And Job Lived Happily Ever After . . . Or Did He? │ Msg 20/22

0:01 Please turn with me to the 42nd chapter of Job. I'll be reading the last eight verses of the book. Please hold your applause. Somebody in the first service wanted to know, do we bury Job today? Job 42, verse 10. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters, and all who had known him before, came to him. And they ate bread with him in his house, and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him.

1:03 And each one gave him one piece of money and each a ring of gold. The Lord blessed the latter years or the latter days of Job more than his beginnings. and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. And he had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemima, the second Keziah, and the third Karenhapuk. In all the land, no women were found so fair as Job's daughters. And their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons four generations.

2:03 And Job died an old man and full of days. Join me in prayer, will you please? we're reminded of the psalm, our father, that says those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. And as we witness the reaping of Job in his joy, we thank you for the memory of the journey. We thank you for your faithfulness to this man of endurance, even when things got terribly thin and the series of tragedies seem only to increase and multiply, you were there.

2:54 You were there all the time. You faithfully watched over him. Thank you also, Father, for your goodness and equity. You are not unrighteous to forget our work and labor of love. Thank you for rewarding even as you afflicted. there are some today going through a time of testing.

3:29 The days are thin, the nights seem long, and the hope at times is like the morning fog that quickly passes away. And I pray that you will minister to those who are today struggling with issues in their own lives, perhaps in relationships that aren't as they should be, work not as fulfilling as anticipated, dreams dashed, sorrows many. Pray that you will show us from this brief time together that you have a long view in life and you see us as what we are to become, not simply as what we are. Thank you for proving yourself faithful to a man like Job.

4:30 We remember these who travel across the land of India. We ask you to give them protection. We ask you to guide their steps, aid them in their evenings and nights, give them protection, watch over them through the day. We even pray that you would use them to encourage and strengthen those they visit. Open their eyes, enlarge their vision, and may their hearts overflow when returning safely to us with the stories to tell and the enduring benefits of time spent in a part of the world that is unfamiliar to them. Thank you for those who watch over us in the military. Today we remember them again as well as our president and those who give him counsel.

5:23 We pray, Lord, that we'll be reminded that you are in charge of the events of this world. Give us the capacity to grasp the mystery of your will, the strangeness of allowing evil and wrong to continue for a period of time, as even through that you're working out your plan. Deliver us from taking our cues from the media. May we hear your word as more eloquent and significant than any other voice that crosses our attention. Thank you for the lengthened study of this great man who occupies a central place in the book, the Bible. thank you for lessons learned and we pray today we'll be especially keen and sensitive to learn from his later years even as we have learned from the earlier ones thank you for those who sing today in this choir loft and for many others their age in our church for the schools they attend and the lives they touch for the parents who train and shape them for the friends they choose and the decisions they make.

6:44 We pray that you would grow from this church godly young men and women whose love for you knows no bounds and whose witness for you is consistent and faithful. Sing through them to us, our Father, as they remind us of what is above all else as we focus our worship on you again. And now our gifts, which come from the occupation you have given us, the money we've been able to earn, how grateful we are for good health, for strong bodies and minds that allow us to earn a living. We give today as we have sung to you, gratefully and joyfully and generously. In the precious name of Christ and all God's people said, amen.

7:43 From our earliest years, we have been fascinated by stories. When we were very young, they were the stories of imagination, a world that seemed larger than life to us, and they all began with the same four words, once upon a time. It didn't matter what time it was, it just, for us, represented a world of kings and queens and princes and knights and fights and love and war and romance and usually marriage. And, of course, they all finished the same way. same six words they lived happily ever after oh that that were true we grow up with the same hope deep in our hearts because some of us are sort of like that. We like looking at the brighter side and so when we build a house we think it'll be our dream house and it's not. The roof leaks or the electrical doesn't work or the garage door opener doesn't keep working or, or, or. We get a job. It's a new job. And we think this job is going to be the fulfillment of our wildest dreams. And we find we had to bring ourselves with us when we took the new job. And the people we work with are a lot like the people we just left. So that hasn't changed a great deal. Maybe it'll be different when we have our first baby. Remember thinking that?

