Job chapter number one. Job chapter number one. Teenagers, you never know what's going to come out of their mouth, right? Stand with me when you get there. Job chapter number one. I'm glad to see everyone in the house of God today. I'm glad that you're here. I know many of you may be carrying some burdens today.

Maybe going through some times, some rough times, some things you didn't quite think you'd be going through at this point in your life. I want to try to help you this morning. We're going to look at the life of Job. I've got a message entitled, Some Things to Remember During Hard Times. Some things to remember during our hard times. Job chapter 1.

We know the story of Job, so we're just going to read a few verses here at the end of chapter 1, verse number 20. It says,

In all this, Job sinned not. That's a powerful testimony. Many times we read this, we just gloss over that part. I don't know about you, but I know in my life there have been many times I've gone through some hard things. I've gone through some things that I didn't understand, some things that I didn't appreciate, some things that I did not want to face. And sometimes we can blame God. But the Bible says in all of this, Job sinned not. And so let's not gloss over that fact.

Notice, nor charge God foolishly. Let's pray and we'll get you a little bit of a foundation and get you a message this morning. Father, we love you. We thank you for the word of God. Lord, help us this morning. We have people from all walks of life here today. We have many, Lord, that have come here and they're carrying a burden that at this point in their life they never thought they would be carrying.

There are some in the room that are carrying a burden today that was not a burden that they chose, but rather one that was thrown upon them and nobody else was around so they had to carry it. There are others that are carrying a burden and it may be a burden of their own making through decisions that have been made in life. And then there's others in here that may not be carrying a burden right now and they're just living life very frivolously, unaware of trials and heartaches and

Things may seem good right now. We got each of us in our different walk of life, but each of us need this truth. And I pray that you'd help us to hone in this morning, to be attentive, to listen very intently and purposefully to the word of God. And to understand, Lord, that you are the one that gives life. You're the one that takes life away. And our response should always be the same. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We ought to praise you in the good times. We ought to praise you in the hard times.

And help us, Lord, to remember some of this and some of these truths that we need to face as we go through hard times. We'll praise you. We'll thank you for it all. We love you, Lord. And we ask these things in your name we pray. Amen. You can go ahead and be seated. We all know.

People that have gone through trials, we many times would label different people as good or bad, as godly or ungodly, and so you can fit the category however it fits this morning. We all know godly people, we all know good people, and many times they have difficult times. In your life, you may be godly this morning, you may be good, you may be trying to do some good things, and sometimes you wonder why you're going through some trials that you go through.

Now, just because we've been saved doesn't mean it's going to be a bed of roses. It doesn't mean that we're going to have an easy life the rest of our lives. Here, we're going to look at a good man by the name of Job. A man who the Bible says was perfect and upright. Go to chapter 1, verse number 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect or complete. He was mature.

And I couldn't remember it this morning and just a moment ago, I wrote it down during the last song because it popped right in my head. Remember this in life. When you have a wound, a wound is just an entrance for light. Now think about that.

A lot of times we have cracks that are in walls or we have cracks that are in surfaces. And what happens when the light shines? The light comes through that crack. Well, in your life, when you have a wound that you are facing, and the Bible says a wounded spirit who can bear. And when you have a wound in your life, that is just an area where the light of the Word of God is trying to penetrate. And the Word of God can make itself accessible in your life.

So I want to try to help you this morning. If you're facing some things in life, if you've got a wound that you're bearing, we're going to give you some light and we're going to try to shine some things inside that wound to be able to help you to be able to heal and to be able to grow from that. So let's lay a foundation before we get into the message and give you some ideas about who Job was and kind of where Job was at. First, I want you to look at just by way of introduction. There's four aspects we're going to see, and then we're going to get to the message. I want you to notice Job's testimony here.

First, Job, the Bible says, he was the greatest man in the empire. Notice there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. He was perfect and he was upright. He was the greatest man that was in that empire. He was the greatest man that was in that city, that was in that country, that was in that county, that was in that state, that was in that area. So he was the greatest man that was in the empire. The Bible also says in verse number 3 that he was the greatest man that was in the east.

