In the sermon titled 'Why Do The Righteous Suffer?' delivered by Robert Hartley, the age-old question of why God's people experience suffering is explored through the lens of the Book of Job. Hartley examines Job's character, describing him as a perfect and upright man who feared God and avoided evil. Despite Job's righteousness, he faced immense suffering, losing his wealth, family, and health. The sermon emphasizes that God's sovereignty means He does as He pleases, and suffering is part of His divine purpose, even if it is not immediately understood by humans. Hartley points out that suffering serves various purposes: it tests and strengthens faith, refines character, and ultimately draws believers closer to God. The sermon also stresses that while questioning God is not inherently sinful, understanding His nature and trusting in His goodness and justice is crucial. Hartley concludes by encouraging believers to respond to suffering with worship, recognizing everything as a gift from God, and trusting in His sovereign will.

Church. It's a privilege to be here and as we come from Ella Grove, we come wishing you the best. Y'all are in our prayers and continue to be so. I would ask you this morning, if you would, to turn with me to the book of Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1.

I want to speak to you this morning on the subject that we hear into questions asked so many times. It's why do the righteous suffer? And I'm sure all of us at one time or another in our life has asked that question, why do God's people suffer? You know, and I wonder if that's really a question that we should ask, but as we look today in God's Word, maybe we will get a little answer the best that I can. But as we look at the book of Job, which is an old book, Even some scholars believe that Moses might have been the writer of it.

If not, it might have been Solomon. But we don't know. The Bible don't tell us that. But it's an old book. One of the oldest probably that we have record of.

But God has preserved this. He has preserved His Word. He has added the book into His Word and so there's a reason. You know, God don't do anything without a reason. It's always a purpose of what he does.

But today, through God's Word and with God's help, I will try to shed some light onto that question, why do God's people suffer? So let's look in, we want to read chapter one, but if we read through this, I'm going to read part of the chapter and I'm going to skip part of it, then I'm going to come back as we get into our message and read a part of it too. So I'm going to read through verse 5, then I'm going to skip down through verse 12. So we're going to read now, we're going to read verses 1 through 5, then we're going to read back up in 13, and then we'll come back and get verses 6 through 12. That's not too confusing.

Let's read God's Word and see what God has to say. There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there was born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His testis was also also with seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-ashes, and a very great household. So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East.

And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day, and sent in call for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Joe sinned and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Where Joe said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Let's pick back up in verse 13.

There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elder brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Jehovah, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the civilians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain these servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven and have burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The Shaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea, and slain these servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

And while he was yet speaking there came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elder eldest brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smoked the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee Then Job arose and ran his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, Naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Joes sin not, nor charge God foolishly." You know, the book of Job, as we look at this book, and just have a few minutes this morning to cover a lot of ground, but as we look at this book, we see this age-old question of human suffering. You know, the question is not why is there evil in the world, But why?

Why do the righteous suffer? Why? If we hadn't asked that question, we know plenty of people that have. You know, why is this happening to me? You know, we want to tell ourselves we're living so good and we're doing so good and we're doing what God commands us to do and this just shouldn't be happening to me.

But do we ever think about the reason that it's happening to us and to others? But why do God's people suffer? Well, really, that's the question about God. The question about Him. Why does God bring suffering to the lives of His people?

So as we wonder about that and wonder why God does, in answer to that question, the book of Job kind of presents Doctrine about God that sometimes people won't overlook, and that is God is sovereign. And that means, as we know, He does as He pleases. He does as He pleases. He is absolute sovereign. And He is good and He is just and all that He brings into the lives of His people.

It may not feel good. It really hurts sometimes. But still, God is good in what He does. And sometimes, you know, we make too much, well, I don't, it's not really not the right word to say that we make too much about Job, but when we look at Job, all we see is the suffering that Job went through. We feel sorry for Job, and that's okay.

