We are on a series, Is There Life After GM? GM-it either represents literal GM, General Motors Company and Companies like LSI, Lear Seating and others who are going to be affected by the plant closing, or it represents just loss in general. It represents the things that are taken from us and how we cope with that, how we handle those changes. Last week we talked about anxiety and fear of something that might happen. We talked about how anxiety and fear have emotional, psychological and sometimes physical tolls on our well-being and how we need to deal with anxiety from the Bible perspective. This week were going to be looking at it from the opposite perspective. Were going to be talking about it from the perspective or the vantage point of if it does happen… The thing that we have feared has happened. Job talks about that in the book were going to be looking-Job 3:25 (page 498 of pew Bibles). Job says, The thing that I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. Job says, The thing that I feared; so if it happens, what do we do? There are things that happen in all of our lives that cause anger, suffering and the loss that we endure. Those hardships-and Ive observed this and youve observed this-those things can either draw us closer to God or push us further away. They can either make us grow in our character, Godliness and righteousness, or they can cause us to be bitter, angry and resentful. I recently went to-or actually this Friday-my 10-year high school reunion (congregation laughing). Okay, my 20-year high school reunion (congregation laughing more); okay, my 30-year high school reunion; are you happy? Do you feel better about yourselves now? Thats as far as Im going right there. Im not going anymore, 30 years! Having conversations with classmates that literally Id not seen since 1978 when I graduated from high school. I heard a lot of stories and a lot of hardship stories, deaths, divorces and physical hardships. It was interesting-there were some I talked to who had emerged from those hardships and storms and were stronger as a person. They would tell me all the wonderful things that they appreciate about life and how it strengthened their faith and made them a better person. There were others I talked to who had gone through similar storms who were still stuck in the storm. The storm had hit years ago, and they were still stuck there. Theyre angry; theyre bitter; and theyre resentful. Rather than growing them as a person, it seems like its diminished them as people. There are decisions we can make and action steps we can take that will bring us closer to where we need to be. My family and I were hiking at Starved Rock this week in Illinois-La Salle/Peru. Its hard to get lost in Starved Rock in the hiking trails because on every trail, so many feet, there are signs that either say away or return. Its very nice. So Im on this trail. The way Im going-if Im going the wrong way, it says return-Ill know I need to turn around and walk the other way on the trail to get back to headquarters, to get back to home base where my car is parked. If Im walking where it says away, Im going farther and farther from home base. It would be kind of nice if life were like that as we traveled-decisions that weve made-there was a sign that said, Wrong way. Wrong decision. Thatd be nice. We have that in our cars now; its our GPS. We sometimes even argue with that. I got into an argument with my GPS a couple weeks ago. I was on a road going north. Wisconsins north of Illinois; I was in Illinois. I caught a road north, and it was telling me to turn around. I said, No. I am going north, and I want to go north. It would say, Please turn your car around immediately. I would say, I am going north. Youre wrong! I kept watching the time of arrival get longer and longer. It was getting mad at me. It was like, Turn around, you loser! I finally gave in, relented and turned around. It was right. I was going the wrong direction. There are times we think were going the right [direction], but were going to talk about some action steps that Job took that led him closer to God. Talk about laws. Its one thing to lose our jobs; its one thing to struggle in our economy; but to lose what Job lost and still keep your faith is an amazing accomplishment. It really is. Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Job 1. While youre turning there, Ill just tell you a little bit about Job. Job is the oldest book in the Bible as far as when it was written. Genesis, of course, talks about the beginning. Genesis was written by Moses. Job lived before Moses, so this is the oldest book in all the Bible. It tells a story about a man who lived before there was a nation of Israel, before God had set apart a people for Himself, the struggles and trials he went though. Job was a blessed man. He had a wonderful family; he had ten children. He loved these children so much that he would sacrifice for them every morning in case they had sinned, and he wasnt aware of it. Thats how much he loved his kids-every morning. He had thousands of sheep, thousands of camels, oxen, donkeys; he was worth a lot of money. That was his livelihood and his lifestyle. He had many servants. Job was a blessed man. The Bible says he was the greatest man in the