If you have your Bibles with you today, I would ask you to turn to the book of Job. Job chapter 23 is where we will be taking our scripture lesson today. Those of you familiar with this book know that it is probably, I suppose, one of the greatest books in all the Bible to read when you are in the midst of a trial. This book is somewhat lengthy and we're picking up right in the middle in our reading today in the 23rd chapter of Job. A lot has gone on and a lot is yet to go on. And for time's sake, we won't say much about that. I hope that you have read this book multiple times. If not, I encourage you certainly to do so. But Job has been speaking with his friends about the trial that he is facing, we know. that terrible day in his life that changed absolutely everything. Before that, everything was going fine. He was a very wealthy man. He had children, and he had a wife, and he was respected in the community, and people looked at him as a man of God. Life was going pretty well for Job. Then, really in a moment, everything changed. His children died. His wealth was taken. Even his wife left, at least emotionally, she left him. His friends left, and these three friends come, Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz, and they're having this conversation, this discourse with Job. They're trying to help Job. I think if you were to ask them, they would say, we're just trying to help. They really weren't being a lot of help. They had apparently in their own estimation understood all that was going on And in their minds, Job had done something to deserve this trial that he was experiencing, that he was going through. They were talking to Job and saying, essentially, Job, what have you done? What have you done? What sin have you committed that has caused you to experience such an unimaginable trial? Something is wrong between you and the Lord, Job. And you need to find out what that is. This was their counsel. This was their advice. And Job is in the midst of this responding, and he does several times, and this 23rd chapter of Job is another response that Job gives to these friends of his. We'll just begin by reading it. He says, Then Job answered and said, and again, they've been explaining to him, trying to give him counsel, and they're saying, Job, you need to repent. You need to talk to the Lord. You need to find out what you've done is wrong. And Job answered, and he said, Today also my complaint is bitter. My hand is heavy on account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him. On the left hand, when he is working, I do not behold him, He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him. But He knows the way that I take. When He has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps. I have kept His way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips. I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food. But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him back? What He desires, that He does. For He will complete what He appoints for me, and many such things are in His mind. Therefore, I am terrified at His presence. When I consider, I am in dread of Him. God has made my heart faint. the Almighty has terrified me. Yet, I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face." Job, wrestling in the midst of his trial, attempting to explain to his friends his heart and his mind. His friends have in their own minds, as I've said, summed everything up and they have an answer to his question, if they would just, if Job would just listen to them, their thought was that he could make this right with God. Just something that you've done, Job, and something that they are trying to encourage him to remember, and yet Job in the midst of that is almost throwing up his hands and saying that I've done nothing to that accords with this trial that I am in the midst of. This 23rd chapter, it's in the heart of the debate and the discussion between Job and his friends. They're trying to get to the bottom of everything. They're trying to understand everything that was going on. They're trying to explain this and it appeared to Job that they had completely misdiagnosed the issues and he's trying to explain this to them. And again, remembering everything that had happened, from rich to poor, from father to childless, from husband to abandoned, from healthy to afflicted. And in the midst of this, his friends come and try to explain to him, and they're wrong in their assessment. But in the midst of this, they're having this discussion. And as I thought about this, and this is nothing no doubt that you have not considered perhaps as well. Job experiencing these trials, I don't know that any of us have ever experienced a trial like Job. The loss of everything in his life that seems in a temporary way to be the purpose of his life, his children, his wealth, his wife, his health, all of these things, they were taken in just in a moment, I mean just in a day, one messenger after another, after another, after another in the first chapter. of Job and all of his life. Everything was changed. Everything. Typically. When we have major life changes, as we go through them, maybe it's a health issue, maybe there's a family relational issue, maybe there's a financial issue. Often we face those things maybe one or two at a time, but usually there's something that anchors us, right? There's something that we can hold on to in this world that seems to say, well, at least that is normal. But in Job's situation, in just a matter of moments, as messengers came to him, His entire life and everything that made sense to him was turned upside down. And I don't know that we've ever experienced that, any of us individually, but someday we might. None of us are protected from this sort of possibility. It's all in God's hands. Though not on this scale, perhaps, we have all encountered trials. We often speak of walking through our trials, those of us that know the Lord, that have a relationship with Him. We