Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast.
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[00:00:59] Yes. This summer we've been kicking it old school for a minute. Yeah. And so we've been talking about is the Old Testament stories and just rediscovering who God is. Because obviously it seems like the God of the Old Testament versus the God of the New Testament. Very different. Right? Wouldn't you say? It's like, seems like, you know, God got through therapy between those times and it was nicer or something like that. And so the big question really is, is that who is God? And so, as we've been tracking along Old Testament stories today, I wanna talk about this idea. Who is God when life does not make any sense?
[00:01:32] Who is God to you when life doesn't make any sense? Are you going through that right now? Like, this idea of, like, I don't know, this part of my life does not make any sense? Or let me ask you this. Have you ever done something or you just. Something just happened and you're like, this doesn't make any sense? For me recently, I was painting, and I'm good with painting. Okay, I like painting.
[00:01:54] But I was painting a room. This is very different. I was painting a room, Asher's room, my son's room. And this time I just really was like, you know, I'm gonna be super careful because there's carpet on the floor. You know what I'm saying? And so I taped everything, which I usually don't. I put plastic down. Ashley was impressed. She was like, this is impressive. So I moved the bed, most all the furniture out, but the bed I put in the middle, and I just put the plastic all over. And it was all good friends. It was all good till it was not good. You know, and it was all good. I was like, the first coat was on and I just need to get some more paint. So I was like, okay, that's fine. It's all good. Because there's no plastic here, but there's plastic all around. So I'll just grab this. And I put the paint. I put the paint in there and it was all good. I was like, this is awesome. I'm so impressed with myself. And then I take.
[00:02:43] You know how you have to tilt it just a little bit so the drop. Drop doesn't drop. So I just tilted it so I was like, the whole time I'm tilting it, tilting it like this, making sure it doesn't drop. And all the while from here, paint is dropping all over the carpet and a lot of it.
[00:03:02] And I was like, what in the world? Oh, my gosh. By the way, when you do something ridiculous, do you talk to yourself?
[00:03:11] Do you also. Also, I think this is a western thing. You guys, you guys, you guys talk to yourself in your full name.
[00:03:19] Did you notice that? You'll say, oh, my. Ashley would do it all the time. Ashley Fossil.
[00:03:25] How did you just. How did you do this? How did you do this? And I don't do. I don't say that name, Fazel, because I'm from the Middle east and we have five names, so it's like named John, Fazel, Rahim, Ali. That doesn't work.
[00:03:38] Doesn't work.
[00:03:40] But we talk to ourselves, right? Oh, I can't believe this is happening. So let me ask you this, though, because I want to dive into a character in the scriptures that most of us have heard, and if you haven't, you know, no worries there. But it's a character. It's a story that shows up in the big faith, like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.
[00:04:04] In fact, Hinduism has a character similar to this person as well. But this story is very fascinating and it really begins to ask us the question, who do we. How do we relate to a God when life doesn't make sense? Not when paint drips, no. When your life falls apart, when things happen in your life and you're like, I'm not quite sure who God is right now.
[00:04:27] Has something ever happened in your life and you're like, I used to believe in the God of la la la la, this and this. But I'm not quite sure.
[00:04:36] I think for some of us, if you were honest, some of the songs we sang, you're like, ah, I don't know if that's true. For me, it's true. For them, this row right here, the ones who are doing this, not for me. I'm not quite sure. I'm not quite sure who is God. So I'm going to go into the Book of Job. The Book of Job. If you're not familiar with the Bible, you're like, there's a book called Job. Yes, it's spelled Job. It's not the Book of Job, but it's the Book of Job. And Job exists, like I said, in all of these cultures. What's fascinating about Job, though, is that even Jewish historians would say and scholars would say that Job doesn't fit where it is in the Bible. See, Job is not connected. It's connected to, like, some of the history books and all that. And it doesn't seem to be in the right place. It really needs to be. If you have an original Bible, like a hard copy Bible, you'll. You'll notice that sort of in the mid, like the end of the Old Testament, that you got these, these Psalms. Have you heard of Psalms? Right, Psalms. And, and the book of Ecclesiastes or. Yeah, right, and. And Song of Solomon. Those are all poetic books.
