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[0:00] All right, this is Job 42. This is the word of the Lord. Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted.

[0:13] You asked, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

[0:25] You said, listen to me and I will speak. I will question you. And you shall answer me. My eyes had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.

[0:42] And therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I'm angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.

[1:03] So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.

[1:18] You have not spoken of me. You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuchite and Zophar the Namathite did what the Lord told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.

[1:32] After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house.

[1:49] They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.

[2:03] He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 donkeys and he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemima, the second Kezia and the third Keren Hachuch.

[2:21] Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years.

[2:35] He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation and so he died old and full of years. This is the word of the Lord. Now let's pray before we jump in.

[2:50] Father, what a surprising end to the story and a wonderful and beautiful end and yet we have questions and would you help us now as we try and dig into your word and see what we can see with Job's glasses on.

[3:04] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In our house we have a few storytellers so sometimes for fun they'll just make up stories on the spot.

[3:15] We've got four kids so I won't name one but recently one of our kids has recently just made up a real epic of a story. It's kind of like it's going to be better than Lord of the Rings. So, and I wonder if you've tried to write a story on your own and I'm always keen to learn how to tell a better story.

[3:32] So actually earlier this week Hugo shared with me some helpful tips he's been doing a little bit of reading up on how to write a good story and he shared some tips from the author K.M. Wieland.

[3:45] You know someone's famous and made it because her name's in initials like K.M. Wieland, J.K. Rowling, J.R. Tolkien. According to Wieland, when you write a story what you need to do is write character arcs.

[3:58] Okay, character arcs. A character arc is kind of the internal change that a character makes from the start to the end of a story. That's a character arc. So K.M. Wieland, she writes this, the change from one spiritual, emotional, intellectual place to another, that's the story of humanity.

[4:17] And think about it for a moment. I mean, whether it's fictional heroes, think about Tony Stark, his character arc, or maybe it's Paddington Bear's character arc, I don't know. Or maybe it's more real life people, like even if we think about the Apostle Paul and his journey, right, or Martin Luther if you like church history.

[4:36] Every good human story has a clear character arc, okay. We can see from beginning to end how they change the person, right, or how they change others around them.

[4:48] And so, I wonder how you would tell Job's story, those of you who have journeyed with Job the whole way through. What is Job's character arc? Because I think there are two ways people often tell Job's story, right.

[5:03] One is to see his character arc as a flat kind of arc. I'll explain what a flat arc is. A flat arc is where a character believes the truth, right, already from the start.

[5:13] It kind of gets tested and challenged and then, in the end, the character holds onto the truth, right. Paddington Bear believes the truth that, you know, life should be positive and you can help people around you, right.

[5:25] And he gets tested when he gets thrown into jail or something bad happens to him but then at the end of the day, you know, his truth wins out. That's a flat character arc. And this is how we often tell Job, right, Job's story.

[5:37] Often in our children's Sunday school classes or in our really summarised versions of Job where we only look at the first two chapters, we just tell it flat, right.

[5:48] Job loses everything but then he just bows down and worships, he holds on, he's going to keep worshipping God and then that's it, the end. And yet, while it's true that there are many ways that Job doesn't change throughout the story, right, I mean, we think about it, he does keep talking to God, he does keep worshipping as we've sung, he doesn't abandon his faith in God.

[6:09] I hope that you've seen that just a flat arc to Job is a little bit too easy, right, it's a little bit too simplistic. I think a better way to tell Job's story which I hope you've seen throughout the series is that he has had a change arc and a change arc is something like this, maybe someone, a character believes in a lie, right, he encounters the truth and then he finally overcomes a lie by finding and accepting that truth and I think this is the Job that we see in the Bible, right, that includes Job chapter 1 and 2 but then right the way through to Job 42 because Job's story was not flat was it.