A perfect and upright man. This is a testimony from God himself that there was no man like the man of Job in all the earth. He was a great man. So he had a testimony that was unlike any other. Now one thing we must not forget in this, no amount of holiness and no amount of obedience in your lives will eradicate the curse of sin in your life. You are still a sinner and you've got to work hard to be able to live your life

I'll take care of it. You got a problem? Just sweat it off. Praise God. That's Brother Thoreau's motto for a long time. Got a problem? Just sweat it out. Got a sickness? Just sweat it out. It'll be all right. God's people still have to work by the sweat of their brow. God's people are still going to have pain in life and even pain in childbearing. I'm about to have a child. It's going to be painful. They're going to give you drugs for it, but it's going to be painful. God's people still have to contend with thorns, with thistles. Any of you ever done any yard work?

God's people still have to deal with the devil. We still have to deal with demons. What am I saying? Just because you're a child of God doesn't mean you're exempt from what other people in the world are going through. Every one of us are going to have trials. Living right does not always rid us of the simple fact that you are going to face hard times. But living right will help you to be able to handle the hard times in the right way.

The Bible says his substance in verse 3 was 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses.

Here in chapter 1, and many of you already know the story of Job, so we're kind of breezing through the story a little bit, taking a little bit of understanding, hoping that you already know it. If you're not aware of the full story of Job, please take the time to read Job chapter 1 and chapter 2 today. Here, Satan attacked Job in every single area of his life. The Bible says in verses 8, 9, and 10, 11-12, verses 8-12, that God and Satan have a conversation about Job.

Satan looks at him and says, I've never thought about tempting Job or hurting Job because you put a hedge of protection about him. There's nothing that I can do to him. He's serving you. And then Satan begins to tell God, the only reason that he's serving you is because of all the things that you've given him.

Now, the devil's not changed his tactics. It may be that in your life he's still telling God the same thing about you, that the only reason you're serving God is because of all the good things God's done for you. So don't be shocked when God begins to take some things away from you in your life. It could be God's testing your faith. But here, we see Job's troubles. Satan attacked Job in every area. In verse number 15 of chapter 1, he attacked his crops. In verse number 18, he attacked the children.

In verse number 15, sorry, I missed this one. He attacked his caregivers. That would be the ones that were ministering, the servants. In verse 17, he attacked the commerce. That would be the wealth that he had, the production. In chapter 2, verse number 7, he attacked his comforts. That was his being. And he put boils all over his body. In verse number 9 of chapter 2, Satan attacked Job through his companion. Many times the devil is going to use the things that are closest to your heart to begin to attack you.

He used his wife to attack him. And then in verse number 13, he used his comrades, his friends. At the end of it all, when Job had all the friends in the world, there were only three of them that showed up to minister to him in the end. Here, we've all experienced hard times. There's not one of us that haven't dealt with some kind of difficulty. I'm not going to take a raise of hands, but some of us have gone through trials, and I believe all of us have gone through trials where we've lost a loved one. You face a difficulty in your life.

Think about this. Job's children, all ten of them, died in an instant at the same time. Every one of them. A strong wind came, the Bible says, in verse number 16. No, verse number, sorry, verse number 18 of chapter 1. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. Behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they're dead.

Here the house had collapsed on all of his children. All of his children died at once. All of his cattle were taken away at once. All of his sheep were killed at once. It was a fire from heaven. All of his camels were stolen at once. All of his men servants and maid servants were killed at once.

There was only one servant in each situation that was able to save their lives and come to Job and tell him of the trouble. And while he was speaking of the trouble, another servant was running to him. You ever felt like when you're receiving bad news, somebody else is going to show up and what else can go wrong, right?

When it rains, it pours. Job was there in his life. He had received all this bad news, and I can imagine he used to be like most of us would be at this point in our lives. We used to throw up our hands and say, man, what else can go wrong? What else can happen today? How much worse can it get? But the Bible says, in all this, Job sinned not. As a matter of fact, when all the bad news came to Job in verse number 20, we find that

Not just Job's testimonies, not just Job's treasures, not just Job's troubles, but we find Job's trust in verse 20 and 21. He received all this bad news, the first thing that he does in verse 20, he arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground and worshiped. What's the first thing you do? What's the first thing that I do when we receive bad news?

Some of us, we just want to curl up into a ball and cry, right? I understand. Sometimes you receive some bad news, and sometimes you just want to get away from everybody else because you can't handle the situation. You get overwhelmed real quickly. Here, Job shows us the true man that he is. And by the way, the measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of conflict.

That's where a man is measured at. By the way, Martin Luther King Jr. said that. It's about the only good thing he said. Verse number 21. He said, Here we see Job's trust.

