Take us to the book of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and when you find that, you can turn back to the book of Job and put your finger on the book of Job. This message has been on my heart for several months. And I have been praying about this message ever since my trip to Alaska. It's really what spurred our series that we're in on the divine appointments. Romans chapter 8. And we'll read in verse 28 and then I'm going to ask a question and then we'll get into the message. The Bible says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Father, I need Your help this morning. Lord, You know I'm a little more nervous than usual. Lord, I pray that You'd help me as I try to preach. The message you've been working in my heart and my life would be helpful to somebody else, Lord, that you might use it in their lives. Lord, we're thankful for the lessons that you teach and all that you do. Lord, I pray that you'd be with us in this hour, that you'd get honor and glory from it, and we'll give you praise. In Jesus' name, amen. We read here in Romans chapter 8 a statement that is made by the writer of the book of Romans. But I would submit to you this question this morning because it is a question that we are going to have to answer. The writer here in Romans, he makes the statement, and we suppose All things work together for good. Is that what your Bible says? We think all things work together for good. Is that what it says? No, it says, and we know that all things work together for good to his children. Now, let me ask you a question. That's easy reading, hard living. If we were to take a survey this morning and ask for a raise of hands on who actually believes that, I wonder what response we would get. I would have to say, and I'm just going to be flat honest with you this morning, there have been many days in the trouble in my life that I have not really thought that it was going to be very good at the end of the day." He says, all things work together for good. He says, I know that. But in your heart and in your life, if you're born again, you're saved in here this morning. I'm not talking about the lost. You have no promise of anything ever working for good if you're lost. But if you are a born-again believer and you're following after the path of God, He has promised that if you will stick it out and you'll be faithful, He says it'll all work out in the end. It may not be pleasant today, and it may not be pleasant tomorrow, But He has given us the promise that all the things we deal with in life will work out for good. Now go with me to the book of Job that launches us into our text this morning. We have to ask this question. Do we really believe that all things work together for good? Before we can ever get into the text that God has laid in my heart. We looked at the subject of divine appointments. This is our 8th message out of this series. But this was the first message that God really brought into my heart as I began to ponder on this. The thought of a divine conspiracy. Divine conspiracy. Now let me ask you another question this morning as we move into the message here in just a moment. Have you ever felt like God was conspiring against you in your life? And I want an honest answer. I don't want political answers. I don't want religious answers. We're all grown up in here. I want to know the truth. Have you ever felt like God is conspiring against you? Boy, I have felt that way. In fact, what brought this on was I was riding with Brother Jonathan Fisher, and we were traveling through the Casier Mountains up in British Columbia. And I'm listening to preaching on my phone as we're traveling, and I'm in a war with God. And I've told this story a few times, but I'm going to be very personal this morning. That's why we're not doing the live stream, because I'm going to give you my testimony of how God has brought this text to life. Last fall, my very best friend in the whole wide world came and stood on my porch and told me he was done and he was leaving. He was my partner in crime, he was the best friend I've ever had in my whole life. And he came to my porch and said, we're leaving here, we're leaving the church and we're going back to Virginia. And it completely and utterly destroyed me inside. I was broken. Last year's by far hands down the worst year I've ever had of ministry. I talked to several preachers, evidently it was something in the water because there was a lot of preachers that said the same thing about their year. Brother Wyatt, by about November I felt like God was conspiring against me. I felt like, and I told him this, Because the only thing I know to do with him is to be honest. He knows how I think anyway, so I'm not going to tell him anything he doesn't already know. But I was going to Salt Lake City to have my heart worked on for the third time. And I've just dropped my children off with the one who has said they are leaving. I'm going over South Pass and I'm battling on the inside. God, why did you bring me here? to destroy my life. Back in Virginia, I would have had a house that by now would have been paid for in full. Three acres of land, a pond with fish in it, a home that I grew up in from the time I was five years old. I knew the culture. I knew the people. I knew where things stood. I knew how things worked. And I began to ask God the question, why did you bring us here to ruin our lives? I'm just being honest with you where I was at. My life, it fell apart, totally and utterly. The church was hemorrhaging, things were not looking good, my family was hurting, and I was broken. And God did not answer me when I asked that question. It would not be until April of this year that God would see fit to answer that question. Now, I'm riding on the road going through the Cassiaire Mountains And I'm looking at all of this grandeur that God has created. And I'm still broken on the inside because my best friend in crime should have been with me on this trip. He had said that God had told