[6:50] Job, he did worship God yet he also cried out to God and lament. He got accused by his friends for sinning against God. He started protesting against God and we realised that actually Job did start to believe lies about God, about his justice, about his wisdom, right, and then when last week we heard the Lord showed up with that kind of wild planet earth kind of tour, Job has to now respond and be humble.

[7:22] You remember that, remember that question, right, Job encountered God's truth and all that poetry and it came in the form of this question, can you understand my wisdom over creation, Job? Can you?

[7:34] Stand if you can, right, Job? I am who I am, king of creation, lord of land and sea, a world not neat and orderly but wild and free by my decree, can you see Job?

[7:47] And it's strange as we come to the last chapter of Job's story, Job actually never hears why he suffered and yet he sees God and for some reason that's enough for him and as the storyteller kind of rounds off this epic tale, we get a finale, I think, that is not just a flat, it's not just a flat story, it shows that Job has changed.

[8:10] There are four surprising changes I want to point out and then we can reflect on what we've learnt through this series. So I want to point out four surprising changes that we see in this last chapter.

[8:21] The first surprise in Job 42 is that Job brings about a change in heart, doesn't he? Some of us, as we've talked about, we get the impression that Job was just this super saint, okay?

[8:35] All right, he's got a halo around his head, never did anything wrong. People often talk about, for example, the patience of Job. I wonder if you've heard that quote before. It's an idea, actually, that comes, actually, from the Bible, or people think it comes from the Bible.

[8:51] And so people think, oh, Job was just so patient all the way through, right? He kind of just, kind of the Chinese phrase of kind of eating bitterness, you know, he kind of just did that, right? And then soldier through suffering and he got double at the end, right?

[9:03] Great. But we need to read carefully what it actually means for someone to be patient in suffering. Actually, if I bring up the book of James where this quote comes from, you'll actually see it's not quite patience, all right?

[9:18] This is what Jesus' half-brother actually says when he talks about the book of Job, when he talks about Job's story. He says this, as you know, James 5.10, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.

[9:35] The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Notice what it said, not patience, right? But perseverance, persistence. And it's only through persisting through and talking to God over all these chapters that finally the Lord brings compassion and mercy, but he brings, first and foremost, a change of heart.

[9:54] I mean, did you listen to Job's final answer? If Job was just a flat character, what we just heard from Job in verses 1-6 would not actually make sense.

[10:06] Why does Job actually need to say all this if he was right all along? We already know that Job does not need to confess any secret sins that brought on his suffering, right?

[10:17] Job's friends are wrong in that account. But we did see last week, right, Job wasn't suffering because of his sin, but he has sinned through his suffering, right?

[10:27] He has even, and Job even admits that, right? Look at verse 3. You asked, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? And Job, this is Job saying, surely I spoke of things I did not understand.

[10:40] Things too wonderful for me to know. And so, before the living God, verse 6 says, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

[10:52] I don't know what translation you have in front of you, but actually the verse 6 is actually one of the most difficult verses in Job to translate. Almost every word in this verse actually could have more than one meaning.

[11:03] So, yeah, so it could be despise myself, could be I retract my case, my legal case, it could be all kinds of things. I think that, I've got one version up in front of me called the CSB version.

[11:16] I think this one gets closest to what the Hebrew is saying. It says, therefore I reject my words and I'm sorry for them. I am dust and ashes. I think that's kind of, that's what Job's original, I'm trying to say to him, back to God.

[11:31] You see, what we have had through the whole book is a guy that, in his suffering, he started to speak as if he wanted to sue God, right? To take him to court for unfairly giving him the suffering.

[11:44] And so God is right to challenge him on speaking that way. And now that Job has seen God for himself, he retracts his case, he rejects his words, right?

[11:56] It's like someone going and shouting no justice, no peace at God to then finally being humbled and maybe even comforted even while he still suffers.

[12:08] That's the surprising change of heart we see, right? And so Job has changed, right? That's the first way it's changed. Surprise two, all right, verses seven to nine, we actually see a change of place. A change of place.