First, we see his analysis. He said, naked came I out of my mother's room, and naked shall I return. He said, I came into this world with nothing. I'm going to leave the world with nothing. All the stuff that I have, all the treasures that I have, all the wealth, all the fame, all the glory, it's all going to be gone one day. I'm going to leave without it. That was his analysis. Then his attitude, he said, the Lord gave, and the Lord had taken away.

Most of the time, our attitude is, God, why are you doing this to me? Right? We begin to blame God, begin to question God. We see his analysis, we see his attitude, and then we see his adoration. He says, blessed be the name of the Lord. I serve God during the good times. I'm going to continue serving God during the bad times. There's a song we heard when we were teenagers, and I've got it in my truck right now.

And it talks about Job's trials, and the title is Blessed Be the Name of the Lord. And in there, the statement in the chorus, I served him before, and I'll serve him today. Regardless of the situation, you've got to determine in your life, regardless of what's happening, some things are non-negotiable. And the fact that I'm going to serve God, whether things are good or whether things are bad, that is non-negotiable.

I'm still going to serve God. God is still sitting on this throne. I'm still going to read my Bible. I'm still going to pray. I'm still going to be in church. I'm still going to do what God's called me to do. Even though things may be tough. Here, I want you to understand. Job was a good man. But Job experienced some hard times. The Bible says in verse 22, And all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Now the word charge here means to utter or to assign, to bestow or to report. So his report of God never changed. Assigning this bad thing in his life to God, he didn't do that. Blaming God for the trial he was facing, that didn't come out of his lips. He didn't charge God.

Where we have been faced with a trial, we've been faced with a hard thing, and the first thing we do is we begin to complain about it. We begin to blame. Then we feel bad and so we begin to repent of that and we begin to accept some things in our lives. It's just different stages of grief that we go through. But here, he never blamed God.

So Job's trials here in chapter 1 and chapter 2 are an example of what we ought to do when we go through hard times. There's three things I want you to understand this morning now as we've laid the introduction, laid the foundation. Three things to remember as you go through hard times if you're taking notes. First and foremost, there are some aspects that God is not going to let us know.

Because we oftentimes, we want to think about all the different reasons. Many times something bad happens in your life. One of the first things that many of us do, and many of us men were very bad about this. There's some ladies that are bad about it too. We begin to replay the situation in our minds. And we look at it from every angle. On what else could have happened? What else could I have done? How could I have not allowed this? When in all reality, it was out of our control to begin with.

And he's not going to one. He doesn't need our permission. Okay. But also he doesn't have to let us know what we're going through. We just got to be ready for what God has for us. You see, there were things that were happening in Job chapter number one that Job would not have comprehended. Now imagine this in Job chapter one, verse eight, nine, God and Satan are having a conversation. Okay. Okay.

Now imagine if God would have brought Job in on the conversation. And if you were about to go through this trial, so Brother Nick, Satan and God's having a conversation about you. So God's going to pull back the windows of heaven a little bit and let Brother Nick see the conversation. Okay? And Satan's over here telling God, God, I can't do this to Nick and I can't do this to Nick and I can't do this to Nick because you won't let me. And Nick's kind of thinking, I'm glad he's not doing that to me.

I don't want to go through that. I'm glad I'm protected by God. And then God says, okay, I'll remove this and I'll remove that. I can imagine Brother Nick over here in the corner. But don't I get a vote? God, why are you going to? Why? I don't want to go through that. I don't want to face that. Now, I'm being a little facetious this morning, but think about that. There's some things that we're not privy to.

There's some things that we're not going to know. And here, God and Satan were having a conversation in Job chapter 1. Job wasn't privy to that conversation. Job didn't know that God and Satan were having a conversation about him. And if Job would have known, he would have responded like most of us, God, I don't want that to happen. God, I kind of like the hedge that you got around me. I kind of like the protection that you're giving me.

I kind of like having my family taken care of and my kids still alive. I like those things. I don't want the trials. I don't want the hard times. And then after all of that, Satan and God have another conversation. And Job is praising God in the midst of the trials that he's facing. He's praying and he's talking to God. He's blessed be the name of the Lord. That's what the Bible said at the end of chapter 1. He didn't charge God foolishly. Then in chapter 2,

Satan goes to God again and says, hey, if you would just let me do more to him. If Job would have seen that conversation, I'd imagine, God, what more do you want to do? I mean, what else does he want to do to my life? And then Satan gets the permission to do anything he wants to do except take Job's life.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I knew those conversations were going on, I'd be raising my hand asking if I got a vote. Anybody else there? Does that make sense? So understand, there's going to be some aspects of the trials that you face that you're not going to understand. And you're not always going to know why. You see, Job didn't have all the details. We're very detail-oriented people.