9:23 oh just wonderful then the baby comes And there are sights and there are sounds and there are smells that were not there before. It just goes on and on. New car. New car. Nothing smells like a new car. It's wonderful. Drive out of the showroom. Boom! Somebody runs into you and it looks just like the old car that you drove in and traded. reminds me of a little four-year-old girl that came into her mother after she had spent the day at day school and she said, Mama, Mama, I just heard the greatest story. She said there was this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful princess and she fell into a deep trance and along came a charming prince and he kissed her and it brought her back to life and then do you know what?

10:20 Mother said, sure, honey, they lived happily ever after. She said, no. They got married. in childhood innocence that little four-year-old put her finger on the truth that a lot of us really don't like to think about all that often but we have to especially true in bible stories we love for those in the bible to live happily ever after but I can't find one who did. I can't find one. Noah lived this courageous, wonderful life and did this remarkable thing and the flood came and he ends his life in naked shame and drunkenness.

11:08 Doesn't seem right. These wonderful judges that God gave to deliver the nation one after another in the generations that followed and then they fall on their faces. It seems like most of them are staining their record before they die. Samson judges 20 years and falls into the arms of a harlot,

11:35 dies a blind grinder in the Philistine mill. David's life has a dark side as well we don't want that we want David to live happily ever after but before he's finished his life there's murder and hypocrisy and adultery marking his record and Solomon his greater son wiser than anyone who ever lived on this earth and richer than any in his day dies a polygamist. Saul, born to be a king, dies a suicide. Peter, crucified upside down. John the baptizer, beheaded.

12:26 Paul, beheaded after a life of sacrifice and service. And John, exiled to an island in the Aegean. Isaac Watts was right in the 18th century as he wrote, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win this prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace to help me on to God? Sure, I must fight if I would reign.

13:11 Increase my courage. Glory. It's not a perfect world. Before we're tempted to lay someone like Job down on a satin pillow and surround him in an unrealistic setting of pristine peace and beauty, we need to remind ourselves he doesn't have that until he goes to heaven. On this earth, no one lives happily ever after. Fulfilled and satisfied? You bet.

13:48 Challenged and growing and learning? I hope. but happy all the time? Get a life. Not even Job. Before you get to chapter 42, let me have you look at chapter 23 once again. Just one verse. I wonder if Job remembered saying this to his friend Eliphaz while defending himself. in his third reply, Job 23, verse 10. Look closely. You'll see it through new eyes now that you see how the story has led to Job's recovery. Back when his body was covered with sores, back when his friends were against him, family had gone away, children had died, he was bankrupt, sitting in a garbage dump at the outskirts of the city.

14:46 Job still has the temerity to say he knows the way I take when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold look at that the H is capitalized it's referring to the living God Job makes three statements of faith even in the midst of his suffering one I know that God knows my situation he knows the way I take Second, I believe it is God who is testing me when he has tried me And third, I believe that after the trials have ended I will emerge a better man There will be gold-like blessings that will come from this affliction Quite a statement, you ask me Realistic, yes, he doesn't deny the trial but as there's hope there he knows and he will reward and that's exactly what we find when we get to the last chapter of Job's life and Job's story I appreciate the words of one author who said this it would be a great gift if we could be in Job's position at the end of the book without going through what he did through the book.

16:14 Gain his knowledge without suffering. But then he adds, realistically, it's doubtful that it can happen. It takes fire to refine gold. before I go another step into chapter 42 I want to speak to you going through the fire just as we are different in our appearance and in our background and in our levels of maturity and age, so we are different in tests. For all you know, the person sitting close to you is going through one of the deepest times of her life or his life, or that may be you.