him he needed to go with me to Alaska. And he should have been there and he should have been witnessing all of the things God was doing. And as I'm riding through the Cassiaire mountain range, I'm pleading with God, why? Why am I here? Why have you conspired against me the way you have? And I was listening to one of my mentors, one of my heroes of the faith, for the Tom Gillums. He was preaching out of this text in Job. And God began to speak to me in a way that I had not had in a while. And He began to do some things in my heart. And that's my desire this morning, is to share with you some of the truths that God has given me out of this text. Job chapter 1, verse 8. Remember our launching verse, and we know that all things work together for good. But what happens when God is conspiring against you? Verse 8, and it says, The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered? Sounds like a conspiracy to me. Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth? A perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. We're going to be reading several different places throughout the book of Job, but I want to set the stage for you this morning in understanding There's two different things I want to give you before we really get going this morning. One, this does not apply to you if you've screwed it up. If it's a mess you have made, this message is not going to apply to those situations. But if God's made the mess, this might just apply to your heart. Job chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, Hast thou considered? There's a source of the conspiracy. This isn't something Job has sought out. This isn't a mistake Job has made. In fact, God says about Job, And I'm not going to get into the argument about perfection this morning. But I am going to tell you what it says here. It says, There was none like him in all the earth. God holds Job in a high esteem. But God's about to conspire against Job for a little while. And it seems mighty unfair. I don't know about you, but if you had possessions that were all lost, your family was destroyed, your home was destroyed, and you haven't done anything wrong to merit it, I'd call that a conspiracy. Job has not done anything wrong. In fact, God says, have you considered my servant Job because of all he's done right? He's a perfect man. He's upright. He's one that fears me. He's one that strays away from evil. He is a man that there is none like him in all the earth. But then the conspiracy begins. Satan answered him, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and the substance is increased in the land." Boy, that sounds like a good reason to ruin somebody's life, don't it? They've got it all together. They're doing well. And he's a good man. Let's rip him up. Remember our question. All things work together for good. Do we believe that? Job's life is about to be destroyed. From the very fabric of his family. He's about to lose his sons. He's about to lose his daughters. His wife is going to turn against him in this text. And he's lost all of his substance. Why would God conspire against Job? That's the same question I asked God last November. God, why are you conspiring against me? What have I done to merit this treatment? What have I done, what has our church done for you to do what you have done in our midst? And like I said, for several months there was nothing but silence. But in April, God began to speak as I was writing. And as I began to study what that preacher was talking about, God began to show me some things about the reasoning behind Job's trouble. Now Job, he whines and complains some in the middle of all of this. From Job 3 to about Job 41. And I can't say that I blame Job. I mean, anybody's got a right to gripe, I would vote for Job to have a right to gripe. But God tells him at the end of this thing, you have no idea what I've been doing in your life. Because before they thought the only reason you served was because of what you had. But I wanted them to know that you serve because I'm worth serving. And because you love me. And here's the lesson God began to teach me. And this is very deep. You know me, I'm such a deep scholar, such a deep theologian sometimes, I impress myself. Job's trouble had very little to do with Job and it had everything to do with Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. And it had everything to do with one particular verse out of Job 42 that I'm going to get to here in a moment. Because Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were preachers. And by the end of Job, God tells them, you have no idea what you're talking about. Go talk to Job because he knows something. And God began to deal in my life that the things that God puts me through as one of his children, While there are certainly lessons for me to learn through them, more importantly than that is the work God is doing in the individual's lives that are watching me to see what I do with the destruction. You don't believe me. Let's go to Job chapter 2 and then we'll go to Job 42. Job chapter 2 verse 9, Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. Job says something here that brought this whole thing on. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? All this did not Job sin with his lips. Now, I'm going to read the rest of it, but I'm not sure that if I had friends like Job, I'd really want them friends to be around. They're some kind of friend. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. When they had lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept, and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. So they sat down with Job upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none of them spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great." Now they should have quit right there. Sometimes the best thing we can do as a friend is keep our mouth shut. I've never been disappointed that I kept my mouth shut. But I sure have been disappointed a lot of times I've opened it and said, boy, I shouldn't have opened it. But they're about to tell Job all of his trouble has come because of how bad he is. And all the things he's doing wrong. The only problem with that is, it's not what God said in Job chapter 1 and Job chapter 2. He says he's perfect, he's upright, he's a man that feareth God and escheweth evil. He says there's none like him in all the earth. That doesn't sound like somebody that's getting retribution for what they've screwed up. And they're about to run off at the mouth for about 30 some chapters at what they think is the cause of Job's trouble. But in chapter 42, God begins to reveal the source of Job's trouble. Let's look at it. Job, he does, like I said, he gripes and complains some in the middle of it. And God rebukes him for it. And I've certainly been there complaining towards God about stuff I had no business complaining about. And then God's like, what in the world are you doing? But in Job chapter 42, All these men have been sitting around, they have been questioning Job, they've been accusing Job, they've been doing all of this towards Job. Verse 7, Job has repented and asked God's forgiveness in the first few verses of chapter 42. He says, Lord, I realize I don't know anything about what's going on. Verse 7, And it was so that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said unto Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends. Now listen to what he says, For ye have not spoken of me, the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore, take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept. Boy, isn't that interesting. Lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did according as the Lord commanded them. The Lord also accepted Job. Now listen at this. Here it is. Here's what the Lord began to teach me. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. And also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. There's one more verse I'll deal with here in just a moment regarding this subject. But I would not be here today if the Lord had not conspired against my mom and dad a time or two. I would not be here today had God not conspired against some of the preachers that I was blessed to come out from under and learn from and study under. If God had not crossed them, if God had not done some things in their life that was not pleasant, I would not be here. Because God was working in their life and I got to see the faithfulness of God through them. And it might just be That God is using the destruction of your life to show a lost and dying world the real power of God. And to show your fellow believers the benefits of sticking it out. I'm sitting there in the Casier Mountains. And I'm listening to this message and God began to speak to my heart. And he said, you're here. For them. You're here for the people of Lander Independent Baptist Church. You're here for your family. You're here for Joseph and Ellie. You're here for your wife, Emily. You're here for these missionaries that they see a man of God that's willing to stick it out through some hard times. That's why God has brought things in your life. If you're following him, that does not make sense. He's brought things in your life that your family, your friends, your job, the other believers you know might see who God is through you. Job had a wife that could not question the faithfulness of Job. Those three friends, by the end of the story, understood what God was doing. They were talking out both sides of their mouth. If God had not done what he had done in Job's life, those three men would have went around spreading whatever they thought. God used the destruction of Job to set those men right. God brought destruction in our family. God brought destruction in our church. For these ones that are visiting, these ones that have come in to see people. that are willing to stick it out through the destruction. It's what He's doing in your personal life. The things that are going on is not necessarily all about you. The things that have gone on with me are not necessarily all about me. There's definitely things that I can learn. But I've got the boys that come from the apartments. I've got different ones that God has given us to witness to and to be a minister to. We've been given this town that we are to serve in. That the only way we're ever going to make a difference here is if they see people that are willing to stick it out through the destruction and willing to stick it out when God seems like He is conspiring against Him to destroy us. It seems like God is just coming against us. There are people out there that are watching and need a faithful example of what's going on. You notice they weren't accepted until Job prayed for them. You know what's interesting about that? Job's destruction has not been fixed yet. God says you're going to have to pray for them in the midst of your destruction. And God really began to change my attitude and my heart towards things as I was listening and as I was studying. That what God does in my life is not simply about me. What God does in your life is not simply about you. But it's about those that see us and are watching what's going on. that we be found faithful in serving before them. I'm going to pick on Melissa and Mike. They've been coming for a while now. What kind of testimony would it have been if we had shut the doors and left when it come time and they needed somewhere to go? Mark and Lisa came all the way from Eagle River, Alaska. They didn't even know where Eagle River, Alaska was. But God knew where it was at. What would happen? What would have happened to Stacey had we closed the doors and turned out the lights? Mike and Kevin, where would you be? I'm saying there are people out there that will benefit from our destruction. I think about my mom and dad. They have been through so much in their ministry. They have been through so many different hurdles and things that have gone on from when my brother left about seven or eight years ago to