God [music] 
 you [singing] are You are my 
 You are my 
 Let [music] it go. Let it go. 
 What a god. [music] 
 What a god. 
 Oh, 
 [music] what a god. What a god. 
 You are [music] 
 a god. What a god. 
 >> [music] 
 >> The highest place I reached is at your 
 feet. And I've done it all. And the best 
 thing that I've [music] seen is your 
 glory. [singing] 
 And I see it all. 
 Your [music] love has changed my life 
 forever. 
 You are my 
 wonder. [music] 
 [music] 
 [singing] 
 I still had it all. No treasure of 
 [music] this life could ever satisfy 
 God. You [music and singing] are my 
 everything. 
 You [music and singing] are my 
 everything. 
 You are my everything. [music] 
 Yes. God, you [singing] 
 are my everything. 
 God, you are my everything. 
 Oh God, [music] 
 you are [singing] my everything. 
 Yes God, you [music and singing] are my 
 everything. 
 [music] 
 >> Good morning, Cross Church. What a God 
 indeed. 
 Brought us some pretty good weather over 
 the last day or two, right? 
 >> Yep. I'm That's a blessing in itself 
 right there. Got a little rain. Got some 
 haboos going on, whatever that's called. 
 Little tumble weeds tumbling. It's been 
 a good pretty couple days, but I want to 
 get right to it because we do have a lot 
 of announcements. A lot of amazing 
 things happening in the Cross Church 
 Collective. First, we're going to look 
 at those cards in your seatback. If you 
 haven't been here or you're just coming 
 here for the first, second, or third 
 time, I want you to fill out that new 
 card. Very important card. Want to get 
 to know you, where you come from, how 
 you heard about us, and what you're all 
 about. just put in that black box in the 
 back. The second one is the next card. 
 If you're looking to serve, get on the 
 worship team, greet some people, hang 
 out with the kids. We could use your 
 help. It'd be awesome to have you 
 around. Please fill out the card for the 
 next card and put it in the black box as 
 well. Lastly is the prayer card, which 
 is the most important card that we do 
 talk about. Just like Pastor Tyler spoke 
 about the Psalms today, God does hear 
 our prayers. And if we come together as 
 a collective, we put our prayers down on 
 those cards. We do pray over them and 
 God hears groups of prayers and he never 
 never misses. So that's an important 
 one. Please fill that out, put it in the 
 black box and uh we'd love to see what 
 you're all about. So let's get to the 
 four announcements that we do have 
 today. First one is going to be the 
 pastor or the pizza with the pastor. 
 It's happening next weekend after the 
 second service. We talk about this a 
 lot, but it can't be overstated how 
 important it is to get in there with 
 speaking directly to Pastor Tyler so we 
 can tell you what we're all about here, 
 where we're heading to make Jesus known, 
 and what the collective of Cross Church 
 is all about so we can spread that word 
 as often as possible. Hit that QR code 
 to get yourself scheduled for that so 
 that you can get some pizza that day. 
 Second is going to be the uh we care 
 weekend which is actually on Friday and 
 Saturday. So the 23rd and 24th. That 
 Friday we're going to meet at uh Bill 
 Gentry Park. We're going to be handing 
 out some flyers. We're going to talk 
 about cross church. We're going to help 
 out in the community. We're going to 
 make Jesus known that way. And on the 
 24th we're going to meet up at um Daart 
 High School. We're building out and 
 helping with the teachers lounge to help 
 regenerate that thing over there. We 
 need as much help as we can get. 
 However, we have had a big turnout so 
 far with signups. So, let's keep that 
 going. Let's get as many people out 
 there as we can because we want to have 
 a big turnout to help the community. 
 Uh sec or the third one is going to be 
 our let me see which one is that? The 
 asbes. That's right. So, the spies is 
 happening on November 1st. extremely 
 important, awesome, super exciting event 
 because we're going to be honoring our 
 volunteers, the people that serve around 
 the Cross Church Collective. We're going 
 to come together um and basically give 
 out awards showing our appreciation for 
 everything everybody's been doing. We're 
 going to have dinner for for all the 
 volunteers. We're going to have um kids 
 care for kids up to 12 years old. So, 
 there's no excuses not to come. We're 
 going to have little events. It's going 
 to be a really great time. All right, so 
 show up for that. Make sure you get 
 registered. It's going to have all the 
 explanations of what I just said and 
 more on the registration. We want to 
 have some food for you. All right, our 
 last announcement is a really cool one. 
