Thank you for listening to this message from Lifehouse Church.
Good morning, good morning.
It's good to see you in the Lifehouse this morning.
Next to the last time we are going to be in this building for a Sunday morning.
Yeah, a little excited and at the same time a little bit of nostalgia going on.
Amen.
But before I get going on the message this morning, we want to take just a moment and
pray over our students.
We've got a group of students and a group of leaders who are going down to Winterfest.
It's Knoxville, or is it Knoxville?
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Close, similar area.
But Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, they're going down and they're going to spend a weekend
and it's an amazing weekend, but we want to pray over the students, pray over the leaders.
So I'm going to ask them to come up real quick.
If you would just hop up.
Just stand up wherever you're at this morning.
Come up to the center here if you just come up to the center if you're a student or you're
a leader.
They're going.
And here's what I'm going to ask you to do.
I'm going to ask you to just put your hand this way.
We're going to pray for God's protection as they travel and that God moves in their midst
while they're there.
There are students, some in first gathering, some in second.
Here they come.
Come on.
Give them a big smile and a hand.
Yeah.
All right.
We're excited.
I know there's multiple students going and leaders, but if you would just extend your
hand this way, we're going to pray.
Father, we do come before you in the name of Jesus.
And Lord, we just ask that your hand would be upon these students, upon the leaders,
Lord, as they get ready to go to Winterfest.
God, as they get ready, Lord, to meet with you, I pray that they would you would open
their hearts, open their minds.
God, just Lord, just help them to be an open book this coming weekend and Lord, that they
hear from you and God just change their lives.
God, it can be in a small way or in a great way, but Lord, just meet with them.
We thank you.
We're asking for safe travels down and back.
And Lord, while they're there, we just give you glory and praise in Jesus name.
Everybody said together.
Amen.
Thank you all.
Appreciate you.
Thank you for coming up.
Listen, if you've ever gone with students somewhere, how many know you need to pray
before you go?
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah, absolutely.
So thank you for praying this morning.
We are really believing for testimony to what God's going to do.
And we love that God's moving amongst the teenagers, the children here at Life House
and all that God's doing.
And we're just believing in God for big things.
Amen.
Well, listen, here's a statement I want to make this morning to start this message off.
Life is a series of change stacked between two bookends, one called the beginning and
one called the end.
Amen.
It is a series of change that takes place between what we call the beginning.
All of us had a beginning.
We have a birthday.
Raise your hand this morning if you got a birthday.
All right.
The rest of you didn't raise it.
I'm not getting you anything.
All right.
Listen, between those bookends of the beginning and the end, right, there's change.
We physically change in life.
Some of you that are a little bit older and further in life, you don't look the same as
you did when you were 20 years old.
I do not.
All right.
We physically change over the years.
We change locations, right?
Locals.
Sometimes some of you probably aren't from here.
You live somewhere else.
Previously you relocated to this place.
We change, right?
We we move and groove in different places, different stations.
Our occupations change, especially if you're younger generation, right?
Listen, that that switches all the time.
Occupations change.
Our family changes.
It grows.
It expands a lot of times.
People come in and out, right?
Everything in our lives is full of change.
And we know this.
I know this.
You know this.
My dog even knows this.
All right.
This is not breaking news that I'm bringing to you this morning.
But here's the thing.
We seem to always struggle in the change.
No matter how much change we experience in life, we seem to struggle in the transition,
in the change, in the shift.
And some of you, if you were honest this morning and I could get you to raise your hand, I
would say that some of you hate change.
Literally hate it.
Right?
Yeah, come on.
Some of you are giggling, right?
It's true.
You hate it.
Why the struggle in the change if we have nothing but change all through life?
And to answer that question would take all morning long because there's there's multiple
layers to why we don't like change.
So I'm just going to hit one this morning.
And it's this change is always accompanied by loss.
All right.
Amen.
Right.
Aren't you glad you came this morning?
All right.
Change always equals loss.
Leadership consultant Sam Chan goes on a little deeper with this idea.
And he says this growth equals change, change equals loss, loss equals pain.
So inevitably growth equals pain.
That's a long way of saying change equals loss and change equals gain.
Right.
There's something to be lost in change and there's something to be gained in change.
You can gain in the change, but you're going to lose something in the change.
It's going to happen.
And we've got to come to grips with this, whether we like it or not, that when change
comes, right, it's there's going to be loss in our life.
And I've tried to think of a simple example of this that could be very relevant to anybody
that's in the room.
Right.
And here's the thing.
If you change your hairstylist or barber voluntarily or involuntarily, how many know there's a
change that's going to take place?
Right.
Something's going to be lost in that.
Right.
Any hairstylist in the room say amen.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Come on.
Something's lost.
Right.
You might learn, you might lose the person who, you know, who knows how you like your
haircut.
