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God, Satan, and Life

September 13, 2026 39:46 Cross Church Surprise

Transcript

· But here's the difference between life and football.

· Is in football, when things go sideways,

· what happens on a Monday morning or the day after the game

· is the coaches get the film

· and they begin watching through it.

· And as they watch film, they're like,

· oh, he missed a block there.

· He blew a coverage there.

· He ran the wrong route.

· They see where it went wrong.

· But life doesn't give you film.

· Hey, if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it

· because we're also with this week one.

· We're starting a brand new series through the book of Job.

· And if you go to the book of Job,

· if you go to the middle of your Bible

· and you'll find Psalms,

· just go to the left and right before that,

· the book tucked in there, 42 chapters, is Job.

· And as we dive into this book,

· as we start week one of this series,

· week one of our fall ministries,

· week one is just great

· because it's filled with hope.

· I firmly believe that week one of the football season

· is the best week that we have.

· You're like, you would think that

· as a Cardinals fan, right?

· But week one is great

· because everyone's filled with hope.

· Everyone says this year is our year.

· I usually say that, but I know it is not our year.

· So, but everyone's filled with hope.

· We're like, man, maybe my team can win more games.

· Man, maybe my team can do this.

· And I am filled with hope for the next about five hours,

· probably about three,

· because halfway through the game,

· I'll probably have no more hope in this season.

· But you're excited before reality hits.

· But here's the difference between life and football

· is in football, when things go sideways,

· what happens on a Monday morning

· or the day after the game is the coaches get the film

· and they begin watching through it.

· And as they watch film, they're like,

· oh, he missed a block there.

· Oh, oh, he blew a coverage there.

· He ran the wrong route.

· They see where it went wrong.

· But life doesn't give you film.

· Wouldn't that be amazing if it did?

· You have that.

· I didn't say you'd have to watch the film

· with your wife.

· I'm just saying it'd be there.

· Like maybe a mentor or God himself could pull you aside

· and be like, hey, you see this conversation

· with your wife here?

· You see when you said, you're just like your mother?

· You see how her nostrils flared,

· how her eyes got big?

· You see how she reached for the kitchen knife?

· That's where in her head she was thinking,

· do I wanna star in a true crime documentary?

· But you see, life doesn't give us that film.

· And today, as we dive into the book of Job,

· the book of Job is a book for people who get no film.

· And here's the deal, that is all of us

· in some place in our life.

· Maybe right now you walked in

· and you are in the middle of a storm

· and you're wondering why.

· And you're like, man, what are the answers?

· Where did I screw up?

· Where did someone else screw up?

· Why is this happening?

· And you're in the middle of it,

· but you don't know why

· and you don't have the answer to it.

· Maybe the storm is approaching

· and it's not here yet, but it's going to be

· and those questions are going to form in your head

· or maybe you just walked out of one

· and you still don't know why you were in it

· to begin with.

· Well, the book of Job is the perfect book

· that shows us the storms of life

· and how we don't always get the picture perfect answers

· to the questions that we want.

· And as we dive into this book today,

· here's what we're gonna see

· is we're gonna see this thing

· called life is filled with a lot of stuff.

· And today, as we dive into chapter one,

· we're gonna see God, we're gonna see Satan

· and we're gonna see the messiness of life.

· And as we go through this,

· there are gonna be three things

· that just jump off the page

· of this thing called life,

· of the answers it gives us.

· And the first thing we see inside this life

· is there is this ideal world that we all strive for,

· this ideal world that we all strive for.

· Let's start in Job chapter one,

· starting in verse one, it says this,

· that there was a man in the country of us named Job.

· He was a man of complete integrity

· who feared God and who turned away from evil.

· He had seven sons and three daughters.

· His estate included 7,000 sheep and goats,

· 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen,

· 500 female donkeys and a very large number of servants.

· Job was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

· His sons used to take turns

· having banquets at their homes.

· They would send an invitation to their three sisters

· to eat and drink with them.

· Whenever a round of banqueting was over,

· Job would send for his children

· and he would purify them,

· rising early in the morning

· to offer burnt offerings for all of them.

· For Job thought, perhaps my children have sinned

· having cursed God in their hearts.

· This was Job's regular practice.

