Job 1

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00:00
I want to take some time this morning and try to do a little bit of an overview, outline interesting book, certainly.
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And so we'll spend some time with that, just some thoughts about the way it was written and different things.
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And then, depending on how much time we have, we'll start to look at the text itself.
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But I do think it's, well, let me ask you a question.
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How many in here would say that the Book of Job is a little bit confusing? Why is that? Why would you say that? And I'm not saying you're wrong, because it's written differently than every other book.
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But any other thoughts? Why is it confusing, brother? Well, for me, there's stuff that they give their wisdom to.
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Yeah, I think that's a good point.
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And we'll see it as we go through the book and even as we go through some thoughts this morning, that it is somewhat confusing, because his friends, ultimately, you're not sure if his friends are with him or against him.
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And many times, they're not with him.
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And we'll see that.
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Although they have good intentions, at least in the beginning, it quickly goes downhill.
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And it can be confusing that way.
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So let me just go through a couple of things just to give us some background thoughts.
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One of the things about the Book of Job is there's a whole lot of opinions about a whole lot of things.
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In other words, we're left in a little bit of a void as far as when the book was written, who wrote the book, and some other things.
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Who is actually Job? Is he real, or is he a fictional character? What's the situation? Where did he live? And again, there's a whole lot of opinions.
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And one of the things about having all these different opinions is that it can lead you a little bit bewildered.
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And I'll show you a couple of things as we go through this.
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So some say that Job is the oldest book in the world.
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Some say that Job was the author of his own writing.
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Some people will say it was Moses.
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Some say it was Solomon.
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And here's the thing.
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One of the reasons why some say this and some say that is because there really isn't a definitive word by God as to some of these things.
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And so again, whenever there's a void, we have a tendency to insert our thinking.
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And I'm not saying it's wrong.
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And as many people have done many intense studies on it.
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But even as far as whether Job wrote the book, or some people believe one of his friends wrote it.
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Some people believe it was Moses.
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And again, as I said, some people will say it was Solomon.
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And then some people will say it was even somebody else.
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And again, it's because there is this void as far as the thinking of the author.
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Good morning.
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So as we begin with the study of the book, I want us to think about that because I'm glad you weren't the only ones that said that Job can be a bit confusing.
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Because then I would have to say that I'm the only one that's really out to lunch.
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But I'm sure that there are others that feel that way.
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OK, so whether it was written by Job, whether it was written by his friends, whether it was written by Moses, whether it was written by Solomon, we'll think about that as we go through the book.
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Now, some people say, when did Job live? Anybody have any ideas of when Job lived? Brother? Maybe.
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OK, that's one of the thoughts is that Job is either a, well, many people say he's close to being contemporary to Abraham, right? And they trace it through some of the lineage that comes out of Abraham.
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So some people will say that Job lived basically right after the generation of Abraham and is a descendant, maybe even a grandson, or through his sons.
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Some people will say that Job lived at the time of Moses.
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And the reason why they'll say that is because, as we read through the book, we'll see that Job does make use of many of the things that Moses wrote in the law.
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And for that reason, some will say that the book is written and said in that time, in the time of Moses.
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What's interesting is that some other people will say that the book of Job was written in the exile.
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And the exile would be what? Way down the line, right? So again, differing opinions based on differing methods of trying to do this.
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So I don't want to deal so much with all the unknowns.
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I'd rather try to look at the knowns.
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But again, I want us to think about that, that this is not the simplest book, even from that standpoint, of trying to understand the wheres, the whys, the hows, and all those other things.
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OK.
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As you open up the book, it says that there was a man who lived in the land of what? Anybody? Us.
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OK.
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Where's us? Any thoughts about where the land of us was? OK, I'll give you four or five different thoughts about where the land of us was.
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And again, all comes out of differing people and respectable people.
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But some people will say that the land of us.
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So Jordan River, right? The Dead Sea, something like that.
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Jerusalem is here, right? Some people will say that the land of us is basically southeast of that.
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And this would be basically the land of Edom.
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Back and forth.
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Yeah, like the panhandle.
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Yeah, but we're on the east coast.
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You're right, brother.
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Thanks.
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So some people will say that the setting of the book is here, southeast of the Dead Sea.
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Others will say that, no, it's further north, and it has more to do with Assyria than it has to do with anything else.
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And then there's others who will say that the land of us is closer to Egypt.
