Bishop Noel Jones - WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE- June 9, 2023
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:05 (upbeat music)
00:07 (upbeat music)
00:35 - Job, and the book of Job is actually divided in three.
00:40 The first part of the book deals,
00:45 the prologue just outlines and shows
00:48 exactly what happened to put Job
00:51 in the situation that he's in.
00:54 And then of course, the second section of the book,
00:59 which is the most,
01:04 deals with the discussions
01:08 and the philosophical theology
01:12 as it relates to why people get in trouble
01:16 and why they're in difficult straits.
01:21 In the end of the book, of course,
01:24 the epilogue deals with the encounter
01:32 that generally comes after you have been in
01:35 serious straits.
01:38 And it is there with that encounter with God
01:41 that everything now becomes understandable
01:45 within your own spirit and your own mind.
01:49 In the middle of the book, middle section,
01:53 which is most of the book,
01:54 that's where the great debates and the soliloquies
01:58 and the conversations and discussions become intense
02:03 and the emotions arise and fall,
02:08 particularly in Job because he is the subject now
02:12 of not only the brunt and the pain of his experience,
02:17 but he is also trying to figure out
02:22 why he is where he is
02:24 and seems as if he's not getting very much help
02:28 from those who are around him.
02:30 The expression of despondence is oftentimes seen
02:34 throughout this book and every now and then
02:40 there would be a spark of hope
02:43 and a spark of determination to hold on.
02:47 I don't know if you've ever been there
02:49 when you're going through some rough times
02:52 and difficult straits and one hand,
02:57 you're in great depression
02:58 and then on the other hand,
03:00 you feel some expectancy of deliverance and hope
03:04 and it seems as if you, just like a yo-yo,
03:09 you're going up and down.
03:10 I've been there where in circumstances,
03:13 I felt like I would come out all right
03:16 and then the next minute,
03:19 I felt like I wasn't gonna make it.
03:23 It's just like the other night,
03:26 the other day I was preaching at,
03:28 doing the eulogy for Ron Winans
03:31 and as I was sitting there beside Bishop Jacob,
03:34 he said to me, he said,
03:35 "How you feeling right about now?"
03:36 This is after about two or three hours of celebration
03:39 and then I had to get up to preach
03:44 and it reminded me of when I go through things
03:49 because I told him, I said,
03:51 "Now I feel like laughing one minute,
03:52 "I feel like crying another minute,
03:54 "I feel like preaching another minute
03:55 "and I feel like leaving another minute."
03:58 I mean, for three hours, man,
03:59 I've been feeling every kind of feeling there is
04:02 and then it's time for me now
04:04 to get up to preach in a minute
04:05 but before I got there,
04:07 I had gone through so many different emotions
04:11 and when you read this book carefully,
04:13 you will find that anybody who is going through
04:17 an intense trial has emotional swings
04:22 and mood swings.
04:25 I don't know if you've been there, I don't know
04:28 and you swing one minute,
04:30 you're feeling like it's gonna be all right
04:33 and the next minute,
04:34 you're feeling like you're being overwhelmed
04:36 with this challenge
04:38 and then to run into some folk who wanna say
04:43 that you ought to be on the mountaintop all the time,
04:46 well, maybe you ought to get in my shoes
04:49 and let's see how you handle it.
04:53 I heard Job in one place, he said,
04:55 "Oh, miserable comforters you are."
04:58 He said, "If I were where you were,
05:00 "I would handle you differently."
05:02 It is here then in 29 that Job now is reflecting
05:06 and he is in one of those moods
05:08 where he is looking back at a better time
05:12 and a better day as it related to him
05:14 and his significance
05:16 and he says, moreover Job continued his parable
05:21 and said, "Oh, that I were as in months past."
05:26 You know, I have been there too
05:29 where I wish this wasn't happening
05:32 and I wish it was like it was.
05:36 Amen, I wish I was loved like I was loved.
05:40 I wish they didn't leave me.
05:43 I wish I didn't divorce.
05:45 I wish I didn't break up.
05:47 I wish I didn't tear up my car.
05:48 I wish I wasn't crippled.
05:50 I wish I wasn't hurt.
05:51 Oh, that I were as in months past,
05:56 as in the days when God preserved me,
05:58 when his candle shined upon my head
06:00 and when by his light I walked through darkness.
06:04 As I was as the days of my youth
06:07 when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle,
06:09 when the Almighty was yet with me,
06:12 when my children were about me,
06:13 when I washed my steps with butter
06:16 and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.
06:19 When I went out to the gate through the city,
06:21 when I prepared my seat in the street,
06:24 the young men saw me and hid themselves.
06:26 The aged arose and stood up.
06:28 The princess refrained talking
06:30 and laid their hand on their mouth.
06:32 The nobles held their peace.
06:33 Their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
06:36 When the air heard me, then it blessed me.
06:38 When the eye saw me, it gave witness to me
06:41 because I delivered the poor that cried,
06:43 the fatherless and him that had none to help him.
06:46 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me.
06:49 I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
06:52 I put on righteousness and it clothed me my judgment.
06:57 I was as a robe and a diadem.
06:58 I was eyes to the blind, feet was eye to the lame.
07:01 I was a father to the poor,
07:03 the cause which I knew not I searched out.
07:05 I break the jaws of the wicked
07:06 and pluck the spoil out of his teeth.