16:57 Fires rage. This vile world is no friend to grace. you may have run right up against the toughest test so far that you've ever experienced. My words, I hope, will not have a hollow ring to them when I say to you two words, take hope that this is not the end. He knows the way you take.

17:27 When he has tried you, you too will come forth. as gold. You're being refined. You are being reshaped. For he is the potter and we are the clay. better times are coming, if not now, and if not on this earth later, when we stand before him and when we spend our eternity with him, it will be worth it all. Well, Job, dear Job, I find when I get to the 10th verse of this last chapter of his book that it begins to list for me no less than four great rewards that came his way. Four gold-like blessings from the hand of God.

18:28 And I enumerate them for us so that you might take hope where you find yourself today. Now, your rewards will be different because our trials are different. The blessings that come your way, ultimately, will not be the same as Job's, necessarily. but these are his and you will have yours. Take heart. The first of the four blessings I find in verse 10 and verse 12 of Job 42. Job's possessions are doubled.

19:02 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends. And the latter part of the verse explains what that means. The Lord increased all that Job had twofold. There are times I don't take a verse absolutely literally, but this is one of those I do. I think literally because of what's said in verse 12, everything doubled. perhaps his land as well as his possessions. Perhaps a larger home was able to be built rather than the one they lived in before. But we are told specifically of the multiplication that occurred over the passing of time with his animals. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

20:00 if you check Job chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 you will read one half these figures he originally had 7,000 sheep and he winds up in verse 12 tells us with 14,000 so his flocks grow as he feeds them and breeds them so their numbers increase and and there's plenty to eat and there is plenty of land to graze in and the sheep grow in number to 14,000. And remember the caravans that Job was a part of in his business? His business doubles. He now doesn't have 3,000 camels, but 6,000 camels. What a sight that must have been. You ever looked at a camel? You looked at one lately? They are weird, weird, weird, weird, weird. They just look funny. We were in central Florida this week, and we were at a particular place where there happened to have been a mama and a baby camel.

21:08 They don't look any better as babies as they do as mamas. One of them looked at me and went, and I was just glad I wasn't close. I thought, because I knew this verse was coming, I'd been thinking about it, 6,000 of these things running around. But my, in the days of Job, they were like freight trucks. And they would carry the load in the caravans. And his business is increasing. And he's got a thousand yoke of oxen to work the fields. And it must have been out of every window of his home, he could see luscious plants and the growth of the crops all around him. And he's got a thousand female donkeys. So he's got everything twice as much as he had before. Not instantaneously, but over the passing of some years, his possessions grew.

22:05 There's something here, I think, that's kind of between the lines. The Lord chooses on occasion to bless certain individuals with more than is enough. what we must learn in our lives as God's people to let it be guard yourself from one of life's ugliest habits and that is envy I know the great temptation is to remind the Lord of how faithful you have been when you see a neighbor or a maybe a friend whose business grows and yours doesn't or whose life becomes more prosperous, in fact, to the point of being downright rich. Don't decry that.

23:00 Don't try to outguess that. It is unfair, it is unwise to think that every or most every wealthy individual has not earned it well or does not receive it from the hand of God. Some of God's dearest saints are eminently wealthy. Let it be. Let it be. If you are one of them, you hardly need the reminder that you didn't create it yourself. It came because of his grace. And if he chooses not to bless you as he has blessed another, applaud it rather than resent it. Job increases, multiplies enormously.

23:54 He has come forth as gold, having been tested. Now, there's a second blessing that comes in verse 11. His relatives and friends emerge. Some of you have a sense of humor a little like mine. I'm sorry to say, and you think like I did, where in the world were you guys before he won the lottery here?

24:23 Someone said, you always know who your friends are when you win the lottery or own a pickup. I think that's a good comment. Job looks up and he's surrounded by all his brothers and, it repeats it, all his sisters. Interesting, they're never mentioned until now. they weren't around when his time was was troubled or were they you don't know that nor do I but if they were they said nothing and their names are never recorded or or their words recorded in the first 41 and a half chapters of the book but now they come all his brothers all his sisters all who had known him before. You know who I would include? Because they're now forgiven. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu.