 It's going to be our fall fest happening 
 on the 8th of November. That's going to 
 have a food truck for the kids. Uh a 
 photo booth, do some silly photos. Let's 
 get you up on the internet so you could 
 look ridiculous like we all have 
 multiple times on the internet, I'm 
 sure. And it's even going to have like a 
 train ride situation. Pastor Tai didn't 
 explain this really well to me. So, I'm 
 going to assume we're building out a 
 long train track around all the city of 
 Elmarrage. 
 No. Okay. Probably something small. Sign 
 a waiver. I don't know. But it should be 
 a really good time. Um, lots of fun 
 stuff happening. Hopefully, it'll be 
 fall weather by November 8th. Um, but 
 it's actually pretty good right now. I 
 don't want to complain. So, but all 
 these events, all this amazing thing 
 happening in the Cross Church 
 Collective, it only happens because of 
 the generosity in this room, the 
 generosity around the Cross Church 
 Collective. And I just want I can't 
 overstate how important you are for us 
 expanding and helping get out into the 
 world and make Jesus known. So, I'm 
 going to give you about 30 seconds 
 behind me. If it if the Lord puts it on 
 your heart to give for these events and 
 these moments, these times out there in 
 the world to to make Jesus known, that 
 is an amazing thing. And if you've 
 already given, please pray for anybody 
 around you to do the same. Thank you. 
 Well, hey, good morning and welcome to 
 Cross Church. My name is Tyler. If we 
 haven't got a chance to meet yet, I 
 would love to connect with you. I'll be 
 outside underneath the awning after 
 service. So, feel free to swing by there 
 and would love to connect with you there 
 after service. Hey, if you got a Bible 
 today, we are going to use it. So, go 
 ahead and break that thing out. We'll be 
 in Job chapter 11 to begin. Job chapter 
 11. As you make your way there, I want 
 to offer you a little bit of context for 
 how we find ourselves in Job chapter 11. 
 in Job chapter 11. We're actually in our 
 fifth week of our series preaching 
 through the book of Job. And the first 
 10 chapters have been good. They've been 
 heavy and they've been a lot of activity 
 happening throughout the early section 
 of Job. Uh so if you're joining us maybe 
 for the first time or you're just kind 
 of catching up. Here's the deal. Uh in 
 Job chapter 1, God and Satan have a 
 conversation. God grants Satan 
 permission to test Job knowing that Job 
 will stand through the temptation. he'll 
 be able to survive it and not give in. 
 And so God grants Satan permission to do 
 that. The only rule is that Satan can't 
 take Job's life. And so he's got this 
 situation going on. And so that's 
 exactly what Satan does. He takes 
 everything from Job except his life. And 
 then in Job chapter 2, beginning in 
 verse 10 through 14, Job's friends hear 
 about this and then they make a plan to 
 come to him. They go to Job. They gather 
 with him for seven days and nights. They 
 don't say a single word. They simply sit 
 with Job. 
 And then Job begins to lament. And he 
 goes back and forth with each of his 
 friends. And today we're going to find 
 ourselves in the first iteration of 
 Job's conversation with his third 
 friend, Zofar, which quite names these 
 these friends have. These are quite 
 incredible names, right? Zofar. So many 
 others that are good. Um, so Zofar is 
 who we're going to find ourselves with 
 today. But before we jump into that, I 
 want to offer you a little bit of an 
 update on what's happening 
 internationally with Cross Church. 
 Pretty excited about this. You'll see 
 some pictures um show up here. Uh couple 
 months ago, we had a team from Cross 
 Church that went to uh the Philippines. 
 We have two locations of Cross Church in 
 the Philippines. One in Cebu City and 
 one on the island of Kennet. And what 
 you're seeing right here is a sports 
 tournament for a local sport there um 
 where Pastor Chad was able to share the 
 gospel. Here's what's really incredible. 
 what God is doing through the cross 
 church collective isn't just happening 
 here. It's happening halfway around the 
 world as well. In the uh gospel 
 presentation he did, there were actually 
 eight people who stood up, received 
 Christ, and were baptized just a few 
 hours later internationally. So, we're 
 super thankful for that. Yes, that's 
 worth clapping about. Absolutely. What I 
 love about that is a reminder that God's 
 on the move halfway around the world. 