talk about going through our trials with God and the strength that we get from that and the hope and the encouragement that we give to others who maybe are not living their life knowing the Lord. And we encourage them. They need to know Him. And we go through this life and we experience, those of us that know the Lord, we experience great comfort when we walk through our trials with God. But what I want to talk about today is when God is absent. God is never absent fully in the way that we think. But there are times, Job is an example here. where God is absent in the midst of his trial, at least apparently. It appears as though God is absent to Job. It appears to Job that God is silent. He cannot hear him. He cannot see him. He cannot sense his presence like no doubt he sensed in previous days in his life. In the midst of his joy, in the midst of his life that he was living before him, God was in the midst. He was a righteous man. Job feared God. And yet here he is in the greatest trial of his life and it appears as though God is absent. We often again talk about walking through the trials of our life with the Lord. We rightly state that if the Lord were not with us, we would not be able to weather the storms that we encounter through our lives. This is a blessed truth, a reality so wonderful that James even talks about our trials being a joy and a blessing because it draws us closer to God. Have you ever walked through a trial in your life and it's drawn you closer to God and the trial truly becomes sweet? It becomes something you are thankful for. God, I thank you for the trials you've given me. I thank you for the financial struggles, maybe, that I've gone through. I thank you for the health issues that I've endured because, God, it's brought me closer to you. But here, God seems to be absent in you. He can't sense him like he wants to sense him. When we think about our trials, what about the trials that we go through when God appears to be completely absent from us? What then? Never been there? Ever been in the midst of a trial? You may know God. You know Him. You can speak to Him. He has saved you. You've experienced the peace and the joy that comes in salvation, and you've prayed to Him before, and you've felt His Holy Spirit guiding and directing. You've read His Word, and you've felt Him as though He is right there with you, and you are reading His Word. It's like He is talking to you, and you've had that relationship, and it's been close, and as you go about your day, He is always there, and He's And you can hear Him and you can sense His presence and you gain strength from that. But have you ever been in the midst of a trial when you didn't sense that presence of God? And the helplessness that accompanies such a thing? What are we to do in those times? How are we to face those times in our life? Because according to this chapter and many others, Job is going through this trial, and he is crying out to God, and he says, and he admits, and he testifies, but I can't hear Him. I can't see Him. I can't sense Him. What are we supposed to do in those trials? What are we supposed to do when we face God's apparent absence? Maybe you feel that today. Maybe you are in the midst of a trial where you feel as though God is absent. Maybe you feel as though He's apathetic, He's uncaring, He's distant, and He does not care. What should you do at a time like this? Maybe you've experienced this sometime in the past. And maybe you didn't handle it well. Well, maybe we can learn from that. And maybe you're going to experience this in the days ahead. So maybe God just wants to plant a seed in our heart through the testimony of Job to show us what we are supposed to do in times in which we feel we are in the midst of a trial that we don't understand. We don't know where it's going. We don't know why we're experiencing it. And to make it worse, we can't sense God's direction. seem to hear his voice. We can't seem to connect with him the way that we would like. Some people are very afraid of a thought like this, and I will admit to fear myself. God's absence? Isn't God always present? Well sure, He is. But there are times, according to this scripture and the experience of Job, that He says to us, I don't know where He is. Maybe you've been there. Let's look together at what he did. Again, God's obvious, and in the eyes and the minds of Job, God's distance, his absence. Job's friends were encouraging him to go to God and repent. That's what they were saying again and again and again. Job, we've never seen anybody afflicted like you've been afflicted. You must have done something wrong. You need to go talk to the Lord. And Job says to them in the third verse, oh, that I knew where I might find him. He says to them, his response is, you give me this counsel, Job says, that I'm supposed to go to God. You give me this counsel as though somehow you think I'm trying to hide from God. He says, just the opposite is true. I'm looking for him. Oh, that I knew where I might find him. Can you hear the desperation in his voice? Can you hear the desire in Job's heart that he would find God, that he would know where he was, that he might hear from him again? Job looks at his friends and he says, you are counseling me as though you think I don't want to know that I want to hide from God, but that's not true. He says to them, oh, that I might know where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. He says to them, I'm trying to find God. I'm trying to hear. I'm listening with everything that is within me. And the only thing I hear from heaven is silence. The only thing I sense is the absence of God. And it terrified him. He looks at his friends and he says, you seem to think I'm interested in hiding when the truth is I desire with all of my heart to find Him. And His absence is the heaviest part of the burden that I'm bearing. It's the worst part of the trial that I'm walking through. I'm perplexed at my sudden poverty, he might be