Jesse Starr

It is good to see you all at church. If we haven't met yet, my name is Jesse, and it's great to be at church with you. Is it anyone's first time at a bid today? Oh, look at this, we've got a new friend. (audience applauds) Let's make him feel super embarrassed. That's awesome. Let's all give him a hug, Nana. Well, I'm excited to share with you. What I'm gonna actually go through today is actually like a little bit of fun, all right? And so has anyone read the book of Job before? All right, a few of us, that's awesome, okay? Most of the time, it's the book that people skip. Do you know what I mean? It's the book that's like, I'll do, I'm good with that one. Let's just go to the Psalms, let's read Psalms. But we're actually gonna go through the book of Job, and what I'm actually gonna do in the next 20 minutes or so, I'm actually gonna do the entire book. Like 42 chapters, we're gonna like get the whole bird's eye view, and we're gonna go through it all. Does that sound fun? (audience laughs) Oh, that's great, all right, we've pumped for it. Okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm actually gonna read the last thing Job says in the text. So chapter 42, I'm gonna read it, and the reason I said it is 'cause I almost want the words to like, just sit in your heart for a second. Right, we'll come back to it at the very end, but I always like to say it at the start, 'cause I'm like, no, I just want us to kind of capture this for a moment and almost just like, let it marinate in our minds for a minute. And so here what we're gonna do. I'm gonna read it, then we'll pray, and then we'll jump into the beginning of the text. Does that sound good? Lovely, all right, great, you guys are the best class. This is awesome, I love it. Here we go, Mr. Star, that's fine. Okay, all right, here we go. Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, who is it that obscure as my plans 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. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Heavenly Father, I just wanna thank you, God, for this moment, for this church, and thank you for this season that we are in. God, we pray that you would minister to our hearts this morning, beyond the message, beyond the worship, gotta pray that your word will get into our souls this morning, God, that we would find peace and rest in you. In your name, we pray. Amen, amen. Well, does anyone love Yochi in Kranala? Is it Yochi or Yochi? It's Chi? Yeah, I thought I said, all right. Well, we went to Yochi on Friday night, so I've got three kids and pop came along with us on Friday night, and if you haven't met my kids yet, I've got two that are normal and one that's not. There's probably the best way to describe them. Two of them are from, like, from my wife's side of the family and the last one's clearly part of the Glenstar gene pool. And so he's hyperactive and he runs around a lot and he's doing things. And we were having frozen Yochi on Friday night, it was really fun, it was all good. And Ben, our youngest, he's not even two years old. He just runs, right? He just goes, so my wife and I will often be like, well, who's on Ben Judy? Like, who's on Ben Judy? And that night, I was on Ben Judy, okay? And so he was running out, but then we ran into some people and we were out at the playground, and Ben was just running around. And at one point, my wife came up to me and she said, are you taking care of Ben? And I said, yeah, I'm taking care of Ben. And she's like, well, where is he? And I'm like, looking around and I'm like, I don't know where Ben is. And where we were. You know that, like, little salt meat cheese restaurant on the outside? Ben was over there sitting at a table being read a book by a man that wasn't me. Like, I'm not exaggerating. Like, the other guy was like, look, a little ducky. And I was like, boy, everyone, I'm like, what are you doing? And the guy was like, is this your kid? And I'm like, what's not yours? And then Ben like pushes me away. He's like, now I'm good here, actually. And so I take Ben and I go back to my wife. And my wife's like, were you not taking care of him? And I'm like, can you believe that guy? And she's like, were you not watching him? Were you not like scanning him? And I was like, well, I was kind of, I was in and out. I was kind of on Ben Judy, but not really kind of escaped me. Now, why do I tell that story? Because sometimes in life, we can ask the question when seasons get a little bit crazy. We can ask, is anyone looking out for me? Like, things can happen. And it can put us in a position where we're like, you're looking out for me, right, God. Like, and I don't mean like, oh, I got a parking ticket or a run of red lights. Like, I mean, like, when tragedy comes into our world, sometimes the depths of our soul can go. Well, I know God's good, but are you good? Like, are you actually watching me? Like, are you looking out for me? And I don't know maybe for you this morning. Maybe it's been some unanswered prayers. Maybe it's been a season of suffering. Maybe it's been marital issues or kid issues. Whatever it is, but maybe you're sitting there going, God, are you? Like, you are watching me, right? Like, you do have eyes on me. Now, why would I bring this up? Because throughout the Christian journey, the truth is, suffering