07:09 Then I said, I shall die in my nest
07:12 and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
07:15 My root was spread out by the waters
07:18 and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
07:20 My glory was fresh in me
07:22 and my bow was renewed in my hand
07:24 until me, unto me men gave ear
07:26 and waited, kept silence at my counsel.
07:28 After my words, they spake not again
07:30 and my speech dropped upon them.
07:32 They waited for me as for the rain.
07:34 They opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
07:37 If I laughed on them, they believed it not
07:39 and the light of my countenance they cast down.
07:41 I chose out their way and sat chief
07:44 and dwelt as king in the army
07:47 as one that comforted the mourners.
07:50 Chapter 30, the first two words,
07:54 but now.
07:55 I know you been all that.
08:02 Touch somebody and say, what you gonna do now?
08:13 The book of Job is placed chronologically in Genesis.
08:18 It's placed in the middle of the Bible
08:23 among the poetry aspect of the presentation of scripture,
08:28 but the character and the ambiance
08:33 surrounding the character Job,
08:35 of course, is in Genesis.
08:41 He is a leader in antiquity
08:44 and the reason we have decided that is so
08:49 is because like Adam and other early biblical characters,
08:55 Job performed the spiritual
09:00 and the ceremonial ritual for his family.
09:05 He was the one who did the sacrificing.
09:09 If you remember in the prologue in the early part,
09:12 he noted that he should sacrifice for his children
09:17 just in case they were walking outside of the will of God.
09:22 I say that because it indicates
09:27 that the question of bad things happening to good people
09:32 is as old as man is.
09:38 We have always had difficulties trying to figure out
09:42 why bad things happen to good people,
09:47 and particularly those of us who have matriculated
09:52 in the holiness church and in church period,
09:56 particularly those and especially those
10:00 who have been under heavy manners and strong disciplines.
10:06 Part of that discipline and part of keeping you
10:11 psychologically attuned to that discipline
10:17 is believing that whenever you do the right thing,
10:21 that good things will automatically follow.
10:25 It becomes quite, quite a problem to us.
10:30 It wasn't only us, but it seems that the psalmist
10:34 had the problem because he said his foot almost slipped
10:38 looking at the wicked.
10:41 Many times, the attitude of bad things happening
10:46 to good people cause us to, yes,
10:49 to be quite unstable in our walk with God
10:53 because as I'm walking, doing the right thing,
10:57 trying to live right, trying to be kind
11:02 and good to other people and look up now,
11:07 look what I'm getting in return.
11:09 We got really bad with it when we came to church
11:15 and the preacher said if I paid my tithes
11:18 and if I walked right and all of that stuff,
11:22 that everything would be all right
11:25 and you'd be blessed and go forward.
11:28 And then all of a sudden now,
11:31 some things are happening in your life
11:33 that you're totally without control over.
11:36 I thought there was a God and God was a just God,
11:41 a fair God and so why should this be happening to me?
11:46 It's the way we wrestle with it.
11:50 I mean, I don't care how sanctified you look.
11:54 You wrestle with it.
11:55 I wrestled with, some years ago,
11:58 they said I had a heart attack, I was 35
12:01 and I was having some problems with that.
12:06 I was sitting in the room, the hospital room
12:10 and isolated from everybody with tubes everywhere
12:13 and the doctor bringing me some book to read
12:16 on how to behave now that you've had a heart attack
12:20 and I was quite upset because all I was doing
12:24 was going to church, coming from church
12:27 or being in church and I figured, Lord,
12:31 maybe somebody else deserves this kind of treatment
12:35 other than me.
12:37 I can think of at least 50 or 60 folk
12:40 who in their behavior and cutting up, selling dope
12:47 and swallowing dope and doing all kinds of stuff
12:52 and why me?
12:54 I don't know, have you ever been there?
12:56 Where you wanna know why, why?
12:58 I haven't done anything but good.
13:01 You see, it goes deeper than that
13:03 because what Job proves to us, the book of Job
13:07 and what God does to us through the book of Job
13:11 is to point out that sometimes what you're going through
13:15 is not natural.
13:17 What you're facing is super natural.
13:21 By any stretch of the imagination,
13:25 you should not be in that trial or that difficulty
13:30 and it's unexplainable to you because it's not logical.
13:35 It is not logical.
13:37 What is happening to Job here is logical in the heavens
13:42 but it is not logical on earth because Job's behavior
13:47 should have brought on different consequences
13:52 than what he faced through the attack of the enemy.
13:57 You see, what's happening here is that Job
14:00 is a favorite of God and being a favorite of God,
14:05 he has been targeted in order to prove
14:10 that God is right and the devil is wrong.
14:15 (gasps)
14:17 Now, I have had some awards
14:19 and I'm sure you have had some awards
14:22 but I wonder would you like the distinction,
14:25 the idiosyncratic distinction of being known as
14:30 a prover that the devil is wrong and that God is right.
14:35 We admire Job, yes, and we speak of his qualities
14:41 throughout the Bible but I wonder, is there anybody here
14:44 who would volunteer for eight months
14:49 to go through what Job went through for eight months
14:54 to prove that God is right and the devil is wrong?
14:59 Uh-huh, I thought I wouldn't get any volunteers.
15:04 I thought so but there are some of you in here
15:08 who didn't volunteer, Job didn't.
15:10 It just so happens that God admires you
15:15 to the point where he will allow Satan to come against you
15:20 because he knows how you're going to behave.