[00:05:47] The Book of Job, Some would say it really needs to land here. Here's why. Because the story of God in this book is fascinating also. It's written poetically. It's like. So we don't realize this because we're reading this in English, but even some Christian scholars would say that it's written a little bit like Shakespeare. It's so out there. And in fact, most people would say Job might have been a fictional character. Now, I know that we grew up.
[00:06:18] Well, you guys might have grown up. I grew up Muslim, but I grew up also believing that Job was real because he's in the Quran.
[00:06:29] But it's just fascinating because it seems so out there that there's so many cases against the fact that the point is not if the story is real.
[00:06:43] It's not, because you know this. And I know that absolute fictional stories can communicate an absolute truth.
[00:06:52] It can't. Jesus did that for that reason. He made up stories. The Prodigal son story. Guess what? It's made up a Samaritan. Anybody know the Samaritan Good Samaritan story? Guess what never happened.
[00:07:05] Because Jesus was communicating a fiction by a fictional story. An absolute truth. And Job, I want you to think of it like it's. It's kind of like that because it shows something about how humanity looks and relates to God. And this is something interesting because ancient culture struggled with this and we do, too. So the book starts off, and it's really fascinating. The book starts off. If you ever read it, it starts off very. The first scene is God hanging out on his throne. And the angels, by the way, one of them is Satan, show up. And they're all giving God an account of what's happening. And there's just a casual conversation. And God says, oh, Satan, what you been up to lately?
[00:07:49] And he's like, you know, I'm just doing the thing. I'm down on Earth right here and just hanging out, doing my thing. And he was like, oh, really? And then God all of a sudden starts bragging. He goes, oh, yeah, so you've been to Earth? Yeah. You're doing your thing. Have you noticed this guy, Job?
[00:08:03] He is amazing. He's amazing. He loves me so much. He loves me so, so much. He fears me.
[00:08:09] He does all the right things. He's amazing. He's amazing. And then Satan goes, really? I'll tell you what, though, I don't know about this. I don't know about this because, you know, Job, he's very rich.
[00:08:22] He's extremely rich. He has all the resources in the world. And, you know, I mean, you would be happy if you were rich all the time. I mean, you'd be taking pills, but you're still happy. Okay? You're still doing theft. You got a lot of resources. He's like, oh, you have no fear in the world. And obviously you're going to bless God.
[00:08:41] And so Satan talks to God, and here's where you pick it up. So Satan answers the Lord and says, does Job fear God for nothing? Like, is it for nothing? Like, he purely loves you? I don't know. Have you not made an hedge around him? Anybody prayed for a hedge of protection?
[00:08:59] Okay, a hedge around him. It's actually just a bush, but anyways, okay, a hedge around him and around his household and around all that he has on. Guess what? On what?
[00:09:09] Every side. Like, you got him covered. You've got this invisible cloak thing situation. You got a force field around him of goodness. You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, I'll tell you what. But now, this is poetry. But he says, Basically says this. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has. Like. Like try to take away some stuff.
[00:09:35] And surely he will do what he will. What, Curse you to your face.
[00:09:42] Here's why it's so fascinating. Here's why I'm like, this is so beyond truth, is that God in this story is Zeus. And he's talking to Hades, hey, what have you been doing? You know, people love me.
[00:10:00] And then Hades says, no, no, no, no, if I strike them down, they won't love you.
[00:10:04] And he goes, oh, I'll prove it. Go for it and do it. What's really fascinating about this because I think believe that God is actually communicating something to us in a question. And the question he's asking us is this is our relationship with God? What kind of relationship with God do we have? Because here the question is, is God bigger than his blessings?
