NOV 17 2024 | Job: Hearing God in the Whirlwind S1E6 | Job Responds

Sea Change Church · NOV 17 2024 | Job: Hearing God in the Whirlwind - S1E6: Job Responds
Job 42
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

And he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemima, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Karen Hapok. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters.

And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations. And Job died an old man and full of days. This is the word of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Jeff, we can cut some bits out. I don't want to tax you too much. And he's all, no, I think this is important.

I think the whole thing should be in there. He does such a great job reading. And we love doing things that are coming out of our church as opposed to just getting some AI version, writing AI songs. We want our worship team and the next generation of worship leaders to bring their own song. Wasn't that a beautiful song Danny wrote? That's our first one that we're going to release over Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Danny and the team. It was just like, wow. Really blessed. Really blessed. I love that. The prayers prayed in silence will lead us out in triumph. I know I kind of butchered the lyric a little bit, but close of what that is. Also, yeah, go to the bookstore. I am surprisingly, I picked, these are quiet time candles. And there's nothing magical about them.

We don't pray to them. But it just puts a little swag in your quiet time and makes it cool, right? So you can get it. And then I try to pray a whole candle. And then I start at the beginning of my prayer time and see how long it takes me to pray a candle. Probably, I don't know, about 25, 30 hours of prayer there. I surprisingly bought the patchouli, which is rare because I don't like patchouli.

I feel like our millennials ruined it for us. You know what I mean? And there should be a permit to wear that stuff. Like if you need a permit for a gun, you should have a permit for patchouli. Anybody ever think? No? You've never seen the misuse of patchouli? I have. But the reason I like this is because it doesn't smell anything like patchouli. But it is patchouli and amber.

That's the pastor's recommendation right now. You can go check it out. We've got seven different candle flavors. There's six back there. You can check it out. Excited to have that. And basically, we just want to set that up to give you stuff for your time with God. It's just stuff to spend time with God, new Bibles, devotional, really, to get you solid with the Lord.

With that said, we're jumping into Job. We're ending the story here in Job 42 with Job speaking to God. Now, remember, there's three or four chapters here at the end where God shows up. And God shows up in a natural disaster, which is interesting. He shows up in a whirlwind. The very thing that had taken the lives of Job's children. And he begins to speak to Job.

And what is interesting is for multiple chapters, over 30 some odd chapters, Job has been saying, oh, I just, I want to speak to God. I need to talk to him. I've got to say something to him. And I have something to bring before him and plead my case. He never charges God with anything of wrongdoing or anything like that. And when God shows up, he has a really unique response.

We're going to look at that response in a moment. He has three main things that he says that can work as a theological scaffolding for how we see ourselves before God. The way you see yourself, the way in which you see yourself before God, how you understand him to be and how you understand you to be is crucial. Is God the, you know, the passenger and you're the, you know, is he the co-pilot and you're the pilot?

That kind of nature. Job, through all this experience, really frames up the relationship with God. And there's some, there are some truths that are balancing each other in this as well. We'll get to those. But I wanted to have a main point. And the main point I came up with for the whole book of Job, earlier, I think in week two, I said I think the main point is sovereignty.

And I think my final conclusion is still that. But I was a little embarrassed to give such a simplistic point. Because I wanted to, like, be very theological, you know. I wanted to say, you know, if we look at the ontological argument of God and all these, you know. But I kind of just ended up with a simple one. And as I looked at it, I thought, you know, this says what it's supposed to say.

And so if I were to say, from a highly academic, theological, you know, pulpit, it would be this. In the end, Job finds out this truth. I'm small. God is big. I couldn't say it any better than that. Scripture says we're supposed to have a childlike faith, right? A childlike understanding. Not to be children. There are people who are, you know, you get, like, you know, like myself, sometimes you get a 55-year-old child, you know.