is coming your way. And I know some of you are like, preach about something fun, like love or whatever, but the truth is, suffering is central to the human condition, but it's also central to the Christian message. And so as Christians, what we have to do is we have to actually learn how to suffer and suffer well. We actually have to learn how to worship God and trust God through the ups and downs of our seasons. You know, when my wife and I were engaged about 14, what, how many years ago? We were doing like some interior design. So she was like picking the couch and the table and all this kind of stuff, and we were down at like a, like a home good store. And as soon as I walked in, I saw this picture. And I felt like the whole experience was like, you need that picture. Like, it was just, I was just drawn to it. You can put it up on the screen and have a look at it. I think you'll be equally as impressed as I was. (audience laughing) I don't know why you're laughing, to be honest. I thought it was pretty special. My wife said, that's the ugliest picture I've ever seen in my life. So I was able to hang it up in the end of the place that a man does have authority, the garage. You know what I mean? All right, so I was in the garage. While we were in the US, I think Dad adopted it for the factory for a little while. Yeah. Yeah, why would I show that picture? Because when I saw it, I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, and that's what happens when you get off track. That's what happens when you get bumped off course. You start to be in an environment where you were never created to be and you'll start to fade away into something that doesn't resemble who you were created to be. And maybe here this morning, you've actually taken some hits. And maybe you've been bumped off course. You've been knocked off track and you're sitting in that kind of dehydrated position where you're like, I just don't feel like my soul is being refreshed anymore. And as the church, we actually have to talk about this stuff because how many people know someone who used to be a Christian? How many people do you know who backslid? How many people do you know that when they experienced some pain, they said, well, I'm done with that whole Jesus God thing? Because it's a misunderstanding of the nature of God. And so as the church, I want us to go through the story of Job and really have a look at not so much what happened to him, but rather his response to the tragedy and suffering in his life, does that sound okay? All right, awesome. Okay, here we go. Let's start at Job, chapter one, and we're gonna pick it up in verse eight. I'm gonna read pretty quickly, just 'cause we're going through a pretty quick, all right, here we go. Then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant job? Now just stop there, I know some of us are like, Satan and God have conversations like what's going on here? Just picture it like a bit of a courtroom situation, a bit of a judge duty situation. We're like, people come in and God's having a conversation, Satan wasn't his name, Satan just means the accuser, okay? So the accuser comes in, all right? And then look what God says, there is no one like him on earth. He is blameless and upright. Blameless doesn't mean sinless. Blameless just makes his pretty good. He's doing a good job. That's all that means, okay? And he says, he's a man who fears God and shuns evil. And look what Satan says, Satan says, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a head around him and his household? He's saying, have you not protected him and everything he has? You've blessed the work of his hand so that his flocks and herds are spread out throughout the land, but now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has. And surely he will curse, what's Satan saying? He's saying, give him some tragedy and I bet he'll turn his back on you. So the Lord says, very well then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, verse 13. One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the Older Brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby and the sabbians attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword and I am the only one who was escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came in and said, the fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came in and said, the chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword and I'm the only one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, get another messenger came in and said, your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the Older Brother's house when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed and they are all dead. And I'm going to go. the only one who escaped to tell you. It's pretty clear that Job is having a bad day. But look at his next response. At this Job got up, Tories closed, shaved his head, checked this and he fell to the ground and worshipped. What's your first response when tragedy comes into your world? Is it to respond? Is it to worship? What's your first response when the unexpected comes in. Do you fall to your knees and worship? My wife and I, we took our kids for a scooter ride recently and they're off on their scooters and we actually lost our car when we were coming back. We lost our