15:25 Oh, I wish I'm talking to somebody that's been through something.
15:28 You see, it's critical to see this
15:31 because now Satan does not believe that any of us
15:36 serve God out of the desire of our heart.
15:41 He does not believe that you could just love God
15:44 with no strings attached like the BMW.
15:47 He doesn't think that anybody in here can just love him
15:52 and that's how he accuses us to God.
15:59 Now, it's interesting that when you're being accused
16:02 to God by Satan that you're not in the audience at all
16:07 and so you're in your own world.
16:10 God and Satan is in their world
16:13 because Satan has access until Revelations.
16:17 He still has access to the throne room
16:21 and he walked into the throne room
16:23 with the sons of God who were the angels
16:26 who were given certain jurisdictions
16:28 and they came to make their report to God
16:32 and Satan was in the midst.
16:34 It is not the devil who brought Job up, it was God.
16:39 He said, I know you've been going to and fro
16:43 in the earth, walking up and down in it
16:46 and I know you are a roaring lion
16:49 seeking whom you may devour
16:51 and since you have been traversing the terra firma,
16:55 I wonder have you run across Job?
17:01 There's a guy out there who is to with evil,
17:04 who is upright in all of his ways, who is pious
17:08 and yes, I wonder have you considered Job?
17:12 Well, of course Satan said, yeah, I checked him out
17:15 and I found that you have a hedge around him.
17:19 You have this fence around him,
17:22 this electrical fence with barbed wires on top.
17:25 I tried to get to him but I couldn't.
17:29 Notice now, now he accuses.
17:32 He says, now I know you got him all hedged up
17:35 but I'd like to introduce something to you
17:37 that maybe you didn't think of
17:39 and that is Job doesn't serve you for nothing.
17:44 Can you imagine the insult that he has just laid
17:48 at the feet of the creator?
17:50 What he is saying to God is,
17:52 I don't see any qualities about you
17:55 that I would have anything to do with you
17:58 unless you pay me and that's how these men and women are.
18:03 You have to pay them to serve and worship you
18:07 if you don't take care of them,
18:10 if you don't give them all that they have
18:13 and if you don't supply them with more and more and more
18:18 then you can't get any praise
18:21 or you can't get any worship out of them.
18:23 Oh God and then of course he is defaming us to God
18:28 because what he just did was,
18:30 not only did he shortchange God's glory
18:34 and power and mutability and eternalness
18:39 and loveliness and holiness,
18:42 what he does now is he defames us
18:45 and what he says is none of us have a quality
18:48 of giving anything to God unless we are bought.
18:52 Oh God, I wonder if Satan is preaching
18:56 some of these messages that I've heard
18:58 that seem to indicate that a walk with God
19:02 is measured by a material barometer
19:06 because it seems oftentimes that we begin to feel
19:09 that our walk with God is measured by what we drive,
19:13 what we wear and where we live
19:17 and it seems as if we have attached our faith
19:21 to the material side and if you love Jesus,
19:25 you'll get rich, you see,
19:27 and there's no poor people in the Lord
19:29 and you know how I go and if you're sick,
19:33 you've got problems with your faith
19:35 and if you're going through something,
19:37 you've got problems with your faith
19:40 but we have to understand that personal,
19:43 that our perception does not connect us to God.
19:47 My perception, my sensual perception
19:50 connects me to my world.
19:52 I see, I hear, I smell, I touch
19:55 and I'm connected to my environment.
19:57 Because I'm poor doesn't mean I can't taste
20:01 what food tastes like.
20:03 Because I'm poor doesn't mean I can't enjoy
20:07 the euphonious melody of Beethoven.
20:10 Because I'm poor doesn't mean that I can't enjoy
20:14 the sunset and hear the rushing of the waves
20:18 against the beach.
20:19 Riches doesn't have anything to do
20:22 with the beauty of this day that's outside
20:25 and my sensual perception can enjoy all of that
20:29 and I can be broke as Job's turkey.
20:33 You see, it's critical to understand
20:35 that on the other side, I can't take my sensual perception
20:39 and deal with God.
20:41 In order for me to deal with God,
20:42 I have to have faith.
20:44 Faith connects me to God and God gives me what he wants
20:49 and he takes from me what he wants.
20:51 It is faith that identifies the giver
20:55 and it is faith that identifies the taker.
20:58 It is not my perception.
21:00 Oh, please.
21:02 You can walk in here, walk out of a Rolls Royce.
21:05 You can walk in here with diamonds all over you.
21:08 You can have on $100,000 worth of garment.
21:12 It still does not mean you're closer to God.
21:16 I can't look at you and decide you're closer to God.
21:21 Why?
21:22 Because to understand a relationship with God,
21:26 you have to have faith.
21:28 Rich people with faith, poor people with faith
21:32 because it doesn't matter what you have
21:36 that determines who you are.
21:38 God, I'm a child of God.
21:42 I don't have a dime in my pocket
21:45 but I am a child of God.
21:49 I wanna talk to you and touch a neighbor
21:52 and say what you have is on loan anyway.
21:55 Amen.
21:57 He just loaned somebody more than he loaned you.
21:59 That's all.
22:00 Because the rich of the rich.
22:02 I was with the rich of the rich the other day
22:05 and I looked at a 200, the man has a 265 foot yacht.
22:10 You cannot imagine the size of that boat.
