Sunday Setup – PRAY through Job 1:1-2:10 with Us

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Cross Church family. Welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time each Thursday at 2:00 where we digitally gather together to pray through the piece of scripture that we will be preaching through this week. And we say every Sunday here at Cross Church, it's our goal to pray, praise, preach so that we can practice God's word. I'm excited for this Sunday as the NFL season kicks off and we start a new season. Uh we start a new book as well. And we're going through the book of Job, an Old Testament book that is just filled uh with just such a great narrative and poetry and wisdom. And there's just so much to go through in this. But as we start this series, and we'll be doing large chunks in this book because it is so dense and so just long and and huge in its scope. But we're going to be looking this Sunday at chapters 1 through chapter 2:10. But I want us to just read chapter 1 today in our time. And we're going to go through this quickly and then have a couple prayer prompts to prepare our hearts for. And it starts here in Job chapter 1 starting in verse one. It says this. There was a man in the country of ooze named Job. He was a man of complete integrity who feared God and 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 ox, and 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Joe was the greatest man among all the people of the east. His sons used to take turns having banquetss at their home. 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 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. 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 s 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." Saint answered the Lord, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven't you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the works of his hands. His possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to his face. Very well, the Lord said, everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on him, on Job himself. So, Satan left the Lord's presence. As the story continues, Satan does exactly what you would expect. He takes everything from Job. He takes his wealth. He takes his family. And he does the same thing in chapter 2. But I want us to focus on in verse 20 through 22, which is the same way Job 9 and 10 ends, is how does Job respond to all this suffering that happens after he loses his family after he loses his wealth. After he loses everything he worked for in his life, verse 20 of chapter 1 says, "Then Job stood up. He tore his robe and he shaved his head. He fell to the ground and 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." Verse 22, throughout all of this, Job did not sin or blame God for anything. The book of Job is filled with a lot of questions. And really the question that people at most ask when they come to this book is why does God let this happen? Why does God allow suffering? Why does God maybe even promote suffering to Satan in this? Why? Why? Why? Why is this happening? Why do unfair things happen? Why is my life so hard? Why is this? But I think where we need to start in this first is in these first five verses, you get to see just this amazing life that Job had, but none of it he really did to deserve. And of all of our broken lives, we have probably more than we deserve. We have blessings that we take for granted. And this is where I want us to start our time in our first prayer prompt is God, thank you for the blessings of Job had a wealthy life financially. Job had a vibrant family. Job had a religious and a loving relationship with God. And we sometimes take that for granted because God has blessed us so much. So here's our first prayer prompt as we reflect on our own lives because some often we reflect on the negative but let's reflect on the positive of what we have because of God. God, thank you for the blessings of pray that prayer to our God. Heat. Heat. Lord, we thank you for the blessings of our family, for our jobs, for our neighborhoods, for the shelter we have, for the food we get to eat every day. Lord, the fact is if we're listening this today, we are blessed beyond the majority of the world in material things, in the common grace that we get to experience. And Lord, often we take those things for granted. Often we are so quick to focus on how hard our life is, how negative our life is, things that go wrong instead of the blessings that you have provided. God, thank you for blessing us and the blessings you have provided in these different areas. But we continue on in this once those blessings are taken away. Once all of a sudden Job shifts to the other end of the spectrum of having this successful life by worldly standards to having a miserable life by worldly standards. He ends this where it says he kept worshiping God and that he did not sin or blame God for anything. I mean, we're going to talk for 12 weeks about the self-control of Job, about how he constantly kept looking to the right things and how God was present in that moment. But this last line is he did not sin in anything or blame God. And and here's our prayer prompt is we get to be honest and we get to name our struggles that we're going through right now. And and it's just simple here is God despite blank, name what you're going through. Maybe it's a death in the family. Maybe it's an addiction. Maybe it's a financial crunch. Maybe it's whatever hurt you're dealing with. A relationship that's strained. Is God despite blank let me not sin or blame you. God despite blank let me not sin or blame you. Take some time pray that to our God. Heat. Heat. God, despite these struggles that you know that we are praying today, that you hear people speaking right now, God, the struggle of financial hardships, of family struggles, of Lord, Just the stuff of life that comes and goes of sin that rages in our heart of Lord that despite the temptations, despite the struggles, despite the hardships just that just like Job face, let us follow the model of Job, the model of the greater Job in Jesus Christ. And do not sin and do not blame you, God. just be with our church as we embark upon this new series that this old book that is so hard to understand at time that is so much that at times doesn't give us the full uh answers that we want to hear Lord but you provide what is truly needed what is truly necessary and who truly stands above all of it God just thank you for all who are listening to this God thank you for our church family Lord gather us together this week so we can worship you and so we take time praying, praising, preaching, and practicing your word through the life of Christ Church. God, we thank you for all this and lift all of it in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys for joining us today. We can't wait to see you. Wear your gear on Sunday. Invite a friend and we'll see you this Sunday at 9 and 10:30 for week 1. Take care. Heat. Heat.