But I think so many times we as God's people, we don't look at the big picture. This book is about God. It's revealing who God is, and we'll see that more as we get into our message today. We have to understand that all that God does for us, whether we feel like it's bad or whatever, all that God does is good for His people. There is a reason behind it.

God is not like us. Sometimes we just do things on the spur of the moment. We just do things without thinking. God is not like that. God knows what He is doing, and we need to listen to that.

So if we look at this book, as we can see maybe some of the answers why God's people do suffer. And we can't understand that unless we talk about God. You know, we can get emotional when things happen to us or happen in our family. We can get emotional, we can ask God, why God, why? And you know, like last year, I lost a brother, two sisters, a grandson, and a nephew.

That was a rough year for my family. And yeah, there was a lot of questions. Some of them were young, especially our grandson. He was young. And it hurts.

And I'm not saying it's wrong to ask God why. I'm not saying that it's not wrong to ask God why these things happen. But if we're going to ask God why these things happen, we need to understand who God is. And we need to understand that He does everything for our good. Even though we can't see that.

We can't see that. It hurts. We don't feel like it's for our good. But we do suffer. And in many ways, in chapter one here, it's kind of a summary of the whole book.

We see it introduces us to Job. We talk about Job for just a minute. We see that he is a just man, but it tells us also of the awful suffering that came upon him. And it gives us some keys to understand his suffering. As we begin to understand suffering, we respond in a godly way.

It took Job, you know, the book is so rich and so full, it took Job a little while. Even the right man that he was, even a man that feared God, walked uprightly. It took him a little while to understand some things and it takes us sometimes a little while to understand things. When things happen to us it's not good and we suffer and we lose loved ones and we get sick and all these kind of things, it takes us a while. But we see a little bit about the character, Joe.

We see there in verse 1 that he was a perfect nut right. Now when it says he's perfect nut right, this don't mean that he was a man without sin. I don't mean that he was sinless because the Bible clearly tells us, you know, that all sin comes short of the glory of God. All of us have, and we will. It does mean that however that Joe was spiritually mature, and there was a man that was devoted to God, a man of integrity.

You know, he was careful how he walked with God. So, like we can see that the foundation for Joe's devotion explained in the next words in verse 1, he feared God and it skewed evil or hated evil. And to fear God is to respect who he is, to honor what he says, and to embrace what he does. A respect that leads to obedience. And fear in God, Joe hated evil.

And he hated evil because all evil is against God. Joe wasn't a man that lived a double life. He was what he said he was. And he watched out for sin. He lived a life of repentance.

So the guidance of Joe comes out in this chapter in two ways, and we'll begin here really begin our look at what he said. As we look at this man, Joe, first we see that he was a man who took his family very seriously And he took his responsibilities seriously. We know that how a man behaves in his private and family life is a real measure of who he is. We can all put on a show. We can come to church and we can put on a show and we might fool some people, and we do fool some people sometimes.

You know, we can put on that good front, but how are we? How are we when we're away from church? How are we when we at home? How seriously do we take our responsibilities? You know, we see that Job, He's the father of 10 children.

He got seven sons and three daughters. And even though these children were grown and they had families of their own, they must have been a close-knit family who loved each other and loved being in the company of each other. So they had his family gatherings and maybe because of that love they had, maybe this was another way that we see something about Job because he raised his family to love one another, to be there for one another. You know, and we can see also when Job knew that his family was getting together, he would pray for them. He knew that it wasn't perfect.

He knew that they weren't perfect. That they did things that they shouldn't do. So he made sacrifice for his children, he prayed for them. He even said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Sometimes it's not the outward sin, it's that inward sin that people can't see.

You know, when we put on a front and we try to pretend to be something we're not, that's that inward sin, you know, People can't see. We need to be more like Job. And he was concerned in their hearts that they might have sinned against God, so he prayed for them. And then we can see something about Job and how he was a godly man. He was really, really wealthy, wealthiest man in the land.