[00:10:24] Is God bigger than his blessings? You see, what it addresses here is this idea that humanity always wants to or tends to relate to God in a very transact that in fact we want a transactional God, or we grew up with a transactional God, meaning I do this and you do this. God, if I do this, you will bless me. If I give, I will get. If I'm kind, like, you'll be gracious. If I'm gracious, like, I have to perform for you to love me. Like, blessings doesn't come from your grace and mercy. It comes from me actually doing the things I need to do.
[00:11:03] And what's fascinating about this story is it tells us that sometimes maybe our level of faith is connected to the amount of blessings that we have. When things are good, we are good. We, like, God is good all the time. Why? Because he's been good.
[00:11:18] But when things are not good, we're like, good. God is good all the time.
[00:11:24] It's a struggle. It's a struggle. And here's what's interesting about this, is if God is more than his blessings, what God is trying to communicate to us is you are more than your blessings.
[00:11:36] You see here the story conveys to us that humanity is searching for and struggling with this idea of unconditional love, that we think everything is conditional.
[00:11:52] And I believe the story actually tells us because as you read the end of it and this book is long friends, it's like 42 chapters, okay? It's a lot of back and forth. If you ever read Shakespeare, it's a lot of back and forth of like, what are you saying? You know, it's a lot of back and forth, but it communicates certain things. And right here it's really communicating this idea that God wants us to know that you and I are more than our use.
[00:12:22] More than our use.
[00:12:24] You see, when you and I interact with a God who's transactional you have to perform.
[00:12:30] And the only people in, at least in Jewish history, that their worth was connected to their performance were slaves.
[00:12:43] And that is why in the Old Testament, Jesus says, I don't call you servants.
[00:12:49] And I don't. I am not assuming to be the master. I called you anybody, remember, I call you friend.
[00:12:57] Because he's changing the game here. The book of Job tells us that humanity struggles with this idea of having a relationship beyond the blessings of God. God is bigger than that, my friends.
[00:13:13] In fact, Job starts off, so what happens is Satan goes and takes all his possessions. In fact, actually kills his family. They die of.
[00:13:26] Some of them die of, like, brutal deaths, which again, when you read this book, you're like, this is so out there. They're brutally killed.
[00:13:36] His possessions are destroyed by fire, then by wind. It's crazy. It's out there again, it's trying to make a point and ask us the question, do you believe that God is a transactional God? And so here's what Job answers. He says, naked, I came from my mother's womb, and naked. Have you ever heard this before? Naked. What I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has what taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is so entrenched in who we are, our connection to God. We believe this is it.
[00:14:10] God can do this. He is like that. And the question is, is he, though? Is he?
[00:14:16] And so the next part is, then Satan shows up and says, hey, you know, okay, I did have my way with him. And God all of a sudden starts bragging again.
[00:14:29] See, he did not. He said, blessed. He still loves me. He still loves me even though this has happened. And now this back and forth is so interesting.
[00:14:38] Is there a God out there that goes back and trying to win a bet with Satan? Like, that is the kind of ideas of God that we have, we grown up with, which is obviously wrong. So here's what happens. So Satan answers the Lord, he says, skin for skin. Actually, skin for skin. What does that mean, skin for skin? Yes. All that a man has, he will give for his what life. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and flesh, and he will surely, what, curse you. The point is, we're trying to get him to curse you.
[00:15:17] And the Lord said to Satan, behold, he is what in your hands? We actually believe that God does that sometimes.
[00:15:26] We believe that it's in our psyche like we believe that God will do, oh, go ahead, Satan, have your way.
[00:15:33] Because you know, that whole promises that he made, so and so, remember all the promises he made in the shower. I will never do this. Did it. So now you can have your way.
[00:15:44] Behold, he is your hand, but spare his life. Just don't kill him. Just don't kill him. Isn't that comforting? Do whatever. Just don't kill him.
[00:15:52] Make him like he wants to die, but don't kill him. Okay, I got it. So Satan went out in the presence of the Lord and struck Job with what? Painful? What?
[00:16:00] Yeah, kill me now. Come on, man, just get over with. Seriously.
[00:16:04] From the sole of his foot, from the crown of his head, and he took for himself. And he. This is Job Now. He took a potshed with which he scraped himself while he sat in the midst of ashes. I mean, it's so dramatic. Then his wife said to him, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.