· You see, as we open this book,

· it opens almost like a movie.

· It is a narrative and the book of Job is a complex book

· because it's both narrative and wisdom and poetry

· and I would argue it's actually the first book

· written in the entire Bible

· before Moses wrote the first five.

· But this book that is filled with so much complexity,

· it opens like this movie

· that scans across this land called us.

· This is a real place, east of the Jordan,

· right outside the borders of Israel

· and as it's panning across,

· it settles on this one man named Job

· and the narrator quickly hands us his resume,

· gives us four lines about him.

· First, he was a man of complete integrity.

· He feared God number two,

· he turned away from evil number three

· and then in verse eight, God himself will say

· that no one on earth was like him.

· Now hear me, the word integrity here

· doesn't mean he was sinless or perfect

· but it means he was whole.

· Like you could knock on him and be like,

· oh, there's a stud there, right?

· You like that, you don't even have to use a stud finder.

· But he's whole, he's something that is same

· on a Tuesday as he is on a Sunday.

· One of the things I strive for in my preaching

· is I like to tell you my mistakes

· because I want you to know I'm a mistake-filled person

· up here so you're not surprised

· when you meet me out there, all right?

· That's why my sarcasm comes out,

· sometimes a little bit too much.

· Sometimes I step in a comment that I should not say

· but in here, I want my goal to be am I the same person

· on a Tuesday afternoon as they am

· on a Sunday morning on stage

· and you see Job was exactly like this.

· His life matched his character

· and then it tells us about his life.

· He had seven sons, he had three daughters,

· 7,000 sheep, 500 yoke of oxen, and camels.

· Oh guys, camels.

· Camels were the luxury vehicle of the ancient world.

· It's true.

· And how many camels did it say you have?

· 3,000.

· Anyone wanna know how much,

· if you do some conversion ratios using chat GPT

· or Claude, right?

· How much would 3,000 camels be in today's worth?

· Anyone wanna venture a guess?

· About 30 to 40 million dollars worth.

· Job, as it says, was the greatest man of the East,

· the largest stockholder on the Wall Street

· of the ancient world.

· But look at what the narrator lingers on,

· not the portfolio that he had that was impressive,

· it was the family altar.

· You see, every time his kids finished

· one of their banquets, Job was up at dawn,

· he was offering sacrifices for each child by name

· just in case, as verse five says,

· just in case they sinned

· because it was his regular practice.

· He had a full house, a full bank account,

· a full heart devoted towards God.

· This past January through Easter,

· our family, we got in like a rhythm,

· and we have four kids ranging from two to 10,

· so our schedule can be a little chaotic at times,

· got a kid in dance, a kid in soccer,

· kids have to go to school, that's still required,

· and where we're doing all that,

· unless they're homeschooled then, doesn't really matter,

· just kidding, we love all the homeschool families,

· but our schedule was just like all over the map,

· but somehow, like me and my wife and all the kids,

· we were just like in sync,

· and everything was falling into place,

· and it's like we were busy, but we were grooving,

· and we had this, and I felt like, man,

· it felt like the ideal suburban life,

· especially January through Easter in Phoenix

· in Surprise, Arizona feels great, right?

· And can I be honest with you?

· It was like, this is what I want, this is perfect,

· and if we're honest, this is the world

· that most of us are chasing, the healthy kids,

· the paid off house, the life where the worst thing

· that happens is the monsoon blows over your neighbors

· and the trampoline into your backyard,

· and here's the deal, there is nothing wrong with that world,

· there's nothing wrong with even chasing that world,

· it is a gift, but church, in verse five,

· this is the last verse of the crucial,

· of the ideal world, because in verse six,

· the camera cuts away from ooze,

· and all of a sudden, it shows us what's next,

· the thing that Job never got to see

· is this thing called life was also filled

· with this invisible war going behind the scenes,

· this invisible war behind the scenes,

· keep going, in verse six of our passage in chapter one,

· it says, then one day, the sons of God came

· to present themselves before the Lord,

· and Satan also came with them.

· The Lord asked Satan, where have you come from?

· From roaming through the earth,

· Satan answered him, and walking around on it,

· then the Lord said to Satan,

· have you considered my servant Job?