He had land, he had animals, he had servants, people looked up to him. But because Job had all that, it didn't go to his head. He helped others. He was kind. He was goodhearted.

In Psalm 62 and 10, it warns us, if Riches increase, set not your heart upon them. But today in today's world, we see the right opposite of that so many times in people's lives. Riches change them, but it didn't happen with Joe. And the reason he knew that, we can see in verse 21, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He knew all that he had, he knew where it came from.

He didn't say, look what I have done, look what I have gained, look what all my labor has brought me." He said, no, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But we sometimes, we want credit for everything, credit that we don't deserve. All good things come from God. You know, God gives us everything that we need. And there was no sin in being rich.

There was no sin in Joe being rich. There was no sin in anybody being rich today. The sin comes when you let those things take control of your life and you put those things ahead of God. That's where the sin comes. And we have to be careful with that, which I don't have that problem.

But I am blessed. I can't complain. God, again, he gives me everything that I need. He supplies all my need. Now I'm not talking about wants, but the older I get the less I want.

I'm just, I can see more and more how God has blessed my life, the older I get each and every day. So why, So why, why as we see this man Job, a godly man, why? We ask the question, it's been asked thousands of times, why did this happen to Job? Why did this happen to me? Well, we can also see that Job's godliness, God approved that.

He approved it. When God looked down from heaven, when He looked down and saw Job, He was pleased. We read this verse in a minute, but in verse 8, speaking to Satan, God Himself says, "'Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and is good with evil?' This is what God said about Job. So I ask the question, if God looks at us too, would God say this about us? Would He say this about our life?

They're looking at all that is said of the man, Joe, we see his impeccable godliness. The Bible describes Joe as this way. He's not just an example for us to follow, but to teach us that God's people, Godly people, do and will suffer in this world. To teach us that suffering is a reality for every one of God's people. Now becoming a Christian and believing Jesus Christ don't give us exemption from suffering.

It don't do that. One of the popular heresies today that we have going around today is this thing about health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. And it's leading a lot of people astray. They don't understand because when these things happen to them, and they will happen to them, they don't understand it because they haven't been taught God's Word. They don't know who God is.

They don't understand. And it gives Christians a false hope, that they believe that if we're a child of the King, that we're just going to have peace and prosperity, and everything's going to be okay. It's not going to be that way. I believe the Bible says something about, you know, the sufferings that we go through in this present world. There's nothing to be compared to the glory that we're going to have when we're with God.

You know, God's blessings to us as God's children, they don't come in the form of earth and prosperity. Salvation don't mean that we're freed from the pains of human life. Again, Job was an upright man and he feared God. But look at this unparalleled suffering that this man went through. It's even hard to imagine.

And this suffering, it came all at one time. It wasn't spread out through his life. It came bam, bam, bam, bam. He had four messengers come and one right after another telling him what had happened. In one day, his wealth, his family was gone, was gone.

You know, today his family was all gathered together, they was gone. While they were there having a good time eating and enjoying one another, they was gone. His wealth, his camels, his servants, All these things that he had was gone. You might say in the blink of an eye. You know, I say we could just stop here and we could just try to imagine what happened to Job that day, but we can't imagine.

We can't imagine the suffering that Job went through in that one day, you know. But the Bible gives us the details so that we can see the enormity of his suffering and what happened to him. All his hard labor, yes, even though God gave it to him, he worked. All that he had accomplished was gone. All his possessions and his children in one day.

What a blow that was. What a blow. You know, weak picture Job is, All this happened to him, he's received the news, he's probably in disbelief. Sobbing with his face in a pillow. You know, we read this about Joe, but you know, Joe was a real person just like us.

He was real just like we are. He was a little man of light passions as we are. He wasn't some superhuman. He was a godly man. He belonged to God.

You know, all these things happened to him in verse 20, we see that then Job arose and ran his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground in worship. And I could ask the question, how many of us, if all this had happened to Job and happened to us in one day, how many of us is going to fall down on our knees and worship God, our Creator? He is God. We're just a creature. But how many of us goes through pain like this and not even like this that we're gonna fall down and worship God?