[12:19] Let me read verse seven and you can hopefully see. After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz, the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has.

[12:33] Okay, so early we heard about Job's three friends, right? Wise guys, couldn't out-talk Job over 27 whole chapters. And so, you know, by this time they're just kind of waiting on the sidelines just to see who's actually going to win.

[12:45] Is it going to be God or Job? And so, finally, when all of this is said and done, right, they're hoping that God will say, hey, Eliphaz, you guys are right.

[12:55] Okay, Job was totally wrong because they were holding on to this very twisted logic. Do you remember the logic? They were thinking, all right, God is wise and sovereign, okay, and look, we've seen wicked people suffer.

[13:07] Therefore, you're suffering, you must be wicked. So you need to repent. You've got to be good now and then God will be like a genie, he'll bless you again. That was kind of their very in the box, very limited thinking of God and the world.

[13:22] They thought they were wise, right? And it does seem like decent logic for many people except God replies, I'm angry with you and your two friends. Guys, you were wrong.

[13:34] You were wrong about me. And then we get to see a surprise, don't we? So instead of these wise guys, being right, God calls on Job and says, Job, you're my servant.

[13:47] Not these three guys, you're my servant. God shows Job favour, not to the friends. And in fact, right, as we read on verses eight and nine, the Lord actually then says, Job, pray for these friends, okay, intercede on their behalf.

[14:06] And then, the last phrase in verse nine actually says, the Lord accepted Job's prayer, in my translation. Literally, actually, the word there says, then the Lord lifted Job's face.

[14:19] That's the literal words in the Hebrew. Imagine a child, right, who's been crying, crying and crying and crying. And then his father comes, lifts his chin and then looks into his eyes with love and says, I see you.

[14:35] I see you. And that's, that's what's coming through at the very end. The Lord lifted Job's face and accepts him. That's the surprise, isn't it? This acceptance is what Job longed for, right, this whole book.

[14:48] And this is what God extends to him, his favour, not to his friends, but to Job, his servant. And I mean, look, if you're the wise guy, you probably feel pretty stink right now, but look, you're still covered because actually, God in his kindness, because of Job and his prayer, covers the wise guys, okay, covers the friends.

[15:10] They are not dealt, as it says here, according to their foolishness. They receive what we call grace. Because of Job's persistence with God, he ends up being the righteous one who can extend grace to his friends, who can cover the foolishness of his friends.

[15:30] Isn't that good news? And I mean, think about it this way. If God can declare Job right, and through his prayer, cover his friends folly.

[15:42] Does that remind you of anyone else that could do the same thing? How much more does he do this with us and Jesus? Friends, if you and I are in Christ, then you are covered by his prayer right now.

[15:57] If you trust in his sacrifice, his willing death on the cross for our sins, then at the very end of time, God will look at you with all your faults and sins and lift your face up and say, well done, good and faithful servant.

[16:16] Why? Because Christ got the disgrace and we got to see God's face. What a surprise, right? what a beautiful change of place that Job's story even hints to.

[16:30] So Job answered God with a change of heart and then soon we saw straight away that his friends and him got a really surprising change in place. Next, let's talk about the change of fortunes that we kind of see.

[16:43] This is verse 10 through to 13. I mean, let's remind ourselves, after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.

[16:55] Actually, in the Hebrew, it literally reads here, it reads, God reversed the captivity of Job as he prayed for his friends.

[17:06] So it's after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord reversed his captivity. It's a very interesting phrase because it kind of hints at, this was written 3,000 years ago, well before the nation Israel was put together, but it hints at all kinds of things that happens to God's people.

[17:22] Rescue from Egypt, hints at things like rescue from exile from Babylon, hints at even things like our own rescue from sin and death. Reverse the captivity of Job.

[17:35] I mean, Job's suffering even now paints a bigger picture well beyond his own life, doesn't it? And so if your suffering seems unbearable, maybe, remember this, that it paints a bigger picture than your own situation.