· No one else on earth is like him,

· a man of perfect integrity who fears God

· and turns away from evil,

· Satan answered the Lord,

· does Job fear God for nothing?

· Haven't you placed a hedge around him,

· his household, and everything is owned,

· you have blessed the work of his hands,

· and the possessions have increased in his land,

· but stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns,

· and he will surely curse you to your face.

· Verse 12, very well, the Lord told Satan,

· everything he owns is in your power,

· however, do not lay a hand on Job himself,

· so Satan left the Lord's presence.

· Suddenly, the story, as it progresses,

· we're not in the Land of Uzz anymore,

· instead, we're standing in the throne room of heaven,

· and it tells us a little about it,

· first, the sons of God are there,

· in the Hebrew, that's the word for the angelic beings,

· God's heavenly counsel,

· they're coming to present themselves before the Lord,

· and scripture shows us this scene more than once,

· Micaiah saw it, Isaiah saw it, Daniel saw it,

· but in the middle of this throne room scene,

· Satan walks in.

· In the Hebrew, the word is actually the Satan,

· it is a title, not just a name,

· it means the accuser, the prosecutor,

· and when God asks where he's been,

· he says he's been roaming the earth.

· Peter in the New Testament will tell us the same thing,

· that the devil prowls around like a lion

· looking for someone to devour,

· but now watch the twist,

· because it's not what you'd expect,

· as Satan doesn't bring up Job,

· instead, God does.

· In verse eight, he's like, have you considered Job?

· Job's a baller, Job's the man,

· Job is faithful, Job is in church every Sunday,

· have you considered Job?

· And God starts bragging on Job

· in front of the whole council,

· and the accuser does what accusers do,

· is he can't attack Job's conduct,

· so he starts attacking his motives.

· And in verse nine, this is such an important question,

· he says, does Job fear God for nothing?

· Understand what Satan is actually putting on trial here,

· Job is not being put on trial,

· instead, it's the question that's underneath

· every one of our faiths in this room,

· is do people love God,

· or do people love what God gives them?

· Is your faith worship,

· or is it just a business arrangement?

· Do you come to church, be like,

· God, I'll come to church,

· but make sure my family's healthy,

· make sure my mortgage is paid,

· make sure my job gets better,

· make sure my boss isn't too much of a jerk,

· like, God, I'll come to church,

· but you gotta do some stuff on the back end for me.

· And Satan is asking this question and prying on this.

· Now, let's make this uncomfortably practical,

· if God took those things away,

· if he took away your paycheck,

· would you still be praising him?

· If a diagnosis came back more negative than you expected,

· would you still be coming and worshiping him?

· You see, what Satan accuses,

· his accusation he makes here is that nobody would,

· that every believer is merely a customer,

· but here's why this book is so important,

· is the book of Job exists to prove that Satan is a liar.

· And God, knowing Job,

· knowing the outcome, gives permission.

· He says everything Job owns is placed in Satan's power,

· but mark this, permission came with a prohibition.

· He said, don't lay a hand on the man himself.

· In Satan, what we're gonna see in a second,

· he takes everything Job owns.

· But when Job stand firm,

· the accuser comes back for round two in chapter two.

· Let's read that, starting in verse one,

· it says, on the day the sons of God

· came again to present themselves before the Lord,

· and Satan also came with them

· to present himself before the Lord.

· The Lord asked Satan, where have you come from?

· He's been roaming around and walking around.

· In verse three, then the Lord said to Satan,

· have you considered my servant Job?

· Same question.

· No one on earth is like him,

· a man of perfect integrity who fears God

· and turns away from evil.

· See how God ups it in the second round.

· He still retains his integrity,

· even though you incited me against him,

· to destroy him for no good reason.

· And then Satan knows he's been losing.

· He knows he took everything from Job,

· and Job stand firm.

· In verse four, he says, skin for skin.

· Satan answered the Lord,

· a man will give up everything he owns

· in exchange for his life,

· but stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones,

· and he will surely curse you to your face.

· Very well, the Lord told Satan,

· he is in your power, only spare his life.

· As Satan fails the first time around,

· he ups the ante, and he says, skin for skin,

· let me start attacking him,

· and God permits the enemy to touch his body,

· but not to kill him.