22:15 Inside of it, he's got a submarine
22:18 that can take eight people
22:20 and keep them underwater for eight days.
22:23 Uh-huh, of course, he is the partner to Microsoft,
22:25 if you will.
22:27 Yes, he's the other guy that we don't hear about.
22:29 But anyway, the rich of the rich, the rich of the rich,
22:33 the rich, rich, rich of the rich Walmart.
22:36 And believe it or not, the 48-year-old
22:41 left everything the other day when his plane crashed.
22:46 A billionaire worth 50 billion,
22:49 but he left it all right here.
22:54 For you bring nothing into this world
22:56 and you can take nothing out.
23:00 Which means what do you really own?
23:03 What do you really own?
23:05 You can't take it out of here.
23:07 You can, you know, you spend it best you can,
23:11 but you can't take it out of here.
23:13 It's still here.
23:14 It's God who distributes the wealth.
23:18 And it's God who decides what you will have
23:21 while you're here, because you got to give it back to him
23:25 on the way out.
23:27 I wish somebody'd understand this.
23:30 Ah, but what you're going to leave here with
23:32 is what's in your spirit.
23:34 I don't care how much money you have,
23:38 you better be rich in your spirit.
23:42 Oh, I feel it here.
23:44 It is this relationship then with God
23:47 that God wants to prove to Satan
23:49 that it does not change
23:51 with environmental and situational changes.
23:56 He is saying there is a consistency
23:58 that goes in the heart of a man who loves me,
24:02 that it does not fluctuate with what they have
24:05 or what they don't have,
24:06 because they understand certain principles.
24:08 And that is, first of all, I have breath.
24:13 And the one who sustains my breath is God.
24:17 And he says, "Let everything that hath breath
24:21 praise the Lord."
24:23 I can praise him when I'm poor.
24:25 I can praise him when I'm rich.
24:26 It does not matter what I have.
24:28 It does not matter what I don't have,
24:30 as long as I have breath.
24:33 I might be in a wheelchair, but I got breath.
24:35 I might be in a hospital bed, but I got breath.
24:38 I might be in a pinto, but I got breath.
24:40 I might be in a Rolls Royce, but I got breath.
24:43 I might be living in Compton, in Watts, but I got breath.
24:47 I might be in Beverly Hills, but I got breath.
24:51 And as long as I got breath,
24:53 Satan, you can take it and you can go with it,
24:57 and I'll still lift up the name
25:00 (audience cheering)
25:03 of my God.
25:04 I feel the Holy Spirit in here.
25:07 Somebody's going through something,
25:09 but it's only eight months, that's all.
25:11 That's all Job's trial was, eight months,
25:14 eight months, eight months.
25:17 And so the whole issue now revolves around Job's disposition
25:21 and Job's attitude, because the supernatural test
25:25 is upon him.
25:27 He did not bring this on himself.
25:30 It was brought on because of what happened
25:33 in the heavenlies.
25:35 It was his faith then in God
25:38 that maintained his composure,
25:42 because what he has proven to us,
25:45 and what we must prove to ourselves,
25:48 is that things aren't the reason I serve my God.
25:53 It ain't let's make a deal, amen.
25:56 If I'm married, I gotta praise him.
25:58 If I'm single, I gotta praise him.
25:59 If somebody divorce me, I got to praise him.
26:03 I got to hold on no matter what.
26:06 And it is in this mood now,
26:08 after he has been bombarded by the Eliphaz,
26:11 the Bildad, the Zophars, the guys and the saints
26:14 that look at you in situations
26:16 and don't know how you got there,
26:19 don't know what God is doing,
26:21 because they have long been waiting to catch you
26:25 in this place anyway.
26:26 Well, you know, people get envious of you
26:29 when God is blessing you.
26:32 I sat and talked to a friend the other day,
26:34 and he said to me, he said,
26:36 "I can tell when God is blessing you."
26:40 I said, "Why?"
26:41 He said, "That's when the folks start talking about you
26:44 and start running you down."
26:46 He said, "It's when God is elevating you
26:49 that the folk are trying to put you down with their mouth.
26:53 They go out of their way to find something
26:57 that they can harp on.
26:59 They go out of their way to find something
27:02 they can pull you apart with."
27:04 I feel the Holy Ghost here.
27:06 It's like folk trying to find a thread on your knit
27:10 so they can take that one thread
27:12 and pull the whole knit apart.
27:15 But understand this, when God sews that sweater,
27:19 you can pull on that thread all you want to.
27:24 It ain't coming apart.
27:27 And if it comes apart,
27:28 it's because God wants to get that sweater off you
27:32 so he can put a better one on you.
27:35 (laughs)
27:35 (moans)
27:36 I feel the help.
27:38 It is this Job then who has had this bombardment
27:41 from the sententious and the pretentious and the hypocrite,
27:46 from those who just like to throw darts
27:48 and like to get you when you're down.
27:51 It would seem to me, since you know so much God,
27:55 that you ought to have enough discernment to understand.
27:58 It's time to pray for me, not talk about me.
28:02 Since you know so much God,
28:04 you ought to see the pain when I walked into church.
28:08 Instead of asking me,
28:09 "How come you don't get up and shout like the rest of us?"
28:13 I shouted when I walked in the door.
28:16 If you know the hell I was going through
28:18 and how hard it was for me to get in here,
28:21 I didn't really want to come.
28:23 I got the victory when I got through the front door.
28:27 So can you just let me sit here and leave me?