[17:51] As they see you trust God in the darkness, they will see a glimpse of Christ in you. They will see a glimpse of freedom from captivity. Perhaps as one day Christ breaks free from the tomb, right?

[18:06] God breaks Job free from his suffering. I think that's what's going on here. Now that Job has delivered his friends, God is gracious and he changes his fortunes.

[18:16] He frees him from captivity. And yes, look, he's restored not just to his original wealth, verse 10, but it says double, right? And not only that, he's restored to his community.

[18:28] Verse 11's great, isn't it? It's as if Job's relatives and neighbours suddenly realise, oh, he exists, let's go around and say hi. They kind of get around, they make dumplings together, I don't know, they hand him some really decent red packets, and that's what is going on here, a gold ring and a piece of silver, that's big money, that's big money.

[18:44] There's a reversal in fortunes, isn't there? And this is actually the first celebration since chapter one. It's good, isn't it? It's beautiful.

[18:55] One day, suffering does end. There will be a feast again. There's a promise for that. And verse 12 is interesting, the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first, right?

[19:07] And I mean, you can do the math there, I'm not great at math, but you can do it. That's 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 donkeys. If you looked at chapter one, you'll notice this is double, okay, double.

[19:19] On first glance, you might be thinking, hang on, this sounds like something out of, I don't know, a prosperity preacher's playbook. Maybe this is like the immigrant family's dream, right?

[19:31] Come on. Tempting to read this as, isn't it so tempting? We could just read this and go, ah, does that mean if I'm good, then God will give me health, wealth, and success like double? I mean, who doesn't want 1,000 donkeys?

[19:44] I don't know. Probably worth a lot back in the day. But we can't read it that way because we already know the journey that Job's been through, right?

[19:55] Actually, Job worshipped God during his suffering, did he not? And actually, he feared God for God, not for his stuff. We've already seen that in chapter one. And so remember all this.

[20:06] So even as Job is restored and his wealth is brought back and doubled, he never actually mentioned any of that when he repented, when he changed his mind at the start.

[20:17] You see? He doesn't do it in order to get anything out of it. That's the difference. That's the difference. We need to remember that. This is not Job kind of naming it and claiming it.

[20:28] This is actually the Lord showing his grace, right? Why should he get double at all? Why should he get anything? This is actually God being just generous, extravagant with his servant Job.

[20:43] This doubling, I think, points to God just being free, extravagant, kind of like he was free and extravagant with his creation. He does the same with Job. God gives Job double for no reason other than he's a gracious God.

[20:58] And finally, I mean, you want to think about it this way. Remember, this happens at the very end. And so if we want to compare our story to Job's story, we need to wait till the very end. New heavens and earth where we are promised, okay?

[21:11] Be patient, therefore. Wait till the coming of the Lord and we are promised, whatever our situation in life now, we are promised riches beyond measure.

[21:22] We are promised a place to live that is far better than what we live now. And when the king comes again, when he rules this world again, our feasting will be forever.

[21:32] And yes, so in this broken world, weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning. We wait for that day, don't we, as Christians? We do. So I hope you can see the real Job, right?

[21:47] Not the Sunday school Job. This is not a flat character. This is actually a changing character. He's had a change in the heart, a change in place. He's had a change of fortunes. But let's not miss out the last few verses because this is where we see Job has had a change of vision.

[22:03] A change of vision. Let me read to you, right, what Job does next. He also had seven sons and three daughters, verse 13. The first daughter he named Jemima, the second Keziah, and the third Kerenhapuch.

[22:16] Nowhere in all the land there were found more women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. This is special.

[22:27] Thousands of years before women were protesting and trying to fight for equal pay, for equal work, here is Job sharing his wealth, his life, equally with his daughters and sons.

[22:39] That is generosity. That is double generosity. Last week we talked about seeing beauty in creation, right? Well, I think Job has done his homework. He's actually thought what God said to him and started to practice that because look at what he names his three girls.