East. One day calamity struck Job; a storm struck Job. Have you ever had those days where it just seems like one thing after another is going wrong? Well, whatever day youve had, it doesnt compare to what Job had. He had a day where one servant after another came in and told him devastating news. The first guy comes in and says, The sheep were all slaughtered. Sabeans came in and took all the sheep, and theyre gone. Another army came in and took all the camels. Theyre gone. Another thing happened, and all the servants were taken. One after another of these bad reports. I, alone, am left. Finally, the worst report-the worst he could ever hear-he received a report that all of his children-all ten-were at one of the brothers homes celebrating; and a storm came. The pillars of the house were taken, and the roof collapsed; and all of Jobs children were gone-all of his children. Job is crushed; hes devastated. The Bible says he ripped his robe, and he shaved his head, which was a Hebrew custom when you went into mourning. The Bible said after doing that, he fell on the ground and…? Worshipped. He ascribed worth to God. What does that tell us about the integrity and mindset of Job? He understood that God was sovereign or that God was in control, that God ultimately owned all things and all people; they all belonged to Him, not to Job. So, Job said these words-very famous (Job 1:21, page 497 of pew Bibles), Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. In all of this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. How about that? He understood the sovereignty of God. That is going to be a foundation that will serve him well. Understanding that everything we have, everyone in our lives, belong to Him. So [these were] some practical steps that Job took that will lead us closer to where we need to be. Number one: Job learned how to shed bad advice. There are going to be some friends there to come on the scene pretty soon, Bildad, Zophar, Eliphaz; theyre going to come on the scene. Theyre going to lecture Job. Theyre going to try to give Job some correction. Theyre very self-righteous and arrogant. Job is going to take whats good, and hes going to reject whats bad. Even his own wife is going to give him some bad counsel. Job learned how to shed bad advice. You and I, we go through times of emotional hardship and loss; we are very vulnerable. We need to learn to use wisdom and discretion and weigh what people say to us. If it doesnt line up with the Word of God, if it doesnt line up with righteousness and truth, then we dont take it in to our vessel that causes us to sink even further. We need to learn how to shed bad counsel, no matter who the source is. Job did that, Chapter 2:9 (page 497). His pain has gotten even worse because now he has boils all over his body. Now he is suffering physically as well as emotionally and spiritually. His wife sees his condition, and she says, Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die. Wow! Those are some pretty harsh words there, arent they? What shes saying is this: Listen, if thats the way Gods going to treat you, obviously He wants to kill you; get it over with. Curse Him and die! He replied, Are you talking like a foolish woman? Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Youre talking like a foolish woman. My wife gave me some bad counsel this week. I had to just shed it, reject it. She said, We dont really need the NFL season ticket this year. I said, Youre talking like a crazy woman! Just reject that advice; its bad counsel. You have to learn what youre going to take in and what youre going to dispel, so thats what Job does. I noticed also that Job grieved his loss. He grieved his loss. You dont need to suppress it; repress it; grieve it; experience the emotion of it. When youre sad, cry. When youre in mourning, if you need to be silent, be silent; but grieve the loss that youre going through. If this plant shuts down, we should grieve that as a community; but then we move on. Then we take those same skills and that work ethic that has made it successful, and we begin to put it into other areas. Well be just as successful. Its not that we value that any less; its the fact that we have hard workers, the fact that we have good work ethic. That has made that plant successful. Those skills and that hard work ethic are still in our community, but there is going to be a time when we need to grieve that loss. If something happens to you-the divorce takes place that you feared, you lose your job, economic hardship, physical hardship-its important that you grieve that loss of what youre going through. It says in the Bible that Job and his friends mourned for seven days, Verse 13. It says, Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. I want to tell you something. Thats the best job they did. Its when they opened their mouths that they got in trouble. Sometimes you think if youre coming by a person whos grieving, who is suffering, who has gone through a loss, and you have to come up with something wonderful to say… You have to be this spiritual Dr. Phil and give this great advice. The best thing his friends did was just listened, just sat with him, just loved on him. Thats the best thing you can do for somebody thats really hurting. Just be