 Uh, one of the cool things I will tell 
 you by way of announcement is that we're 
 actually already planning now for a trip 
 that'll happen next Labor Day. And so if 
 you're interested, if stuff like that is 
 uh up your alley and if God's kind of 
 wired you towards sports and kind of the 
 international work that we're doing 
 there, um, we would love for you to join 
 us for a trip. You have two things you 
 can be doing between now and then. 
 Number one, financially preparing, and 
 number two, make sure that your passport 
 is up to date and ready to go. Does that 
 sound good? Awesome. That's the 
 important stuff. All right. Well, we'll 
 find ourselves today in Job chapter 11. 
 Job chapter 11, we have this guy named 
 Zofar. He's the third friend. And here's 
 what we need to know about Zofar. 
 He's the third friend. The first two 
 told Job honest truths, the things that 
 he needed to hear, but they did so with 
 a touch of kindness. 
 Just be honest. Zofar is known out of 
 the group of friends that Job has as the 
 most harsh and the least empathetic. 
 Uh, this is the friend that pulls no 
 punches and tells you exactly what you 
 need to hear. Anybody got a friend like 
 that? Is that any of you? Some of you 
 are like, "That's me." Anybody? You're 
 that friend? You're the one that just 
 you absolutely tell it how it is. That's 
 good. All right, I'm judging you. Um, 
 no, but here's the deal. Um, we have 
 this third and final friend, Zofar. And 
 here's what he does. We're going to read 
 in uh Job 11, beginning in verse one. 
 Here's what we see. 
 Then Zofar replied, "Should this 
 abundance of words go unanswered and 
 such a talker be acquitted? Should your 
 babbling put others to silence so that 
 you can keep on ridiculing with no one 
 to humiliate you? You have said my 
 teaching is sound and I am pure in your 
 sight." And we'll take a timeout there 
 before we continue reading in this text. 
 Can we just be honest though? Zofar, 
 it's pretty harsh. 
 Now, some of this may be lost in 
 translation, but he basically looks at 
 Job and says, "Are you done yet? Because 
 somebody needs to put you in your place, 
 right? Somebody needs to tell you like 
 it is." And that's exactly what Zofar is 
 going to go on to do. Here's what 
 happens later in this. We actually see 
 what Zofar is going to mention in his 
 critique of Job and his uh pity party, 
 if you will. In chapter 11 verse4 he 
 says you have said my teaching is sound 
 and I'm pure in your sight. So far it's 
 going to actually push back on that. One 
 of the things that we found to be true 
 as we read through this text 
 and as we look at daily life is some of 
 the most important friends that you and 
 I have are the ones that will tell us 
 the honest truth. 
 The ones that will tell us when we're 
 doing something dumb. 
 They will tell us when we need to hear 
 the truth. And that's exactly what Zofar 
 is going to do. He's going to say, "You 
 say that you're pure in God's sight, but 
 he's gonna press in on that and say, are 
 are you sure about that? Are are you 
 really sure that you are pure in God's 
 sight?" And so, we're going to divide 
 today's talk into two specific pieces. 
 The first is this. We're going to see 
 what Zofar offers and then we'll switch 
 over to see what Job answers with in 
 terms of his reply. And so, Zofar offers 
 a few different words. The first one is 
 he offers a word here of pacing. He 
 offers a word of pacing. Now when I say 
 the word pacing, often times we think 
 about slowing [snorts] down, getting 
 onto a pace that's consistent and 
 sustainable. Think about running or 
 different things of that nature. What 
 pacing means, but actually Zofar picks 
 up the pace. He says, "It's been too 
 nice, too slow, too kind. You need to 
 hear the truth and you need to hear it 
 now. you're not as good as you think you 
 are. He goes and he pushes right in on 
 this. He's listened plenty. Now, what I 
 need you to know is this. Zofar does 
 this in context. He doesn't show up to 
 Job and the first word out of his mouth 
 is, "All right, are you done yet? 
 Because somebody needs to humble you." 
 He doesn't go in to 100% this moment 
 right here. He starts by listening. He 
 waits for the other two friends to go. 