Not many, not many. You know maybe some of us know some of Joe's pain, but We had none of us experience what he experienced in that one day. And the Bible here I think is teaching us a very important lesson. God's people do suffer. And sometimes that suffering can be extreme, it can be immense, immense, intense.

But later, Joe says in chapter 14, verses 1 and 2, says, man that is born of a woman is of a few days full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He flith also as a shatter and continueth not. Now grief and pain are a part of our life as a child of God And I can't stand here this morning and tell you I understand it all. I can't do that.

I can't understand it all. I know who God is. I know God is sovereign. I know that God is good. And I know God is love.

I also know that God is in control of all things. So we ask the question, why? Why? Remember I skipped over verses 6 through 12, let's read them. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence cometh thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant, Joe, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and skews evil? And Satan asked the Lord and said, Let Joe fear God for naught. Ask not thou may that hedge around him, about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side.

Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth on hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. I skipped these verses when I first read this and I did it on purpose because I wanted us to see Joseph suffering from an earthly perspective. Left God out of it in a way.

But now we're putting God into it. We see why this is happening. But now we get a glimpse into heaven and the conversation between God and Satan. But you see, Job didn't see that. Job didn't read this.

It's a little bit more easier for us to see and know why this took place now after we've read these verses and to understand a little bit more. But from Job's perspective, there is no answer to the question why. So do we see as God testing Job? Well, let's look a little further. We need to first and the most important thing we need to understand when we go through the trials and sufferings of life, from our perspective, there is not there is not always an answer.

God does not always tell us the reason for our suffering. But yes, there are reasons, and we're going to see what some of those are in a minute, but specific to our situation and from our earthly perspective, we cannot and do not always know God's reasons or purposes. There is a part of it that is always hidden from us. And that's hidden in the mystery and the will of God because we don't know what God's will is. Not all time.

We know some of it, but we don't know it all. In the end, this is the main lesson in the book of Job. When Job's friends come to him, and this is later on in the chapter and I know we all familiar with it later on in the book, we've read the book probably you have probably many times. We'll see when Joe's friends come to him and tell him that there must be sin in his life that is causing his suffering. So that begates to Job again to look a little more deeply into the reason that he is suffering the way he does.

And he questions God. And again, as I said earlier, there's no nothing wrong that I know of that's wrong, it's not sinful to question God. And God, when He does question Him though, we can see as We had time to go and read all that. We see that after question. God finally answers him with a rebuke.

He rebukes Job. Chapters 38 through 41. God, he kind of interrogates Job and helps him to understand his place as a mere man before God. God even asked him, said, Where was that when I laid the foundation of the earth? What God explains, and we know the story, God goes on to tell him, Hey listen Job, I didn't need your help in creating all these things.

I didn't need you then. I was in charge. But yet you here, you are, as a mere man, you come to me questioning what I'm doing. He's really saying, Job, you're a man. I'm God.

But do we look at it that way? You know, do we look at it? So we ask him, where was you at when I created all these things? Where was you at? And he continues with questions after question in the same manner.

He kind of shows who he is and shows who man is. And he kind of lets us know through his word that, you know, there's a lot of things that we don't know a lot of things that man can't do but he's telling Job and he's telling us too I'm God I can do what I want I can do anything And he has that right to do that. And finally in chapter 40 verse 2, God says to Joe, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? Joe, are you trying to tell me what to do? I am the Almighty.

I'm the one that does as I please. And you trying to tell me what to do, what not to do? And then Job became humble. He stops demanding an answer from God in his misery and says this, Behold, I am Baal. What shall I answer thee?

I will lay my hand upon my mouth once I have spoken, but I will not answer yet twice, but I will proceed no further." And then again, for two more chapters, God continues to contrast his own almighty power with the impotence of Job. To literally, to finally, Job confesses that God's ways are too wonderful for him to comprehend. He says, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee. Wherefore, I bore myself and repent in dust and ashes. Joe was finally understanding a little bit about who God is.