28:30 (audience cheers)
28:33 I just need somebody who understands.
28:38 And so it was that Job is now in a state
28:42 where he remembers better days.
28:45 And all of us have been there when we looked back
28:48 and wished things were not the way they are now.
28:52 I know many people who have gone through some stuff
28:54 because they are now in a divorce
28:57 and they don't have the capacity
29:00 and the financial ability they once had.
29:03 And they look back at it and wish
29:05 that things didn't go the way it went.
29:08 Sometimes it's just through heartbreak.
29:10 Sometimes you got the money, you can handle your life,
29:13 but you look back and wish that things were as it was before.
29:18 You wish, you just wish.
29:21 Sometimes it's a father who dies.
29:23 It's a mother who dies.
29:25 And they were the bastion of strength that you had.
29:28 And you remember better days when dad was around.
29:32 You remember better days when mom was running things.
29:36 And sometimes it's a job you had
29:38 that caused you to stretch out
29:39 and get all kinds of financial things.
29:42 And then the job come crashing down.
29:45 And all of a sudden you're left with all this debt
29:48 and no means to pay.
29:50 And now you look back from that little apartment
29:54 somewhere in the inner city
29:56 and you look back to that house
29:58 you used to have on the hill
30:00 and you wish it were better days.
30:03 Sometimes it's a child that you had
30:05 who gave you much laughter and fun.
30:08 And it's a child that just was the apple of your eye.
30:12 The cats meow, the dogs bow, wow, the cats meow.
30:16 It was a child who was everything.
30:18 And now the child is gone.
30:20 And you reflect upon the days when the child was living.
30:24 You reflect, we reflect upon these days
30:27 because we're human.
30:28 And sometimes it brings tears to our eyes.
30:31 And sometimes we wish we could put the time back
30:35 and get back into the place where we used to be.
30:39 I pity the individual if you're here.
30:42 I really, I'm sorry for you and I'm praying for you.
30:46 If you're going through something now
30:48 and can't remember a better time.
30:51 I wish everybody in here,
30:54 no matter what you're going through,
30:56 I know you're forecasting that things will change
30:59 but I hope you can always remember a better time.
31:04 It might bring tears to your eyes
31:06 when you look at where you are
31:07 because a better time, having experienced better times
31:11 intensifies the present pain.
31:14 But it also gives you hope for a return of the same.
31:19 And here is Job now as he reflects upon a better time.
31:24 He had the assured proof that he had favor with God.
31:29 And that's when he opens up to say,
31:31 the Almighty was with me.
31:33 It wasn't that the Almighty wasn't with him now.
31:35 It's not that God is not with you now.
31:38 It's just that you don't have the proof you used to have.
31:42 It used to be visual.
31:44 It used to be pronounced.
31:47 It used to be undoubted
31:48 because you saw how things were going.
31:52 You saw how your life was being orchestrated
31:55 and you knew that was the favor of God.
31:59 And you used to talk about it.
32:00 Oh yes, I have favor.
32:03 Look how God has opened doors for me.
32:05 And when people would look at you,
32:07 you would tell them, yeah,
32:08 look at what God has done for me so miraculously.
32:12 The proof of God's favor was his abounding prosperity.
32:17 Nobody could debate with Job
32:20 that anything was wrong with him.
32:22 How could you say a thing about me
32:26 when everything around me proves?
32:29 I was talking to the friend the other night,
32:30 a friend of mine, and I said to him,
32:32 I said, sometimes you just don't listen.
32:35 And he says, well, you know,
32:37 people say a lot of things to me.
32:38 I say, yeah, sometimes you don't listen.
32:40 And part of your not listening is your achievement
32:44 because here comes a guy along
32:46 with three members in a church
32:48 and he's gonna tell somebody with 20,000 what to do.
32:52 But most of the time, you just look right through
32:54 because the proof of my ability
32:58 is seen by the response that I get.
33:02 So how are you going to talk to me when the proof,
33:06 you see Job's, his wealth was his proof.
33:09 He was the greatest magi in the East.
33:12 He was the number one man anywhere
33:15 and the wealth that he had proved it.
33:17 And this was the assurance of favor.
33:21 Oh God, sometimes when you're walking
33:24 in the assurance of favor,
33:26 you gotta be careful that you walk humbly
33:30 because he realized the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh,
33:36 but I'll still praise him until I die.
33:40 He remembered the days of domestic felicity.
33:43 He looks back at the days of happiness in his home.
33:47 Not only is he looking at the favor of God,
33:50 but he's looking at the felicious way
33:52 that God had blessed him in his home.
33:55 And now the joy of both home being destroyed.
33:59 Oh God, he has to deal now with the absence of his home
34:04 and the joy that goes with it.
34:07 And if any joy is taken, it's the joy that comes
34:12 when your family falls apart in front of your face
34:17 because that was the place that you would go
34:19 to find a place of comfort, tranquility, and rest.
34:23 And when you get into this home, it was a place of healing.
34:28 It sometimes, it can be a beautiful prison
34:31 because you can lock all the demons out
34:34 and have that place to yourself
34:38 and set the ambiance you want.
34:40 You're not under anybody else's control.
34:42 And now he can't even go home
34:46 because his home is the potsherd, the dung heap of the city.
34:50 And he's scratching himself with the potsherd,
34:54 with the dung heap.
34:55 He's come lower than the low.