 But when it's his time, he has been 
 patient enough and he begins by telling 
 the truth exactly the way that Job needs 
 to hear it. One of the things I find 
 interesting about this is this reveals 
 that most friend groups have different 
 types of people in them. Um I'll 
 illustrate it to you this way. Um if 
 you've ever been in a group text with 
 your friends, you've seen their 
 personalities play out. All right. Um so 
 I'm going to take a little poll to see 
 which of the friends you are in a group 
 text with friends. Anybody here? you're 
 the lurker. You won't say anything like 
 a message. You'll just sit back in the 
 back and just like that's you. Okay, 
 good. Good to know. Um, now in most 
 friend groups, you'll have the lurker. 
 But in most friend groups, you're also 
 going to have the person who only 
 responds with gifts. Anybody? That's 
 you. That's 100% me. I'm not going to 
 say anything serious whatsoever. I'm 
 going to crack a joke and respond with 
 an image every single time. Right? 
 That's me and that's my role. Uh, 
 anybody, you're the oversharer in the 
 group text. You're just the one who like 
 stop. People are like, "Shh, enough. All 
 right, we're going to mute you." Right? 
 Um, we're all have our different 
 personalities and we see it play out in 
 different group settings. Well, here in 
 this setting, Zofar looks at the others 
 and says, "You've been the ones who have 
 said the nice thing. You've been kind. 
 You've done all that, but Job needs the 
 truth. He needs to hear it straight." 
 And so he offers a word of pacing by 
 saying, ' Let's get to this already. The 
 second thing he does is he offers a word 
 of priority. 
 Let me read it to you. In verse 5, he 
 says this, "But if only God would speak 
 and open his lips against you, he would 
 show you the secrets of wisdom. For true 
 wisdom has two sides." 
 Now then, that God has chosen to 
 overlook some of your iniquity. That's 
 what we were talking about earlier. He's 
 saying God has overlooked some of your 
 iniquity. And in verse 7, he says, "Can 
 you fathom the depths of God or discover 
 the limits of the Almighty?" He says, 
 "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Take a moment of 
 priority here. Understand what's going 
 on in the big picture." He's saying God 
 is on the move. God is big. As a matter 
 of fact, if you've been with us for some 
 time now, you know that that's been one 
 of the themes that Job has used and his 
 friends as well is this idea that God is 
 so big. As a matter of fact, God would 
 say or Job would say that God is so big, 
 who can even communicate with him. 
 That's the reason he goes on to ask for 
 a mediator over in uh the last 
 interaction that we saw. He asked for a 
 mediator because he god's so big. And 
 one of the things it reminds me of is it 
 brings my attention back to Pastor Louie 
 Gigglio who offers uh some of the 
 scientific approaches to how big God is. 
 He uses this illustration where he talks 
 about a golf ball-sized earth. Uh if 
 you've ever held a golf ball in your 
 hand, you know that it's pretty small. 
 And he tells us this scientific fact. He 
 says if Earth were scaled down to the 
 size of a golf ball, here's how big our 
 galaxy, solar system, all that stuff is. 
 If Earth were the size of a golf ball, 
 the nearest star would be over 600 miles 
 away. 
 It's a reminder that you and I are so 
 small. As a matter of fact, he would go 
 on to say in the same talk this quote. 
 He would say, "I'm not trying to make 
 you feel small, but he would say this, 
 I'm trying to help you see that you are 
 small so that you can see how big God 
 is." Let me just remind you today 
 that same God who holds all of the 
 galaxies and stars in place knows your 
 name and cares about you. 
 Full stop. 
 That God cares about us. So when we talk 
 about prayer and taking things to God in 
 prayer, he does care for us. Although 
 he's got all this going on, he cares for 
 the things that are going on in our 
 lives. And so we see this word of 
 priority. But we also see a very 
 important shift in Zofar's conversation 
 when he talks about a word of 
 positioning. He says it in verse 13, as 
 for you. That's a highlight circle 
 underlined moment. Verse 13, as for you. 
 Here's what Zofar says. He's offered Job 
 all this word of context and he's eased 
 into it. 
 But he says, "Here's what you need to 
 fix." Verse 13, "As for you, if you 
 redirect your heart and spread out your 
 hands to him in prayer, if there is 
 iniquity in your hand, remove it and 
 don't allow injustice to dwell in your 
 tents, then you will hold your head 
 high, free from fault. You will be 
 firmly established and unafraid. For you 
 will forget your suffering, recalling it 
 only as water that has flowed by. Your 
 life will be brighter than the noon day. 