with them; just tell them you love them; just spend time with them if they want you to. Its the best thing you can do. You dont have to have all the answers. They finally opened up their mouths, and a lot of the things they said were the wrong stuff. Job probably wishes they were quiet again. Another thing that Job did here was Job expressed his thoughts and his feelings. When the time came for Job to talk, he talked. When he was frustrated, he talked about his frustration. When he was confused, he talked about his confusion. When he was angry, he expressed his anger. When he was sorrowful, he expressed his sorrow. Job was real and authentic about his thoughts and feelings about his friends, about God, about life and about his circumstances. One of the unhealthiest things you can do… You want to get fixated or stuck and not process grief, suppress it. If you dont talk about it-pretend it didnt happen-youll get stuck right there. One of the healthiest things you can do is to talk about what youre going through, your thoughts and your feelings. No holds barred, and thats what he did here. Job says in Chapter 7:11 (page 501), Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Did he lose his faith in God? No. But he did struggle with his reality. He did let God know what he was thinking and feeling. There are a lot of things we could read, a lot of examples, but I picked out Chapter 30. A lot of things Job said are dark. We should never read it and go, Well, Job really didnt mean that. What Job really meant was this, because Job really did mean what he said. He says some dark things in there; he really meant it. If youd lost all your children, your job, your finances and your health, you might say some dark things too. You have to understand when they came with the news to Job and said, Youve lost 7,000 camels and so many oxen and sheep, that was his livelihood. That was his future. That would be like somebody coming to you and saying, The stock market crashed. Your portfolios worthless. Of course, thats kind of happening now, isnt it? Someone might come to you and say, The economy is terrible, and were cutting back your job. Now you cant pay your mortgage, and you lose your home. That was the economic news that was brought. Not only have you lost your livelihood now, but youve lost your retirement, Job. Then he lost his health. Thats the equivalent of what Job went through, so this is a very appropriate example for us to look at. Verse 19 of Chapter 30 (page 519), Job is speaking of God. He said, He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes. I cry out to You, O God, but You do not answer; I stand up, but You merely look at me. God, you dont do anything about my condition. You dont seem to care what Im going through. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of Your hand You attack me. You snatch me up and dry me before the wind; You toss me about in the storm. Youre like a bully, God, because youre more powerful than I. Youre pushing me around. I know youll bring me down to death to the place appointed for all the living. Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? Havent I been a good person? Havent I been a righteousness man? Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; and when I looked for light, then came darkness. Thats the kind of thing that Job expresses. Job is real and authentic in his faith; and being real and authentic in his faith enabled him to keep his faith. Thats what we need to be. Were going through hardship and loss. We need to express to others and to God what were thinking, feeling and going through. Its a healthy thing to do. Now because of those right actions, Job is going to reap some precise results in his life. Were going to turn all the way to Chapter 42 in Job. If you want to read the rest of the book, thats all right. There is a lot of dialogue; Bildad will say his point of view, and Job will answer; Eliphaz will say his thing; Zophar will say his thing, and Job will answer. They have this debate, and he raises a lot of questions to God. He asks God why a lot of times. He talks about his destitute situation, and God finally comes on the scene-Chapter 38. God comes on the scene, and Job has asked why, why, why. God comes on the scene and starts to answer Job, and guess what God does not do? He does not answer the why questions? Interesting, isnt it? What does God do? Instead of saying, Okay Job, heres why this. Heres why that. Heres why bad things happen to good people. Heres why suffering and evil are present in the world. Heres why death… Heres why this; heres why that… God does not do that. God, instead, begins to list His credentials. From Chapters 38, 39, 40 and 41, one verse after another, God begins to list his credentials, what He does. He asks the question, Can you do this? Do you understand this? Were you there when this happened, when I created this, when I called forth that? Do you know this? Do you know that? Of course, Job knows the answer to none of those things. Job was criticizing His job as being God, Youre not doing Your job the right way. If I were God, heres how Id do it. God comes down and says, You dont have a clue what its like to be God. Its kind of like that movie Bruce Almighty, if you ever saw that movie