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Campion Seventh Day Adventist Church

Consider Job’s God

Micheal Goetz

Consider: God of Intimacy

We're jumping into a sermon series, 4 parts, on the story of Job and his God.

Well, Melanie and I are jumping on a plane tomorrow night.

And Melanie grew up going to Romania as a missionary with her family and so she's gonna go with me.

So Pastor Leandro's gonna preach next week, but it's still the sermon series, still consider Job's God.

So you be here and then go to the prayer retreat afterwards.

Opening school year, we are just lingering in your presence.

We don't have to invite you, you've invited us.

And so we've come, and so Lord Jesus, we pray this humble prayer, only that we would hear what you have to say and that it would change us from the inside out do a miracle of miracles through the third person of the Godhead we pray in the name of Jesus amen all right I am so you know high school students, I am always thinking, what story or illustration can I share that would connect with these guys that weren't born when 9-11 happened or when when most of everything happened What do I do with these these young whippersnappers running around our campus well I want to open with a little story here, pointing you back to the 1922?

I know you don't get it and I don't get it, so I feel like we're at least in the same boat not getting it, but back in 1922, you had TV, you just didn't have sound.

They called it black and white but it's really just different shades of gray.

It was a short comedy film series chronicling a group of poor ragamuffins and neighborhood children and their adventures entitled The Gang or Our Gang rather.

We got to know them as the Little Rascals.

The Little Rascals produced by the same producers Laurel and Hardy Films, our gang.

It was produced from 1922 to 1944 spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of America's cinema.

Well I've got to introduce this guy to you.

Now I'm not, I'm not, I am not condoning the club, but every boy his age has at least thought about forming the club.

His club was entitled the He-Man Woman Hater Club.

And they had meetings, and they had processes and procedures.

It was a neighborhood boys club founded by Spanky comprising nearly of all the boys in the club.

Spanky found this exclusive club as a defense against girls and Valentine's Day.

He didn't want nothing to do with either 1 of them.

There was 1 neighborhood boy, 1 neighborhood boy who just, he was part of the club, the He-Man-Woman-Haters club, but he just, he lived a divided life.

Little Alfalfa had fallen for Darla and he just couldn't help himself living a double life.

He lived his life trying to avoid coming in contact with that he-man-woman-haters club that would see him out with Darla Little hair thing would pop up in the back And he would sing a song to Darla.

I've never sang a song up front and I'm not sure that you want to be part of my first.

You're everything I hoped for and everything I need.

Young gentlemen over across the street, learn the lyrics.

Hey, 1 of the oldest stories, in fact the oldest story in the Old Testament, 1 of the oldest stories in ancient literature is a man who unlike Alfalfa did not live a double life.

He lived, yes, with everything but for 1 cause.

He sang that song but He was honest in his heart.

Grab your Bibles, come on, you got your Bibles?

No, you forgot your Bibles on the first Sabbath of the school year?

We've got Bibles that were generously donated in the pew back in front of you.

This ancient book, early book in Old Testament writing.

It was passed down as an oral story years after years after centuries and finally was written by who we believe was Moses.

It's in the context of the Great Controversy.

I'll tell you I've never read the Book of Job like I read it this summer and poured over and over and over and over.

It's written in the context of the great controversy.

There are 2 sides fighting There's a celestial business meeting that launches the book It begins with an eternal scene and it ends with an eternal scene that God rewards his faithful servants we've always read it in the here and the now, but this book is prophetic, speaking of eternal meetings, of meetings rather in in the universe, planning for eternity with the people on this planet.

The book opens, Job chapter 1 and verse 1.

I'll put it on the screen for you, but read along in your Bibles.

You're gonna have to mark some stuff here.

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job.

Job, he's living in the land, he's living over there in Uz, just just minding his own business in Uz.

Known to be faithful to God, have a family, and be rather wealthy.

It's this definition, blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil, that becomes the point of contention and will always be the point of contention.

That definition of a loyalty, a radical loyalty, of service, of faithfulness to God will bring a point of contention, beloved.

Job, faithful, living out in us, unknown to Job.

He's doing his business with his thousands of camels and his hundreds of donkeys and his children offering sacrifices but behind the scenes behind the curtain of what is visible and invisible as it were still today his ears should have been burning because he was being talked about Far beyond the blue came a conversation in heaven.

1 day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord.

This apparently was a routine activity of planning, strategizing.

You can say meetings aren't, but heaven called meetings.

1 day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan and there's a definite article in the Hebrew thus Satan mean the accuser specifically Satan himself came and he came in with them however however that happened he came in with him the Lord Then turned to Satan sitting in 1 of the seats around this committee, and he says hey where who are you representing?

Because each 1 of these angels were representing as delegates sound familiar delegates from around the universe God says to Satan hey, who do you represent Who elected you to be here?

Well Satan didn't have much of an answer except I've been coming roaming, I've been going back and forth through the earth.

Satan is trying to make a point here, But God is going to use Satan's attempt to stake this earth as his and he's going to make a point a counterpoint and so he says to Satan the accuser have you Considered my have you thought about It literally means have you taken to heart.

