Well, hallelujah, give the Lord a good praise in his house.
Hallelujah.
If you have your Bibles with you,
please turn with me to the book of Job, chapter 7.
Job 7.
I echo with Pastor Brian the gratitude
that we have for you being here today.
And if you're visiting with us, thank you so much
for choosing Hopewell Church of God
for your place of worship this morning.
There's, I think, anywhere around 100 different places
you could be in Bradley County this morning.
And so I count it an honor that you came here today.
And if you haven't already been touched and blessed
by the Spirit of the Lord, your blessings broke.
And so what I'm about to do is nowhere near in comparison
to what we've just encountered.
So if you've not been blessed up to this point,
I don't know what to do.
It may get rough from here on.
But the word of the Lord is our strength, isn't it?
It provides for us daily.
So with that, let's read verses 1 through 4
in the seventh chapter.
I would call it the Gospel of Job.
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?
Are not his days like the days of an hireling?
As a servant earnestly desires the shadow,
and as a hireling looks for the reward of his work,
so am I made to possess months of vanity,
and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
When I lie down, I say, when shall I rise,
and the night be gone?
And I am full of tossings to and fro
unto the dawning of the day.
With the help of the Lord today, it's a very simple thought.
I'm going to preach to us on the thought of just tossing
and turning, tossing and turning.
I'll pray for you if you pray for me.
Father, we love you.
Thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy
and abundance of your love.
For what we have encountered thus far this morning,
we praise you for your touch.
We praise you for your presence, for you are here.
Now, Father, I ask upon your word,
as your word is blessed, that it bless the ears of us
who have heard it.
And I pray an anointing upon every ear
that has received it today.
And truly, as your word proclaims,
let we that have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit's saying
unto the church.
Now, Lord, as a servant of yours,
I yield my members to you.
Stir that anointing and that unction
that you placed in us to proclaim, thus saith the Lord.
And we'll praise you together in Jesus' name.
The church said, as your neighbor, you tossing and turning.
I think I got the right word for the right bunch.
I can hear it in the room.
Of course, we don't expect anything less from the Lord,
do we?
He knows where we are.
It has been said that nothing can stop a person
with the right mental attitude from achieving
whatever goal they set before them.
But it's also been said that nothing can help a person
with a wrong attitude.
Attitude matters.
If any person ever had a right to have a mental attitude
one way or the other, it would be Job,
and another would be the Apostle Paul.
From a Philippian jail, he wrote a letter,
and in it, he said, rejoice.
And again, I say rejoice.
Rejoice, and again, I say rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice.
There's not always in life things that we deem
worthy of rejoicing over.
You see, attitude is a mental disposition or an outlook.
Attitude is a way of looking at yourself and the world.
It can also be defined as a mental,
emotional, physical posture,
which means that life is lived from the inside out.
Our level of joy that we experience in our lives
are based on what is going on within us
rather than what's going on around us.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and one more time,
I say rejoice.
You see, our attitude reflects what's going on within us,
not what's going on around us.
I've said it many times, joy and happiness
are two totally separate things.
I can have joy and not be happy at the same time.
You see, joy comes from the Lord.
Happiness is determined by circumstances.
Joy comes regardless of the circumstance.
Well, hallelujah.
Joy is a unconquerable sense of gladness.
It can't be defeated.
It overcomes adversity.
It overcomes disappointment.
Joy will overcome tragedy.
It overcomes failure, and it will also overcome
the difficult and harsh experiences that life deals us.
Sometimes life simply stinks.
You know, it rains on the just and the unjust,
and it's raining that every now and then
we're all gonna get wet.
That means trouble's gonna come to see us all.
Trouble's gonna visit all of our homes.
Adversity, you see, when we get saved,
the Lord didn't say nothing's gonna ever touch you again.
He said, in this world you shall have tribulation.
But then he said, get happy, be cheerful.
Why?