34:58 His home is broken, but he remembers better days.
35:01 Not only is he losing now the assured favor,
35:04 his home is gone, but the respect of the surrounding society
35:09 because every man that is a right-handed man,
35:14 he wants to be held in respect by those who are around him.
35:19 He wants folk to realize that not only am I powerful
35:24 in my house, but I'm powerful with God.
35:27 And I have favor with God and with man.
35:31 Oh, I hear him when he said,
35:33 "When I walked in, everybody would look and see
35:37 that this is Job.
35:39 Everybody would recognize and give me something to say."
35:44 Job couldn't walk in and they just do business as usual.
35:48 Oh, here comes Mr. Job.
35:50 Job, you're somebody, aren't you the man?
35:55 He was prudent of the source of the greatness,
35:57 greatest satisfaction that comes with being somebody.
36:03 Sometimes you walk up and expect people to recognize
36:07 who you are and to speak of you.
36:10 Oh, that's, oh my God.
36:12 You know who that is?
36:13 And it's wonderful when folks start whispering
36:15 to try to figure out who you are
36:18 because you are significant, not only with God,
36:22 not only at home, but in the street.
36:25 He was so significant that even the reward would come
36:30 from those who were aged.
36:32 They would regard him, they would look at him.
36:35 Folk who were older than he is, respects his wisdom.
36:39 The princes and the nobles held their peace
36:43 when Job stepped up, when he spoke.
36:46 Who is more honored than those who can honor you
36:51 and are in a great position?
36:54 I mean, happy the man whose self-respect is ripened
36:59 to the point where others have to respect him
37:02 because he knows who he is.
37:05 Oh, can you imagine Job moving in power?
37:08 Job settling everybody's affairs.
37:11 And not only that, but he exercised charity
37:14 without which the heart would become selfish.
37:17 He was a giver.
37:19 Oh, philanthropist, oh yes.
37:22 I give to whoever was in need
37:24 and whoever even called my name,
37:26 whoever needed scholarship,
37:29 whoever needed to have their rent paid,
37:31 they could call on Job.
37:33 I was a blessing to folk that are around me
37:36 and my blessing was sweet as nard.
37:38 And oh yes, of the nard of great rights.
37:41 I mean, I was everything anybody could have wanted.
37:45 Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost moving.
37:48 Oh, when you look back over your life
37:50 and see just how wonderful God was to you,
37:55 he had the consciousness of integrity, the righteousness.
37:59 And he said, "I dressed myself in righteousness.
38:04 "When I got up in the day, I put on righteous behavior
38:08 "and I knew I was gonna treat other folk right.
38:12 "Not only am I spiritual, I'm righteous.
38:15 "Not only do I have favor with God,
38:17 "but I control my space and I treat people
38:21 "within the parameters of my space with dignity."
38:25 Now, if anybody is like this,
38:28 what he's going through has got to be supernatural.
38:32 I wish I could preach to somebody here
38:35 who is living in regret because you've been good.
38:38 Don't let the devil make you feel bad
38:41 because you've been good.
38:46 The exercises of his power in this chapter and his wealth,
38:51 he used it for the defense of the needy and the oppressed.
38:56 And he's looking back at the time
38:57 when he was the eyes to the blind and the ears to the deaf.
39:02 And every kind of act that he did left a fragrance
39:06 from the hand of him who does it.
39:09 Anytime you do something marvelous to somebody,
39:13 oh, they can smell the fragrance of who you are
39:17 long after you've been gone.
39:19 In the midst of his greatness, he had a possession of hope.
39:23 And that is that I'm gonna lay down in my nest
39:28 and I'm gonna die blessed because of who I have been
39:32 and what I have done to others.
39:34 I have blessed them.
39:36 I have been the cause of their blessing.
39:39 And I found true happiness in blessing others.
39:43 I gave them all of myself.
39:46 And when somebody would get in the way of one of them,
39:49 I would stand up and I would rebuke and I would bring down.
39:54 I see what you're talking about, Job.
39:57 I understand how great you have been
40:00 and how you would move through the community
40:03 and everybody lift their hands up to you.
40:06 You would walk in a place and folk would get up
40:08 and give you a seat.
40:10 When you open your mouth,
40:11 everybody else would stop talking.
40:14 I understand how powerful you are.
40:17 And I understand how marvelous it must be.
40:21 I think about some of us in this house.
40:24 Oh, it's time to get married.
40:26 And oh, what a wedding.
40:28 We've got bridesmaids everywhere, groomsmen's everywhere,
40:32 groomsmen everywhere.
40:34 And I mean, we just, oh, brother, sister,
40:37 you know the Lord has been good to me.
40:40 Look at who he blessed me with.
40:43 Oh, I want to run the church and testify.
40:46 Oh, I want to introduce, oh, pastor,
40:48 I want you to meet my beau.
40:50 I want you to meet him right now.
40:52 And I want you to marry us.
40:53 I'm so glad.
40:55 Oh, we're going to have the celebration.
40:58 I'm going to get up and testify, oh, saints.
41:01 You know God is a good God.
41:04 Look what he blessed me with.
41:05 Oh, Lord.
41:07 You know I got it going on.
41:10 And I tell you what, if you would live holy too,
41:13 the Lord would bless you the same way.
41:16 Oh, you roll up in your big bins,
41:18 and you roll out of your big house.
41:21 And oh, my God, you've got name and accounts everywhere,
41:25 all kinds of black cards.