[00:16:25] Seriously, you're so loud. Okay. Anyway. Okay, okay. But he will. But he said to her, you speak. You speak as one of the foolish women speak. Not that you are. I'm just saying.
[00:16:38] Just saying. I have heard these things. Never in this house out there.
[00:16:46] Don't hit me. Boils everywhere, you know?
[00:16:50] Okay.
[00:16:51] And then he says.
[00:16:53] He says, shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
[00:16:58] In all this, Job did not sin with his. What, Lips? With his thoughts? Yes, he did. But his lips, he did not do it. Brilliant story, though. Brilliant story in communicating how we view God.
[00:17:17] Is God more than his blessings? He is. Is he a transactional God?
[00:17:21] No.
[00:17:22] No. It's fascinating. The next thing, as the story continues, we find something else. And the next question. The next question is, is God actually not just bigger than his blessings? Is God what? Is God more than our. What our theology? Is he bigger? Is he more than our theology? Because guess what happens here. What happens is, is now you've got Job, you know, he's got all kinds of pains. Everything is lost and all that. And, you know, you have friends like this. When things go down, eventually one friend has an opinion of why it's going down. Do you have people like that? Maybe it's not a friend. Maybe it's a family member. They're like, let me tell you what the issue is. Let me just tell you what the issue is, okay? And so his friends get involved. And here's what they say.
[00:18:05] One of the friends comes and says, hey, surely, surely. Let me just ask you. Surely you have instructed many.
[00:18:10] This is a compliment sandwich. He's bringing the first layer, okay? He's starting this. Okay.
[00:18:16] Surely you have instructed many. And you have strengthened weak hands, my friend.
[00:18:21] You're pretty amazing. Your words have upheld him who was what?
[00:18:26] Stumbling like I, You. I see youe. Like you touched me, bro. With youh words.
[00:18:32] And you have strengthened feeble knees, my friend. Feeble knees. Yeah, but here it comes.
[00:18:42] But now it's come upon you and you are weary. It touches you and you are touched. Is not your reverence. Is not your reverence your confidence?
[00:18:51] Huh? What?
[00:18:53] And your integrity, your ways and the integrity of your ways. Your hope Isn't that your confidence? Isn't your integrity hope?
[00:19:04] Now remember. Remember now, though. Remember now, whoever perished, no one ever perished.
[00:19:11] Being what?
[00:19:12] Innocent?
[00:19:13] Don't we know that? Right? Yeah. Or where were the upright ever cut off? No. No, no, no.
[00:19:21] Even as I have seen those who simply plow. Plow what?
[00:19:27] Iniquity and sow trouble do what?
[00:19:32] Reap the same? Get to the point, bro. What are you saying?
[00:19:36] What he's saying exactly. Karma. He's saying.
[00:19:40] And he goes on and says some more stuff. He goes, basically he's saying you sinned and you're not telling us, but guess what? God knows and he's punishing you.
[00:19:53] That's the issue.
[00:19:54] There's no way all this bad stuff could be happening if you weren't secretly terrible.
[00:20:04] So that's our theology. Our theology is all of a sudden taking the God of the universe and introducing him to karma.
[00:20:12] Who is God when life doesn't make sense? Is he just karma?
[00:20:17] He's not. See, I've had people in my life and in my life who like to communicate some things where I'm going through some hard times. I actually grew up. Like, when I say grew up, I grew up in the Christian faith. Like I came here after being a Muslim for a long time. Obviously growing. Not for a long time. I was born Muslim anyways.
[00:20:34] But I got introduced to like all kinds of Christianity and I started attending like, like Pentecostal Charismatic churches. I love those, you guys. And I did, man. And but, but what's so interesting though, I heard certain phrases and one of the phrases I would hear. And maybe some of you guys can relate to this. Okay? Shout out. Amen if you know is the people would get a word from the Lord for you.