[22:55] I know it's in Hebrew so you're like, those are weird names. I would never use that for my kids. But Jemima means dove. Kassiah means cinnamon. And Kerenhapuch means eyeshadow, black eyeshadow.

[23:11] All right? Beautiful. These are beautiful, beautiful names for beautiful girls. All right? This is how Job's mind has changed, right? He's had a change in vision.

[23:22] He's gone from worrying about his children's sin and maybe counting his money too much. I don't know what his sin was before. Probably nothing, right? But he's gone from just being a person that thought of God in a very black and white way to now just giving his daughters beautiful names.

[23:38] Why? Because he can. Because he can. All right? And I mean, this is personal admission. That's why one of our daughters has the middle name, Cassia, just from this story. It's like Job went to spec savers, right?

[23:51] And came out with grace, beauty tinted glasses. That's what's going on here. And he had to go and he got this only by going through suffering. You see, through suffering, he now sees the beauty and goodness in his life more clearly.

[24:06] And some of you who have gone through hard times know this for a fact. You appreciate the good around you a lot more, don't you? Since suffering. And I mean, at the very end as well, right?

[24:18] Verse 16 and 17, he lives on, he sees his children and children and children. Isn't that a change, right? Job went from chapter three, he wanted to die, he wanted to reverse his birth.

[24:30] He was so low then. And now, he wants to see generations, grandkids, great-grandkids. Job's vision has changed.

[24:41] Suffering can do that. And remember how I said in chapter one, right? The key question of this book, the book of Job, was this. Does Job love God for no reason?

[24:52] Okay? Finally, we see the answer. He does. He's changed. Now, he's a free, generous man who does things for no reason, right?

[25:02] For no reward. Just gives. He's gracious. He doesn't live by formula anymore. He lives with freedom because he knows and has seen the God who is free and loving.

[25:16] And look, if pain and suffering changed Job in these surprising ways, maybe it can change us in these ways as well when we suffer. And so, I want to suggest a few final lessons as we leave this book behind, as we move on with our lives and applying Job's suffering.

[25:36] Because we don't want to stay flat, do we? Right? In our lives. We want to have Job's character arc, don't we? And so, let me share three lessons. First lesson, I think, we want to trust that God controls our suffering like he did with Jesus's.

[25:51] I think one of the things we've seen from the book of Job, right? Even though it's called the book of Job, that so much of it is actually about God, isn't it? Who is he? What's he like?

[26:03] And even though he's gone through such suffering, Job is wrestling really with not just his pain and sorrow, he's wrestling with who God is. Okay? And throughout this book, we've seen how strongly Job and even his friends just keep affirming that God is in control.

[26:21] We call that the sovereignty of God, right? And even here in verse 11, right, all Job's mates come over to his house and, you know, yum cha or whatever, they come and they say they console him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him.

[26:36] You see, even they believe it too. And some of you have asked questions about this, right? How strongly do we need to hold on to the fact that God fully controls all things? I mean, is he in control of sin?

[26:48] Is he in control of all the bad stuff? How does he do that? Okay? Let me be clear. The Bible never says God should be blamed for evil, right? Nowhere in this book and nowhere elsewhere.

[27:01] Yet he is consistently behind good and evil in a way that we can't fully explain, but he is controlling all things, right? There's actually an early video, I watched it recently, of a preacher, his name's Todd White.

[27:15] He preaches on Job 1-2 and then he tries to argue, right? He tries to argue this. He says, look, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy and so therefore God doesn't kill and destroy, therefore all evil must be blamed on Satan, right?

[27:31] And God only does good stuff. And while that sounds really appealing, I want to suggest to you that that's a flat way to view God.

[27:42] Okay? And I think actually what's worse than worshipping, even wrestling with a God who rules over good and evil in a mysterious way, who gives suffering and allows it and even ordains it for reasons we don't fully understand.