Because he has overcome the world for us,
and greater is he that's in us than he that is in this world.
God be for you then, who or what can be against us?
So joy overcomes failure and harsh experiences.
It enables us as believers to,
as Isaiah, the eagle-eyed prophet would put it,
it enables us to run and not grow weary
and to walk and not faint.
It enables us to mount up on wings like the eagles
and to soar above the adversity.
It doesn't necessarily remove the adversity,
but it empowers the believer.
Joy empowers you and I to look at the opposition,
to look at the affirmative,
to look at the harsh treatment of life
and with joy within us say, I shall overcome.
Why?
Because we can have a testimony that joy rises up,
the declaration of the psalmist, I shall not be moved
for I am planted like a tree by the rivers of water.
I am established and my roots run deep.
And we could hear Isaiah one more time say
in that 12th chapter that we should draw deep
from the well of joy, hallelujah.
Because it's from the well of joy
that our salvation flows and stems through
in spite of everything, in spite of what's happening,
in spite of what's transpiring.
And we can hear Joe begin to relate to us a message
as he dreads the going down of the sun.
He dreads the nighttime coming
because he knows it's gonna be a long night
and in dreading the night coming,
he's longing for the dawning of the next morning.
Would this night surely pass?
I know I'm not the only one in this room
that has dreaded the darkness and the time
to lay your head upon your pillow
as you've tossed and turned all the living night on,
wishing for the dawning of the day.
Where Job is at in his desperate condition of life.
He's lost his wealth, he's lost his family,
he's lost everything that he has.
He's even beginning to lose the confidence of his spouse
as she would look at him and say,
Job, why don't you just go ahead and curse God and die?
And he said, how can we not rejoice when God is good?
But when calamity comes our way,
that we cannot still rejoice in God.
I will refuse to lose the integrity
that I have in the hope of the joy that God,
how can we take good at God's hand?
And then when adversity comes,
we wanna turn our back on him.
But Job said, I can't wait till the daylight comes
because I lay here and I toss and I turn,
dreading every minute that the clock turns by,
every grain of sand, he could count through the hourglass
and waiting for the dawning of the day.
Can you hear me today, church, in the dawning of the day?
We know that the hope comes, we know the joy comes,
but joy is with us and resides us every minute,
every hour of every day.
Well, glory.
Do I have any tossers in the room?
Where you at right now?
Anybody turning through the night?
I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting,
waiting, longing for the dawn.
He said, when I lay down, I say, when shall I rise?
And the night be gone.
I am full of tossing to and fro
unto the dawning of the day.
What will the tomorrow bring?
What is tomorrow gonna hold?
Understand for the believer, joy is the promise of God
and the work of the Holy Ghost in our hearts.
When we turn over our trials to God,
through faith and through believing and through prayer,
and we live in the confidence that he will do
all the things for us and not all things,
but he will do all things well for us on our behalf.
We know the end of Job's story, we know the outcome,
we know the friends who sat and looked at him
for seven days and then days on end
and then God began to accuse him.
We see Job and his frustration begin to question God,
God, how long are you gonna leave me in this mess?
God, how long do I have to be here?
And then Job would answer, he said,
I know that one of these days,
I'm gonna see my Redeemer with these two eyes,
because I know that my Redeemer live
and one day will stand upon the face of this earth.
And the next thing you know, he's complaining again,
he's whining again, hallelujah.
He's regretting the very day that he was born.
He said, oh, that they would write it in a book,
take a pen, carve it in stone, fill it with lead,
and regret the day that it was announced
that a man child was born.
He was regretting the very day he was born.
And then the next thing, he would come up
with some of the most powerful stuff
that we still hang on today,
though the skinworms devour this old body.
And I know with these eyes, I'll see him for he lives.
Hallelujah, didn't that give you joy?
He said, I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do, honey.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,
but blessed be the name of the Lord.
And I'm just gonna worship him
out of the darkness of the night.