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Remember, spelling don't count, not when we're doing it.
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So you see what I'm saying.
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So again, there's a lot of things already.
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If you think about it, we've just been opening up some opening thoughts.
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Where did he come from? When is the book setting? Who wrote the book? I'll give you my think, and I will say it that way, because I am certainly not sure.
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But I do believe that the book of Job is set somewhere down here.
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If you go back, and I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time, but I think there is some valid points that you could trace the land of us down in this direction.
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And I will say that I believe that the book of Job was written and is set in a time somewhere between maybe a generation after Abraham all the way to the time of Moses.
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And I'll even go a little bit further, and I'll say I think Moses wrote it.
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But again, we don't have a definitive work.
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So it would be very difficult for us to pinpoint anything.
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Again, there are many people who have done much intense study.
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And so these are not just fly-by-night opinions.
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They're serious opinions, and we need to be concerned with it.
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But I'm going to set that out, and then perhaps as we go through the book, we might change our thinking.
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So we can continue on this line of who wrote it, where is it setting, where's the land, and all these different things.
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And I could spend a whole class and even more on that, but I don't want to do that.
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But I do want to deal with one of two things.
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One is this.
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Is Job a real person, or is he a character that's just named? Job, is he real? OK.
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How many people say yes? Yes.
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Real.
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How many people say no? OK.
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All you yeses, why? What makes you think Job is a real character? Fake stories.
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He tells the truth.
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He tells the truth.
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OK.
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Some people will say that Job is a character pretty much like what's used in parables, just to have it as a way of teaching something.
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What basis would we have to say Job is a real person? I don't understand what you're saying.
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Brother? He has a name, a land, he has specifics, specific conversations, a certain character, all of the things.
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Right.
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OK.
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So here's what we're going to do, just for a minute.
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Why don't you look at Ezekiel 14.
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And then we're going to look quickly at James 5.
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And here's what I'm going to set forth, that the reason why Job is a real character is because he's quoted in the scriptures as a real person.
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Right.
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And if we didn't have that, we would pretty much be left in that same position of, where's the land of us, and when did he live, and who wrote the book.
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But we have some specific information given to us concerning Job.
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So Ezekiel chapter 14, and let's just look at one or two verses.
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And as I said, I believe he's real because he's mentioned in the scriptures as a real person.
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So look in Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 12.
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So the word of the Lord came to me, saying, son of man, when the land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out my hand against it.
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I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.
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And though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God.
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And then if you continue to go down and read a little bit further, and God says again in verse 19, if I send a pestilence on that land and pour out my fury on it in blood and cut it off from man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job was in it as I live, says the Lord God, they would not deliver son nor daughter.
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So there's a specific reference to Job as a real person.
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That, to me, is authoritative.
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Here's the other one.
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And this one might be much more familiar, James 5.
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Let's look at James 5 real quick, because we'll use this as we go through the book back and forth.
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And here's an interesting point.
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Hebrews 11 is the great chapter on what? Heroes of the faith, right? What's interesting to me is that Job is never mentioned in that book, in that chapter of Hebrews.
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Now, I'm not going to say he wasn't a great character and example of faith.
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But he's not mentioned there, but he's mentioned in the book of James.
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So in James chapter 5, in verse 7, just to set it up, therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord, and see how the foam awaits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until he receives the early and latter rain.
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You also be patient.
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Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
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Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.
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Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
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My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.
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And indeed, we count them blessed who endure.
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You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
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To me, again, that's an authoritative statement concerning the fact that Job is not some made-up character, but he's a real person.
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And I think that's important for us as we go through the book, that this is a real man in a real jam.
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And he goes through things that you and I, I don't think any of us would want to say, man, I wish I could go through what Job went through.
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But nevertheless, so to me, that's a reference of how I would say that I might not know for sure where the land of Uz was, and I might not know for sure when it was written.
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But I do know for sure that Job was a real character.
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And here's another thing I want to insist on.
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As a proof, because some people will say that the book of Job doesn't even belong in the canon of scriptures, because it's so different than many of the other books.
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Well, let's think about this a minute.
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If you had to outline the books of the Bible, where would we start? What would be the first grouping? How about this? Law, right? The Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
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And then where would we go next, perhaps? We could go to history, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel.
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Those are really historical writings, right? Gives us perspective of how things develop.