25:16 Why not? They're not blacklisted, are they? Because they didn't do the right thing or say the right thing at a time when they too were confused. They're forgiven. If I read correctly, verses 7 through 10, Job even prays for them. And they're restored. So why not be a part of the family reunion? notice what these people did when they came they they came to him and they ate bread with him in his house and they consoled him and they comforted him for all the adversities that the lord had brought on him what a great family reunion remember the days of family reunions they're kind of scary when you think back on them they're kind of funny we had family reunions not every year, but many years. It got a little weird when Uncle Jake showed up, but until then, it was interesting. I loved Uncle Jake. Weighed about 400 pounds and had a rope belt. I used to think that was hilarious. My youngest son still loves to hear stories about Uncle Jake, and he was quite a character. I won't go into Uncle Jake any further. I'll just leave it at that, but we had family reunions. My granddad owned a bay cottage, and that's where we would have our reunion, down down south of El Campo near Palacios, and we would all pile into this four-room house.

26:42 And I remember barbecue cooked in a pit outside. The one doing the cooking would use a mop to smear over the... We weren't too clean in those days as we mopped that, slapped that barbecue sauce. Man, that makes my jaws hurt right now when I think about it. Go to bed at night with the mosquito net over your crib and your beds and just fun time. I remember hearing my dad and mom laughing in the kitchen as they played 42 with my uncle and aunt.

27:20 Great moments where they talked about fun stuff and life got real simple as you sort of made up your mind about it in a family reunion. Job had a time like that. What stories he must have told him. I love it that they comforted and consoled him. Maybe he had a few scars remaining from the sores. Maybe you could tell him about the night he lost all hope of being able to make it. Those are the kind of stories that make a family reunion deeper and meaningful. Now, I notice also, as you have, that each one gave him one piece of money and a ring of gold. Isn't that intriguing?

28:12 Maybe this was early on and he hadn't yet begun to build back his business and maybe they wanted to participate in helping him get back on his feet. Remember, he's lost it all. Maybe he had had to take all of the rings he had before and sell them to live on him. And they wanted to be sure he had a few nice things as well. Maybe they were housewarming gifts, welcoming him to a new home that he had just built, and they were all happy for him. Men and women in a fast-paced world like ours, it's easy to lose your roots. Easy to live just for yourself.

29:00 He stays in touch, and they stay in touch with him. They have a lot to talk about. You know who had a lot to talk about? It's Job and his wife. in many a home where physical affliction hits hard, there's a separation that occurs. Distance is built. Some marriages can't make it. And the wife goes one direction and the husband drifts another.

29:33 You got to hand it to Job and his wife. They stuck it out. They pull together. she's not painted in a good light I'm sorry to say I think there were great qualities in her she stays with him all the way through this as confused as she is watching her husband dwindle to a shell of what he had once been must have been terribly difficult but she was there hey stick it out stay together you have a child that can't keep up with other children at the school and there's some brain damage or there's a problem with retardation there's some ailment or some lengthening disease that takes its toll stay together hang in there She was right there.

30:30 they had a lot to talk about as they'd turn in at night and be all alone where it was quiet. That brings me to a third blessing that came his way. Job's children are all replaced. verse 13, he had seven sons and three daughters. Let's say they did, okay? She had a little hand in that. They're both getting up in years, okay? And one day she says to Job, you're not going to believe this, but I think I'm pregnant. He goes, say what?

31:21 Let's just say they're both 70, okay? Let's just start there. Here's Job laughing with his wife over the fact he's going to have a baby. Takes some maternity clothes out of mothballs and says, yeah, I guess I can fit back into that. Not just once, not twice. We're talking 10 pregnancies. So for the next 20 more years, they're rearing children again. That'll keep you young, huh? That'll keep you going. I got a funny line, but my wife says, don't use that line. It's not nice. Staying away. I need a nice, warm place to stay tonight, so I'm not going to go there.