I'm just gonna glorify him while I toss and turn,
even though others look down on me,
even though others won't help me,
I'm looking for a friend to comfort me.
Oh God, when will you speak to me?
Job hears from God later on in the book.
In that 38th chapter, when he hears God say,
Job, stand up, hack up your britches,
gird up your lawns, what the old KJV says.
Hack up your britches, get yourself straight
and stand in front of me.
I've got something to say to you.
I've listened to your complaint for 37 chapters now.
My God, I don't know what chapter I'm on.
I don't know where I'm at in the book of life,
but I've sure wedged and labeled my complaint
before the Lord.
And I'm ready for the whirlwind of God's glory
to come and require again.
He said, stand up like a man, Job,
gird up your lawns, and out of the whirlwind,
he began to speak to him.
Where were you when I put the earth on its axis?
Oh my God, I'm here to tell somebody tonight,
it's okay to complain, it's okay to tell God.
Then you're tossing and you're turning,
it's okay to let God know,
because out of the whirlwind of his glory
and the power is mine, he will establish his glory
and he will reestablish his power.
Amen.
Sometimes we gotta realize that we get in some
of the messes that we're in of our own accord,
but sometimes God allows us to get in these messes.
Why does he do that, pastor?
Because he has confidence in your faith in him.
Satan appeared with the angels,
and he come and stood before God.
God says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?
Have you thought about him?
And there's an answer, well yeah, I've thought about him,
but I can't even get close to that old boy.
Heh.
You got a hedge built around him,
I cannot even approach him.
Well I trust him, so I'm gonna let you get a little close to
him, but I'm drawing the line, my.
Hey, let me hock up my britches.
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh,
I'm gonna get you to let you get a little close to him,
because I got confidence in my servant Job.
You see, his testimony, he was a righteous man.
He loved God, honored God with all of his wealth,
that's the reason God was blessing him.
He says, I'm drawing a line, devil.
You can't cross.
I'm here to tell somebody in the midst,
if you're tossing and you're turning,
there's a line in the heavens that I've been drawn,
and he can't come crossin'.
Don't lose your hope, don't lose your faith,
don't give up on your joy, he can come against you,
he can touch everything you own or possess,
but he can't take you out, my God.
God says his life.
His life belongs to me.
Your life belongs to him in the midst
of your tossing and turning.
Let your heart be sunk low into the well of joy,
because joy provides for you.
Don't have a whole lot to be happy about, preacher.
If you've got the Lord, you've got everything you need.
He does all things well for us,
and when we rely on the depths of that joy,
we can experience what Nehemiah would explain to us in 8 and 10,
when he declared the joy of the Lord is your strength.
You see it come at a close of a day.
They had risen up a pulpit.
They had found the law of God, and he was on the podium.
I think that's where we get our sanctuary model from,
is from Nehemiah's day.
The podium was lifted up, and he would stand at the podium
and read from the law of God, and when he opened the book,
there was no request, would you please stand at your feet?
You need to go read it.
Read Nehemiah 8.
When he opened the book, the people stood.
He didn't ask them to stand to reverence the reading
of the law of God.
There was this automatic reverence in them.
They sprang to their feet, and they didn't just hear four
verses, but they stood there to the noon of that day
while he read from the book of the law,
and when he finished reading, their hearts
were so tender that they were weeping with tears,
but he told them not to weep, don't to cry,
because the joy of the Lord is your strength, people.
The word that we're hearing strengthens us day by day,
so in the midst of the midnight hour,
there's something on which we can draw
when we let our bucket into the well of our salvation.
It goes into the strength of the joy
that comes from on high, your strength.
You see, joy in the face of depression says
all things work together for good to those who love God.
That's what joy says.
Joy declares in the face of suffering,
as Joe would say, though God slay me yet,
will I trust him.
Do you trust him?
If he goes ahead and takes you out of this life,
do you still trust him?