with Jim Carey and Morgan Freeman. You think its so easy to be God? Here, Ill give you My powers for awhile. You take over. Have you ever had anybody criticize you for the job that you do who knows nothing about your job? Yet, they think they know better than you? Anybody ever had that happen? They know nothing about your job. I never have. Ive never had anybody criticize my job as senior pastor who knows nothing about what it takes to lead a church, what you do. Its never happened to me, but maybe it will someday. You listen to those criticisms sometimes, and you think to yourself, They just dont know. They just dont understand. If they only understood, they wouldnt make that statement. God comes on the scene and says, Job, you just dont understand. Job learns something very significant. Job learned that why questions are not the questions he should be asking, but the how and what are the questions he should be asking. By the way, before I read this, I want to tell you something really weird that happened. Remember Thursday night that thunderstorm? Im trying to read through all of Job-all the way through it; Im right around Chapter 40, and its 2 A.M. Im in bed, Im reading this, Brendas sleeping, and right as I read, God says, Do you have an arm like Me? Can you speak with a voice of thunder? it goes CRASH outside! Do you remember that storm Thursday night? Was that scary or what? That was just loud. There were some claps of thunder that were so [loud]. That one was the worst! Brenda woke up instantly. I said, I bet you Lindseys in here any second now. Sure enough, she and the puppy come walking in the room right as Im finishing that sentence. Do you have a voice like thunder? and the thunder crashed! Wow! That was scary. Verse 1 of 42, Job replied to the Lord: I know that You can do all things; no plan (or no purpose) of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Job learned the questions that he needed to be asking were the questions of what and how. Job says, Its about Your purpose, God. So if Im asking purpose questions, it is what can You teach me through this loss? How can this loss bring me into the person that You want me to be? How can this make me more righteous? How can this make me more Christ-like? How can this strengthen my faith? What will this teach me that I can teach to others? Those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking, those purpose questions-the what and the how. Not necessarily the why; I think the reason that God did not answer the why for Jobs questions is because literally Job and I and you would not be able to understand the answers. Ill give you an example of this, and Ive shared this illustration before, so some of you might have heard it; but until you can give me a better one, Im going to keep using it. My daughter was one-year-old, my oldest daughter. She had eye issues, so she was going to have to get a prescription for her eyes. I thought how in the world do you get a prescription for a one-year-old who cant talk, cant tell you what theyre seeing? She cant tell me where the red dot is. She cant communicate to them, but they have specialists that do that. So we took her to Madison. It was just her and me and the doctor. He put the solution in her eyes to dilate her pupils. It burned, and she started to cry. Then he had to do the other eye. The look on her face… He said, Dad, Im going to need you to… She wasnt about to let him do the second eye. Burn me once, shame on you; burn me twice… She wasnt about to do the second eye. He said, Dad, Im going to need you to hold back her hands. How tough is that to do? How do you explain to a one-year-old not only is Dad going to let this bad man put another drop in your other eye that hurts, but Dads going to hold your arms back so he can do it. How do you explain that? The look on her face was like, Dad! Youre going to hold me back so this man can do this again? Im talking to her, and its like, Its okay, sweetheart. Its going to be okay. Youre just hoping in her little spirit with all the love youve given her and all the support youve given her that she knows your nature and she knows your heart and that she will allow you [to do this]. Though I know she doesnt understand it, she will trust me as her dad to know that if this man was trying to destroy her, I would stop him. You just have to trust that. She just got that look in her face like, How could you let this happen? Why is this going on? He put that second drop in, and I just held her while she cried, trying to make it better. The truth of the matter is thats all I had going for me-her to trust that I love her. If I would have answered the why question for my daughter at age one, if I would have said, Listen, sweetheart, heres whats going on. You have eye issues, and this is a pediatric optometrist, and he is going to be running a series of tests. This solution will dilate your pupils. Its going to enable him to run some series of tests, and then hell prescribe some glasses for you. With these glasses, youll have better vision in your eyes. Okay, sweetie? Understand that now? You know where she was at in the realm of eyes at that age? Heres where she was at: Eye? Thats right; thats an eye. Then shed come up to my face, and shed touch mine and