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And then there's another group, and this is where Job would fall in.
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Somebody say something? I was going to say wisdom and poetry.
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Yeah, it's wisdom, or if you will, poetic.
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And I think that's one of the reasons why the Book of Job is a little bit difficult, too, because it's not written in the same way as, let's say, the history of the, like as Brother Mike was going through the 1 Samuel, as we went through Joshua and Judges.
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Remember, we spent a couple of years in Joshua and Judges.
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It's more of a narrative, right, of the history and the outworking of God's promises and revelation coming to pass.
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And then where would you say, where else it goes? What would be another grouping? And some people group them a little bit differently.
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But would we not then have the prophets? So when you think about it, what other books would you think would be in this grouping, wisdom and poetry? Would you say? Psalms, OK.
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I don't know why I'm writing like crazy today, but I am.
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What else? Proverbs.
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Proverbs.
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What else? Solomon.
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Save Our Ship, Psalm and Solomon.
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What else? Ecclesiastes.
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Ah, Ecclesiastes, right.
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OK, so these would be the ones that would be grouped in what is called, or termed, or characterized as wisdom or poetic books.
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And again, if you think about it, how many people can completely understand the Song of Solomon? How many people have never read the Song of Solomon? How many? OK.
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One honest person in the room, anyway.
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And the Song of Solomon is a troubling book for a lot of different ways that could be understood, right? Ecclesiastes is somewhat poetic and somewhat filled with wisdom, although I would say this book is a little bit easier to understand, right, if you get the overall concept of what the author is trying to get.
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So Job would definitely fall into these books.
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And again, these are a little bit harder to understand than some of the more narrative kind of books, right? So that's something to think about as we go through this.
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But I will insist, one of the reasons why I know Job is a true book is it's quoted in the Bible.
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We're going to find, as we go through the Book of Job, that there are a good number of times when what is spoken of in Job is actually spoken of in the New Testament.
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Now, it might not be verbatim, but it's really, really close.
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And we'll see that.
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So that the New Testament authors, I believe, considered the Book of Job as part of the Old Testament revelation, OK? And we'll see it again.
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Here a little, there a little, but he does say things that, again, are picked up by other authors.
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And really, if you think about it, when we think about it, the Bible does what about to itself? The Bible interprets itself, doesn't it? Again, when we think about the Bible, and I know I'm a little bit far off, but when we think about the Bible, we think of it as one complete what? Book, revelation, right? We think of it as cohesive, and that one of the things we insist upon is that there is no contradiction in the Bible.
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And that's a whole different subject.
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But my point is, if we find quotations in the New Testament concerning what was spoken of in the Book of Job, do we not then have the authority to say that the Bible interprets itself? It's inspired.
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It's God's revelation.
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So again, although much of it is written in this poetic form, I think we can establish that it's about a real person who had a real experience, and that it's authoritative because it's given its credentials by the Word of God itself, as I said, Ezekiel 14 and James 5.
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OK, question then.
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For anybody who's read the book, what is the theme of the book? If somebody comes up to you and says, hey, man, I opened my Bible for the first time, and I read the Book of Job, I'm starting to read the Book of Job, my, what in the world's going on there? What would you say? If you had to just, and again, we'll develop this as we go through.
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But just in opening thoughts, if you think about it, what's the driving force through the Book of Job? Ah, that's really good.
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That it talks about adversity.
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We've got to do a little simple words for Andy, please.
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Suffering.
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There you go.
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But really, OK.
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And that, what about that, though? Would it be fair to say, if you thought about it, that it happens, or it takes place to both, fair enough? One of the things about the Book of Job, and one of the things that the friends, in a sense, miss the forest for the trees, is that the friends believe that this only happens to this, and that this is only done by those, and therefore there's blessing.
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So one of the problems in the Book of Job is the way in which the friends represent Job.
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And they basically are what, more than friends? They're accusers.
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They are actually, and not only that, as I've been reading through and continually trying to think through the book, his friends become very much like the Pharisees.
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They begin to look down on Job, and actually make Job feel smaller, because they can't see the fact that what's happening to Job is really because of this.
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One of the themes in the Book of Job is, what is the providence of God? OK, he's sovereign, and providence would be what? There you go.
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The outworking of God, or the outworking, as you say, of his sovereign purpose, right? One of the problems in the Book of Job is that this becomes very confusing, because what happens to Job, his friends assume that it's happening to him.