They know just the way you like it.
Right.
They know you've got it trimmed on the sides and a little off the back.
They already know that.
And if you change, you're going to lose that.
Right.
You've got to retrain your hairstylist all over again.
Right.
You've got to do that.
You might lose the relationship and the space and time that you get with that person because
you're sitting in the chair and the conversation.
You might lose the family and friend rate.
If you get a family and friend, right, friend rate, you might have to pay 50 or 75 bucks
the next time you get your haircut.
Right.
You might lose the comfort level of with somebody that's familiar running their hands through
your hair.
How many know it takes a little bit of comfort level for that.
Right.
Somebody's messing with your hair.
You'll lose the predictability of going to the same person and that haircutting experience.
And you might start nerving out a little bit about going to a new hairstylist or a new barber.
Right.
You might start thinking thoughts like, can I even trust this person?
Right.
What if they stink at their job?
And I come out here looking like I got into a fight with a weed whacker.
Come on.
Right.
You start thinking, I lose something in the change.
Even if I got a change, hairstylist or barber, there's something lost in a change.
It's all gone.
Even something like this.
And we begin to doubt.
Right.
We begin to doubt change and we begin to doubt that we could ever actually gain something
in the change.
We don't believe it.
And somehow the change we get in our mind, the change always equals loss and it never
equals gain.
And we get there in our hearts and our minds.
So this morning I want to take you into the book of Job.
And I want you to learn from a guy who experienced incredible change.
Right.
Job chapter one.
If you got your Bible, you know, books, you can begin to flip to there.
Job chapter one, verse one.
I'm going to pray every God's word.
Lord, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for your blessings.
We thank you for what we're about to dive into in your word.
God, we ask that Lord you would speak to our hearts and God help us in the change.
And we give you the Lord in praise.
In Jesus name, everybody say it together.
Amen.
Job chapter one, verse one.
Bibles and notebooks.
And just to give you a little bio, just to give you a little bit of idea about this man
Job in scripture.
What do we know about Job?
All right.
Before we dive into his story, what do we know about him?
Well, we know this.
One, Job is very wealthy.
Okay.
He's got a lot of money, like serious wealth.
Thousands of sheep, thousands of camels, thousands of oxen, right?
Hundreds of donkeys.
And for us that might not be super relatable, right?
Because we're thinking, okay, listen, he was in the livestock business and he was in the
transportation business.
They rode camels.
The others was livestock.
And he was in these businesses and he was wildly successful.
Put a thousand sheep in your backyard one time.
And listen, that's a little bit of wealth you got going on right there.
Right?
Not only is he wealthy monetarily, but he also has a large family.
He has 10 children.
How many of you should be wealthy if you have 10 children?
That's a lot of braces in college to pay for, right?
It really is.
So he's blessed with children.
He's blessed wildly monetarily.
And the beautiful thing about Job as you read about him is not only is he wealthy in family
and in monetarily in things, but he is a man who loves God.
He loves God with all his heart.
The word of God says that he was blameless and upright.
That's what scripture says about him.
That's what God himself said about him.
And Job was a man who was blameless before God.
He sacrificed on the regular for his children.
A man who had the favor of God on his life.
Everything was clicking for Job until one day.
Say one day.
An immense amount of change.
Unimaginable change.
Crazy kind of change came to him.
In fact, Job's life was worse than six country songs put together in a row.
All right.
He just didn't lose his dog, his pickup, right?
And his farm in one day.
He loses his children, his possessions, his dignity.
And later on he loses his health.
And his three closest friends who come are really actually no help at all.
They come and instead of encouraging Job, they come along and they say, you know, they
believe that he actually sinned and this is God's punishment in his life.
And to top off all the misery, his wife, who's supposed to be his support, comes and tells
him this is the advice she gives him.
She says, Job, I know you're suffering right now.
You're going through all this change.
You just need to curse God and die.
Amen.
All right.
This happens.
This change happens all at once.
No time to process, no space for anything.
Just bam.
Bam.
This is the kind of change that puts people into literal shock.
It slides people into depression.
Right?
It puts them into mental duress.
But it is somehow in this unimaginable grief and lamenting and there's an unimaginable
loss and change that Job teaches us something invaluable about change.
All right.
Job chapter one, verse one says this.
There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job and the man was blameless and upright
and one who feared God and shunned evil.
And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
Also his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of
oxen, five hundred female donkeys and a very large household so that this man was greatest
of all the people in the East.
This guy's a picture of success.
And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day.
His kids even all liked each other.
Right?
On his appointed day and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with
them.
So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify
them and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offering according to the
number of them all.
For Job said it may be that my sons have sinned and curse God in their hearts.
Thus Job did regularly.
Job was wealthy.
Right.
But his hope was not fixed in his finances.
He knew that his wealth and his status would not save his children.