Where many times we want to know the details. We want to know what's going on before we get any part of doing it, right? Somebody asks us about doing this or that. We begin to ask, what are the details? Explain, what time is it? Where is it at? What are we going to be doing? We begin to go over all the details. Here, God didn't give Job the details. But Job still trusted God. You see, there were things that Job would not have been able to comprehend. As a matter of fact, if God would have told Job...

Job wouldn't have been able to prepare for it. There's been no way where you can prepare for losing your children all at the same time. There's no way where you can possibly prepare to lose all of your wealth in one given moment. There's no way to prepare for that. There's no way to prepare for everybody to turn their back on you. You can't prepare yourself for that. There's some things you've got to learn as you go through the trial.

But think of this, even if Job had known and even if Job was able to understand, would that have taken the pain away? No, it wouldn't have. It still would have hurt. So just because you don't know what God may be doing on the backside of a curtain of your life, even if you did know, it's not going to change the fact that it's going to hurt. Some things in life just hurt.

Some pain is going to be there no matter what. Here, if Job had known that his children were going to die, and by the way, we all know that we're all going to die one day. It's a point on the man wants to die. We know this. The end is inevitable. They say all the time there's two things that are guaranteed, right? Death and taxes. I told Brother Anthony, I said, there's a third thing. People at Chick-fil-A are going to say my pleasure. It's guaranteed it's going to happen.

Aspects that God's not going to let us know, but there's some attributes or character traits in your life that God wants you to show. Go to verse number 9 of chapter 1. Verse number 8, sorry. Here, verse number 8.

First, I want you to notice one of the attributes that God wants us to show and reveal. God wants us to show our loyalty to him. Here, Satan asked the question, does Job fear God for naught? Here, Job's only serving you because of all the good things that you've done. If you were to take all the good away, Job's going to blaspheme you to your face. That's exactly what Satan tells God. He says, verse number 11, put...

So sometimes God's going to allow some protection to be removed for some trials to be faced. Why? So you can prove your loyalty to God, where you can prove where your loyalty lies. You see, because if you can bless God during the trials instead of cursing God, then you know that you're loyal to God no matter what, not just because of the good. You see, most Christianity is very shallow and very fickle this morning

Most Christians today, we serve God when things are going great. And then when trials come, we don't darken the door of a church. We go and we hide somewhere. We want nothing to do with God. And then we get bad news and we show up to church when things get really, really bad. And we want everybody to try to reverse it all at once. Well, we can't pull a hat or can't pull a rabbit out of a hat. It's not going to happen. God wants us to show our loyalty to him.

The devil accused Job of serving God only because of God's goodness. You see, it's easy to love God when he is blessing you and when everything is going well. It's easy to serve God that way. It's difficult to serve God when you got to force yourself to.

God wants us to show our loyalty to Him. Next, another attribute, chapter 2, look at verse number 8. God wants us to show our faith to Him. Chapter 2, verse number 8, or verse 7. So when Satan...

So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown. And he took him a pot sherd, that's a broken clay pot, broken piece of pottery, to scrape himself withal. He sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Are you still going to live a life of character? That's what she asks.

Then she turns her back on God. She says, curse God and die. But still in all this, Job sinned not. But I want you to notice here, and it wasn't just until recent that I realized some things. Look at verse number eight. It says, the Bible says he sat down among the ashes. For years, I thought my opinion was that he was sitting in the place where all his children died.

Where's the first thing that mentions anything about ashes or anything burning? Well, you go back to chapter one, verse number five, and it says, and it was so when the days of their feastings were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings. Okay. According to the number of them all for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

And so then Job has a place where he goes and he walks with God. And he's offering burnt offerings to God. That's where the ashes are at. At the end of chapter 1, verse 20 and 21, he's worshiping God. Where is he worshiping God at? Back in the same place where he always worships God. He has a time and a place to worship God.

In chapter number two, when these bad things continue to happen in his life, and the Bible says that he sits among the ashes, where does he go? He goes back to his altar. Okay, are you listening? He goes back to his walk with God.

And during this trial, he was able to prove not just the fact that he loved God, not just that he had loyalty to God, but he got to prove his faith. He got to show his faith. He was able to go back to the altar where he had spent many a times praying before. And that's where he went before God.