He's saying to be like child in regard to our hearts. And the one thing children understand, oftentimes, is what is bigger than them. Rarely does a child have chihuahua syndrome, right? Like, you know, Nicole here, God bless her, has a chihuahua. Sometimes I think it's a rat, but it is a chihuahua. And I come into the office, and it comes, and it just nips at my heels, and it's, like, this big, you know.

Job, like a child, doesn't have this syndrome. Job knows who is big, and he knows that he is small. And this is an incredible perspective. I have to say, in regard to spiritual maturity, if your perspective regularly is, I am small, and God is big, you are starting from a really strong place. You're starting from a place of faith, a place of sovereignty, a place of just saying from within your being that God is in charge.

So Job finally speaks then, after he comes in contact with God. And we see what Job says. Now, we're going to go back to chapter 40. We're going to go two chapters back, because Job finally gets a chance to speak. God speaks. And back in chapter 40, we kind of, we skipped over 40 to go to 42. But the first thing Job says is this. And you'll see this in your notes, or if you have your Bibles, turn to it.

Job 40, 3 through 5. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I've spoken once, and I will not answer twice. But I will proceed no farther. It's an odd response, right? After 30 multiple chapters of, I want to speak to God. I'm going to speak to God. I have something to say to God.

It's time for me to talk to God. I'll speak face to face with God. If he slays me, I'll hope in him. Speak to God, and God shows up. Probably, I mean, if God's going to show up in a whirlwind, I don't think it's a dust devil, like when you're driving through Tempe, Arizona. I'm sure you see that dust devil, kids. It's probably like Category 5 hurricane.

And that puts things in perspective. Imagine all the times you've said, God, where are you? I want an answer. And we plead with God for these things. Imagine when God shows up, if he shows up in a Category 5 hurricane. I guess they go to Category 6 now, like this one guy was 211. So they get bigger and bigger, which is interesting. If he showed up like that, your response would probably be like Job's.

Second thought, just kidding, I'm just going to shut my mouth. Because he realizes when God shows up in his majesty and his authority and his power, that he has nothing to say to that because God is so great. He recognizes God's authority in that moment. I would say there's a few things that we can learn here in regard to spiritual maturity. It really has to do with silence.

I love that Job is just saying, I'm going to be silent. If you've been married for any part of time, or you have a girlfriend, or you just have friends, knowing when to speak and when not to speak is a key ability in a relationship, right? It is amazing what silence can do. Now, I'm not talking about the silent treatment, okay? The silent treatment is not what I'm talking about.

Well, I'm just going to not talk to you for seven weeks. No, that is not what I'm saying. That is unwise. That is not godly. What I am saying is that you take time to reassess the moment, and I really don't need to say anything in this moment. So the first thing I would say is we are in a society that is lost or is losing the ability to be silent.

And it's not just words now. If you wanted, you know, it isn't just words. It's having something in front of our face, something that is drawing our attention, something on our phones. Right now, you could get a Starlink, right? It's a little box this big. Super cool. So, $650, and then for $160 a month, not that I've looked into it, you could take this box to the Amazon.

You could open it up, point it towards the sky, and have lightning-fast Internet. You can go to the top of Mount Everest for $650 and $160 a month and put it up, or $50 for limited data. You put it up, and you can immediately have your favorite murder podcast. I don't think that's as much a, I'm reading that's not a guy thing. You know, I don't really watch murder podcasts.

I hear that, you know, there's all these women that are really worried. I'm so anxious. Can I have another chai tea, you know, and a murder podcast? I wonder why. Silence is a lost art. Silence, it says in the Scripture, in Psalm 46.10, it says, be still, be silent, and you will, what? You'll know God. Be still and know that I am God. This is an art, and I would say that we are losing the ability to be silent.

I know that on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I'm not a big Black Friday guy, right? I could easily spend, I'm not even going to lie, I could do eight hours, okay, on the phone, binging movies, just filling myself with noise. On the day after Thanksgiving, that's the day when no one calls you, right? It's the one free day, except, you know, maybe Christmas, where you're just sitting there.