 Its darkness will be like morning. You 
 see, check this out. One chapter before 
 this, Job has said this phrase that 
 everything feels like darkness. He says 
 even the light feels like darkness. This 
 is all bad. He says, but Zofar flips the 
 script and says, yeah, it looks pretty 
 bad today. It looks difficult and dark 
 and hopeless. 
 But 
 he says, "If you redirect your heart and 
 go to God in prayer, all of this other 
 stuff will happen. God will do what only 
 God can do if we trust him to do it." 
 And as a matter of fact, here what we're 
 reminded of is that Zofar speaks 
 directly to Job's push back. He says, 
 "Yeah, it feels like darkness, sure, but 
 if you redirect your heart and go to God 
 in prayer, your life will be brighter 
 than the noon day. That darkness you 
 spoke of, Job says its darkness will be 
 like the morning. It will be full of 
 light. We find hope in this. As a matter 
 of fact, it says such in verse 18, you 
 will be confident. So far says, because 
 there is hope and you will look 
 carefully about and lie down in safety. 
 You see, after Job has thrown his pity 
 party and just gotten completely focused 
 in all of the pessimism of this, what we 
 find is that Zofar says, "If you will 
 redirect your heart, 
 this can all change." The hope that's 
 found in Zofar's redirect or correction 
 is that no matter what the current 
 circumstances are, the end can be good. 
 We haven't even began to touch on the 
 reality of what God's going to do at the 
 very end of the book of Job where he 
 restores Job to heights he had never 
 even been at before. Not to mention all 
 of that, Job's friends here are saying, 
 "Hey buddy, 
 turn back to God. He will move 
 powerfully." And so for us, the reminder 
 here is that we need to kneel before the 
 God of the heavens and redirect our 
 hearts towards him, which is a word that 
 Job really needed because what does Job 
 do in this story? Well, here's what 
 happens if we continue in Job 12. Job 
 begins his conversation in Job 12:1. 
 Then Job answered, "No doubt you are the 
 people and wisdom will die with you, but 
 I also have a mind like you. I am not 
 inferior to you. Who doesn't know the 
 things you're talking about?" And it's 
 in this first verse of Job's interaction 
 with Zofar that we see the turn and the 
 transition and we see Job answer with a 
 word of passive sarcasm. Anybody here 
 today feel like you are fluent in 
 sarcasm? Anybody? Yep. Here's what we 
 know to be true, unfortunately, about 
 words of sarcasm. They are often, if not 
 always, 
 unhealthy in the way that we use them. 
 They're sort of this way that we respond 
 that doesn't always say the thing that 
 we mean. And what we find here is Job 
 answers by saying, "Surely you're the 
 people and wisdom will die with you. You 
 are the most wise people." He says, "But 
 I'm not inferior to you." 
 He's saying, "I'm smart, too." He goes 
 on to say, "You're saying things that 
 are obvious who doesn't know the things 
 that you're talking about. Everyone 
 knows that God's big and that God will 
 answer your prayers if you turn your 
 heart to all these different things." 
 And he begins to do this. But what we 
 find here is very important is it 
 reveals that Job is not doing well. And 
 what we find in this is his friends are 
 pushing back against him pretty 
 consistently. and he's reacting with 
 this sort of emotional reaction which is 
 completely understandable. Can we just 
 be honest here? Nobody blames Job for 
 being in a bad place. 
 It's understood. All of the difficult 
 things that we've covered that have 
 happened to him have led him to this 
 place. And so he gets this sort of 
 passive sarcasm. But what what happens 
 here is he doesn't stay in this moment 
 of being passive. He flips to a portion 
 of the text where he begins to push back 
 specifically against Zofar. In chapter 
 13:1, he continues the same language and 
 Job says, "Look, my eyes have seen all 
 this. My ears have heard and understood 
 it. Everything you know, I also know. I 
 am not inferior to you." And so, it's in 
 this moment where he begins to push 
 back. He says, "I know what you've said, 
 but he says, I know that, too." And then 
 what does he do? He doesn't stop there. 
 He says in verse three something that we 
 might miss if we just read it 
 individually. In chapter 13:3 it says 
 this, "Yet I prefer to speak to the 
 Almighty and argue my case before God." 