You see, as you go through trials in your lives and as you go through hard times in your life, the only thing that will sustain you is your walk with God. Okay, understand that this morning. The only thing that will sustain you during the trial that you are facing is your walk with God. I don't understand how people that are lost and that don't know God, I don't understand how they go through trials. Why do you think suicide rate is at an all-time high?

The only thing that's going to sustain you is your walk with God. This is why we teach and preach so heavily around here, that you've got to have a time where you're in your Bible and you're spending time reading the Word of God and you're spending time in prayer and you're spending time with the God that loves you and saved you. God wants you to show your faith. You see, it was the ashes that he sat down among. And by the way, let me go ahead and make this statement.

He sat down among the ashes before he sat down among his friends. So when you're going through your trials, you've got to walk with God before you go and start walking with people. What we want to do is we want to surround ourselves with everybody else so they can comfort us and they can console us. And listen, I understand the reasoning behind that. But who can comfort you better than the great comforter? Who can console you better than the great consoler? Who can heal your hurt better than the great healer?

God, who we serve, who can do all that? Nobody can other than God. So, one of the attributes that we need to show in our lives, in the trials that we face, is our loyalty to God. But another attribute we need to show is our faith in God. Our faith. Because you can lose everything in this world, but if you've still got your faith in God, then God has a starting point again.

In Jeremiah chapter number 18, the Bible talks about the potter and the clay. The Bible says the clay was marred in the hands of the potter. I've used this illustration many times already. There was something that was inside the clay that should not have been there. He did not throw the clay away. The clay did not jump out of the hands of the potter. The clay stayed on the wheel, he removed the infirmity, and he started over again.

And in your life, as long as you're walking with God during and through the trials that you're facing, then God can rebuild your life. You see, if Job, if he had gone through this trial, and if Job would have just gone to his wife, and he would have just gone to his friends, and he would have gone to everybody else, but he would have never gone back to the ashes, he would have never gone back to the altar, he would have never gone back to his relationship with God, then God would not have rebuilt him. Understand that.

We've got to be able to go back to our walk with God so that God can rebuild us. We show our faith in God. Then also, oh, by the way, let me show you that. Go to Job 13.

Job 13, look at verse number 15. Here he says, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. But I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation. How did he get help during his trial? He got help from God.

Listen, he had some friends that came to him, and you can go back to Job chapter 1 and 2. He had friends that came to him, and the best things that his friends did were the first seven days when they sat there silently and just listened. And they were there presently. It's when his friends begin to open their mouths in the next chapters, that's when the problems begin to come. Because they begin to blame and accuse him for all the wrong that's happening in his life. What good friends are they, right? With friends like these, who needs enemies?

But Job did not rely on his friends, he relied on his Savior. You've got to understand, as you go through trials, you've got to be able to prove your faith in God. So God, some attributes God wants us to show, He wants us to show our loyalty to Him. He wants us to show our faith in Him. Then go to Job chapter number 5, He also wants us to show our dependence upon Him.

He wants us to show our dependence. Job chapter 5, look at verse number 7. Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Trouble's going to happen. Man was born for trouble. Look at verse 8. I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause.

What happens when the trials come? What happens when the sparks fly upward as according to the previous verse? He says, I will go to God. I'm running to God during my trial. I'll seek unto God. Unto God will I commit my cause. You see, it's very easy in times of blessing and in times of prosperity. It's very easy to forget how much we actually need God. It's very easy.

And one of the easiest things to forget is God's never-ending desire for us to grow. God wants us to grow. God doesn't want us just to stay where we're at. Listen, God loves us too much to leave us where we were when he found us, but he loves us too much to keep us there as he continues to teach us. He wants us to grow into what he wants us to become.

The Bible says regularly, especially throughout the New Testament, that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are constantly supposed to be growing. God's ultimate desire and purpose for us is Romans chapter number 8, verse number 29, for us to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. That's God's purpose for our life. For us to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that when others see our lives, they see a glimpse.

of Jesus Christ and many times we need to understand that God will do whatever he thinks is necessary to produce that change in our life that's not the fun part that's not the enjoyable part that's not the part that any of us want we want to be like Christ but the Bible tells us in Philippians chapter 3 verse number 10

Paul said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. See, we want to know the power. We want to know what it means to have the power of God in our lives and for God to be blessing us. Then he says, and the fellowship of his sufferings. That's where we begin to get back. I don't know if I want the suffering part. Right? Then I may know him and the powers of resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.