when all this went down with my sister and brother-in-law and it took that whole side of the family with it and then they began to come against my mom and dad again and it just really destroyed the family. But God has used their destruction to help so many lives. That there are so many out there that are continuing on because they see the faithfulness of God's servants. That's what He's given for me and my wife. When I was arguing with God, why did you bring me here to destroy me? Why did you literally bring us out here to destroy everything? I mean, Lord, we gave up everything to come here. Why did you do that? The one thing He did say is, where would you be without me? That's basically what he tells Job, where would you be without me? Oh, but then he began to show we've got those missionaries up in Alaska that today, today, Lord willing, if all goes well, they're voting on that building to get that building given to them. We got to be a part of hauling a gospel tent up there to where some people got saved and people's lives got right. We got to be a part of that because of the destruction that God brought. But we have to first know Job had it in Job chapter 2. Now he wavered a little on it in the middle of the book, but by the end of it he had it again. Shall we not receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil? And if God has to destroy my life so that you can have something you need, so be it. But it wasn't just about Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. Oh no. Because God said about him in the first part of the book, what did he say? There's none like him. Where? In all the earth. Let me show you something the Lord began to show me. Job chapter 42 verse 11. I never noticed this until this week as I was studying this, as I've been pondering this for the last several months. Job was all by himself at the beginning of this thing. Verse 11, Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house. You mean to tell me that God has made Job a witness in front of the whole town to everybody who knew him because of the destruction God brought in his life? That's exactly what I'm saying. He used that to bring people to him in a way that they would not have seen God had Job's life not been messed up. Because now you see, nobody can come and say, well, he just served God for the stuff. Because again, they're eating at the house before the stuff arrives. And evidently, there's quite a few of them. All his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintance. I hope Job had a big old house because it sounds like there's a lot of people there. That God is using Job's destruction to be a great witness of God's power and God's preservation. And he's using Job's life as a stability for others to see who God really is. I think about the members of this church and the different situations that God has brought in each life and each family. I think about Susan and Steve. He's about to be deployed and Susan's going to be here and serving the Lord here and doing her part. And you'll never know what God will use that in others' lives in this town that they see a faithful woman who is serving the Lord even when times are not great. I think about Mark and Lisa and all the things that they've been through and the different parts of life for them that has not gone well. And I think about the people that they serve, that they witness to, that they live in front of. I think about Wyatt and Denise and the different things that's going on in their lives and all the different avenues that God has given them to Show forth His power. You see, we think destruction is a bad thing. But God never said it was a bad thing. We've got several about to have surgery. They're going to be destroying some stuff. It ain't natural to have somebody cut on you. But in order for healing to take place, what's got to happen? It's got to be destroyed. I was thinking about it this week. God has given the church back East such a grand opportunity to show forth God's power through the wake of these hurricanes that has happened. I'm seeing it and it's thrilling my soul. It's helping me to know I've got several preacher friends that one I went to school with in particular is heading up a big old operation back there. We went to school together and he's back there and he's heading up this huge operation, tractor trailer loads of supplies and Bibles and tracts and food and water and all this stuff to go in and give to these people whose lives have been destroyed that they never would have been able to reach had the destruction not happened. I don't know about you, but it's helping me this morning. Knowing that all things work together for good to them who love God and to them who are the called according to His purpose. You say, preacher, but you don't know about my family. It doesn't matter about your family. All I know is I've got a God that can turn the captivity of Job into blessings and give him more than he started with on the beginning. But it didn't just give him more of the possessions. No, it gave him twice as much God. Because he had a deeper understanding of who God was. That's what he says in Job chapter 42 in the first six verses. He said, God, I realize I don't know nothing about you. But I want to. I don't know about you, but it excites me this morning. And I can't say I've got it. Trouble happens and I throw my hands up. Whoa, it's me. Nobody knows. The trouble I've seen. Oh, but to understand. I'm standing here today. And we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Sunday last week and what a joy it was. What a just a total thrill to my soul. We just celebrated our anniversary day here a month or so ago. And I was thinking about my mom and dad That if they had quit when times got hard, I would not have been here to celebrate that third anniversary and you would not have been here to celebrate that third anniversary. All because the faithfulness of some, it impacts the lives of many. What a joy. It is to be used of God. I believe Job says something like this in the Bible, Though he slay me still will I trust him. Boy, those are big words when he's doing the cutting. But if you desire to follow him, there will be days, mark it down, he'll conspire against you. It's going to happen. But just try to remember the old verse in Romans chapter 8. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to whose purpose? According to His purpose. The faster I learn this life is not about me, It's not about my opinion. It's not about what I think. It's not about what I feel. It's all about Him and what He says. What did He say about Job? And I know the Lord can't say it about me. I wish He could. But He can't say it about me that there's none like Him in all the earth. Because there's plenty like me and they're not very good. I know me. As Jeff Foxworthy says, I can talk about rednecks because I is one. Well, I can talk about rotten, good for nothing people because I is one without the help of God. God could say about Job, there's none like him. He's perfect and he's upright. He fears me. And he eschews evil. And in the midst of teaching Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz and all of the town that he's around, he went ahead and socked it to Satan right in the middle of it. Punched him right in the nose. Well, God, if you just take his stuff away, he's going to curse you. Well, God, if you just take all of his health away, destroy his family, and do all that, he'll curse you. And I can about hear God say, Satan, you've got no clue what you're talking about. He says, go ahead and try it, because there's nothing like Job. As I was coming out of the Casier Mountains, we were headed up into the Yukon. I was about to have a shouting spell right there in the truck. Because God began to remind me that the reason that I'm here today is not because of me. It's because I get to live out faith in front of you. And in front of this town and in front of my children, in front of my nieces and my nephews. That when they grow up, they would know that their uncle and their dad and their brother and their son has been destroyed so that they can see God. And that's your life as well. So that others can look at you and see the destruction God brings is for their benefit. You say, how do I get all this? You say, Lord, you're crazy. You're just insane. Is that not exactly what Christ did when he came? He was bruised for my transgressions, He was wounded for my iniquities. By His stripes we are healed. His whole purpose was to be destroyed so that I might live. I don't know about you, but that just, it makes me a little light in the feet. To think about a God in heaven that would be willing to be destroyed for somebody as wicked and as wretched as I am. And to know that even after he's saved, after he's called to preach, he's still going to have days that he's still wretched and he's still wicked and he's still problematic. But he looked at me anyway and he said, guess what? I'm willing for my life to be destroyed so that they might have life. and have it more abundantly. Let me ask you the question, do you really believe all things work together for good? It's easy saying hard living. Because you can say yeah now, but tomorrow when the world falls apart, what will your answer be then? It might be that God has to destroy your life for your children's sake, for your family's sake. For that person you've been praying for, it might be God has to destroy you in order for them to get it. Are you willing to be destroyed for others? When I began to think about the goodness of God and all the things He went through on my behalf, it made me realize just how much He loves me. And we've got a town that's watching our every move. We've got people that's listening. We've got people that's watching. I've got people right now in North Carolina that's watching our services and listening to our services that are praying about moving out here. Because they've heard our services and they've watched us and they've seen the things that's going on. And they said, this is what a guy told me the other day. He said, I want to be a part of something grand for God. I've never met this guy. I don't know this guy, but that's what he texted me out of the blue. He says I'm from North Carolina. Wanted to let you know I've been listening to y'all's services and thank you for what you do. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for sticking it out. Thank you for still being here because I'm desiring. We're middle aged, but I'm desiring. I got started late, but I'm desiring for God to do something grand in our life. And we want what you have at your church. I didn't do that. All I can do is make a big old mess. I heard a preacher, or listened to a preacher one time, he's reading a quote from, I forget his deal, Moody or Spurgeon or somebody. He said, when people bring accusations against you, don't fret at them because you're far worse than they imagined you to be. Guilty. God's doing something in Lander Independent Baptist Church. And it ain't because your preacher is something special. All it is, is because he's desiring for people to see some faithfulness through destruction. Why do bad things happen? Could be he's wanting bad things to happen so some good things can happen. Could be that he's desiring to tear you down so he can build you back up in front of everybody else. Because they're eating with Job at his house and they get to witness Job's faith first hand. And it says he blessed Job more at the end than at the beginning. It says he had sons and daughters once again. He lived to see those sons' sons. And it says his daughters, they was the fairest of the land. And Job never would have gotten to experience that if he would have jumped ship in Job chapter 1 and 2. He would have got the destruction, but he never got the rebuilding. There's so many that leave in the destruction that they never get to see the rebuilding. Thank God all things work together for good. Father,