 You see, check this out. What happened 
 one interaction ago is Job is going back 
 and forth with a friend saying, "Man, I 
 just need someone to go between me and 
 God. I need a mediator because God 
 doesn't hear me." And actually what's 
 happening is Job is growing. There's 
 some hope in the midst of this. Even in 
 the middle of his pity party, Job is 
 growing in his faith because he goes 
 from wanting a mediator to go in between 
 him and God to saying in chapter 13:3, 
 "I prefer to speak to the Almighty." He 
 said, "I want to go directly to God and 
 not through you." He's growing. He's 
 making progress. In his push back, we 
 see his growth. But the third thing that 
 we see Job answer with is a word of 
 pity. His 
 pity party continues. The invitations 
 have been sent. The balloons are out. 
 And he continues verse six by saying, 
 "Hear now my argument and listen to my 
 defense." He He says to his friend who's 
 given him the honest truth, pulled no 
 punches, who's gone right after him. He 
 says, "But but listen to my excuses." 
 I've heard it often said that excuses 
 are like buttholes. Everyone has one and 
 they all stink. Yeah, that's it. That's 
 the excuse that we're getting here from 
 Zofhar. He he talks to Job, but Job just 
 pushes back. He says, "Just hear my 
 argument, but I have a reason. I know 
 there's there's stuff that's going on in 
 my life." Zofar didn't handle any of 
 that. He says, "You need to turn back to 
 God." As if Job hasn't been spewing his 
 pity party for 10 chapters now. 
 He's just continually in this cycle. And 
 what it's led to is that Job actually 
 answers in chapter 13 verse 15 with a 
 word of pessimism. Here's what he says. 
 Even if he kills me, I will hope in him. 
 Which is such a conflicting deep 
 statement. We could spend, I believe, a 
 sermon just on that one phrase. 
 Even if he kills me, I will hope in him. 
 Job has extreme trust in God, but he's 
 gotten to the place where he's 
 pessimistic, saying, "All right, God. 
 Even if you take my life, I'll trust 
 you." His expectation for the outcome is 
 no longer good. It has gone bad. Some of 
 us find ourselves in this season where 
 after a difficult job moment, we are 
 left with just answers to everything of 
 pessimism. 
 We only look for what could go wrong or 
 south or bad. 
 and we carry with us the weight of 
 everything that could go wrong. And so 
 what happens here is Job begins this 
 word of really it's it's heavy, but it's 
 a word of pessimism. 
 And and here's the the version or the 
 understanding for pessimism that I want 
 you to have today. 
 Pessimism is when you and I carry with 
 us the weight of everything that could 
 possibly go wrong. 
 It's when we carry with us the weight of 
 everything that could possibly go wrong. 
 A pessimist goes on a road trip and 
 thinks, "Okay, we could get a flat tire, 
 the engine could overheat, we could run 
 out of gas, all the things could happen, 
 right? They think of all of the 
 different things." And most often times 
 the pessimist sees those things where 
 the optimist sees things that could go 
 right, the memories that could be made, 
 the good things that could be happening. 
 But in this moment, because of his 
 current condition and circumstances, Job 
 begins to be pessimistic. 
 And what happens here is it ultimately 
 begins to teach us about a backpack. 
 Now, I don't know if you've ever done 
 this, but um in middle school and high 
 school, um some friends and I got to do 
 some backpacking. Anybody been 
 backpacking before? Anybody? Okay, 
 awesome. A few of you, actually. So, 
 here's what backpacking is if you're not 
 familiar. It's when you go camping, but 
 instead of driving into your camp spot 
 or glamping by taking a camper, all 
 right, because that's cheating. You take 
 everything you need for the weekend in 
 your backpack and you walk in, hike in 
 to your camp spot, camp for the weekend, 
 and then come back out. And it's an 
 incredible experience, and I love 
 getting to do it. But it taught me a 
 really important principle. All right. 
 Um, when I started going backpacking, I 
 thought I knew everything. All right. 