[00:20:59] A word from the Lord. If you haven't gotten a word from the Lord, you haven't lived. People, this is. This is a word from the Lord. Okay? Now I believe in the word from the Lord. Okay? I've given a word from the Lord before.
[00:21:12] Decent.
[00:21:14] But there are some people who said, I got A word from the Lord. And the word from the Lord is, this is what I think God is doing in your life. And it's usually just out, out there. It's crazy because they have a view about who God is. In fact, this friend of his keeps on going and he says this, which should be shocking. He says this, he says, if he. This is he, who is he in this? God? If God puts no trust in his what, servants now? In some. And then he says, and if he charges his what angels with arrow.
[00:21:52] Basically, he's saying is, if God doesn't even trust angels, bro, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay. What's he talking about? Humans whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth. They are broken in pieces from morning till evening. They perish forever with no one. What regarding this is so opposite to when Jesus was like, you see the sparrows? You see the things God. God loathes the sparrows. He knows every hair in your head. He knows all these things. And this guy is saying, God doesn't even trust his angel, man.
[00:22:30] Like. And you're, you're not an angel, obviously, if you were an angel, nothing would be happening to you.
[00:22:36] Wow.
[00:22:37] So crazy. Isn't it fascinating?
[00:22:41] See, what we want here is we want not just a transactional God, we want a predictable God.
[00:22:52] We want a God that we can explain with our theology.
[00:22:57] Like. So suffering sometimes is easier if we just have a theology of it.
[00:23:04] For some reason, our brains are like, ah, now I get it. Here's why I probably deserve it.
[00:23:12] I probably. Da, da, da. Or something, something, something. It just has to make sense. And friends, let me just tell you some things.
[00:23:19] Some things in our lives can't be fixed.
[00:23:25] They can just be felt.
[00:23:27] You just, you just. Grief is one of those things. You can't fix grief.
[00:23:33] No one was like, you know what? Grief, I rock that. I can do that.
[00:23:37] I'm good at that. No, no, no, you just feel it.
[00:23:40] You just feel it. You can't explain it. And one of the dangers of Christianity is making God predictable. And it comes with this idea of my theology explains everything and every action of God. The third thing the story tells, because the story goes on and goes on. It says this, it communicates, and it asks us the question, is God's world bigger than ours? The answer should be, what?
[00:24:06] Yes. But you know and I know that it doesn't matter how big other people's worlds are, if our world is crumbling. It's the biggest thing in the. It's the biggest Issue. It's the biggest issue. And here what we find is, is that God just has to explain to him, hey, my world is so much bigger than yours.
[00:24:25] Because Job just kind of gets into it after that. After this point, he starts talking. And there's a lot of chapters of kind of like him talking about all the things, and God talks about them. And this happened back and forth, but in the middle of that, God reminds him of how big he really is. And I think this is really important because it kind of goes against all this. The first scene where God, who's bigger than everything, who's bigger than the universe, is now having a petty, petty back and forth with Satan trying to prove that someone loves him.
[00:25:07] See, this God, the God of the Old Testament, is not Zeus. The God of the Old Testament is not the kind of God we kind of grew up with.
[00:25:15] He's the God of the New Testament as well. He is the same.
[00:25:19] So here.
[00:25:20] And God says this. He says who?
[00:25:23] He talks to Job after Job is talking to him and just says all the things he says. Who is that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge.
[00:25:37] Now prepare yourself like a man and I will ask you, and you shall answer me. Were you.
[00:25:46] Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me.
[00:25:52] And this is where Job is like in the story.
[00:25:58] But again, this is poetic. Just tell me if you. If you have understanding, who determined its measurements?
[00:26:08] And then it's sarcastic. Surely. Surely what?
[00:26:12] Surely, you know, I mean. I mean, obviously I'm not a big God. You are.
[00:26:18] You should know all these things.
[00:26:20] Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were these its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together? I mean, this is poetic.
[00:26:34] And all the sons of God shouted for joy. Where were you?
[00:26:41] And then there's chapters of all of this.