41:28 And man, aren't you shouting and talking
41:30 and just boasting about the goodness of the Lord?
41:33 My business is thriving.
41:35 And look how God has elevated me.
41:38 And look how things are operating.
41:41 I'm moving from one level to the next.
41:43 And it looks like nothing can stop me.
41:47 Folk have got in my way, and God moved them.
41:50 And God has made sure that he's ordered my steps.
41:54 I wash my feet with butter.
41:57 And oh, the fragrance of my house is upon everything I
42:00 touch.
42:01 And oh, don't we feel good about it?
42:04 And we rush to tell it and rush to express it.
42:09 Oh, but now, but now, that tall, dark, and handsome man
42:16 that used to worship you like you were a goddess
42:19 and treated you like a queen, he ain't coming home early
42:24 no more.
42:25 He's hanging out till 3 and 4.
42:29 I wish I could preach this thing.
42:31 But now, that boss you had has connived,
42:36 and you have lost your job.
42:39 And he has destroyed your business.
42:42 And now you've got to be selling your house
42:45 and trying to get it out and get rid of what you got.
42:49 Because now things have changed a whole lot.
42:53 Oh, your children that used to be good
42:57 and used to give you something to talk about
42:59 and cause you to praise God, now they're caught with cocaine.
43:05 And they're on their way to jail,
43:07 embarrassing the family name.
43:09 Now what you going to do?
43:12 Fume.
43:14 What you going to do?
43:16 Now that the persons that you were closest to
43:20 are treating you like a piece of trash,
43:22 and people that you stood up above and walked above
43:27 are now looking at you like you've got some kind of sickness.
43:31 The same folk that would get up and let you sit down
43:35 are not getting up anymore.
43:38 Because they're saying, "Oh, that ain't nobody.
43:41 Look what happened.
43:42 Oh, he used to be somebody, but he ain't nobody.
43:45 Oh, she ain't nothing.
43:47 Used to have something, but look at her now.
43:51 Oh, how have the great fallen.
43:55 Look where they are now."
43:57 Now the question is, what are you going to do?
44:01 I don't have the money like I used to.
44:04 I don't have the house I used to have.
44:08 And I sure don't have the friends I used to have.
44:12 My baby is gone.
44:14 My money is gone.
44:16 But I still have something I can give to my God.
44:22 I still have my praise.
44:24 I feel something moving now.
44:27 Give somebody a high five and say, what you going to do now?
44:32 Now that your money is gone, now that your car is gone,
44:37 now that the woman walked out on you
44:40 and the man is treating you like a dog,
44:42 now you don't have no big church.
44:45 And now you don't have any real friends.
44:48 Because the folk that you have around you
44:52 have been waiting for this day so they can say you didn't love
44:56 God in the first place.
44:59 Now that they're looking at you like you are a piece of trash,
45:04 I wonder, do you have something to give to God right now?
45:09 I wonder, can you walk right back in the church,
45:13 sit down beside anybody, and say, for God I'll die.
45:18 And for God I'll live.
45:21 I don't have to have a big car to praise him,
45:25 because he's my God anyway.
45:28 I feel like reaching in here, shake somebody's hand
45:32 like you going to shake it off, and say, neighbor,
45:36 do you still have a praise when you don't have a car?
45:41 Do you still have a praise when you don't have a honey?
45:45 Do you still have a praise when folk have walked out on you?
45:50 I wish somebody could tell me I still have a praise,
45:54 and I still lift up his name, and I still give him the glory.
46:01 For the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh.
46:05 Blessed be the name of the Lord.
46:09 I feel somebody in here has got to get to the place
46:14 where you defy the devil messing with you.
46:18 And you got to learn how to look him in the face,
46:22 and say, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
46:29 Because I know my redeemer liveth.
46:33 Get somebody and tell them, I know my redeemer liveth.
46:38 I've got a kinsman redeemer.
46:41 And what the kinsman redeemer says
46:44 is everything you had to sell, because you
46:47 were going through a hard situation, I will buy it back.
46:51 I feel like preaching.
46:53 I got me a redeemer.
46:56 Everything you had to pawn, because you
46:59 didn't have any money, God said I'll get it back.
47:03 Everything that you had to go through,
47:07 and every enemy that talked about you, God said,
47:11 don't even worry about them, because I'll take care of it.
47:15 All I need is a but now praise.
47:19 All I need is a but now rejoice.
47:23 All I need is for somebody in the middle of the calamity who
47:29 has the nerve to lift up their voice and say,
47:33 I still love you.
47:35 I still praise you.
47:37 I still lift you up.
47:39 I still serve you.
47:41 I still be with you through the storm or the rain,
47:45 through sickness and pain, because you are my God,
47:51 and there's nobody like you.
47:54 Bring me out.
47:55 I'll wait till you bring me out.
47:58 I'll wait till you turn it around.
48:00 I'll wait till you give me power.
48:04 I'll sit right here praising your name.
48:09 Touch me, people.
48:10 Say, do you have a praise?
48:12 Do you have a but now?
48:14 But now, but now, I'm coming up out of it.
48:19 But now, he's turning it around.
48:22 But now, he's reversing the curse.
48:25 But now, he's lifting me up.
48:28 But now, he's making a way out of no way.
48:33 But now, but now, but now, I'll put
48:39 my enemy--
49:07 I'll prove the devil he's a liar.