· Now church, don't miss what this scene teaches us

· about the enemy, about Satan himself,

· is he is very real.

· He is not a cartoon with a pitchfork.

· He is not a metaphor.

· He is not simply a shadow.

· He is not like my ASU stunt devils

· who only show up for three quarters

· and don't check in for the fourth.

· Not bitter about that at all,

· but instead, the Satan, the devil,

· described in scripture, alive in our world,

· is he is personal, he is patient,

· and he has a strategy on how he wants

· to destroy your life.

· But hear this also, he is on a leash.

· He cannot touch one camel, one servant,

· one child of Job's without permission from the throne,

· Martin Luther said it this way,

· that even the devil is God's devil.

· Today I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna sit on my couch

· and I'm gonna watch the Cardinals game

· and I'm gonna text the coaches

· on how they need to do a better job running plays.

· But here's the thing, if you sit in a stadium

· or you sit on your couch,

· you get to see 22 players play on the field at a time.

· And as you're seeing that, that is the game,

· but there is a game going beyond that game,

· because what you don't see, unless the camera pans there,

· is all the coaches in the boxes,

· who are looking down with their binoculars,

· who have screens up, who are seeing the patterns,

· who are calling the plays from the sidelines,

· or calling coverages that are missed,

· is there is so much going on

· beyond what you see on that field.

· And here's the deal, in the game of life,

· there's a lot more that's happening

· than just what we see on the field.

· There is a booth above your life

· and there is more going on it

· than what you can see from your seat.

· In the most important sentence,

· I'll be saying all morning,

· so lean into this as we introduce to this book of Job,

· as we see what Job is about to go through.

· You and I just read chapter one,

· in part of chapter two,

· and we see this invisible war,

· these throne room scenes,

· but Job never got to.

· Job is wondering what in the world is happening to his life.

· Job never sees the council.

· Job never hears God brag on him.

· Can you imagine hearing God brag on you to Satan?

· Job never learns that his suffering

· is actually a compliment to his life.

· The whole thing started because God pointed at him

· and said, that one is mine.

· Imagine hearing that from God.

· Brandon, God is saying, that one is mine.

· Cheryl, that one is mine.

· Matt, that one is mine.

· Josh, that one is mine.

· Roger, that one is mine.

· God is looking down.

· He said, you are mine.

· I know you'll stick it out

· from whatever's gonna happen after here,

· but then what's gonna happen

· is he's gonna spend the next 35 chapters

· asking why in the world this is happening,

· because the answer was behind a curtain

· that he couldn't pull back,

· which means every dark night Job spends wondering

· if God has become the enemy,

· it's happening while God is holding

· the leash of the true enemy.

· The reader knows what the sufferer never learns.

· That's not a flaw in the story.

· That is the beauty of this story,

· because here's the deal, is your life is the same way,

· is you will go through suffering

· and you will not get the answer to why,

· but there is a God in heaven who knows why

· and who loves you.

· In this invisible war that's raging around us,

· this storm that you don't understand,

· heaven is not gonna send you a transcript after

· and say this is why it happened.

· So the question becomes, what do you do

· when the war is invisible and the loss is not?

· And that leads us to verse 13 of chapter one,

· that we see this ideal world that gets torn apart

· by this invisible war that they cannot see,

· but it leads to this impossible worship.

· Check out chapter one, verse 13.

· We get to see the suffering that Job gets at his hand

· and says this one day, when Job's sons and daughters

· were eating and drinking wine

· in their oldest brother's house,

· a messenger came to Job and reported,

· while the oxen were plowing

· and the donkeys grazing nearby,

· the Sabians swooped down and took them away.

· They struck down the servants with a sword

· and I alone have escaped to tell you,

· he was still speaking when another messenger came

· and reported, God's fire fell from heaven,

· it burned the sheep and the servants and bowed them

· and I alone have escaped to tell you,

· this is a servant's interpretation,

· God did not send that fire, it's an important note.

· Verse 17, that messenger was still speaking

· when yet another messenger came and reported,

· the Chaldeans formed three bands,

· made a raid on the camels and took them away,

· 30 to 40 million dollars worth of camels.