32:09 Ten more children. It's okay. You can laugh. It's all right. It's amazing. I mean, it isn't all that pious. There are ten children. he and his wife are given the ability to reproduce and regardless of their ages and we're not told exactly what it is they get to enjoy the blessings of parenting get this with the wisdom of grandparents can't beat that combination how often we have said I so wish I knew then what I now know I'd have been such a better parent well they have the chance for a second time around they don't make the mistakes they made the first time or many of them they got seven boys and they got three daughters and we read a little about the girls here not anything about the boys we read their names jamima and kezia and karen hapook i check their names doesn't seem to be that much significance in their names, but we're given their names. For example, Karen Hapuk. You might be interested. It means a darkness at the horn of the eye. Isn't that interesting? Like mascara would make the eyes darker. They named her Karen. It's better than mascara, so it's a good name.

33:39 Jemima and Kezia and Karen Hapuk. And notice something else about the daughters. Not only their names, but they're lovely. In all the land, no women were found so fair as Job's daughters. Isn't that great? There are a lot of beautiful women in that era, as there are in every era, and there's none more fair than Job's daughters. You know part of the reason? they were raised right. They were nurtured. The beauty of the scriptures is frequently not just physical but it is internal beauty. It's the beauty of character. It's the beauty of their person.

34:24 They had gained from wise parents knowledge that was ahead of their years. In all the land there was none so fair. and their father. Here's the third fact. Not only their names and their beauty within and without, but their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.

34:46 How unusual. But understand, this is before the Mosaic Law. In the Mosaic Law, we read one verse that talks about daughters receiving an inheritance. And Numbers 27, verse 8, says that the inheritance will go to the daughter if there were no sons. But this is before there was the law of Moses. I believe the book is that old. And they're receiving an inheritance along with the sons. So there's no favoritism. Boys and girls alike loved and cared for. now the fourth of the of the great blessings have to do with his later years the blessings of a long satisfying life you read of them in 16 and 17 let's say job is about 70 by the time the healing comes and the recovery and he's lived a full life And now we read that he lives 140 years after this, after the trials.

36:02 And now he enters, if you will, a second phase of life. And if you add 70 to this, you come up with 210 years of life. How great that must have been for him. In fact, look at what we read. He saw his sons and his grandsons and great-grandsons. It says four generations. Sons, grandsons, great-grandson, maybe great-great, depending on where the generations would start. It's not clear from this. And then he died. Isn't that a sweet way, it appears? He dies an old man and full of days. the message reads then he died an old man a full life a living bible renders this then at last he died an old old man after living a long good life you know men and women not much is said in any circle about those who are aging.

37:13 It's sort of the overlooked segment of life, even though there are more of this particular category than ever before in our history of humanity. So we linger here long enough to not only have a little fun with it, but to draw some lessons from it. this is a man who has seen a lot of life.

37:41 It's said of Abraham, he breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man, and satisfied with life, and he was gathered to his people. Probably a reference of joining his people in the afterlife, we would say in heaven. It was said of David, Then he died in a ripe old age, full of days, riches, and honor. Job is not dying a struggling, cranky, broken old codger whom no one enjoyed being around. This man is seeing his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren. He is reliving so much of life and passing along so many of the things that he has learned. One of my sources says the patriarchal formula old and full of years is expressive of a completely fulfilled life. What a way to die.

38:43 Not as we began living happily ever after. That's not possible. We're on this earth. We still have a sin-cursed nature. We still must deal with a hostile world and nature and others that is less than desirable. but there can be satisfaction, there can be fulfillment, there can be a purpose. As I completed my earlier message to our first morning worship service today, I had an older lady come to me and she said to me, batting her eyes through tears, she said, I can't remember when a sermon is meant more to me. She said, sometimes it feels like folks our age are just forgotten.