[00:26:43] Again, this story is talking about is asking us, do we relate to a God? Not just in transactions and not God that we can understand. Do we want to follow a God that we can contain?
[00:26:58] Do we want a containable God?
[00:27:01] Is God containable?
[00:27:04] And for some of us, we're like, I actually would love a containable God.
[00:27:08] Would love it. I would love it like I would love a domesticated deity.
[00:27:14] You know what I'm saying? A very proper one who knows how to act when we're at home, who knows what to do. Don't do something crazy. No, don't, don't, don't do. Don't know. No, use your inner inside voice. Like, let's keep it down. Don't do crazy, like, don't do wild stuff. No, no. Just. Just. I want. We want that. Why? Because if we. If God is contained, then we think that our lives are contained and we feel a sense of security. I mean, come on, parents. I mean, when you can contain your kids, you're like, I rock. We're awesome.
[00:27:52] And, you know, and I know we've all sat somewhere, looked at other people's kids and said, control your kids.
[00:28:00] What is going on here? What's happening?
[00:28:04] But if we can control them, whatever we control, there's a sense of security. And we feel sometimes maybe a sense of security in our relationship with God if we can. What?
[00:28:15] Control him? Contain him?
[00:28:18] Contain him? Do you want a containable God?
[00:28:23] The Celtic Christians, they had a. They had a name for the Holy Spirit. So, you know, if in Christianity we believe that God is, you know, Father, Son, and the. What?
[00:28:34] Holy Spirit. And so this. This name that they had in their language was called Gia. Glass. Gear. Glass. It literally translates as wild goose.
[00:28:46] Yes.
[00:28:47] So they, you know, we have, like, the Holy Spirit, remember, like, Jesus got baptized, if you don't remember. Jesus got baptized and there's this image where the. The Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove. Celtic Christians, as a wild goose.
[00:29:03] No, they didn't believe that. But they had this beautiful picture of a. It's a. It's an interesting picture, I think it's really beautiful of a God that cannot be controlled. Controlled because the Holy Spirit moves, like, in a way that cannot be predicted. It cannot be controlled. See, following God, what we want is often like, we want. I don't know, we want a map. Right? Would it be awesome to just have. You know, I use my maps every day. Every day, Every day. Sometimes just on purpose.
[00:29:42] I know how to get to church. I still put it in. I just want to know. You know why? I want to know. I don't know how much time it's going to take and can I beat it, Right?
[00:29:51] It's a game I play. It's a game we play. Can I beat that time? And then you don't beat it anyways.
[00:29:58] So God is.
[00:30:00] We want God.
[00:30:01] We want. Following God is not like following a map. It's more like chasing a wild goose.
[00:30:09] Following God is like chasing a wild goose. You don't know, because a wild goose is unpredictable, difficult to control, and capable. Capable of taking you somewhere you did not expect.
[00:30:25] That's the kind of God you want.
[00:30:27] And here to Job, he's saying, I know you're suffering and all that but again, this story is not about how Satan has a pact and, or God is punishing you because of Satan. No, this is not the story. This is a fictional situation.
[00:30:44] The truth in here is this, is that just because something is going on, it's not just because it's connected to your world. There's a bigger world out there and there's so many other things. So if you want some kind of an answer, sometimes I just go, God, I know there's bigger things in play. And that. I don't know. I don't know why you allowed this to happen.
[00:31:08] I really don't.
[00:31:10] But.
[00:31:12] But I know there's bigger things in play.
[00:31:15] You know, I gotta be honest with you guys. Like, like about three years ago, about three years ago, we were still coming out of COVID and we were trying to figure out, you know, oh man, did we, what did we lose? Because I felt like I was losing everything. I was losing my mind during COVID Anybody else, I still, I think I left it there. Part of it.