go, Eye? Right, Daddy has an eye, too. These are eyes. We see with our eyes. Thats where she was at when she was age one. If the doctor had come to me and said, Listen, Jeff, let me explain to you how this solution dilates a pupil. Let me explain to you the intricacies of every test Im going to use to evaluate your daughters eyesight. Hed used all of his medical school training and every technical word. When he would have finished, I would have looked at him, and I would have said, Eye? (Congregation laughing.) Dr. Eye? I wouldnt have caught any of that. You know why? Because I had not been to eye doctor school. So my daughters here. Im here. The eye doctor is up here somewhere. (Pastor is using his hands to portray a chart in front of him.) So heres Job. Job and you and I-when it comes to just what life is, and I dont care how smart you think you are-youre at that very base level of life; and God is way up here-way above the doctor somewhere. God tries to explain. He says, Listen, He talks about putting the stars in place and the sea and the waves. He talks about the ecosystem and the sun coming forth. He says, Listen, you cant even understand, Job, the things you see every day, the things you take for granted in life that you see every day. You dont even understand how I did that. How in the world, Job, will you ever understand the intricacies of life, why things happen and how they happen? Job, even if I answered your question, youre not going to understand, so Ill simply give you my credentials. If the doctor would have explained to me all the intricacies of what he was doing, I wouldnt have understood. I would have gone back to, You know what? I see the credentials on the wall. I see patients in your office. I see a clinic. Theres a reputation here. You seem to know what youre talking about. I am going to trust the care of my daughters eyesight into your hands. This was a man I had never met before. [I trusted him] because of the evidence that is around me. So God says, Look at My credentials. Look at the evidence that is all around you, and trust Me. Is not the food I give you good to taste? Did not His Son die on the cross for our sins? Did not he offer up His Son? We trust in the goodness of God, and we entrust the care of our soul and life over to Him-though we dont understand everything that happens, the loss were going through. Job came to the point of acceptance. He once said, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. What Job was saying is, I trust in the wisdom of God. I trust in the sovereignty of God, the knowledge of God, that He is qualified to do the job Hes doing. Im entrusting the care of myself to Him. There are sometimes that life puts solution in our eyes, and it hurts. When its all said and done, we see better. We see more clearly. You know that road map I was telling you about at the park? We carried it with us everywhere to see the different canyons and waterfalls, but there was also a map posted so many places along the road. Every time there was a fork in the road, thered be another map, You are here. Where the home base was, there was a question mark. There was a big question mark on the map, so you could find it. Whyd they put that there? It was the visitors center; thats where you go to get all your questions answered. God says, As were on this journey, we follow the signs that bring us closer to home. Theres coming a day when you and I will arrive home. There, the questions will be answered. Paul says, Now we see through a glass dimly. Then, we will know fully even as we have been fully known. Until then, we are in the realm of faith and trust. Sometimes thats very hard. I spoke to a man Saturday night after church. Hed not been to church since he was a little child. He came to service for the first time since he was a little child last night. He said to me, I lost both my children-one in 2004 and one in 2005. God really spoke to me today. It wasnt a coincidence that Im here today. Thats what Job learned. He said, Thats going to be my job. Im going to trust You, God. Another thing that Job did, and Ill just touch on this, was Job had a lot of animosity towards his friends because of the things they said to him, Youre a sinful man. Thats why this is happening to you, and all of these other kinds of things. Job would be sarcastic. Hed give it right back. He would say, Oh, yeah sure, Bildad, and wisdom started with you, and its going to die with you. Oh, yeah Zophar, youre so smart, and I dont know anything. Hed give it right back; so there was a little bit of animosity and anger because instead of helping them, they troubled him. Eventually, after meeting with God, he heals to the point where hes able to take his eyes off himself and focus on his friends. It says in Verse 10, After Job had prayed for his friends, when? After Job had prayed for his friends-he had taken his eyes off himself, and he began to look around him. It says, Then God made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. No coincidence. When Job forgave and released and began to pray for his friends, he took his eyes off himself. He began to minister to others. God released blessing into Jobs live. Job learned to take life day by day. Job once had the world by the tail. He had a family; he