39:29 Let me say to you who have older parents and older family members, remember them. Take care of them. Love them. If they're away, write to them. Continue to nurture that relationship.

39:54 Age is not kind to the human body. There are things that occur that even those very effective in their earlier years begin to fade. You who are younger have no idea what that feels like. Let's learn from a passage like this the value of helping those who are aging enjoy a more satisfying life. Admittedly, much of it becomes a part of their own source of continuing and satisfaction. No one else can make an individual fulfilled and satisfied. But we can certainly help the journey be a little more enjoyable. There's a Jewish proverb that says, For the ignorant old age is as winter, for the learned it is a harvest. Thank you.

40:51 as age stacks up, you find that because you have kept yourself alert and alive, you see life through new eyes. That's why you find yourself saying as an older person, take it easy. It's okay. Don't get too worried. I tell that to one of our sets of kids they got young kids that are just half nuts at times and I say it's okay just a stage it's been going on for years but it's a stage it's okay Henry Thoreau wrote none are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm isn't it wonderful to be around an enthusiastic person whose years are multiplied compared to yours isn't it great to see them have goals and vision and dreams and pursuits that have them excited from the time they awaken until a late going to bedtime Douglas MacArthur wrote on his 75th birthday in the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage so long are you young but when the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism then and only then have you grown old.

42:31 it's my experience to be in an enviable place where i am in life especially as it relates to ministry and and to my connection with dallas seminary you have no idea unless you're where i am as often as i am you have no idea of the pleasure that i get from being with men who are my mentors who taught me when I was younger and they're still walking with God. It's wonderful to see a 75, 80, even into their 90-year-olds still loving Jesus, still writing great works and reading and challenging me to stay strong. I love it when they call me Sonny.

43:24 Dr. Walford the other day was talking to me he says when I was your age I thought that was a great compliment man now I know that aging has its scary moments I realize some are still driving in their 90s we had one of our older faculty members driving up and bouncing off the curb not long ago. And the car just died. And so the other, the person that was riding with him jumped out of the door and held on to the top and went, whew. It was great. I was so glad I had not been in that car.

44:19 Some wag said, remember, older folks are worth a lot more. They have silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet, natural gas in their gut. Worth a lot, folks.

44:49 Let me give you five tips on how to stay young, okay? I'm going to pass them along to you. They're original with me. Nobody gave them to me. I've sort of learned them as life has unfolded for me. And you might want to write them down. I don't care what your age is. You'll be here someday. And when you are, you'll need to review these. You want to stay young? remember these five things. Number one, your mind isn't old, so keep developing it. Your mind isn't old. Keep developing it. Read more. Watch less television.

45:36 Spend time with people who talk about events and ideas rather than sitting around a shop talking about people and how sorry this young generation is. Nobody wants to be around a crotchety old person who sees only the clouds and the rain. Your mind is not old. Keep developing it. Keep developing it. I read about one comedian who said his daddy is so ready to die he won't even buy green bananas. That's a crazy way to live. Dare the aging process. Buy a whole bunch of green bananas. Your mind isn't old. Number two, your humor isn't over.

46:30 Keep enjoying it. I love being around older people who still see the sunny side of life. They still see things funny happening. They still can tell a great story. They still enjoy a real belly laugh. You look fabulous when you laugh. And it takes years off of you. Helps clean out some of the lines on your faces. And some of you would do well to cultivate a better sense of humor.

47:04 Did I say something wrong? Maybe so. Your humor isn't over. keep developing it. Keep enjoying it. Number three, your strength isn't gone. Keep using it. Don't let yourself get crippled up, if you will. If affliction comes and you can't hold it back, that's obvious. And certainly we care about that and we want you to find assistance any way you can. And we are increasingly more sensitive, I'm glad to say, of those who have disabilities. But most of us don't, thank the Lord. Quit addressing every ache and pain. Quit talking about how weak you're getting and how others will have to do this for you. You keep doing it. My physician friend for so many years made the mistake of telling an 84-year-old woman who had just ran five miles.