[00:31:37] I was, I felt like I was losing friends, I was losing loved ones. I was, I thought I was losing the church, I was losing faith. I mean, the only thing Ashley and Ashley and I had moments where like, we're the only ones. I think we lost everything else and there's just. We're just losing all kinds of things. And then we come back and start meeting and then we find out that the. And some of you guys might not know this, but there was a church that ended up renting the space next door here. And for those of you who know, we had three years of background music as I preached. Never at the right time, but anyways, right? So we had that. But I remember three years ago, sitting in the green room in there with the pastor, who and his wife and some other people, and they sat down and told me that, that they had just signed a lease for it. And usually in pastor world, what happens is usually when you're going to do something like this, you have a conversation before you sign the lease. You go, hey bro, I'm thinking of doing this. Is it a good idea? And my answer would be no.
[00:32:40] I'll hear you, you'll hear me. This is not a good idea. But the owner was like, hey, it's all good, it's all good. Sign this. And the owner just didn't tell us and leased it to them. And they knew. And I remember sitting there and the horror.
[00:32:57] They had signed a five year lease.
[00:33:00] And he just told me and he says, I hope there's not going to be an issue.
[00:33:08] One. I mean, I was a little ticked off at him, maybe, maybe more.
[00:33:14] But I was like, are you serious, God? You know what I'm saying? Why would you let this happen? That's what I was thinking in my head. I was like, father, Son and Holy Spirit, what are you doing?
[00:33:29] How could you do this?
[00:33:31] How could you do this? In my mind, I'm sitting there, they're talking to me about all that. Like, how could you, Mr. God, why are you doing this?
[00:33:42] And what came out of my mouth surprised me. In my mouth, out of my mouth, I had this verse, and this is an Old Testament verse that said, what you intended for evil, God will turn it into good.
[00:33:54] And I thought that. And as I was gonna say it, I was like, I do not want to tell them that they're evil. That's not cool.
[00:34:02] And I said, you know, I think what happened, God is going to turn it for good.
[00:34:10] And I went back and talked to some of our staff, and even Ashley was like, I think you were just pumping yourself up.
[00:34:17] And I was like, I don't know. But I don't know how that came out. And friends, three years to that point, I didn't know what God. They were going to be there for five years. And I tell you this story because I felt so defeated.
[00:34:33] It was embarrassing.
[00:34:35] And some of you guys know, you guys come, we would drive in, and there would be like a buffet of churches all over you.
[00:34:43] And then it was just so embarrassing for me personally, like, oh, God, what are you doing to me? Why? Why? And then I had the whole thought, did I do? What am I doing?
[00:34:54] I got sit by ashes and get like, what do I need to do? Fast pray. Oh, God, you hate me. I knew it.
[00:35:02] All kinds of thoughts.
[00:35:04] And I didn't know that that caused us to buy some other spaces.
[00:35:10] And in three years, God was setting it up where we bought the spaces. In three years, the church broke the lease, left.
[00:35:17] And in those three years, the spaces we had bought, we had turned them to make profit and then sold it. And now we bought the space.
[00:35:29] God's so much bigger than my world.
[00:35:31] His thoughts are so much bigger.
[00:35:34] So much bigger.
[00:35:37] Just know that lastly in the story, the question is, is God because he's so big, is he too big? What?
[00:35:45] To care for you. Is he too big to care for you? The answer is. The answer is no.
[00:35:53] You know, I love Job because Job really asks the question.
[00:35:57] He said, God, I don't know if you care anymore. In fact, he Says this. He says, may the day perish on which I was born.
[00:36:06] And the night in which it said, a male child is conceived. May the day be what darkened. May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it again. This is poetry. Shakespeare Ish. Right.
[00:36:25] What is he saying?
[00:36:26] He's saying, I don't think you care, God.
[00:36:29] I don't think you care at all. And at the end, when God speaks to him, he says this. He writes this. He says, for I know that my redeemer lives, and he shall stand on last on earth.
[00:36:45] And after my skin is destroyed, I know that in my flesh I shall see God. The Hebrew word for skin here is the word or, which means, like, literally, outside all the things he's saying, I'm decaying. Outside my skin, my outer self is decaying. It's being destroyed. I get that. And then the word for flesh in Hebrew he's using here is basar. Which means.
[00:37:17] It doesn't mean flesh. It means whole person.