[27:58] Okay? What's worse than that I think is to then turn to a God who can't control evil and darkness, who has no points to it, has no purpose.

[28:10] You see, the first, we'll have a lot of questions for him, right, when we get to heaven. I'm sure. I know I do, right? I'd love to know, why God did you let this happen? And yet the second one, I don't think we can worship him because he's not God.

[28:25] He's not fully in control. You see? So we need to wrestle with this. We need to trust, I think, that God controls even our suffering. I know it's hard. It is hard to say, God, you are in control of this pandemic.

[28:39] You are permitting all this pain. You are permitting my depression. It is hard to sing with Job, right? Though you slay me, yet I will trust you. It's hard.

[28:51] But I think we need to be there. I think maybe it's hard as well because many of us, we, like Job, have needed to revisit how we view God. I think too many of us default to God as my therapist.

[29:06] God as my spiritual barista or my ATM machine, right? I just talk to him when I need health and wealth and prosperity. Maybe, maybe that's a God that we've made into our own image and if we have done that and then when suffering shows up, we will struggle.

[29:24] So please, I know it's hard but we need to hold on to the sovereignty of God. Trust that God controls our suffering just like he controlled Jesus' suffering, right?

[29:36] Remember the Son of God? He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, okay? Here's a scene, he's just pleading with God, pleading with God. If it's your will, Lord, let this cup pass from me.

[29:48] He's about to go to the cross and suffer horrendously and yet he says, yet not my will but your will be done. Okay, if God knew what he was doing with the cross, even if we don't know exactly, he knows what he's doing with your deepest sorrow.

[30:05] So I think we should stick with Job, okay? He says in verse 2 of this chapter, I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. So there's lesson one, I think, trust God controls your suffering.

[30:19] Second one, don't hide your suffering. And in fact, I don't have to say too much more about this because, Kin, you shared so well, right? We need to share our suffering. Don't make it taboo. It's very hard, especially I think in some cultures, especially Asian cultures where our face is so important, right?

[30:37] So we don't share when we struggle. But yet, we've seen how publicly, okay? This whole book is very public. Millions of people are going through Job's suffering right now, okay?

[30:49] And yeah, we've seen everything. Job worshipped, he lamented, he protested, he had a change of heart, he was comforted. Look, he did this not just before God, but before a lot of people, his friends and family.

[31:02] And how good was that? So don't hide your suffering. I think the quickest way to feel like you have no hope left is to not tell anyone about your struggle, whatever it is, okay?

[31:16] Whether it's loneliness about being single, whether it's, you know, a bad relationship or family issue, whatever it is, share your struggles, okay?

[31:27] And obviously, we want to be kind and gentle and careful. We don't share with everyone, right? It might be a bit awkward, but let's be a church where we can, okay, share with people we can trust.

[31:41] And I know we're wired all differently, so there may be wisdom. We don't want to share, maybe there's some things that you need to talk to a guy about or some things you only need to talk to a girl about. Let's be careful, but let's not hide our suffering.

[31:56] We want to make this place, PCBC, a safe house for those who struggle. Not just a show home where all our hurts are just swept under the carpet. And so at the very least, it means we hear each other's sad stories, okay?

[32:11] We acknowledge them. We weep with those who weep. We might even sing about suffering or pray about it up front or in groups. And maybe it means as our friends around us suffer, we join in.

[32:24] We suffer with them in the same way that Jesus, our suffering servant, did. Yeah? That's lesson two. Don't hide your suffering. I think Job taught us that really well.

[32:35] And finally, lesson three, don't waste your suffering. Okay? Turn to a beauty that's beyond this life, this world. Like most of us, I think we trust God.

[32:47] It's easy to trust God when our surroundings are really nice, okay? When we're COVID free, you know, when we just got a house and it's in a nice neighbourhood, okay? And then we struggle.