car. We couldn't find it. We couldn't remember where we parked. We got there and my wife, my wife and I immediately looked at each other and said, "Well, someone stole on the car." Someone stole the car. Now my wife, she turns into like CSI detective. She's like, "Some of these cars have dash cans. We're going to catch them all this kind of stuff." I'm looking at the kids going, "Hope you like scooter riding because you're riding home." And then I start to think, "Did I put theft insurance on that car? Am I going to get a little bonus on my pay out here?" Turns out it was just a little bit further down the street. But here's why I tell that story. Sometimes when things happen, we look for who's paying for this. Who's covering this up? We look for when the pain comes and we're like, "Well, who's fault is this? Who's actually going to pay for this pain and sin in my life?" But Job's response is to fall down on his knees in worship. Now from the get go, we can see that clearly. This is a man who fears the Lord because for us, I don't know whether that is our first response. Particularly to worship God, it might be to blame God, but to worship God. And then look what he says next. Job says, "Naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked, I will depart." And then he says this, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Here's what I want to say about that. Job doesn't even understand what just happened to him. He thinks the Lord took everything away. He doesn't know who took everything away. We just read the story. Satan. Satan took everything. So check this. Even in Job's misunderstanding of the nature of God, he still finds himself on his knees worshiping God. Even in the mess, I understand. He saw God took it all the way and yet he will still worship God even when he doesn't fully understand. In 2022, when my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she passed about a month or so ago. But when she was diagnosed with cancer, it took all of us. It shocked all of us. It took us all off track. It hit all of us. It particularly her. And do you know what I said to her about a year into the fight? I said to her, I said, "How are you getting through this?" Do you know what she said to me? This is what she said. She said, "I got saved when I was 16, and I have a lifetime of knowing that he is good even when I don't understand what's actually going on." Timothy Keller said, "If there's a God big enough for you to get matter, then that God is big enough to have a reason for your suffering that you can't understand." See, we don't have to have right understanding of everything that's going on to know that he is good. We can know he is good because he is our Heavenly Father and we don't need to know the big picture of all that kind of stuff. We can still worship him even in our limited understanding of why I don't know why there's pain and suffering in my life. We can still worship God for who he is and that he is good. Okay, let's look at the second part. Satan comes again. He comes back to God and says, "Skin for skin, a man will give everything he has for his own life." Now, stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones and he will surely curse you this time. The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, he's in your hands, but you must spare his life." Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful souls from the souls of his feet to the crown of his head. Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself as he sat among the ashes. Then Job is joined by a bunch of his friends, Ella Fas, a team of night, Bill Dad, Shuwart and Zofra and Namathite. He has gathered around with friends. I want us to see this. When they saw him from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They began to weep aloud. Then no one said a word to him and he didn't say anything. In this part, do not we see from Job? We said quiet. He does nothing. He just sits in the pain. He just sits silently. My wife tells me that I have terrible reactions. I'm very slow to react. If my kids are bike riding and they fall off the bike, another parent has picked up my children before I get there. I'm very slow. She wakes up in the night and she's like, "I heard something and I know what it was. It was you elbowing me in the head." That's what it was. I have bad reaction time because what? As a culture, we love reactions. We love it. We have reaction videos. We watch the block just because we want to see people blow up at each other. We love reaction. We love it. We have a whole cinema thing based on revenge and reaction. We love it but he had Job. He just sits with no reaction. Maybe for some of us, this is the season you're in where you're just sitting in the pain. I know that might be heavy. If for some of us might be like, "I'm sitting in a great season." That's awesome. That's great. I'll celebrate with you. But for some, we might be just sitting in the pain because it's one thing to have a chaotic experience. It's another thing when chaos just lingers in our lives. Another year of being overlooked. Another year of being single. Another season of financial stress. Another loss. Another broken dream. Another rejection or disappointment. What happens in these lingering seasons is we start to go, "God, are you? Are you looking