[00:37:20] Whole person. My inner person. So what he's saying is, I know that everything around me is being destroyed and decaying and all that. But in my whole self, in my inner self, I shall what?
[00:37:39] I shall see God.
[00:37:41] And then he actually writes again in job 42, as he ends this whole story. It says here, I have heard of you by hearing of the ear.
[00:37:52] But now.
[00:37:53] But now what? My.
[00:37:57] My eyes have seen you like I've seen you. So here's my prayer. If you're going through some stuff and you're thinking, God's punishing me, God's made a bet with Satan and Satan's winning, or I've just sowed some things in my life and God is just kind of.
[00:38:15] He's like, okay, it's up. It's time to pay.
[00:38:18] Let's settle some bets. If you ever wondered the reason why this is not happening to us, the reason why I'm not getting a job, we can't have kids, I can't find a relationship.
[00:38:34] It's because of me.
[00:38:36] It's because of what I've done.
[00:38:38] Or it's because what God is. I don't know.
[00:38:42] He's trying to teach me some things. And he really cares about so much of the lesson.
[00:38:49] Doesn't really care about what's going on in my life.
[00:38:52] Just want you to know it's not true.
[00:38:55] See, the Book of Job, it doesn't communicate the true nature of God.
[00:39:02] It communicates the absolute struggle that humanity has in relating to God.
[00:39:11] Because we just go, God has to be this God, right?
[00:39:16] This guy has to be. Because why is things going on in the middle of this? Which is really brilliant about this story, is that God never explains himself.
[00:39:27] He reveals himself, but he doesn't explain it. He doesn't explain ever in the story why things happened.
[00:39:36] And I just want you to know, I need you to free yourself from getting an explanation.
[00:39:42] Because sometimes some of you are just holding on to I just want to know why, then I just want to know why.
[00:39:48] And God's why is a lot bigger than you could contain. It's like trying to explain to a kid why are we doing this? And they're like, why are you doing this? And you know, as a parent, you know, as someone who's taking care of kids, you can't. You can't explain it. It's too complicated.
[00:40:04] But it is happening. And so in the middle of that, what God does, what we do see in the midst of this story is that God gets closer.
[00:40:17] So, friends, your faith doesn't begin when everything starts making sense and God makes sense. No, faith. Faith begins when you trust the person, the one that in fact does not make sense.
[00:40:33] That's.
[00:40:34] That's God.
[00:40:36] So that's my prayer for us.
[00:40:38] That's my prayer over you.
[00:40:40] Let me pray for you.
[00:40:43] Lord God, we come before you. And God, for some of us, we know exactly how we're feeling. And others of us, we're not quite sure how we feel because the grief is complicated.
[00:40:57] The loss is just sudden and surprising.
[00:41:05] The pain is strange because it's very sharp at times. And then sometimes it just causes us to just go dull in everything around us.
[00:41:19] God, for some of us, we're.
[00:41:23] We're just processing.
[00:41:26] We just don't know.
[00:41:28] And I love about the story is one of the truths in the story is what it communicates, is that when it comes to grief, you need 42 chapters to process.
[00:41:43] Just takes time.
[00:41:46] So, God, I pray for us that as we relate to you, God, we don't try to.
[00:41:52] We don't try to contain you. We don't try to explain you, and we don't try to make a deal with you.
[00:42:01] We just allow you to be God.
[00:42:04] Allow us to be us, because that's what you do.
[00:42:09] God, for some of us, it's hard to have some feelings because sometimes with religion and Christianity, we're not allowed to have certain feelings.
[00:42:21] Seems like it seems even like a sin to be sad.
[00:42:27] But God, I pray you heal us from that.
[00:42:30] You show us, God, that you are the God who's so much more.
[00:42:36] So much more.
[00:42:40] You're bigger than the universe and you're more than enough for us.
[00:42:48] How we thank you, God, as we respond, as we light a candle or go receive communion or go to the cross, may we be reminded of how big you are.
[00:43:04] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:43:10] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