He knew that only God was the answer for his children and he would go regularly and sacrifice
for them just in case they sin.
Parents, if you're here this morning and you weren't at the parenting conference last night,
I'm here to tell you your only hope for your children is Jesus Christ.
They need to plug in, prioritize this.
And if you missed the conference, come talk to somebody who was at it.
They'll give you a little review.
It was incredible.
Right.
But it is Jesus.
It is Jesus.
And the righteous man Job, he follows God.
He's watching over his family, but he has no idea what's about to happen to him.
While this is all taking place in the physical on the earth, there is something happening
in the heavenlies that he is completely unaware of.
And in verse six, we jump from the earth to heaven.
Right.
And says this.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before God and Satan
also came among them.
And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come?
So Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking
back and forth on it.
Then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?
Now that seems like an interesting statement to say.
Right.
Because Satan goes before God and he's going back and forth on the earth.
Listen, Satan has one job and one job only.
He goes to and fro on the earth to destroy mankind.
You were made in the image of God and you were made in his likeness and his sole purpose
is to go across the earth and find those he can destroy.
And God knows it.
Right.
And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered, he said, have you considered my servant Job?
He knows Satan's out for people.
And he said, that was God kind of bragging on Job.
He said, do you know who he is down there?
Have you seen my servant Job?
There's none like him on the earth.
A blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.
So Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for nothing?
Right.
Satan's the accuser of the brother, always.
Right.
Does Job fear God for nothing?
Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household and around all that he has on
every side?
You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job's blessing is a direct result of God's hand on his life.
It's God's favor on his life.
It's because he walks righteously before God.
Right.
And God has not only blessed him monetarily and family.
That's not the only way God blesses us, by the way.
Right.
That happened to be the way it was with Job, but he can bless us in a thousand different
ways because he walked righteously before God.
Psalm 34 15 says this, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
Amen.
And his ears are open to their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them
from the earth.
Isaiah 54 17 says no weapon formed against you shall prosper.
Some of you need to call that one out.
Amen.
Will not prosper in every tongue which rises against you in judgment.
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, says
the Lord.
If we serve God, if we look to our savior, if we walk and obey him, we are blessed and
highly favored.
Amen.
Some of you need to say that this morning.
I'm blessed and highly favored because I follow God.
Right.
Say it again.
I'm blessed and I'm highly favored.
You need to, you need to claim that in your life.
You need to declare that you need to speak that.
Satan tells God that the only reason Job is serving you is for his, for your, because
he's protected by you.
And God says it's not so, Satan.
It's not so.
And matter of fact, God says, I withdraw my protection for a season and you'll see.
Satan questions Job's integrity.
Satan is the accuser, right, of Job and he is, and he does that all the time before the
throne of God over us.
But God says, you'll see.
Job 1 11 says, but now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has.
This is Satan talking and he will surely curse you to your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power.
Only do not lay a hand on his person.
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
This is in the moment in Job's life that he does not know that's coming.
Right.
He does not understand the gravity of the change that's going to take place.
He was unaware.
He didn't know the pain that was about to be unfolded in his life, but it happens.
And Satan unleashes on Job.
He unleashes on God's servant.
And this is a great time just to stop and remind you.
Listen, in the presence of God, you know, in this story, God ends up keeping Job the
entire way through.
Right.
I'm going to talk about that little later on at the end.
And you got to know something about God.
God's hand is always on somebody and it always leads to blessing.
It's always favor that God has.
When Satan comes and puts his hand on you, he comes to steal, kill and destroy.
If you don't remember anything else about Satan, you need to understand he comes to
steal, he comes to kill and he comes to destroy things in your life.
And this is what happens.
And Job 13, 1.13 says, Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and
drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
And a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding
beside them.
When the Sabians raided them and took away, indeed they have killed the servants with
the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you.
And while he was still speaking, another came and said, this is all in the same day, the
fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them
and I alone have escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, another came and said, The Chaldeans formed three bands,
raided the camels and took them away.
Yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have come to tell
you.
All his wealth is gone.
In one day, it is stolen, it is destroyed, it is gone, his servants are killed.
And while he's still speaking, another also came and said, Your sons and daughters were
eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
And suddenly a great wind came from the cross of wilderness and struck the four corners
of the house and it fell on the young people and they are dead and I alone have escaped
to tell you.
The word of God tells us in Ephesians 2, 1 and 2, that Satan is the prince in power of
the air.
He sends a wind and he destroys Job's children.
Verse 20 says, Then Job arose, he tore his robe, he shaved his head and he fell to the
ground and he worshipped.
And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there and the
Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
How in the world does a man who lost everything, he lost his possessions, he lost all ten of
his children, I can't even get my head around that.
I have three children, five grandchildren.
I can't even fathom that.
I don't even want to think about it.
I can't get my head around.