I realize how much noise I have, and just in my face all the time. I would say if I'm, you know, I don't know how many times this has made me feel peaceful. Like, rarely do I get that meme, I'm like, oh. I do get some kitten memes, right, you know, on occasion. But I think if we were going to look and say, God, I want to find you on my phone, it would look like that.

Say, God, I want to find you on my phone. He'd say, well, turn it off and just look at the screen for a long time by itself, and you'll get a better sense of who I am than everything this can tell you about me. Be still and know that I am God. Ecclesiastes now, when it comes to speaking to God, so one, knowing what to say to other people, but Ecclesiastes, it's one of my favorite books, we're going to be back into that in January.

It says, do not be rash, 5-2, excuse me, Ecclesiastes 5-2, do not be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. There's that again. Job says that in this chapter. God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. God is not saying, shut up, I don't want to speak to you.

We serve a God, a Jesus who died on the cross, in order to have relationship with us, in order to speak to us. You have to balance this silence with the Hebrews passage that says we can go boldly before the throne of God. God, we can just rush into the throne room and jump on Jesus' lap and God's lap and speak to him and like a child speaks. He loves that.

But as one of my favorite pastors, Pastor Jim, regularly says, two things can be true at once. Because of the blood of Jesus, we have this incredible access to speak to God of all the things we want, to tell him what's on our heart, the deepest places of our heart. But at the same time, on occasion, maybe we should just close our mouths and sit there in silence and let our words be a little fewer than they are.

Other times we show up and we pour out our heart, right? You have Hannah on the steps in front of Samuel on the steps of the temple. She wasn't able to have a child. She's pouring out our heart. I don't think her words were few and that's okay. But this shows an amount of spiritual maturity that says sometimes we come before God and we just say, God, you are big.

I am small. I don't know anything. Help me. Teach me. Let our words be few. I was reading in Psych Central. There's a book, there's a magazine called Psych Central. It was speaking about the importance of silence. Something we have lost, the ability to sit still. I gotta tell you, it is easier for me to put my shoes on, drive to the YMCA through La Jolla traffic.

You know how that is, right? Easier to get to Africa than it is to get to the YMCA from Windensee. And to drive there, it's easier for me to do that, to go through a full workout, bench press, stretching, the whole thing, than it is for me to sit for 20 minutes in silence. I don't know if that's true for you. We are losing the ability to be silent.

We can know God and hearing about him, but everything you hear about him will be a little bit incorrect. Because if I say God is love, words can't contain God. If you wanted to speak about God about love, the best thing you can do is not say anything, because when you say he is love, you've said something less than how loving he is. That's why he says the only way to truly know God is to sit in silence.

Because every time we form something, which we're supposed to do, we're supposed to praise him, but every time we do that, it is a little less than God actually is. Actually, it's a lot less, because he's infinite. And so developing the ability to be quiet sometimes in our relationships, to be quiet when we go to God and speak, and just to be quiet before God changes who we are.

Next one is Job acknowledges God's sovereignty. Job 42.2, you're gonna see it in this chapter, and this is back to the big God, small me. I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Circle the word thwarted. We're gonna look at that. We're gonna break it down. But this is actually, if you were going to find a New Testament parallel verse to this, which I love doing, because much of the New Testament is written with the Old Testament in mind, right?

And so I wouldn't be surprised, it's in Philippians 4.13, when Paul says, I can do all things, what? Through Christ who strengthens me. It wouldn't surprise me if he was thinking about this verse here in Job 42.2. It says, I know that what? You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. The word thwarted is in the Hebrew, and the thwarted word was in the English Standard Version, although I think it was in multiple versions, so you might see that word in the NIV and some of the others.

It looked like a lot of the translations, because I use multiple, use the word thwarted. I thought it was a really good word. It's a very, you can feel that word, right? Oh, my plans were thwarted. Oh, you know, the running back was thwarted at the last moment. The Dodgers thwarted the Padres not too long ago. Thwarted is a really interesting word.