If he don't raise you up, do you still trust him?
All that Job had been through, joy spoke out loud.
Though God slay me, yet shall I trust him.
That's, let me tell you something,
that's more than a casual relationship with God.
Hello?
That's more than just a casual visit to church
from time to time.
That's a depth of relationship that lets us know
that Job understood in whom he could believe,
and no matter what came his way, if the Lord gave
and the Lord took away, it's blessed be the name
of the Lord.
If I happen to be that which he decides to take away,
it's still blessed be the name of the Lord,
for I trust him.
Though he slay me yet, shall I trust him.
We gotta trust him.
We gotta have complete trust and joy in the face of fear
says, yay, with the psalmist, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death.
Now I tell you, we about got this whole place
over covered with the shadow of death.
Because in the last four and a half months, 15,
15 funerals related to our church, 15 related to our church,
either on the peripheral or immediate family members,
15 funerals in four and a half months have come against us.
And our spirits get heavy.
Amen?
Death carries a toll with it.
But we can declare from joyous, yay, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
Just don't get with brother Frank, he'll have you asking
for your membership and going to another church somewhere.
He asked me at the funeral home, he said,
we've been doing this awful lot lately,
too many at our church.
He said, I think I need a transfer, you're burying too many
and I don't wanna be next.
He came in the other day, he said, you starting again?
I said, we hadn't stopped.
Oh Lord, but yay, though we're walking through that valley
where the shadow of death is,
we're walking through that valley where the shadow
of death abides for those of us who have joy.
We know what awaits for our loved ones who have known
Christ in the fullness of his saving grace.
We know that they await us in a place of beauty and splendor.
We know that they await us in the serenity of his peace
and in the bosom of his arms, hallelujah.
And they know why we toil here on earth,
that if we'll just keep the faith,
we too shall rejoice in the serenity of his grace
and the glory of his presence.
To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.
And we are awaiting, my ears are tuned for the shout
of the archangel and the tune up of the trumpet
so that we all can meet together.
I'm ready to see Jesus.
I told a little east and that this morning, Jesus is coming.
He stopped by to see me in the office this morning.
I'm ready to see Jesus.
While I toss and turn, my ears are tuned.
Could this be the hour?
Woo!
Lord, are you stirring me awake
so that I don't miss the alarm?
I think that's one alarm that all children of God
won't miss because there's no snooze
for the trumpet.
Hello?
In the face of impossible situations,
joy declares with God, all things are possible
to those who believe.
If you don't believe, then it's not possible for you.
With God, all things are possible.
So it doesn't matter what you're tossing and turning over.
Trust in God.
I trust in God, my savior, the one right.
You trust him in the middle of every opposition
that comes against you that you have no power over.
And it looks impossible and you're tossing
and you're turning about the situation,
the impossibilities of it.
Trust in God and draw from the will of your joy.
In the face of failure, joy will declare to you,
though I have fallen, I shall arise, Micah 7 and 8.
But I like the first part of that verse
even as much as I hear that.
Don't stand over me and look down on me, devil.
Don't look down on me, oh, my enemy.
I may be down, but I'm not out.
I may be down here, but I'm coming up.
You may have me sealed in a dark room,
but the light of the glory of the Lord's gonna find me.
And when I get up from here, and when I get up from here,
you're gonna be put firmly under my feet.
I may be down, but don't you dare count me out.
Because I'm singing while I'm down.
Joy declares it, I shall arise.
Amen.
The psalmist in 37 and 25 put it this way
in financial distresses.
Joy says I have never seen the righteous forsaken
nor his seed begging bread.
But I like the front part of that verse too.
It's a testimony of the psalmist.
I was young.
Some of you already said amen.
I was young, but now I'm old.
You are.
We're there, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken.
I've seen the righteous in all manner of hardship.
I've seen the righteous hemmed up in a corner by the enemy.
Oh, come on.