All we want, we pray. Listen, I was taught in Bible college all the time. Pray for wisdom, pray for power. And we pray for wisdom, we pray for the power of God. But we don't always pray for the suffering so that we can be conformed to the image of the Son of God. But Paul, probably one of the greatest examples of Christianity outside of Jesus Christ. He wrote 14 books in the New Testament. I believe the way God used him, the way he did, is because that was his desire. That I may know him.

And he understood that if I was going to know God, it wasn't just knowing the power of God. It was knowing his sufferings and allowing him to conform me through the trials. Here in Job chapter number 42, look at verse number one. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he?

I admit it, I don't understand what's going on. I don't understand why you've allowed this. Wherefore I abhor myself.

And repent in dust and ashes. Here he said there were things that were too wonderful. There were things that I didn't understand. But in verse 5, he said, I've heard it, but now I've seen it. Now I have a better understanding. And his understanding led to a repenting. Let me show you this here. There are three things that, three areas where,

Job grew in this part of his life. The hard times produced these three things. Number one, a realization. Here he realized that he did not, in verse number one through three, he realized that he did not have to understand in order to trust. Now that's where you've got to come to in your life. God doesn't call us understanders. Amen. He calls us believers.

And you don't have to understand the whys and you don't have to understand everything that's going on in your life to be able to trust God. And here Job came to this realization that he didn't have to have it all figured out. As a matter of fact, he was probably never going to understand it until he got to heaven and God revealed it all to him. Even during your trial, you may not understand all the reasons and you're probably not going to.

Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. It's a hymn that's in your hymn book. But to trust and obey. There's a realization that he came to. Secondly, there was a revelation. Notice verse 4 and 5. This is the revelation. Sometimes you have to practice...

The truth so that you can understand the truth. Again, trust and obey. There are things about God that you will only learn during the hard times. It's just like in your marriage. Those of you that are married, husband and wives in here, there are things that you will learn about your spouse only during hard times. I've heard it stated many times before.

The illustration given of a tea bag. You want to find out what's inside the tea bag, you put it in boiling water. Right? Because when the water starts boiling, what's on the inside of the bag begins to come out. And it's the same way in your life. When things begin to heat up in your life, when your feet are put to the fire, when it feels like all hell breaks loose, okay? When things get tough, that's when the real you shows up.

God healed the young boy and now he's a healthy young boy. You would have never known that he went through the things that he went through in that short period of time. You say, well, why did God allow all that just for him to be the way that he is now? Just to be normal again? Because mom and dad, and they were able to testify of some areas in their lives where they were able to grow in their trust for God, in their dependence upon God, in their love for one another.

You see, there's some things that God's going to allow some hard things in your life to happen because it's going to open your eyes to a side of God that you otherwise would have been oblivious to. Sometimes God's going to allow some things to happen so that your eyes can be open. There's a realization, but there's also a revelation. Remember this. John, the apostle on the Isle of Patmos, he never received the book of Revelation until he was completely alone.

The truth I'm trying to reveal to you this morning is regardless of the trial that you're going through, the most important thing is you've got to keep walking with God. You've got to keep walking with God. I heard it stated years ago back when I was a teenager. We had an evangelist that came through and he was preaching revival. And he made a statement. I wrote it down in my Bible. I've never forgotten it. He said, when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. When you get to the end of what you believe, tie a knot and hang on.

Don't ever let go of your faith in God. Hold on to the walk with God. Hold on to your relationship with God. Listen, everything else may flee. All the relationships may go. But you hold on to that relationship that matters. You've got to hold on to your walk with God. There's a repenting here. The book starts with him walking with God. The book ends with him walking with God.

And the Bible says that God blessed him. Verse 10, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. You say, I want God to bless me like that. If you want God to bless you like that, then you've got to let God hurt you like that. Okay? If you want the blessings that Job received, if you want the double or nothing...

You've got to allow God to try you. But you've also got to stay faithful. We've got to understand some things to remember in our hard times. There's some aspects that we're not going to know. Okay? Then there's some attributes that God wants us to show. And then there's areas where we need to grow. Stand with me with heads bowed, with eyes closed. I don't know where you're at this morning. I don't know what trials you're facing this morning.

Ms. Chrissy is up here in the front row there. She can talk to you and show you from the Word of God exactly how to trust Christ, your personal Savior. She wants to know where you're at. When you go through the hard times, you've got to be able to go back to God and walk with Him. Let's pray. Father, we love You. We thank You for the truth.