The Hebrew word is batseya, and batseya refers to an action being forcibly stopped, split, or hindered from reaching completion. When I looked up more context, it said split. It said the meaning was to look at it like if you were chopping a piece of wood. But I did some wood chopping this year. I went out and I got a chainsaw. After watching some YouTube fail videos, I don't think I'm going to go back and use that chainsaw again.

I just, I don't think it's safe. So I'm out there in the forest by myself with a chainsaw. I had a permit, and I, you know, I did the whole thing. I'm chopping away. And then I thought, I'm going to go back and chop some wood. This is going to be easy. Do you know how hard it is to chop wood? Like, I got like four chops into it. I'm like, oh, I'm dying.

Like, I'm just going to go buy it from the guy that has the chopping machine, or whatever it is. But I would realize sometimes I would miss it, and it would splinter off, and pieces would come off. This word thwarted means that if God has a purpose for your life, it's like a giant oak log. And they set it up like this. And what Satan wants to do is come and use the axe and just chop pieces off.

He doesn't want you to get the fullness of the destiny and the purposes that God has for your life. And so he will chop off pieces of that, or these things will be thwarted. But what Job is saying here, and go back to verse 2, Job 42.2, I know that you can do all things that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I want to talk about this because I do believe, once again, to mention one of my favorite pastors, Pastor Jim, and as he's regularly saying, two things can be true at once.

I believe there are things that are destiny for your life. There are things that God says, I've got that for you, and I don't care even if you try to screw it up, it's going to happen. For me, I, you know, tried to kill myself. Well, I didn't actually try to kill myself, but I did things that would have killed me. I didn't want to die, but I just did things that would have killed me, whether it were drugs, I had guys pull knives on me, guns, like I was in, you know, alleys, and just crazy things, you know, driving my car too fast.

I should have tapped out when I was 19. And it is clear to me that God said, nope, this one's going to live. It was just clear to me. I did everything in my power to thwart that plan of God's, but it was God's purpose, and he had a purpose for my life. I don't know why that isn't the same for other people. I don't know. I can't answer that question, but I know that God had a purpose for me.

I know other things of that nature as well, but I also feel that there are some things, because two things can be true at once, that God says, hey, this is a purpose for your life, but this is dependent on if you're going to collaborate with me. And once again, we give Google Maps, you know, more credit to reroute our lives than we give God. Like, oh, God couldn't figure it out.

God can have this sovereignty where he says, look, if you do this, then I will do this. I believe that both things are true, that God has complete sovereignty, but he can also allow free will. And so there are some things in our life, because of our disobedience, that are being thwarted. And those are the things that we need to look at to say, God, what in my life is thwarting the plans that you have for me?

But there's other things that will not. So he says that. I love in Psalm 115, once again out of the English Standard Version, is a really powerful verse. And this, once again, is taking us back to the idea that should ground your faith. You're small. He's big. It says in Psalm 115, 3, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. I mean, that verse is a little cavalier, right?

But I really like it. It's like, our God's in heaven. Does what he pleases. Like, I love that, you know? He does what he wants. John MacArthur, who I don't agree with John MacArthur with everything, but that guy's a man of God. It is obvious that he is a man of God. And some of the things he did during the pandemic to kind of stand up against the closure of his church and things, I am for, and I thought it took a lot of courage and prayer.

And I just really respect him as a man of God. I have a quote. He's a big God's sovereignty guy, right? He might not allow as much free will as I like to allow in my theology. But he says, God's sovereignty is not simply a doctrine to be learned, but a reality to be lived. It should shape how we trust, how we pray, and how we face the unknown. John MacArthur.

I love that. It is this idea that, God, you are big. You've got this. You know, you're just white-knuckling it, you know, on the roller coaster. But you have got this. It is trust in a big God. I was at Disneyland with Lily, my daughter, and we were at the water ride, not Space Mountain. What's the one with the water? Splash Mountain. Thank you, thank you.