out for me?" I argue there because I sing about you being there a lot at church. We sing the songs. He'll never fail. "God, won't let me down." And then there's times where you go, "Oh no, God failed." Yeah, he let me down. I feel it. We can have these moments where we're like, "God, are you?" And this is where Job finds himself. His friends, for the next 34 chapters of the book, his friends are like, "Job, what did you do?" All this stuff is going, "What did you do?" And he's like, "I didn't do anything. I'm innocent." And then they start accusing him of like secret sin. They're like, "I want you to do it. Just steal money. Just sleep with something." Like, "What did you do?" And they're just going at him repetitively. Why? Because good things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people. That's what they believed. And so they're just looking at him saying, "You're supposed to be blameless and upright. Where's your secret sin?" And this is where Job, he kind of flips the script a little bit. And he says, "I'm innocent. The issue is up there." He's saying, "He starts to accuse God of being asleep at the wheel." He's like, "It's God. God has this something going on." And what he starts to do is he puts God on trial for all of human suffering. That's what he does. He's now, and don't we do that when we have an issue? We make it everybody's issue. That's what Job does. He then starts to accuse God of, and he doesn't curse God. He doesn't anything like that. But he starts to accuse God of, "Well, where are you in all of this suffering?" And it's not until chapter 38 that God actually speaks up. And God says, "Job, you got questions for me, pal? I got questions for you." He says, "You're trying to put me on trial?" No, no, no. I'll put you in your place. And look what God says to him. It says, "The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm." Look what he says. He says, "Who is it that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?" Then he says to Job, "Brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me." He hits Job with 77 questions about meteorology, cosmology, oceanography. He starts with Job, "Where were you when the planet was constructed?" He does that thing that all parents do. When your kids are fighting over toys, you're like all the toys are mine. You come there and they're fighting over a scooting. You're like, "I own all the scooters. See that bed? That's my bed. Where you're standing? My floor." Do you know what I mean? That's what God is doing to Job. He comes in there and he's like, "Job, where were you when I put the stars in the sky?" Then he says, "Job, who feeds the lions? Who tames the oceans?" He says, "Have you walked the depths of the seas?" He says, "Delightening bolts report to you, Job." Then he says, "Job, do goats tell you when they're going to give birth?" "Job, I don't know why I go. Would tell me. " Why does God do that? It's not to belittle Job. It's not to crush him. It's not to take him down a peg because he's arrogant. No, no, no, no. It's none of that. What God is doing, think of it like this, what God is doing is actually pulling back to the curtain and saying, "Actually, I'm the God who is actually control of all of this." Like you're seeing this little bit and making huge judgments and God pulls back the curtain a little bit and says, "No, no, I'm actually the God over everything that's going on. Not just your little issues, but I'm the God of all of it. I'm the God over everything." What God is saying is, He's saying, "I'm powerful and I have a purpose, even in your pain. I have a purpose." I want us to notice that God actually never answers Job's questions as to why Job suffered. Like Job has all these questions, God actually never answers it. He never goes, "Well, here's why I did it. Right now I have an conversation and we thought he doesn't do that. Do you know why he doesn't do it?" Because it would have spoiled Job. That's why. It would have turned Job into a transactional believer which is, "I believe in God because of what I get from God," which by the way is exactly what Satan accused Job of being at the beginning. Satan said, "He only worships you because you bless him and protect him." So even when the blessing and protection is gone, Job is still there, worshipping God. So no, God never tells him why he suffers. Instead he just reveals more of himself to Job. I love what J.I. Packer says. J.I. Packer says, "To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the Godless, but it stabilizes the saints." What does that mean? It means when you know the God who is over everything, you actually don't freak out when stuff goes bad. You actually have a degree of peace in your soul because when you know the source of all of your resources, it actually puts you at peace of going, "No, actually, do you know what God's got this?" This is all God's anyway. See, when chaos and pain come into our lives, it's not meant to push us away from God. It's meant to draw us closer. My daughter recently was viciously attacked by a seagull. It was pretty dramatic. She was walking with a bread roll and I saw a seagull coming towards her and she then took off running and then one seagull turned into ten seagulls and she quickly took off through the mall. She screamed. She was crying. I'm just