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There's all this adversity, and basically all it's done is because Job is bad.
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Or Job has committed some secret sin, and therefore God is judging him.
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One of the things that we're going to see is that God's providence is prominent throughout the book.
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That basically, as we proclaim, God doesn't need to explain himself in the outworkings of life, does he? No.
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And again, it'll come up in the book.
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It'll come up in Job, actually.
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Job becomes very confused along the way, friends.
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And I say with good reason, because as we get into the text and start to see what takes place, man, I don't know about you, but if the things happen to me, I'll put it this way.
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If I got a flat tire and a toothache on the same day I would think the world is ending.
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And I think we all, I hope you can relate to that.
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In other words, we can deal with the flat tire, maybe.
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But if you have a flat tire, and then you have a toothache, and then the refrigerator goes out, it's like God's after me.
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Now, we prefer not to have those days.
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We prefer that God, in his outwork, he would deal with us in very small pieces, because we can't handle a whole lot.
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And then you begin to think about what Job is going to have to handle.
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And what Job has to handle is, to me, astounding.
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And I hope we'll understand that.
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And I know we were talking, Brother Steve, about this Wednesday, that as we consider, and I'll get into this in a second, but as we consider Job's wife, never forget Job's wife went through the things that Job went through.
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And I think it was you that said, we kind of throw Job's wife, or some people will throw Job's wife overboard.
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Because remember what she says, and we'll look at it.
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She says, curse God and die.
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And it's easy to, if you're not thinking about the whole picture, it's easy to say, well, Job held up.
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His wife cracked.
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Some people say Job's wife wasn't a believer, in a believer in a sense that trusted in God.
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I might take a different outlook of that as we go through this.
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But again, something to think about.
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OK.
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Let's take a thought for a second of, how the book is set up.
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Let's see if I can find my juice.
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What's interesting is, there's only seven or eight people that ever speak in the Book of Job.
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And that's one of the things that makes it distinct, right? If you think about it, when you read about, let's say we go through the history books, the Kings and the Chronicles, and do we not find ourselves met with many, many different characters, and this one does this, and this one does that, and that one did that, and so on, and people kind of enter into the narrative, and then they fall off? Not so in the Book of Job.
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I want us to think about this, because it'll play in.
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Let me, before that, I want to read what someone said is the theme of the book.
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And I think it'll be helpful as we go through it.
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And it says this.
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As to the Book of Job, it is most evidently a poem, and a poem of the highest order, dealing in subjects, the most grand and sublime, using imagery the most chaste and appropriate, described by language, the most happy and energetic.
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He says, all these points will appear in the strongest light to every attentive reader of the book, and to such its great end will be answered.
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They will learn from it that God has way everywhere, and that the wicked, though bearing rule for time, can never ultimately prosper and be happy, and that the righteous, though oppressed with sufferings and calamities, can never be forgotten in whose hands they are, and with whom their lives are precious.
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In other words, what he's saying is that the Book of Job will show us that good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people.
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And that if we try to make too much of a clean cut, and almost set it up like, well, if you're righteous, this is going to happen.
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And if you're unrighteous, that's going to happen.
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Would that be a fair way to consider life? That if you're good, you can rest assured that all these things will take place? OK? Would you say that the Bible gives some indication of that? Does not the Bible say, does not God's word say that he who trusts in the Lord shall prosper? And that even like Psalm 1, blessed is the man, what, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
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His delight is in the word of the Lord.
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And what does it say? He be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and whatever he does will what? Prosper.
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And then in contrast, what? Do wicked and not so.
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But they're like the chaff, which the wind does what? Blows away.
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There is a sense that we could say that the righteous are always going to prosper.
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The problem with us is how we consider prosperity, right? Because we consider blessing and cursing basically this side of the veil.
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Would you agree to that? That much of our thinking is geared on this life, and that we think that if someone is righteous, that their life on this side of the veil has to be what? Continually blessed, and continually, if you would think about it, rewarded.
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Brother? Sort of what you're saying.
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Exactly, right.
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It's because we are so earthbound, right? I always thought about gravity.
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Gravity is pretty much such a teaching.
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Everything is pulling us where? Right here.
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It takes a lot of energy to do what? Break gravity.
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And gravity to me is like the things of this world, and it just sucks you down, and draws you in, and wants to hold you.