How does somebody who has seen this much loss and he begins to lament, right, in this scripture,
he falls to the ground, he shaves his head, he tears his clothes.
When the news comes of his children, he's just in utter grief and he rips his clothes,
falls to the ground, collapses.
But what he does next is astounding.
It says he worshipped.
He worshipped God.
What does this teach us?
If I can give you one thing this morning, it is this, lament the loss but stay focused
on God's promises in the change.
Lament the loss but stay focused on God's promises in the change.
When this horrible news hits Job's ears, when the change is like a tidal wave that comes
in and just takes his feet out from him, when it forces him to the ground, right, scripture
says that Job laments, laments, and he begins to focus on God's promises simultaneously.
It happens at once.
And you know, we need to understand that we need to lament when we lose something.
Amen?
It's true.
And then we need to worship and we need to look to God.
And Job laments and he begins to focus on God's promise.
And you might say, well, it doesn't really say that he focused on God's promise.
It really does in a roundabout way because you have to understand something.
You don't worship.
We don't worship, but we don't see promise in.
Do you know that?
You will not worship what you don't see promise in.
The word worship means worth ship.
It means worthy of.
And God, and if you don't see something or someone like God as worthy, right, as the
promise in your life, as the hope in your life, you will never worship God.
You only worship what you see promise in.
And Job is doing this in the middle of this unimaginable change that's taking place.
He's doing two things.
He's lamenting the loss and he's focusing on the promise of God.
He's doing it at the same time.
And I got to tell you this morning, don't skip the lament in the change.
Don't skip the lament in whatever you lose, right?
You got to tell yourself the truth about loss.
Tell yourself the truth about what you're losing.
Grieve, lament.
It is dangerous not to deny loss.
It is dangerous not to think about what you and process what you're losing, right?
To pretend that nothing was lost in the middle of a change.
It's a dangerous thing.
It is unwise to skip the lament in something.
Because if you try to skip the lament and you try to ignore the lament, how many know
the lament will come and find you later on?
It'll hunt you down.
It will.
And it'll pop up in all kinds of ways.
Later or later, if you skip the lament, the lament's going to come and find you.
And it'll manifest in all kinds of ways.
You got to tell yourself the truth about the situation.
If you lose something, lament.
All right, it's okay.
If your hairstylist leaves you, all right, it's okay to lament.
It's okay.
Jesus said in John 831, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Denial is not a good thing in the middle of the change.
It's not a good thing in the middle of loss.
Job grieved.
He lamented.
He was painfully aware of the loss.
He was overwhelmed.
But it was in the middle of the lament that he began to worship.
He began to worship.
He began to see the promise, even in this unimaginable state of losing everything he
possesses and losing all of his children.
Horatio Speford knew something about life's unexpected changes.
Horatio was a successful attorney and a real estate investor who lost a fortune in the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
And around the same time of his financial loss, his beloved four-year-old son died of
scarlet fever.
Thinking of vacation would be a good idea for healing for his family.
He sent his wife and daughters on a ship to England, planning to joining them after he
finished some business at home.
However, while they were crossing the Atlantic, they ended up in a shipwreck and collided
with another vessel and they lost more than 200 people.
And in that shipwreck, his four young daughters lost their lives as well.
His wife Anna was the only one that survived.
And when she got to England, she sent back a telegraph saying that she was here alone,
save alone, what shall I do?
Horatio immediately set sail for England and at a point on his voyage, the captain of the
ship, aware of Horatio's, his family's situation, when they were passing over the spot where
his four daughters were lost, he called him to the, up to the deck so that he could honestly
go up and lament.
This was the spot where his four daughters perished.
As Horatio thought about his daughters, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind.
He wrote them down and they have since become a well beloved hymn.
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my
lot thou hast taught me to know, it is well, it is well with my soul.
Horatio knew something, right, about lamenting the loss and then looking to the promise.
Four children, five children, lost, all of his children, lament the loss.
I'm going to ask you to stand.
Lament the loss and worship the King, right?
There can be gain in the change.
There can be gain in the pain.
But you can't get stuck in the lament and not look to the one who has all the promise.
It is God who brings us out the other side.
If you read the story of Job, you'll find out that God in fact brings Job out the other
side.
And Job, and not only does he bring him out the other side, but God actually doubles everything
that Job lost in the process.
But you got to lament the change.
You got to lament the change.
You got to lament the loss.
And then you got to look to the one who has the promise.
And you got to do this sometimes when it doesn't make sense.
Sometimes when you can't figure it all out and you're not sure what to do, right, and
you might not even ever know this side of heaven.
You may not.
But Job teaches us to stick with this pattern.
Lament the change.
Lament the loss.
Right?
And then worship the King.
Look to the promise.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from LifeHouse Church.
We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.
If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with
us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.LifeHouseCOG.com.