But what's really one thing that's striking about in the whole book of Joe, God don't directly tell Joe why he had to suffer that way. He don't directly answer Job's question. He don't say, Job, here's the reason that you have suffered. Rather, in Job's suffering, he answers Job with himself, tells him who he is. That should be some wisdom for us today too.

It's God's words that tells us who God is. You know, we need to understand and not ask the question, why am I having to suffer like I do? Why do I have to suffer in any particular way? We need to ask the question, who is God? Understand who God is.

Now getting back to chapter 1, we see a second reason for our suffering. I mentioned that's the sovereignty of God. Why did Job suffer? He suffered because God sovereignly willed it to be that way. Be so.

We see this especially in the conversation of Satan with God. And notice too, in these verses, we see that it was God which takes the initiative asking Satan, have you considered my servant, my servant, Job? Satan didn't come asking about Job. God asked him, have you considered it? So who initiated this?

It was God. And why I say this is because God is in control. Satan was there when God met with the angels. The Bible says the sons of God are the angels, but here comes Satan. He's there too.

Do we ever think about Satan walking around in heaven? Well, he did. We think about him being the little god, little G-god of this earth, he, you know, walking around seeking whom he can devour, or, you know, walking around as a roaring lion. That's the way we see him, but do we ever see him that he's been up there with God and the angels? But God asked him, Do you consider my servant Job?

It was God, not Satan, who initiated Job's suffering. Then Satan himself acknowledged God's sovereignty when he says to God, but put forth thine hand and touch all that he hath." Satan did not so much as lift a finger to touch Job. Apart from the sovereign will of God, God allowed him to do that. That's clear also in God's control of the things that happen to the specific of Job's trials. First, God said to Satan, you can put forth your hand against Job, but you can't touch him.

You can take away all he has, but you can't touch him. And then later on, as you go back and see in chapter 2, Satan comes back again and he said, yeah, that's good, but let me put my hand upon him and then you'll see. Well, I said, okay. Put your hand on him, but don't take his life. God's still in control.

Still in control. So, Satan was given permission to be the one that caused Job's suffering. But God set the bounds on what he could and couldn't do. So what's that tell us? Don't that tell us that God is intimately involved with every little detail of our life?

That He is in control in everything that happens. Sure he is. All of our suffering, he's in control of it. You know we think about sometimes we talk about, well people's out to get me. Well they probably are.

You know they probably are out to get us. You might be that we're going to fall sick with some bad disease or something like that. That's all true. But everything is limited on what God will let happen to us. He is in control.

And remember, God does not suffer us to be tempted or tried above that we're able. He gives us a way. And really that way is Him. It's Him. We have to put our eyes on Him.

Then another reason besides the sovereignty of God is why we suffer. Another reason for our suffering is the test of our faith. You know, Satan certainly wants to test us. We know that. And his accusation is that Job feared God only because of the good thing that God had given him.

You give him all this, no wonder he worshiped you. No wonder he thanks you everything. Look what all you've given. Look what all you've done for him. But you take all that away, and you'll see a difference in him.

Satan says, God, that Joe feared God for naught. You've given it all to him. You made a hedge about him. You blessed the work of his hands. But if you put forth your hand down, take away all He has, He will curse thee to thy face.

You know, what Satan really is saying here is, you know, that Joe's faith wasn't real. It's what he's really saying. And for us, that people believe and trust in and worship God only because God has given them good things. And I hope that's not so with God's people. It's really hard for me to say a true born-again believer of God was have faith in Him just because of what God has done for us.

Now, He has done everything. He has done it all for us. Is that why we love Him? Just because He gives us this, He gives us that, watches over us and take care of us? No.