 Um, as most high school students do. And 
 so I thought I knew everything. And so I 
 would pack my backpack and I put 
 everything that I needed and wanted for 
 the weekend in my backpack because I 
 knew that for a few steps I could carry 
 an extremely heavy backpack. I got this, 
 I thought. But here's one of the things 
 that I learned actually pretty quickly 
 into this process is I learned that a 
 heavy backpack for one or two steps was 
 okay, that I could carry the weight, but 
 if I was going to make it all the way 
 into the campsite and back, I needed to 
 be extremely intentional about what I 
 put in my backpack because every little 
 bit of weight mattered. If I could just 
 encourage you on one spiritual principle 
 today, it's this. As you look at Job's 
 reaction, he begins to fill a backpack 
 with pessimism of all the things that 
 have gone wrong about God doesn't listen 
 to him. This has been terrible. I wish I 
 wasn't born. All of these things Job 
 says are pessimism that he puts in his 
 backpack and he tries to carry it all on 
 his own. Understand this. You and I were 
 not designed to carry the full weight of 
 pessimism on our own. We weren't. That's 
 exactly what Zofar says to Job in 
 chapter 11:13. 
 He gives him a way out, a way to put the 
 backpack down. He says, "As for you, if 
 you redirect your heart, spread out your 
 hands to him in prayer. 
 If there's any iniquity in your hand, 
 remove it. And don't allow injustice to 
 dwell in your tents. Then you will hold 
 your head high, free from fault, and you 
 will be firmly established and unafraid. 
 If I could just encourage you today on 
 one simple thing, it would be this truth 
 that we need to take the weight of 
 pessimism of all of the things that 
 could go wrong or have gone wrong in our 
 lives, all of the test results, all of 
 the history and the baggage and the 
 story that we've walked through and all 
 of the junk of life. And we need to take 
 that off in order that we redirect our 
 hearts back to God, focus on God, and 
 spread our hearts out to him in prayer. 
 And when we do so, just as Zofar 
 promises Job, I promise you, if you will 
 do those things, God will do what only 
 he can do in your life. 
 Let me pray for you this morning. 
 God, we come before you and I just lift 
 up to you this church and myself, 
 God, with this principle in mind, 
 understanding that as we read the book 
 of Job, there's so much that goes wrong 
 and it conditions Job towards pessimism 
 of seeing everything as wrong. But my 
 prayer today, God, is that the people in 
 the room and myself would be a people 
 that do not get weighed down by 
 pessimism. rather that we would be the 
 type of people who would tune our hearts 
 towards you, God. That we would redirect 
 our hearts from looking at our 
 circumstances and all the things that 
 could go wrong. That we would simply 
 focus on you. And that a byproduct of 
 that as we pray is that God, you would 
 step into our lives, into our 
 situations, and do what only you can do. 
 God, my prayer is that you and I 
 understand, God, as people, we 
 understand 
 that you can move powerfully, but that 
 we have to take off that pessimism in 
 order to step into what you've called us 
 to. God, I pray that you move powerfully 
 in our midst. Pray all this in your 
 name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue 
 in worship. 
 Saints and angels 
 bow before your throne. 
 All the elders 
 cast their crowns [singing] before the 
 lamb 
 of God and sing. You're [singing] worthy 
 of it all. 
 You're [singing] worthy of it all. 
 For from you are all things [music] and 
 to [singing] you are all things. 
 You deserve the glory. 
 All the saint 
 angels 
 bow before [music] 
 your throne. 
 All the earth [singing] 
 has their crowns before [music] the lamb 
 of [singing] God and sing. You're worthy 
 of it [music] all. 
 You're worthy of it all. 
 Oh Jesus. 
 For from you are all [music] 
 and to you [singing] are all praise. 
 You deserve the glory. 
 You're worthy of it all. You're worthy 
 of it all. [music] 
 You're worthy of it all. [music] 
 Oh, 
 you are all 
 and [music] you are all 
 you deserve the glory 
 day. 
 Day and night and [singing and music] 
 day. 
 Day and night, night and day, let it 
 srise. 
 Day and [music and singing] night, night 
 and day, let it srise. 
 Day and night, night and day, let in. 
 Let's lift up our worship. 
 Day and night, night and day. 
 [music] 
 [singing] 
 Day and night, night and day, let 
 rise. 
 Day and night, night and [music] day, 
 let 
 day and night, night and day. 
 You're worthy of it all. [music] 
 You're worthy of 
 you are 
 and to [music] you are all 
 you deserve glory. 
 You're worthy. [music] 
 You're worthy of 
 You're [music] worthy. 
 You're worthy of 
 you are 
 and to you are 
 you. 
 [music] 
 Thank you guys so much for joining us 
 today. Hope you guys have a great week. 
 See you guys next week. 
 Thank you guys for having me. 
 Thank you. I was