I haven't been there for a long time. And when we were there with her, she kept seeing it, and I said, do you want to go on that? She's like, no, I don't want to go on that. I don't want to go. And I said, let's do it together. She was probably three and a half. I mean, she was young. And Lily was small when she was little, right? And so I said, let's do it.

So we got on Space Mountain together, and she knew it was coming. And I just wrapped. You know, there's really, I don't think there's any seatbelts on that one, as I remember. And I just wrapped her in there tight, you know what I mean? And I've got this picture. It's up in our cabin in Big Bear. And as she was coming over the end, she was like, ah! You want to talk about a time for victory, Danny?

That was a time for victory. I should have had the picture, but it just came to me as I was speaking. It was because she knew she was in her dad's arms. I got to tell you something. For all the issues my father and I had, and some of the things I disagree with, and some of the things that have shaped me, I'll tell you one thing about my dad that I knew.

When I was with him, I was safe. He was a strong man. He could be an intimidating man. And I knew that when I was with him, no one was going to touch me. And I grew up with a sense of security that some people didn't experience. For that, for the, you know, there was a whole bunch of other things that weren't great, but that was amazing. And it really rooted me.

And when we have that with God, we can look at any situation in our life and say, you know, we have a God who is bigger than us, who's got my back. He's a big God, and I'm small. The final thing is this, and the final point, is Job recognizes his depravity. Job 42, 5 through 6. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear. That's a diminished statement, right?

He's diminished that. But now my eye sees you. So there's been a deeper realization. Therefore, I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. It's interesting, as the song was sung today, I didn't realize that dust and ashes was part of the song that we're bringing out. It was interesting that that was in the passage again today. It just felt like some synchronicity from God.

One of the things we see here is Job recognizes that nothing good dwells within him. Now, there's a doctrine in Christianity called total depravity. And the people that believe in total depravity, this would be coming from the wing of John Calvin and some of the Protestants, and I think Catholics would kind of be in here as well a little bit, this idea that there is nothing good in you.

Now, there's others that would balance that to say, no, well, we were created in the image of God and we have a soul, and the flesh, there's nothing good in the flesh, but in our soul, we have a goodness that is inherent to God, and we have that. And so you're trying to balance those two things. I'm not gonna answer a 2,000-year-old argument in the next three minutes, right?

What I wanna say is this. When Job saw God in a whirlwind, a massive Category 5 whirlwind, when he compared himself to what he saw, all he could say is, I am nothing. He says, I despise myself. Now, I'm not saying we should go as far as some of the Middle Ages monks that got scourges and went to their cells at night and locked themselves in and they whipped themselves or would put on a, like Thomas Cromwell from England who would put on a hair shirt, a backwards beaver, it had beaver fur and it would rub until you were raw.

I'm not saying do that. That's too far. But I'm also saying that sometimes when we think God loves us so much, our liberty and our freedom in Jesus goes from liberty to licentiousness where we can do anything because God loves me. And some people were saying that to Paul in the book of Romans and he speaks about that. There is a balance here and understanding that when you come before God, that you're a little bit in awe about his holiness and your brokenness.

I will say though, that once we realize and we despise our flesh and the things that we have done, there's a conjunction that comes after that and that conjunction is but. But for the love of Jesus and the cross and the blood of Jesus that I am saved by, now I am a child of God who can go boldly before the throne of God. I would say when we recognize, and we should, in my quiet times, every time I go to my quiet time and I light my little patuli candle here, every time I light it, I start by saying, God, I'm nothing.

I'm just, I'm covetous. I speak about the brokenness. I'm horrible. But for the love of Jesus, for the blood of the cross, for the redemption of my Savior, for the atonement of Christ. You make up your own sentences, but you've got to get through the conjunction to be people of the conjunction that understand our brokenness, but we live in his victory.