Consider: God of Pain

Monday afternoon, Monday, Wednesday afternoon, Melanie and I got off a transatlantic flight back from Romania where we were over speaking for a camp meeting.

A lovely place, I'm telling you, Romania is just delightful.

It reminds me a little bit of the Northwest, Pacific Northwest.

Evergreens, they had dug out to for this camp meeting, they had carved out of the hillside an amphitheater of about 1, 200 seats.

And so the backdrop is this hillside with evergreens and then you've got these these seats and then the stage with screens on the side.

He just couldn't have made a better, more beautiful place to worship.

So we're there for a couple of days over the weekend of course coming back.

While I'm there I'm driving with 1 of the other speakers here from the States and he's telling me he's Romanian telling me this the legend that as we had gone by some some hills, he said there's the legend of Master Manole, master builder who was employed by Prince Radu the Black to build the most beautiful monastery and the monastery exists, the legend is a legend, it's a tale, but the monastery exists.

The task was to build the most beautiful monastery in the world.

And Prince Radu said, hey, can you do it?

Master builder Manole said, yes, my 9 guys and I will come build it.

I didn't get to go see this monastery, but while I'm doing a presentation for a group of pastors Monday this last week, Melanie slips off and gets a tour of this and so she's seen it.

Let me put a picture on the screen for you here.

This is the monastery, the monastery of Cortea de Argas and Incredible well here's what happens in the end according to the tale Master Manola he's he's employed to build this and he starts to build it, but a storm knocks all of his work down and And so he starts to rebuild Another storm rolls through and knocks his walls down again.

And now the prince is a little agitated and starts mentioning things like his head on a platter and all that kind of stuff.

And that got the master builder, that got Manolo a little worked up.

And so he began to urgently pray, God give me the ability to build this thing.

In the dream He sees that in order to build this, he has to sacrifice something that is dear to him.

So the next day he has this conversation with his 9 other colleagues, and they agree that the God or gods are asking them to sacrifice something that they love.

The first wife to show up to bring lunch that day will be sacrificed for the project.

Don't ever make that wager, But they do because they've got this intense pressure from the prince to build.

And wouldn't you know it, it's Manole, the master builder.

It's his wife, his pregnant wife, that shows up with lunch.

1 that he loves dearly, but he must go through with his promise, his commitment.

And so they work out a scheme where they encase her in a wall.

And to this day you can go and there's a red dot on the wall where she is entombed.

Ironically, at the end of building this incredible monastery, Prince Radu the Black asks Manole and the other builders, could you ever build something more beautiful than this?

And they foolishly answered, yes, we think we could do something even greater.

Well, he doesn't like that answer, and so he takes all of them and puts them on the roof of this thing, and there's no way down, they can't escape, they only, they try to escape by jumping and they die themselves.

The sense God calls us to do something and then it feels, it just feels.

Matter of fact I had a teenager once tell me, I don't think God likes what I like because it feels that he asks us to sacrifice anything we love, anything that's good, anything that we like, we're supposed to sacrifice for His benefit.

And that sometimes feels like the invitation.

That's the tale that the devil has spun to say, look, you're gonna follow God?

You're gonna have to give up anything that's fun, anything that you like.

Our stories from the Bible, we're in the third part of a four-part series on the story of Job.

Considering Job's God, what about this God that worked with this Job of Uz and allowed him to go through incredible, almost unimaginable loss.

All that he had amassed, his possessions, stripped him down even of his health.

It challenges epics like Gilgamesh as 1 of the oldest tales told, passed down verbally until somebody, we believe, Moses wrote it.

Let me just say this after having traveled just this last week and had a few conversations.

It occurred to me, I was reminded that our actions speak louder than words, and so I want to speak to every father and mother in this Congregation and those watching online what you do Speaks louder than what you say and when you come to church without your Bible you leave your Bible sitting there unopened, but you say, no, no, no, the Bible is important.

You speak through your actions by just leaving it live.

Not just at church, but at home let your young people see you study the Bible All right That was an aside no extra charge Job chapter 1 in The land of us there lived a man whose name was Job the man was blameless and upright.

A man from Uz, he's got a testimony that he's blameless, he's upright, He's 1 who fears God and rejects evil.

Well, Job, while he's in us, there's a whole conversation that he is not privy to.

It's behind closed doors, as it were, in the courts of heaven.

Representatives from around the universe have gathered to bring back some reports or questions or some sort of conversation with God.

We find out about it, we already know about it, but Job is completely oblivious to this.

He is just living his daily faithful life.

Job chapter 1 verse 6 though, picks it up.

That extra line is to say, yeah, he might not have belonged there.

That just, but he doesn't like that idea when the Lord says to him, verse 7, says to Satan, where have you come from?

Satan answers back, from roaming throughout the earth.

What, The question that God is really asking, and Satan knows it, is who do you represent?

Because each 1 of these angels, these beings, are representing a part of the universe.

The Lord says to Satan, verse 8, Have you considered, if you do, if you really do represent the earth, have you considered my servant Job?

There's a little problem, a little kink in your hose there Satan, because Job is, there's no 1 on the earth like him.

He's blameless and he's upright and he fears God and he shuns or rejects evil.