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Now, the other side of this is the prosperity of the wicked.
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Would we not say that we've seen, not only from the word of God, but in life how some people, and to coin a phrase, die with a smile on their face? Doesn't that Psalm 73 teach us that? The prosperity of the wicked, that they die with more than anybody could ever want.
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But again, to your point, what you just mentioned, it's only because we view things where? This side of the veil.
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God's ways are, in that sense, much wider, much higher, much broader.
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Brother? Romans 8, 28 speaks about working everything together for our good, our ultimate good as spiritual.
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Ultimate good, right.
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So I would agree with you that that's not, there's a promise, but it's not laying clad, and it's not always easy to discern.
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And we'll see, as we go through the Book of Job, that some of the things that takes place in the Book of Job, and some of the things that his friends say are really because they don't see, in that sense, they don't see the big picture.
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They see it as men see things in this life.
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Again, they're drawn with that gravity that I was mentioning.
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I want to just, I want to make sure I get this in.
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So I'm going to say there's seven characters in the Book of Job, and that they are the ones that we have to deal with.
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So certainly, we got what? OK.
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Interesting, and I want to lay this out.
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Interesting, Job speaks in 22 chapters.
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How many chapters in the Book of Job? 42.
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Cool, so there's 42 total.
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Job will speak in 22 of those chapters.
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Then there's another character that enters into it, and that is, of course, right? And we only find him speaking, in that sense, or exposed in chapters one.
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Then we have his wife, and she basically has, what, a sentence? And then she drops off.
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Now, we'll spend some time on that.
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Where did she go? When she told Job, curse God and die, what did she do? Did she say, I'm out of here? We'll think about that.
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And then you have the three friends.
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You got Eliphaz, and the Book of Job is basically a continuation of these three friends who make speeches.
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They come to comfort Job, and they begin to make speeches to him, and they take turns, if you will, going after Job.
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And so Eliphaz is the first one that we'll see as we go through it.
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And so he's in chapters 4, 5, 15, 22.
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So what happens is, as we go through the book, we'll see.
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There's this first round of his friends coming to him and making accusations and telling Job what he needs to do.
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And then as they speak, each take a turn, Job responds to that speech.
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And so we'll see that as we go through this.
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So you got Eliphaz, and then you got Bildad.
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Man, imagine if we named people that today.
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Hey, brother Bildad, good to see you, man.
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Just don't see it right.
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OK, he's in chapters 8, 18, I can't remember the other one.
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8, 18, and 25.
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And then you got the other friend is Zophaz, and he only speaks twice.
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And he's in chapter 11 and 20.
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I thought this was interesting.
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That's why I'm doing it.
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And then the fourth friend enters in.
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Anybody remember who the fourth friend's name was? And he speaks in chapters 33 through 37.
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Interesting as we'll see, this is the young dude, right? And he waits till the old dudes have finished their thing, and then he comes in, and he's going to bring a different perspective.
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And he's basically going to tell these guys that they were wrong, and then he's going to tell Job why he's wrong.
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And then ultimately, God speaks in chapters 38 through 42.
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So you get the idea of the book.
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It's basically a set of speeches made.
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It's a conversation that kind of goes back and forth between these three friends, supposed friends, and Job, and that Job kind of, hopefully what we'll see is that Elihu, however way you want to pronounce it, he comes, I'm going to say, he comes closest to being right.
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But he's far short of what God does with Job.
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If you've read the book, remember what happens in chapter 28? All this other stuff goes down.
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And then finally, God says, Job, stand up.
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I'm going to question you, and you're going to answer me.
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And then God goes and basically reduces Job to the point where Job says, I don't want to talk no more.
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And then God says, no, stand up again.
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So all these guys begin to try to speak for God, and they do a terrible job of it.
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And then Elihu comes in, and he does a better job of it.
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And what's interesting, as we'll see, is that towards the end, I know I'm talking about the end of the book already, but I guess my mind is just swimming in it.
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God rebukes these three and tells these three, they better ask Job to pray for them.
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And God never really rebukes Elihu.
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So it's an interesting scenario.
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And that's basically the characters in the book.
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That's the whole book of Job.
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That's all it is, is a series of speeches back and forth, set in poetic form and set in a way that can be, let me put it this way.
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There's a lot of doctrine in the book of Job.
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So don't misunderstand me.
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This is not Mary had a little lamb.