And so Jesus speaks to us and he calls us. And so Paul, I mean, Job, you have to realize, he didn't have that. Jesus didn't exist yet. So Abraham, as we understand, at least as I understand the timeline, didn't exist yet. So he was stuck in, I have depravity, but you're a merciful God. There wasn't the blood of Jesus. There wasn't that Hebrew passage.

But God understood that. And as you see, we get to the conclusion of the story. And the conclusion of the story comes in verse seven. Verse seven talks about, we see Job get vindicated. Verse seven says, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite, my anger burns against you and against your two friends. Didn't I tell you?

I told you. I told you the first week. Those guys, I told you. People were giving me a hard time. I said, I told you. You know, for you have not spoken what is right of me, but my servant Job has. Once again, that shows that even though we speak, and we can never speak the exact truth of who God is, because words cannot comprehend who God is, it's still okay to speak.

And God understands how he grades that. Meaning he looks at what Job says and says, Job, you spoke rightly. See, God understands that we can never fully exclaim who he is, but Job still spoke rightly about who God is. And this comes with a declaration. A little bit Danny said about we need to declare this. Because oftentimes, even if we don't have the faith, what we declare becomes our reality.

That can go in the reverse. I'm no good. I'm nothing. You'll never change. I'm never gonna change. You get in these mindsets. Or you can become a person of the declaration. That even though it hasn't happened yet, and even though I'm not sure how it's gonna happen, and I don't have the faith for it, I'm going to declare. Because what is faith without an obstacle?

It doesn't exist. What is faith? Faith overcomes what you cannot see. Faith overcomes an obstacle. If you already know in your heart, you can't have faith because it becomes knowledge. And so it says that I declare, even though I don't know, become a person of that declaration. And then the final thing is in verse, we see that verse nine, Job prays of the intercession for his friends, and it is accepted, and they are restored to God because of him.

This is important. This shows the importance of his prayers. You know, I came across, this is really interesting, I'll close with this. I came across, well, almost close with this, let me not be a liar. I came across Job in the book of Ezekiel. I didn't know if you know, he snuck up on me in Ezekiel. I'm reading through the Bible this year, we were just in Ezekiel.

I get to Job 14, and it mentions, to Ezekiel 14, and it mentions Job. I've never seen it before. Basically, God is saying to Israel, Israel, you have been so wicked, that even if Job, Daniel, and Noah were here to pray for you, I wouldn't listen to it, and I wouldn't save you, Israel. Now, recently, I was thinking this about our country a lot, as I read that, thinking, when do we get to the place where God's like, you know what?

I'm done. Matter of fact, it mentions three times. It says that same thing three times. In one of the instances, in Ezekiel 14, it says, if Noah, Daniel, and Job prayed for redemption to be saved, I wouldn't even save their families. I would only save them. He just says, I'm not gonna do it anymore, and so that was concerning me, so it was interesting in this place that we have the ability and authority to pray for people, to pray for reconciliation, to pray for redemption, and God hears our prayer.

The Bible was clear that even in wicked nations that we can stand in the gap as intercessors, that fathers have an authority as a father over their family to pray over their families, and they have an authority that is different than the authority of a mother. I was reading Stormy Omardian's book, The Power of a Praying Husband, this week, and she said, this is what she said, husbands have an ability and authority to pray over their families that wives don't.

That's what she said, that she said that in her book, and I thought, wow, do I believe that? Well, whether I believe it or not, I gotta pray for my family. And so we see that he is a person that brings reconciliation. The takeaway then, after Job is restored, because we know that Job is restored, he's given these amazing daughters, Jemima, and God just blessed all of his fortunes.

The story ends well. He sees four generations. The story ends on a good place. Is this, that trust is the gateway to rest and restoration. This week in my small group, Alyssa Morrow was speaking when we were sharing our questions. And oddly, in a multi-generational church, I have a Gen X small group. Like, everybody in it is Gen X. And so, Gen X did save the world.