If you represent the earth, what do you do about Job?

Satan knows the first names of anybody who's following Jesus.

Ah, Satan took notes, didn't trick, got it.

He knows the names of everyone that is faithfully surrendered or living for Jesus.

He knows, you know the name, you know those kind of people.

What do you do with, What do you do with Job?

Consider: God of Glory

Father, fairest Lord Jesus, we want to see him today.

We didn't come to hear a children's story or baby dedication or ordination.

All of this is a part of you and who you are.

So let it be that you are clear and brighter in these moments of study and ever before.

21 years ago today, Brian Birdwell, his wife Mel and their son.

There they are, 21 years ago today, September 10th.

I was put on to Brian's story and his book by Dick Stenbaken here in our congregation.

But 21 years ago today, this is the Birdwell family.

21 years ago tomorrow, everything changed.

In fact, there's a picture if you can make out, there's a circle, a green circle on your left, that's Brian's office.

The green square on the right is where he was the moment of impact when that American Airlines jet slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

He had been watching the news about the attack on New York in his office, which is the circle on the left, with his office mates.

Then he needed to use the restroom, so he excused himself, went down the hall, used the restroom, stepped out of the restroom, and the moment of explosion happened.

So he was down the hall from, he never saw his office mates again.

He used the restroom, stepped out, explosion all around him.

It went bright, then it went dark, then it crumbled around him.

As flight 77 American Airlines barreled into the side of the building, the nose of the aircraft landed about 20 yards away from where he was standing.

He could smell the fuel, his polyester army pants melted to his skin, his arms were skin.

He collapsed with blood and black soot caked all over his body.

He says as he lay there, he describes it to you.

He says, as I lay there, everything went dark except for an orange glow that was around me.

He realized that orange glow was his own body burning.

A few minutes passed by, He has given up on life.

He believes he's about to lose consciousness and die.

Last thoughts and prayers are for his lovely wife Mel and their teenage son.

He closes his eyes for a few minutes but then begins to sense something running on his face.

He said, I hadn't felt that, I just felt pain and just complete agony And then I began to feel this like water running.

And he realizes that the sprinklers have now come on and are soaking his body.

And he looks around to try to orientate himself.

And he can't see anything except for a pin light in the distance to his right.

His body doesn't respond to what his mind tells him.

So he claws his way down the hallway through the mess of rubble toward the pin light.

He gets there, realizes that's the fire doors.

What he saw was the light streaming through 1 of the small windows.

He doesn't know how he's gonna get through the doors, but as he arrives, the doors open and in steps somebody he knows.

So he calls him by name, but the guy doesn't recognize him.

He picks him up and carries him to safety, where paramedics eventually take him.

And for the next 4 years, he's subjected to 39 surgeries to repair the 60% of his body that's burned with third degree burns.

There's a picture of him at 1 point, he's able to now stand, you can kind of see him there in the white, just wrapped up from head all the way down to his ankles.

He said the bottom of his feet somehow survived.

If we were to invite Brian Birdwell here, ask him, what's it like?

His wife, by the way, is at home, And somebody tells her to, hey, turn on the TV like millions of other people had to that morning.

And she sees the attack on New York and says, I've got to go back.

I'm going to go back to homeschooling him.

And sometime later, somebody else gets a hold of her and says, no, you gotta turn the TV back on.

She turns the TV on to see the Pentagon destroyed and says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, this can't be, wait a minute.

Office, office, office, office, that's him.

For hours, she's sitting at home, can't get a hold of anybody.

Doesn't know for hours and hours later that he survived.

What would the Birdwell's family say to us if they stood up here on this final weekend of our study of the book of Job, what would they say to us having gone through a trying circumstance, a painful ordeal themselves?

Let me put Brian Birdwell's words on the screen.

While he, speaking of God, while he may not take away the pain, he gives us the strength to get through to the other side.

If there's ever a testimony that is counter evolution, it's somebody going through a circumstance like this and coming out on the other side and saying, I am actually closer to God and thankful for the result of that trying ordeal.

Come on, nobody in their right mind can say, yeah, I'm being burned 60% of my body.

I have a couple of skin grafts from an accident.

I know the ramifications now, Years later.

I have sensory Difficulties in certain parts.

I can't imagine 60% of my body Having to be grafted and fixed.

It may take 4 years to do 39 surgeries, but it's decades of ramifications.

But he, and he writes it in his book, his book titled Refined by Fire.

He says This fire brought our family closer to Jesus.

And then he says, we are stronger witnesses for the cause of Jesus than we were before.

Got your Bibles, We're going back to the book of Job right before the book of Psalms.

There's a Bible in the pew in front of you.

We're not here to discuss some third person.

We're here to have a personal encounter with a very personal God Job chapter 1 in the land of us.

This is verse 1 there lived a man this this man's name was Job He was known as the greatest man in the east There lived a man whose name was Job the man was blameless and upright he feared God and shunned evil.

That's his testimony That's the testimony of the friends around him even those that didn't serve the same God He did even his children that may have been in rebellion We know our dad.

Series

Consider Job’s God

Consider: God of Pain

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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