standing there with my other two children and I'm looking at my daughter going, "Throw the roll." Do you know what I mean? I'm like, "Don't hold it. Throw it." And eventually she does and she comes back and I looked at my daughter and I said, "Don't run away from me when that happens." Like, "Stay close to me. I'm the only one that's going to protect you from the birds." Now why do I say that? Because when we go through pain in our lives so often what we happen is why I've had enough of God. No, I'm not. I'm not going to church anymore. You hurt me too many times, God. Pain, suffering, they aren't meant to push us away from God. They're meant to actually draw us closer to God. It's actually meant to give us almost an experience with God that maybe we never would have had without it before. So let's look at Job's final response. Job said, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand. How do you can come up and join me?" I'm a close and just a minute. He said, "Listen now and I'll speak to your question. Look what Job says. This is your final response. We're ready to start." He said, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. What's the best thing God can give you? Solve all your problems, give you that special someone, answer that prayer, get you that job. No, the best thing God can give you isn't more stuff. The best thing God can give you is Himself. It's just more of who He is. The best thing God can give you is allowing you to experience more of the nature of He is. What's eternity? Eternity is us experiencing the fullness of God. And when we go through pain and when we go through suffering, there's something spiritual and powerful about it which I don't understand but something happens within us where we actually get to a position where we're almost more open to experience what God has for us. It's just something unique there. The symbol of Christianity is not Jesus ascending. It's not the empty term. It's not even healing hands. The symbol of Christianity is the cross, why? Because there's something about suffering at the heart of Christianity. Christianity, every other religion tells you you suffer because you did something to a fan God. Christianity is the only religion that says, "When you suffer, God knows what it feels like and He is walking with you in the suffering." Our desire in every season, the chaos and the calm, needs to be, "I just want to know Jesus more. I just want more of Jesus." That's all I want. At the end of Job's life and a lot of people remember this part about the Job story. It says that the Lord restored the fortunes of Job and it said that he gave him twice as much as he had before. It said he had 7,000 sheep, he got 14,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, now he's got 6,000. He doubled everything he had except for children. He didn't double his children. So he doubled all of his stuff and here's what I want to say about that. Suffering, when you go through a season of suffering, suffering doesn't mean blessings coming on the other side of it. So when you suffer, don't be like it's alright because the next one's going to, no that's not. No, that's not what's happening. What brings blessing to your soul isn't going through suffering, no, no, no, it's having the right perspective of God through the suffering. That's what brings blessing to you. Job through this season, he got a right perspective of God. He got to experience more of God, he got to see more of God and ultimately that brought a blessing into his life. Suffering doesn't bring a blessing. Doing good doesn't bring blessings, no, no, no, having a right view of God in your life will bring a blessing. Okay, let's finish. I've said that three times, this time I really mean it. Internity, whether you're going through good seasons or bad seasons, whether you've been knocked off track and you feel like that train down the front, can I tell you that internity you will not go up to God and say why? Why did you do that? Why did you let that happen? You won't do that. Instead what you will see is the incredible picture that God had and you will stand back and you will say, how great is our God? Because when we see the fullness of what God has been weaving us through because we only see through our eyes, but when we see everything we will say, well done God, how great you are. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we just, God, we pray that you would actually start to move your Holy Spirit close in our hearts. What I pray for anyone in a tough difficult season, God, I pray that you would begin to move closer into that season, God, and they would start to know your voice in the suffering in the pain. I pray that you would be the comfort to their soul. God, we pray that you would give us the strength and the resilience to be people of faith who through it all, God, we will simply abide in you knowing that you are good. Not that we understand it all, but we will know that you are good. Give us strength and courage in Jesus, and we pray. Amen. Amen. Hey, our team is here. If you want prayer, or why don't we all stand up? Let us stand. Our team is here. If you want someone to pray with you, or chat with you or whatever it is, but if not, we love you church and we will see you all next week. All right? Awesome. (audience applauding)