Sorry, just give it up for, just a quick apreech for Gen X. Thank you, Gen X. Everybody else is like, I got a Gen X applause right there. I'm so happy. I'm just playing. With that, Alyssa, we were talking about this sovereignty. And she said, I was born an orphan, something I didn't know about her. And she said, I was chosen out of a, one of multiple beds in a hospital nursery.

My parents picked me and I look back to that moment and show me that God is sovereign. He's been in charge of my life. I want you to hear a story from here because I thought it was so important. Speaking how somebody goes from an orphan and sees that in their life as the thing that lets them feel sovereignty and safety in their life. Okay. So in 1974, which when I was born, I was born in El Salvador.

And at the time, the country was devastated by wars. And for the first time, the people of El Salvador were trying to adopt their kids out. So they were partnering with churches. And my parents were looking for a baby to adopt. And they heard about this. So they actually were invited to come down to El Salvador. And they met with Father Mucci, who was a priest at a church there.

And he had them walk into a room. And there were, as the story goes, there were 25 to 30 babies. And they were told to pick one. And I would love for that to happen today, but that doesn't happen. And my mom at the time picked up a baby. And my dad said, hold on. As the story goes, he says, hold on. I am looking for the baby with the old soul eyes. And I was chosen.

I felt very blessed. My first night with my parents, I slept in a drawer because that's all they had at the hotel room. And my parents took me from El Salvador to Malibu, California. I'm leveled because I can take myself back to, I have absolute purpose here and that God's in charge and that I have to lean into trust and faith. And I'm so blessed because I'm part of a community that I can call on people.

I can be reminded of God's work in my life. I thought it was amazing. Yeah, I thought it was amazing to have someone say that their orphan story is the thing that levels them, that they can go back to that orphan story and say, that's what lets me know that I am loved and protected by God. That is different than a lot of the orphan stories that I hear.

I was having fun with her and I said, you know, you don't want to be an orphan, but if you are, you won the orphan lottery. You went from the war-torn El Salvador to Malibu. Come on, let's go. She goes, yeah, it was pretty good. Alyssa and Jeff are amazing and their family has been here and it's awesome. I just want to close Job with this. You serve a big God who loves you deeply.

He's in charge. He wants to know you. His hand of protection is over you. His sovereignty is over you and he wants you to experience him in a way that understands how small we are, how good his greatness is and how much of a father he is and through the atonement of Jesus Christ through the blood of the cross. Amen? Stand up if you would. We're starting in the gospel next week for Christmas, our Christmas series and I'll be jumping into that.

If you need prayer today, the band's going to play. You can come up for prayer. If you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, anyone who is up here will lead you through a prayer to get you following Jesus, knowing him. We'll see you baptized and be part of our church. If you need healing, if you need relational healing, anointing, whatever it is, let us know.

Please come forward. Danny's going to play a little worship afterwards. We'll continue to have that sacred space but if you extend your hands, I want to bless you and pray a prayer, a blessing. That's what we do here at our church. Jesus, I want to thank you for this amazing book of Job that we've gone through for six weeks now and it wasn't all about why and suffering.

It was about a perspective of a good God and I want to pray, God, that one, that you would give us silence, Jesus, that we would know you in the silence that we would know you in the stillness, that you would shepherd our mouths, that you would shepherd our thoughts. God, that you let us know your sovereignty and all things that you're in charge, God, whether we have an orphan story or an incredible family that we were with since birth.

God, that you would speak to us. So bless your people. Bless the hands, their hearts. Use this holiday season for restoration. I pray, God, that you would heal anyone, some people are out there, God, with brokenness with their children, that you would heal that, that this would be a time of victory, Lord Jesus. We love you. We send you out now to change the world on a mission of Jesus Christ to bring his love.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you. If you need prayer, come forward. We'll see you next week. God bless. Who else is worthy?