[32:59] It's harder to trust God when someone's, you know, attacked me on the street, when something has gone wrong in my life. But maybe what suffering does in those situations is that it points us the best life is not now.

[33:16] The most beautiful thing is not here on earth. Maybe we've actually put our faith and hope and trust in the stuff we have and not the one who gives us this stuff, you see?

[33:29] We've relied on the gifts and not the giver. So, don't waste your suffering. What is it teaching me? You can ask that. What is suffering teaching me right now? And maybe it will teach you perhaps your trust was how well my life is going.

[33:44] Maybe I'm trusting in my mum or dad or my boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe my trust is in my spouse or my grades, my health, my happiness, okay? Those things cannot carry the weight of your trust that only God in all his splendour can.

[34:02] And if he has to take something away from us, if we have to go through suffering to see that clearly, then maybe it's worth it. So, don't waste our suffering.

[34:13] Let's not leave our suffering behind and go, ah, that's fine. I'm glad that's over. I learnt nothing from it. No. Let suffering drive you closer to God. And I say beauty because I think that's one way, right, to tell if you are just playing church or if you're a real Christian okay?

[34:36] Do you find Jesus useful, right? He gives me stuff, he makes my life better, or do you find him beautiful? All right? A non-Christian, right, might enjoy church for a long time, might love hanging out with people, okay?

[34:50] They speak my language, they eat the food I eat, you know, there's really nice people here. Christianity or the church becomes a useful thing, right? Very useful for my life. But yet, spiritually then, their life is just flat, like a flat arc.

[35:05] There's no eternal transformation. A lot of people find Christianity just useful. But, a real follower of Jesus, right, someone who has truly crossed from death to life doesn't just find church, Christianity useful, he finds Jesus beautiful, okay?

[35:27] If you're really a Christian, you don't just think, oh, very useful, thank you Jesus, or I'll live my life now. He becomes your way, your truth, your life. He becomes your source of true delight over anything else, whatever happens in life, right?

[35:44] Religious people find Jesus useful, but if you're a real Christian, you'll find Jesus beautiful. You will look at him wearing his crown of thorns and you'll see a beautiful face, you'll just consider his nail-pierced hands on the cross for sinners and you will see a beautiful embrace and you will see in his death and resurrection, how humiliating, right?

[36:11] Died on a cross and yet you will see, right, unlike the world, the most beautiful, purposeful suffering the world has ever known. So do you see Jesus is beautiful amidst a wild and chaotic world?

[36:25] If you don't, or maybe you're here and you've never even considered it, come and talk to me or come and talk to your friend. Find out what a beautiful name Jesus' name is.

[36:40] Turn away from this dying world, this suffering world and turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, his beauty. I'll leave you now with Maria's story.

[36:53] I wonder if you remember her picture. Five years old, she was struck in the driveway accidentally and she died in hospital. And her dad, as he reflected on these events, he put it into a song and he called it Beauty Will Rise.

[37:10] And as he sings a song, he describes what happened, right? The world went wrong, he screamed, tears just came through, crashing down.

[37:22] He sifted through the ashes that are left behind and yet buried deep beneath all our broken dreams, he says, we have this hope. Out of these ashes, beauty will rise and we will dance among the ruins, we will see him with our own eyes.

[37:37] Out of these ashes, beauty will rise. That's a great summary, that line, of Job's character arc and of the gospel arc and of Jesus as beautiful to you, that could be a great summary of your own story through pain and suffering too.

[37:55] Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in our pain and suffering you have been with us the whole time and so therefore we don't lose heart.

[38:15] Sometimes we feel like we're wasting away like your word says. Thank you, Father, that you have renewed us day by day and even all our light and momentary suffering is bringing an eternal glory that far outweighs it all.

[38:31] So Father, help us to fix our eyes not on what is seen on this earth but to fix our eyes on Jesus, the most beautiful name there ever has been.

[38:43]  In his name we pray. Amen.