I've seen the righteous in every situation
you can see the righteous in.
I've seen the righteous broke.
I've seen the righteous in abundance.
I've seen the righteous at every point in between.
But what I have not seen is the righteous forsaken.
I've not seen his seed begging.
I have heard and witnessed testimony
where he dispatched the grocery messenger
before what they got now.
What is it called?
I think people bring you groceries.
Randy, what is it?
DoorDash, thank you.
DoorDash, I've heard the testimony of the Holy Ghost
move on somebody, get a sack of groceries,
and set it on Sister So-and-So's porch.
Not forsaken, broke, busted, and probably disgusted,
but not forsaken.
Hallelujah, not begging.
He's not going to allow you to get to the place
where you have to beg.
The psalmist declared it.
The word proclaims it.
Hold on by faith, hold on by faith.
Let joy rise up in you and hear the word of the Lord.
I was this, but now I'm this.
I was that, but now I'm this.
I was old, but now I'm going to get better.
I was old and glory awaits me.
I was old, then eternity is my home.
Joy declares this over our life.
In the midst of your tossing and your turning,
in the middle of the night, in those wayward watches,
in that fourth watch, in the darkest before the dawn,
know that He's not forsaken you.
If He didn't forsake Job, He sure hadn't forsaken us.
He's not forsaken you.
I know it feels that way sometimes.
I've felt that way.
I feel like Job, sometimes I need to hear from him.
Now, I don't think he was really wanting what he got.
You know, God can kind of get serious with us, can't He?
Stand up, son.
You wanted me, you got me.
Failure, I shall arise.
Financial loss, I will not beg.
My God shall supply all of our need according to His riches
and glory by Christ Jesus.
In the faith of death, joy says, oh, death, where is thy sting?
And, oh, grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin.
And sin's only victory is the law,
but it's been swallowed up.
It thanks me unto God, who gives us that victory.
In the face of unanswered prayer,
joy will call on you to declare, where he did,
dictated to the Apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.
And grace is sufficient for you, and weakness, I provide my strength.
I know we feel weak from time to time.
In the middle of those watches, waiting for the dawn of the day,
the prayers that we have proclaimed,
do you feel as though we're unanswered?
Hear me tonight, this morning,
in the middle of your tossing and turning,
never equate an unanswered prayer to an unheard prayer.
Don't allow the enemy to tell you that.
Well, he hadn't even heard you.
Yes, he has.
He doesn't even see you.
Yes, he does.
The eyes of the Lord goes to and fro over the face of the earth.
And his ears ever turn to earthward.
Never, never, ever allow the enemy to deceive you into believing
that an unanswered prayer is an unheard prayer,
because your prayer answer is on its way.
He answers every single prayer.
We just don't like the answers.
There's three pat answers with God.
Yes, no, and the one we all love, wait.
Children love that one, just wait.
I've learned something.
Pets are almost like children.
We have two.
Sister Kathy and I thought it'd be nice to treat them.
We bought this sack of dog treats, put it out there where they could see it,
give them one.
You don't think, I don't think dogs are as intelligent as what I'm finding out they can
be.
Mine can count.
Birds can tell time.
I set those treats over by them and at 11 o'clock I give them a treat.
Well at about 10.30, 10.45 they start.
It's not 11, but they start.
I let them out the other day, do their business.
I got the missing my dog, Kathy don't claim him, won't claim him.
I call him stupid, that's not his name.
So he disappears into the garage.
Normally when we get back close to the house, they go right where they're supposed to go.
And I thought, well, what's he into?
Here he came out.
He got the bag down, reached in and got one by the end, pulled it out of the bag.
Like he'd really done something.
Here he come out the yard.
I said, what are you doing?
It's not 11 o'clock.
Wait, we don't like wait.
And over and over and over the scripture tells us, wait on the Lord.
And still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Joy helps us wait when the answer is not yet.