48:04 He said to her at the next checkup, He said, you know, take it easy. You don't have to run five miles. Week and a half later, she died. And he said to me at the memorial service, I'll never again tell a patient to take it easy.

48:25 Step up. Step up. Take the stairway. Don't always take the elevator. walk out into life and travel and accept the challenges that life throws at you you become increasingly more in demand your strength isn't gone keep using it here's a fourth your opportunities haven't vanished so keep pursuing them there are people all around you who could use an encouraging word and affirming note a phone call that says i love you and believe in you and i'm praying for you so go there opportunities have not vanished don't allow yourself to get crowded in and closed in so that all the blinds stay pulled and all the doors stay locked and and you live in the terror of somebody taking advantage of you. What a dreadful way to live. Without removing any of the need for necessary safety, don't live your life facing and thinking only of the dangers.

49:36 If you do, you'll never leave your neighborhood. opportunities haven't vanished keep pursuing them fifth is obvious your god is not dead keep serving and seeking him you'll find the living god is ageless we always picture him as an old man with white hair blowing wind out of the north but that that's not god the lord jesus is timeless. One of the things we'll be impressed with when we're with him is this incredible condition in which he is living his life. Take care of yourself. Keep up those good habits of health. Don't think it's not important. Job pulled through all of this and lived even another 140 years, and I read nothing of his being somehow set aside. Ten kids will do that to you if Nothing else. That'll keep you hopping. Came across a piece. Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from getting talkative and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from the craving to try and straighten out everybody's affairs. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details. Give me wings to get to the point. I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pains. Help me endure them with patience, but seal my lips on my own aches and pains. They are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening caught sureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.

51:43 Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. Isn't that a great line? I do not want to be a saint. Some of us them are so hard to live with. But a sour old woman or man is one of the crowning works of the devil. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom seems a pity not to use it, but thou knowest Lord I want a few friends at the end. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people. And give me Lord the grace to tell them so.

52:36 I wish for all of you a full life that's marked not by living happily ever after impossible, but satisfied, fulfilled, challenged, useful, godly, balanced, reasonably sweet. Reasonably sweet. I'm going to draw two more messages from Job. One will be what Job teaches us about ourselves. That's next time. And following that, what Job teaches us about our God.

53:24 Then I promise. will end the series. Bow with me, will you please? Could it be that the reason you are finding it elusive, this pursuit of a dream or remaining reasonably sweet, that you simply don't have a Savior?

53:49 Here you are at this age, lived all these years, however old you may be and you've never come to the cross. My, what a gap. No wonder life's getting more tedious and you're becoming more negative. You're lost. You're lost. Spiritually unborn. There's a remedy. The kids sang about it in the choir today. There's a remedy. We sang about it in the hymns and the songs. He is our strength when we are weak. He is the treasure that we seek. he is our all in all that's Christ I invite you to him just turn it over to him bring all the stuff of your life and he has a wonderful way like restoring Job he'll restore you forgive you give you a future Come to him today, won't you?

55:10 Thank you, Lord, for lessons learned within the lines and between the lines of your inspired word. Thank you for truth to live by and to die by and to age with and to pass along. thank you for our friend, Job. It's like he's almost become a member of our family.

55:42 Thank you for his model. Thank you for coming back to him with such words and deeds of assurance. Thank you for blessing him like no one else in his day. we find hope there Lord and reason to go on we love you and we say again you are our all in all for when even our father and mother fail us the Lord will take us up and weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning those who sow in sorrow and tears will reap in joy I pray for my friends today who hear these words, who've never come to the Savior, or they've come and they've drifted. They've let the old nature take over.

56:44 I pray that you'd cleanse them and free them and give them renewal and hope. they might become one of those treasured, aging people we need more of in this old world that's lost its way. And now unto him who has guarded us from stumbling and who can present us faultless before the presence of his joy with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our dear Savior. be glory and majesty, dominion and power.