His gift is why we love Him. His gift of Jesus Christ, His Son. You know, Satan's just trying to say that the faith God has given us by the work of His Holy Spirit is not strong enough to endure the trials of life, but in trials of His people, God proves otherwise just as He did with Job. He proved that in us too. He puts us through trials to increase our faith, to make it stronger through the troubles that we go through.

You know, one of my favorite verses in the book of Job was found in chapter 23 and verse 10 where Job says, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." And I think we're all going to be tried. We all want to be tested. And these trials that we go through are sent by God to strengthen us, to mature us, to refine us, and to increase our faith in Him. Whenever a believer goes through a trial, he will always find that God, by His grace, supplies the necessary strength.

I don't understand it all, but I know without grace, God being there with Brendan and I last year, we couldn't have went through what we... And it's still hard. And it's still hard, you know. But God's grace is sufficient. God supplies through His grace the necessary strength for us to get by.

I think about Paul when I think about that. You know, when he prayed three times and asked God to take that thorn in the flesh away from him, What'd God tell him? He said, my grace is sufficient. What he told Paul was, I'm bigger than that. I'm bigger than this thorn in the flesh.

You don't have to worry about it. I'll take care of you. And when we go through trials and temptation in our lives, don't we come out stronger on the other side? Job did. We don't have time to go through all that, but Job did.

Even the Bible says that God blessed Job more in the end than he did in the beginning. Still, that don't take away what all he lost. Job didn't forget about losing his children. But Satan, he's going to try to shake us up, he's going to try to tempt us. And he does that, try to get us to turn our backs on God, to forsake God.

But we can't. We can't. You know, we know that God's not going to leave us. And through everything that we go through, we're drawn closer to Him. Like Romans 8.20, Romans chapter 8 tells us, nothing.

Nothing can separate ourselves from the love of God. Nothing. That includes our self. You know. And there's one more reason I give to us this morning.

There may be more, but these three, His sovereignty, His love, is His goodness, the goodness of God. That's another reason for our suffering. And His sovereignty, God, is always good and merciful to His people. You know, Jesus taught us not a hair to fall from our head without God knowing about it. Can you hardly imagine that?

The trials we experience come from our Father. Sometimes they are sent to chasten us and other times they are sent to strengthen us. And that's one mistake that so many people make. They feel like every trial that comes along, God is chastising us. And it may be sometimes we have to be chastened.

God loves us and He'll chase us. But it's not because it's always a sin in our life. Maybe like it was with Job to test his faith, to show us who God is and what he really can do. But no matter what Trial comes along, what suffering comes along, they always come from the loving hands of God. And we never need to think that God, we must never suppose that God intends evil against us.

And if we do, we're sinning then. You know, we're sinning then. If we react wrong to the trials that come along, they can turn into sin. You know, God's promise to us is that all things work together for good to them that love him. All things.

You can't get around that all. All means all. Everything. And we have to believe these by faith. And they are, that's the only, And we're only going to be able to do that when we come to understand the sovereignty of God that God does as He pleases.

He really does. But if we think about Job's enduring faith, I would call it. One verse that really stands out in chapter 13 and verse 15 says, though he slay me, I will hope in him. How many of us can say that today? No matter what comes, he's still my hope.

He is still my hope. But I talked about Job today and talked about why did the righteous suffer, but there's a lot of people in the Bible that suffer a lot of things. Think about Joseph. Think about how he was betrayed by his brothers. You know, he was made a slave, he was thrown in prison.

But closer to the end of the book of Genesis, what does Joseph tell his brothers? He tells his brothers, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done. They thought, and they come to Joseph after he'd been through all he did and he was ruling everything really. Second only to the king, meeting all the needs of the people. His brother comes scared to death.

They're afraid, well now he's fixing to pay me back. But no, he tells them what you did to me. You intended it for evil, but you see God intended it for good. See, that's God's sovereignty. See, God allowed Joseph, he suffered a lot, but it was for the good.