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The lamb was white as snow.
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And how's the rest of it? Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
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Mary followed her.
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Yeah, it's not ringing around the Rosie.
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You were going to say something, brother? Yeah, I was just thinking, when I was reading this, how blessed we are today.
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You know what I'm saying? And I think sometimes we don't really think about it when you read, especially a book like this, how the Old Testament, God was revealing himself.
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And yet they didn't have a written revelation.
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And we have the written revelation.
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And we act like we don't know what God says.
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Here are these guys that are trying to figure out the character and nature of this God that they're serving without the very gift that we have, not to mention the Holy Spirit, but the very written word itself.
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I mean, and I don't want to be irreverent.
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I'm not trying to be irreverent.
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We have the opportunity, in that sense, like someone who watches a movie for the second time, in the sense that we know so much more having seen it already.
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And we know the ending, right? And to your point, I do, brother, you're right on.
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Because we are such a blessed people that we have, some people say, some people will say this as we have to close here.
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Some people say, wow, I wish I was there in the days of Jesus, right? How many people have not either said or thought, man, I wish I could have seen the Red Sea split open? I would, too, because I like to go fishing.
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I like to see what happens.
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But how many people would say, I would love to have seen that? I would have loved to see Jesus feed 5,000 with a couple small fish and a couple loaves of bread.
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But never forget, we are, remember what Jesus said? If I don't go away, the comforter will not come.
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And what does he say? It is to your advantage that he comes.
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I would add to your thoughts, brother, not only is it a great blessing that we neglect such a great blessing, because again, we have, here it is, right? We don't have to wonder.
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And yet they were great examples of faith.
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And in a different way, I mean, again, I would not mind if I heard a voice, and it was the voice of God saying, Andy, don't go here.
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Go there, right? But I have the spirit greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, right? In that whole area.
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So anyway, I wanted to kind of set this up with an outline and an overview.
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And I hope that I've at least cleared some of the trees.
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Because again, the book of Job can be confusing.
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Next week, when we start, we'll get into a little bit more detail of the text.
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So just to sum it up, Job struggles trying to understand the working of God.
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And that, as we will see, the book opens in pretty much a glorious way.
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You got Job.
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He's rich.
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He's well thought of.
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Matter of fact, I'm going to suggest to you that, because you'll see it in the first chapter, it says that Job was the greatest man in the East.
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And he was well known.
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And actually, I'll try to show you, these dudes, they were well known too.
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And that it was almost a club of either princes or kings.
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Because they were so well known.
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And that's how Job knew these guys.
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Because they didn't live next door to him.
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I'm going to say, with the exception of one, they were in this general area.
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But there was, again, just think about it, it wasn't like Yulee in Jacksonville or Calhoun.
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I mean, these dudes were spread out.
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And yet, they had some fellowship and friendship.
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I'm going to say, I think Job had met with these guys previously.
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Right? Because as we start to open the book, when they come to see him for the first time, you know what happens? They don't even recognize him.
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He's so altered, not only physically, but spiritually.
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So, or emotionally.
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OK.
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Hopefully, that'll give us something to work with as we go through it.
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Next week, we'll start chapter one.
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I'm going to try to do a chapter a week.
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But some chapters, we'll be able to double up on.
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Some chapters, we're going to spend a little bit more time, especially when it comes to some of the more principle statements.
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Because there's a lot of statements in the book of Job that are worthy of expanding a little bit.
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But other than that, we'll just try to go through.
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And like I said, these dudes will take their turns.
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And then, ultimately, not till the end, we'll, in just last word, Job goes from the mountain, to the valley, to the mountain.
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And basically, I think that's the way our lives many times go.
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We go from mountains to valleys.
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I'm not saying how long we stay on the mountain or in the valley.
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And then, ultimately, because God is our God, we do what? We know that whether we go through a mountain or a valley, and if we're in the valley for a long time, ultimately, we wind up where? On the mountain, right? Faithful is he who called us who we are.
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He'll finish it until that day.
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So Brother Tim, how about you close us, and we'll leave.
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Father God, we thank you for the worship of Psalms and the fellowship of Father God.
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I pray that you would bless the man of God as he stands to proclaim your truth, that our hearts be open to be receptive, and as high as the word in our hearts, that we may go out and proclaim your excellency.
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We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen.
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Brother, can you kill that? Thank you.