· They struck down the servants with a sword

· and I alone have escaped to tell you,

· he was still speaking when another messenger came

· and reported, your sons and daughters were eating

· and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

· Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert

· and struck the four corners of the house,

· it collapsed on the young people so that they died

· and I alone have escaped to tell you.

· One day, one ordinary feeling day,

· the kids are at their brother's house

· just like they were always from time to time

· and four messengers hit Jobe's dorbs like waves.

· First, Savian raiders take the oxen and donkeys

· and while that guy was still speaking,

· giving the report, fire fell and takes the sheep,

· while he was still speaking, Chaldeans,

· take the camels, while he was still speaking,

· a wind comes off the desert,

· hits the house where all 10 of his children

· are gathered and there are no more children.

· Four reports and one day, back to back to back

· and the richest man in the East went to bed bankrupt

· with 10 graves to dig.

· Just sit in that for a second.

· These were his kids, the ones they tell us

· in verse five that he got up to pray for,

· by name, to offer sacrifices for because he loved them.

· I think of my kids, I can't imagine being in Jobe's shoes.

· So what does he do?

· Verse 20 might be one of the most stunning verses

· in the entire Old Testament because if I was Jobe,

· I think I'd have a very different reaction.

· But as then Jobe stood up, he tore his rope,

· he shaved his head, he fell to the ground

· and he worshiped, not cursed, not screamed,

· but he worshiped saying,

· naked I came from my mother's womb

· and naked I will leave this life.

· The Lord gives and the Lord takes away,

· but blessed be the name of the Lord.

· As Jobe tears his robe and shaves his head,

· this is not a man pretending he's fine,

· it's a man in full public gut level grief.

· But in the middle of that grief,

· he gets to his knees and he worships.

· Now here's what's important about this,

· is grief in worship can be in the same body

· at the same time.

· Don't ever let anybody tell you

· that those two things cannot coincide

· and could inhabit the same room together.

· And notice what Jobe's theology holds onto

· when everything else is gone,

· he says the Lord gives,

· he says everything I had was a gift from God,

· he said I showed up to the world with nothing,

· everything I have is I'm just stewarding

· the blessings that God has poured out,

· but he also says the Lord takes away,

· that God owns it all, he owes me nothing

· and he lands at this blessed be the name of the Lord.

· Jobe knew the difference between the gift and the giver,

· and when he lost every gift, he still had the giver.

· And you see when the family realizes

· or when the enemy realizes saying himself

· that he didn't win by taking away his finances

· and his family, then in chapter two,

· he ups the ante, check out verse seven,

· it says so Satan left the Lord's presence

· and inflicted Jobe with terrible boils

· from the soles of his feet to the top of his head

· then Jobe took a piece of broken pottery

· to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

· And in verse nine, his wife said to him,

· are you still holding on to your integrity?

· Curse God and die.

· As Jobe is sitting in ashes,

· not only in emotional pain from his family

· being taken away, but now in physical pain of his body

· being in so much pain that he can't even imagine

· he's scraping himself with shattered pottery.

· His wife, the closest person in his life looks at him

· and be like, just curse God and die.

· And don't be too hard on Mrs. Jobe here.

· They were her children too, but in her pain,

· she hands her husband the exact line

· that the accuser wrote back in chapter one.

· Here's a detail that's buried in the Hebrew

· that we'll preach to our hearts and our lives today.

· In these two chapters, every time you read the word

· curse, the Hebrew word on the page is actually bless.

· The same word, it is baruch.

· And the ancient writers,

· they would not even write curse God.

· They would write bless God and let you feel the sarcasm.

· It's like in the South when there's the old,

· you know, the old grandma says like,

· bless their heart.

· Like she's saying like, they're an idiot, right?

· Like they're not too smart, bless their heart.

· But they're like, I can't, they're like,

· the Hebrew writers are like,

· we can't even write curse God down.

· So we'll write bless God, knowing the context,

· they'll understand that that person

· is actually cursing him.

· So what is happening here is Satan will say

· that he will curse you.

· So listen to what's reading said.

· Satan tells God in chapter one

· is he will bless you to your face,

· but not really saying bless, he's saying curse.

· And Jobe's wife says, bless God and die,

· but she's meaning curse.

· And then Jobe opens his mouth on the ash heap

· and he says, blessed be the name of the Lord.