Now I have to think about David and go out on, but I'll just mention one more that's really suffered, and I would say more than anyone, about Jesus Christ, our Savior. What about him? You know, he suffered more than anyone. He suffered more than anyone. And then the Bible teaches it pleased God.

It pleased God for His Son to suffer and die the way that he did. Some things are way above my head, but it had to be. It had to be there was no other way. If there could have been any other way, there would have been. But think about someone suffering, someone righteous.

Jesus Christ was the most righteous man that ever lived. He was the only, let me put it that way, The only righteous man that ever lived on this earth and look how he suffered and died. He can't tell me God's not sovereign. He can't tell me that God don't love us when the Bible says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. He ain't tell me.

So what are the reasons the righteous suffer? Well, we don't always know the exact reasons, But we do know that God is sovereign, that God is good, and God is loving. And that He'll use these things for our spiritual profit and growth and grace. So in knowing and believing these things, we will learn to respond as Job did at the end of this chapter in verse 21. Job said, again, naked I came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return to her.

The Lord gave me, the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So in these words, Job acknowledged his sovereign deed to justice and the goodness of God. His response is a response to worship, as I mentioned earlier, in which he falls down before God, fixes his eyes on eternity, and acknowledges that everything he once had was a gift to him, not something he deserved. And we don't, Job didn't, we don't either.

We don't deserve nothing but the wrath of God. That's what we deserve. But because of his love, as again he sent his son to take on our sin. Joseph came in this world naked and empty and he'll leave it the same way as we will. We won't take nothing with us.

And in between before then and now, the Lord gives, the Lord takes according to His own sovereign goodness. And because of this, We as Job, we should fall down and worship Him. Let us pray. Fathers, we come before you this morning, Lord. We come to you with thankful hearts.

Lord, just thanking you for the great God that you are, that you are sovereign, that you do as you please. We know, Lord, that you created all things, you control all things, And we're so thankful, Father. Father, we thank you for your love, for your kindness. We thank you so much for your Son Jesus Christ, Father, who suffered the most of all, Lord. As he hung there on the cross, Father, and took the sins of your people upon himself.

A man without sin that became sin, and it pleased you, Lord. What love that is that you would do that for your people. But we thank you Father. And Father, sometimes we do question and we wonder. We're just human, Father.

We go through so many things, so many trials in this life, Lord. And sometimes, Father, we take our eyes off you. But Father, help us. Give us strength, Lord. Give us the faith to look to you knowing that you are in control that nothing happens by accident we may think it's an accident but Lord with you it's not Lord you are in control and we should be thankful that you are.

Lord because if man was in control as he thinks he is, What a mess we would have and what a mess we do have, Lord. But you have allowed that. It don't mean that you're not in control. The Father, we just thank you for your Word, Lord. We thank you that we have it, that we can go and see and learn about you and your greatness and your goodness and your faithfulness to your people.

Father, we continue to pray for this church, Lord, that you will be with them. Pray, Lord, you will be with Brother David, you will bring him back safely. We pray, Father, that you will meet the needs that they have here. For those that was mentioned, Lord, that need prayers, Lord, we pray for them, Lord. We pray that thy will be done in their lives.

Father, we pray for Ella Grove this morning, Lord. Pray that you will be with them. Pray that their service today, Lord, would bring honor and glory to you. Again, Father, we Thank you for all things. Just thank you Lord again for the opportunity that we have to stand and proclaim your word.

Again, Lord, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Father, as he guides us and he comforts us and even convicts us Lord when we do wrong. Helps us to get back Lord on the straight and narrow.

But Father we just are so thankful Lord that we can call you Father. That we've been adopted into your family, Lord. Just thank you, Lord, that you are who you are, who your word teaches us that you are. Help us to keep our eyes on you, Lord. Hold our hands and guide us each and every day because, Lord, we need you.

Again, Lord, we thank you for all things and we ask forgiveness for our failures. So in Jesus name that I humbly pray. Amen.