Joy keeps us focused on the hope that we have in God.
When we feel inadequate, joy says, I can do all things through Christ.
When we face challenges, joy says, God gives us the victory.
And when we understand the reality of those victories and what the grace of God can bring
into our lives, joy begins to fill up in our heart.
And even though we toss and we turn and we're tormented through the night, we can be like
the psalmist who declared weeping endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Hallelujah.
There's a dawning of your day.
I don't know how long your night's going to last.
I don't know how long it's going to be dark.
I don't know how long you're going to have to talk or turn in the midnight hour.
But I do know this, if the darkness comes, there's a dome that's following it.
It is the repercussion of night and day that the Lord put in.
It repeats itself even in the life of the believer.
It may be dark now and it may be dark for a day or two days or a week or a month, but
this I do know, there's a dawn declared over your situation and he'll bring it into your
life.
It's not perpetual darkness.
I know it feels that way sometimes, but it's not.
Can you tell I'm preaching out of my own midnight?
Reassuring my own self that the dawn's coming.
So if we can endure the night tossing and turning, who knows what tomorrow God has promised
for us?
Problems will turn into praise, trials into triumphs, worry into victories and wins, testimonies.
No longer the victim, but the victor.
That's the reason David could declare it.
Weeping endures through the night, but joy comes.
For us today, stand with me, I'm closing.
For us this morning, I feel like the Lord won't own me to tell myself, but to tell anybody
who'll listen, he sees your tossing and turning.
He knows what you're going through at home.
He knows what's been happening between you and your children.
He knows how they've been treating you on your job.
He knows how some of your friends have been talking about you.
He knows what's been going on in your finances, but hold on a little longer.
We have to thank Job for going through the trial.
We have to let Job know that he's been an encouragement to those of us who must continue
going through times of suffering and trial.
It's not always because we're sinful, but sometimes just to know that God trusts us
to be faithful.
Thanks Job for letting us look behind the curtain at God's process and to know that
God endures through our complaining.
He knows we're just created beings.
He knows you're just flesh dealing with worldly problems, hardships and heartaches.
He knows the enemy that you face day in, day out.
He knows, but chapter 14, in the 14th verse, near the end of that verse, Job says this,
all of my appointed time, I will wait until my change comes.
That word change means an alteration, an alteration of the course.
I don't know how long my appointment is with this trial, but I'm going to wait until my
change comes.
It's a confession to let us all know that change is coming.
It can't always stay this way.
It won't always be what it's being.
But all of my appointed time, I'm going to wait until my change comes.
I might have to spend a few more sleepless nights, but I'm going to wait.
I may be talked about, made fun of for a few more days, but I'm going to wait.
Right?
I might have to suffer a few more aches or pains in my body, but I'm going to wait until
my change comes.
I may be broke today, but I'm going to wait.
My marriage may be on the rocks today, but I'll wait.
Some church folk may not be speaking to me, but I'll wait.
I may be lied on, criticized.
I may feel lonely and outcast, but I'm going to wait.
I wait until my change comes because joy, joy resides.
Isaiah 55 and 12 says, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with praise.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the fields,
the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.
Verse 8 says, my thoughts are not your thoughts.
My ways are not your ways.
Right?
Verse 11 says, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It will accomplish that which I send it to accomplish, and it shall not return unto me
void.
Joy.
Toss and turn, but do it with joy.
You say, that's a hard thing to do, pastor.
Yes, it is.
But the hope that we have is in the help that we receive, and the help that we receive comes
from the Lord.
So in the midst of your tossing and turning, don't lose your joy.
You don't have answers.
You've got Jesus.
They can't figure it out.
You've still got Jesus.
You don't know what to do.
You've still got Jesus.
No matter how long the darkness lasts, your change is going to come if you'll wait.
Simple altar call this morning.
If you're in that tossing and turning, and you want to see your change come, join me
down here in this altar.
Come on.