· Same word, but he actually meant blessed and not curse.

· The enemy picked the word for the test

· and Jobe actually used his word,

· but used it in the way that Satan did not want it

· and he lost his own bet with his own word.

· And look at how Jobe answers his wife in verse 10.

· He says, you speak as a foolish woman,

· speaks, don't quote that after church, all right?

· He said, should we only accept good from God

· and not adversity?

· Notice he doesn't call her foolish.

· He's saying you were speaking as a foolish person says.

· Also don't use that in argument,

· that will get you in trouble, all right?

· But what he's saying is he's being gentle

· with her grief and firm with his theology

· at the same point is the question

· that's written on the wall of his heart

· and her heart and our heart is should we only accept

· good from God and not adversity when it comes?

· Because if we're honest,

· most of us have a very one way faith.

· We have categories for when God gives,

· but we don't have categories for when God takes.

· You see, Jobe refused to worship a vending machine.

· Jobe was worshiping a king.

· To this day when Orthodox Jewish people

· hear that someone has died,

· there is a set response that they are supposed to give.

· It is not I'm sorry, it is not why did they die

· or how did they die.

· It's three Hebrew words, barak, dayan, hamet,

· which is blessed is the true judge.

· You see at the grave side, they pray the Kadesh,

· a prayer that never once mentions death.

· Every line of it magnifies the name of God.

· You see for 3,000 years through the story of Jobe

· and through this book, God has called his people

· to do exactly the same thing that Jobe did

· on the ash heap is blessed is the Lord God

· even when our trials don't feel like it.

· You see this is the impossible worship

· because you cannot manufacture it in the moment.

· Worship like this isn't produced by the storm.

· Worship like this is revealed by the storm.

· Now look at how the narrator closes

· each round of his test.

· Two bookends he gives in verse 22,

· he says throughout all this,

· Jobe did not sin or blame God for anything.

· And then the second half of verse 10 of chapter two,

· he says throughout all this,

· Jobe did not sin in what he said.

· You see Jobe never got the why.

· You can do some homework, there's only 42 chapters.

· You can read the whole book of Jobe this week.

· We're gonna spend the next 12 weeks going through it.

· All 42 chapters and God never once explains

· chapter one and two to him.

· The transcript stays sealed and honestly

· in chapter one and two, we still don't fully get the why

· of why all this had to play out this way.

· But Jobe had something better than the why.

· And that's the banner over this entire series.

· This enduring truth that we get today

· is life's big question.

· It's not why things happen, but who is always there.

· Hear this church, the big questions of life are not why,

· why, why, but it is who.

· Now let me protect that statement for a second

· because you might hear that and be like,

· well, is my why not important?

· No, your why is important.

· You ask why to a lot of things

· and your questions of why are not sin.

· Your questions of why are not foolish.

· Your questions of why are valid.

· I still have four kids, two to 10.

· I get asked why a lot

· and I don't know the answers to their whys.

· And next week, Jobe is going to ask the question why

· and he will do it when he opens his mouth

· and starting in chapter three, Jobe is gonna say

· some of the rawest, darkest things in your Bible.

· And at the end of the book,

· God says Jobe spoke rightly

· because he spoke from his heart

· and God is not afraid of your why questions.

· The why is not wrong, but the why is above your pay grade.

· But you know what isn't?

· Is the who is not above your pay grade.

· The why lies behind the curtain,

· but the who is standing with you in the ashes.

· And here's where this series is headed.

· So mark it now for the next 12 weeks

· as we go through this, we're gonna watch this man wrestle.

· He's gonna wrestle with his friends,

· with his pain and with God himself.

· And when God finally speaks at the end of the book,

· he answers exactly zero of Jobe's why questions.

· Instead, he gives Jobe something better.

· He gives Jobe himself.

· And spoiler alert in Jobe 42 verse five,

· I love this verse as it goes through all these trials

· and all these hardships and all this pain.

· Jobe sees God and he says this,

· that I had heard reports about you,

· but now my eyes have seen you.

· Church, that's the journey from why to who,

· from hearing about God to coming to worship on a Sunday,

· where everyone else is singing things out

· and you're still getting a no.

· Is this Jesus?

· Is this God thing real?