was rich; he had security for the future; he had his health, and in one day-one moment-it was all taken away. He learned the fragileness of life; he learned the fickleness of life. He learned to hold things loosely. He needed to trust God and take life one day at a time. You say, How do you know Job learned that? I know that from Verse 14. Look at Verse 14. Remember he had ten children. God gives him ten more children. Of course you cant replace the ten that you lost, but God gives him ten more. It says in Verse 14, The first daughter he named Jemimah. See, I told you. You know what it means in the Hebrew, Jemimah? Literally, [it means] day by day. Thats what the word means. So his child comes into the world, and Job says, Im going to name my child day by day because thats how Im going to live my life, one day at a time. I dont know what the future holds, but I do know this: God was with me in the storm, and Im going to trust Him to be with me in the future. I dont know what tomorrow holds for our community; what it holds for the plant; what it holds for your job, for our economy; what kind of losses you might face; but I do know one thing-Gods already there. We look to Him. [If] we follow these principals from His word, well be as ready for the storm as we can possibly be. The storm will still be hard; it will still be difficult to navigate, but well be ready. When its all done, well be stronger; our faith will be greater. One of my favorite song writers, a man that can really write a song, is Rich Mullins. I know you know Our God is an Awesome God and those kinds of songs. If youve never bought any of his music, its not too late. Hes still selling it, and the money still goes to benefit Native American children. One of my favorite songs Rich Mullins ever penned was a song called, Ready for the Storm. So were pulling this out of our achieves. We did this a long time ago; but as we conclude our sermon this morning, Id just like you to listen to the words of this song as Rich Mullins sings about that fact. Lets go ahead and play the song. (You can find the lyrics here: http://www.kidbrothers.net/wohsoe.html#rfts.) Well, next week is part four-already part four of the series that weve been on. Were going to be talking about change. As they say, the only consistent thing in life is change. Its going to be taking a rigid stand of flexibility. So well be talking about change over the next couple of weeks together. I invite you to bow your head with me as we close in prayer. Anybody here this morning who really needs special prayer, a loss youre going through, a hardship, a difficulty-could you just raise your hand so we can see that and be praying for you? Lets see those hands all around our sanctuary. We have people up front who are going to be praying with you too for those who raised their hands and others would like to come forward. You can come forward for special prayer. Theyre your brothers and sisters in Christ; and they want to just stand with you and meet in prayer for what youre going through. I just encourage you to come forward as soon as we say Amen. You can meet with them up here in front for a few moments and share whats going on in your heart and in your life. Father, we thank You for the example of Job, this great man. We see, definitely, that bad things happen to good people. We know that, and we are tempted to ask the why question. We get certain answers, but Lord, the ultimate answers are beyond what we can grasp-a perfect opportunity to answer those ultimate questions. God, You have made Your credentials known. You humbled Job, and You humble us. We really have no idea what its like to rule the world, so Lord, as Your servants-as Your creation-we humbly submit and bow. We trust in Your sovereignty, Your goodness. We trust our souls to Your care. Sometimes the things that are put into our eyes sting and hurt. We see life more preciously. We struggle and we fight. We dont want those drops to get inside because they hurt. Sometimes we feel Your restraint as You hold us and try to tell us, Trust Me. God, help us to do that. Help us to make decisions and follow steps that will take us closer, not farther away-closer to that place where all the questions are ultimately answered. Father, help us to be a people who grieve our losses, who have discernment and know what advice to take in and what advice and counsel to cast off. Help us to be people who are genuine, real and express our feelings, thoughts and emotions; who are able to take our eyes off of our own lives and pray for and be concerned over others; people who learn to ask the what and the how questions when we go through those difficulties; and people who learn to take life day by day. Thank You for the things Youre teaching us. Thank You for growing us. Thank You that Youre going to use these messages not only for the people that are here, but people that we know-people on the internet, people in television and people that weve yet to know. Youre going to use these words from the Scripture, and Youre going to bring comfort and hope to their lives. I pray that You bring us back here safely next week as we talk about change and just take reassurance that the one person who does not change is You. In Your name, we rest and trust, Amen.