49:09 Get somebody high five.
49:11 I'd say if the devil thinks I'm leaving now,
49:15 he ain't nothing but a liar.
49:17 Somebody give him a but now praise.
49:34 Somebody.
49:34 Got it.
49:35 [APPLAUSE]
49:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
49:41 [APPLAUSE]
49:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]
49:47 [APPLAUSE]
49:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
49:53 [APPLAUSE]
49:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]
49:59 [APPLAUSE]
50:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
50:05 [APPLAUSE]
50:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
50:11 [APPLAUSE]
50:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
50:18 [APPLAUSE]
50:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
50:24 [APPLAUSE]
50:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
50:55 [APPLAUSE]
50:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
51:02 [APPLAUSE]
51:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
51:08 [APPLAUSE]
51:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
51:30 [APPLAUSE]
51:33 The circumstance has changed.
51:41 But I haven't.
51:44 Woo.
51:48 Touching there, we said my situation has changed.
51:52 But not me.
51:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
51:56 [APPLAUSE]
51:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
52:02 [APPLAUSE]
52:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
52:20 [APPLAUSE]
52:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
52:26 [APPLAUSE]
52:27 I want you to take one person by both hands.
52:30 Get a prayer partner, one person.
52:32 [CHATTER]
52:35 Here's Redeemer Kinsman.
52:43 Eight months later.
52:47 Eight months.
52:52 Was the duration of his suffering.
52:54 And eight months later, God gave him double for his trouble.
53:00 He was already rich, and God made him twice as rich.
53:06 Because he never changed.
53:19 Though his circumstance changed.
53:21 God has told me to speak to the immovable, the steadfast,
53:30 the always abiding in the work of the Lord.
53:36 And he's saying to you who have been good,
53:39 don't stop being good.
53:43 And don't judge yourself.
53:46 Because what you're going through is supernatural.
53:50 Oh, I feel it here.
53:53 God say, I just got something to prove.
53:56 And I'm using you to prove it.
53:59 That there are some people that are called by my name.
54:05 Oh, that'll lift me up no matter where they are.
54:09 And after I've proven it,
54:15 I'll give you double for your trouble.
54:17 I'll restore your barns.
54:20 I'll overflow your refrigerator.
54:23 I'll give you a house on a hill with a view.
54:27 Not only can you see my world, but they can see your world.
54:31 That I am God and beside me there is none other.
54:37 Dear Father, right now,
54:41 Dear Father, right now,
54:43 I bind discouragement.
54:45 I bind sadness and depression.
54:49 I bind heartache.
54:52 I bind it right now.
54:55 Oh God,
54:57 I come against everything
55:00 that brings the spirit down
55:03 and casts our minds and our souls into sadness.
55:10 I bind that now.
55:11 I bind our predilection to receive the negative.
55:16 I bind that now.
55:19 Fortify the boundaries of our spirits
55:22 and cause us to keep the junk mail out.
55:26 Please God, in the name of Jesus,
55:29 I bind low self-esteem
55:31 and I bind everything that is hopeless.
55:34 I bind hopelessness right now.
55:38 I do that in the name of Jesus.
55:40 I lose expectation.
55:43 Oh God, I lose good prognosis.
55:46 I lose healthy prognosis.
55:49 I pray now and I lose the power of anointing.
55:53 Send the fresh anointing. My brother needs it.
55:56 Send the fresh anointing. My sister needs it.
55:58 Move in encouragement now.
56:01 Send that mood right now that says,
56:04 I will overcome.
56:07 I claim it right now.
56:08 In the name of Jesus.
56:10 And I hear somebody hollering in their spirit,
56:13 This too will pass.
56:15 This too will pass.
56:17 This too will pass.
56:19 It's pass.
56:22 I feel the Holy Ghost.
56:24 Loose those hands and give God a praise.
56:26 The storm is passing over.
56:29 Hallelujah.
56:32 Hallelujah.
56:35 The storm is passing over.
56:37 Hallelujah.
56:39 The storm is passing over.
56:41 Hold on a little while longer.
56:44 Give God the praise.
56:46 Oh.
56:48 Yes.
56:52 If there's a man or woman in this church
56:58 want to rededicate their life to the Lord,
57:03 want to give your life to the Lord,
57:05 want to be a member of this house,
57:08 come out of your seat right now.
57:10 Right of your seat.
57:12 Oh my God. Hug somebody real quick.
57:14 Put your arms around somebody.
57:16 Somebody needs a little love right about now.
57:18 Oh my God. My God.
57:21 Oh my God. My God.
57:23 But now.
57:25 But now.
57:27 Oh.
57:29 But now.
57:32 Can I see your spirit right now?
57:34 Can I see your resilience right now?
57:37 Can I see you say to yourself,
57:39 I will not lose my mind.
57:41 Can you say to yourself,
57:43 I will overcome.
57:45 Come on.
57:52 Come on. Give God the praise.
57:54 Men and women are coming.
57:56 Come on.
57:58 Come on.
58:01 Come on.
58:03 [Music]
58:05 [Music]
58:07 [Music]
58:09 [Music]
58:11 [Music]
58:12 (upbeat music)
58:14 (upbeat music)
58:17 (upbeat music)
58:20 (upbeat music)
58:22 (upbeat music)
58:25 (upbeat music)
58:27 (upbeat music)
58:30 (upbeat music)
58:33 (upbeat music)
58:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]