· You've heard about him,

· but it's so much different when you see him.

· In church, how do I know the who is always there?

· How do I know in the middle of my storm,

· in the middle of my brokenness,

· in the middle of my mess,

· that this who that's sitting in a throne room

· actually cares?

· Because here's the beauty.

· The who has been in this passage

· the whole time we've read it.

· The who was here all along

· when Jobe in the ideal world

· got up at dawn to offer sacrifices for sins

· his children might have committed.

· Guys, Jesus was already on his way

· to be the once and for all sacrifice

· for sins that you absolutely did commit.

· When Jobe's life was on trial

· in the throne room of heaven

· and no one stood up to speak for him,

· Jesus stands in that same throne room today

· and he speaks for you.

· He is not silent about your name.

· Jobe would beg later in chapter nine

· if only there were a mediator between us.

· In chapter 16, he gets to the mediator.

· He says, my witness is in heaven.

· Jobe cried out for you.

· Jesus is the answer to that cry.

· And today Jesus in heaven,

· he is the mediator for us

· by his death and sacrifice.

· He is saying your name.

· He is saying, Carol, he is mine.

· He is saying, Fred, he is mine.

· He has said Mike, he is mine.

· He is looking down.

· He's saying, Jonathan, you are mine.

· And he is the mediator.

· He is the mediator between the brokenness of our sin and us.

· And hear this, when Jobe suffered as an innocent man,

· but not a perfect man, not God himself,

· it was only a shadow, guys,

· a shadow of the one who would suffer for you,

· who would die on a cross for you,

· who would carry your sins from you

· that you could not carry,

· who would be raised from the grave to save you

· so that when the why goes unanswered,

· you would never have to answer who.

· You see, Jobe never got the film.

· Jobe never got the answer

· to why all this was happening.

· And hear this, in your trial,

· in your storm, in your hardship,

· you're not gonna get the answer either,

· but you will get something so much greater.

· You get the perfect sacrifice.

· You get the constant mediator.

· You get the suffering servant.

· You get the savior of the universe.

· Church, wake up and say amen,

· or get excited after this.

· You get Jesus.

· Yeah.

· The book of Jobe is about a man who lost everything,

· but who still had all that he needed

· in our God, in our savior, Jesus Christ.

· And as we embark on this journey,

· church, we need to recognize the storms we are in,

· but who is present with us today.

· We need to recognize the storms

· throughout it.

· So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do right now.

· Grab your sheet of notes or grab your phone

· and open your notes tab.

· And just take a minute right now,

· between you and God,

· and I want you to name the storm that you're in.

· Maybe the storm you just got out of,

· and it still confuses you

· why in the world you even went through it.

· Maybe it's the storm you're in right now,

· the stress at work, the frustrations in your parenting,

· the hardship of hurt, the diagnosis

· that just won't get better.

· Name the storm you have.

· And underneath it, I want you to write who.

· Who is Lord of that storm?

· Who is bigger than that storm?

· Who died on the cross and rose again

· so that that storm doesn't define your life?

· But the declaration of saying Jesus is Lord,

· it changes everything now.

· But even more than that,

· it changes everything for eternity.

· That one day we will be in that throne room.

· One day we will look at the perfect King

· reigning over the universe

· because he has called us his,

· and he has welcomed us into his family.

· My challenge for you

· is over these next 12 weeks, you get to know the who.

· You know the who in two ways.

· First, that you actually come here

· and you be a part of what God is doing here

· at Cross Church.

· And you come here every Sunday

· and we get to pray through,

· to pray through, to preach through

· so that we can practice God's word.

· And you get to know the who

· this Bible talks about in Jesus Christ

· in a deeper way.

· And here's the deal is we get to know this who

· in community with one another.

· And as we said, we're starting in week one.

· You don't know anyone?

· You feel awkward?

· Guess what, it's week one.

· You've got no losses yet, just like my Cardinals.

· Go to the table outside, sign up online,

· gather with God's community

· and let's get to know the who together.

· Who we can bring our questions of why to,

· but that he stands above them,

· that he delivers us from them,

· that no matter what happens,

· he is sitting beside us in the storm

· because he loves you,

· because he saved you

· and he wants to be with you for all of eternity.

Part of Series

Job

Job

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