thinking. I ache for the loss of my children. I am broken over being abandoned by my wife, but worse than all of those things, I can't find God. I can't hear Him. I don't know where He is. You're telling me to go repent to Him, and I'm telling you I'm looking for Him. I can't find Him. He's gone from me, and I need Him now more than ever. And all of my life, as Job looks at these trials, all of these things are horrible, and the brokenness that he must have felt over all of the things, the loss of his health. I mean, this was a wretched individual. From the top of the mountain to just wretched. Lost everything. And his friends come and counsel him, you've done something wrong. And the error in their theology and in their thinking is that they think that because they're doing relatively well that God must be pleased with them and because Job has been so afflicted that he must be at odds with God when all of the blessings that we have are full and completely, fully and completely of grace. It's not of merit. I've shared that story with you one time very early in my working life out of college. I believe we were married, I'd been working for just a short amount of time and some good things that happened, I think with the buying of a house. I don't even remember the circumstance, but I just remember sharing some good news with a co-worker and she looked at me and said, you must be living well. You must be living right. And I thought even then, and I think even more now, it has nothing to do with how right I'm living. It's the blessing of God and His grace. And Job is wrestling with this and they're saying to him, you need to go to God. And he says, I'm trying to find him. In fact, in the fourth through the seventh verses, he says, I'm looking for him in the third verse in the fourth. He goes on. I would lay my case before him. I would love to speak to God about this trial, but he's absent. He's silent. He appears to me to be missing, but if I could find him, I would lay my case before him and I would talk to God about my trial. I would talk to him about my heartache over my children. I'd talk to him about the loss of my health and my friends and my family and my wealth and all of these things. And I would lay my case before him and listen to what he says. I would fill my mouth with arguments. He would talk to God and he would say, God, why is this going on? What have I done? I have lived before you. He said, I would fill my mouth with arguments. I would talk to God. I would explain to him what I'm thinking if I could indeed find him. And he said, would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. Job had this confidence that if he could just connect with God, if I could just but get to him, I would tell him all that is in my heart and I would tell him everything that has happened to me and he would pay attention to me. And he goes on and he says, there an upright man could argue with him and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. He's looking at his friends and saying, if I went before God, you're telling me to repent. I would go to God and say, God, I know of nothing that I need to repent for that is for this trial that I'm enduring. And he said, and if I got to God, he would acquit me. He would judge me innocent. You remember the challenge between Satan and God in the first chapter of Job? Find a man who would not curse God. And God says to Satan, have you considered Job? Satan responds and he said, well yeah, Job serves you. Look what everything you've done for him. He's rich, he has a family, he's well esteemed, he has his health, he has absolutely everything that he could possibly want. Of course he honors you and serves you, God. Why wouldn't he? And so we know then the story and it continues. And God allows Satan to first take his family and his wealth, but he doesn't allow him to touch his health. And then even then he allows him to take his health from him And Job says, if I were to come to Him and speak to Him, He would acquit me of all this, because an innocent man can contend with God. Now why this confidence though? Because this is important. Why this confidence in Job? Because he knew. He knew that he was right before the Lord. He had examined his heart. He had searched it. He had looked at his life. I believe there is even scriptures in this discourse and these internal thoughts of Job. He'd searched his heart. Have I done something? Is there something, God, that I have not repented of? And there was nothing. Often we don't experience the joys and the blessing that Job did because in our trials we're not willing to admit that there is indeed sin that needs to be taken care of. We don't get to that place, but Job had this confidence. And why did he ultimately have this confidence? He told us why in the 19th chapter. 25th verse says, Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives and that I am going to see Him in the latter day. Job had this confidence. How can he have this confidence? He says, if I found God, I know that he would come and he would acquit me. He would declare me innocent. There an upright man could argue with him and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Job was confident in his position before God because he knew that his righteousness did not depend upon himself, but it depended upon Christ. In Christ's righteousness, the Son of God, the Redeemer, the one who would come, this Redeemer Job was talking about and would be his righteousness, the upright man that Job was speaking of. I don't believe Job was thinking of himself. I believe he said the upright man, speaking of his Redeemer, can argue and contend with God. The upright man, again, that Job spoke of in verse 7, that could, quote, argue with God, is Christ, the Redeemer. Job's advocate. And yours and mine. The only advocate that there is between God and man is Jesus. He's the only one. So I ask you again, have you ever been here where Job is? Have you ever been in the midst of a trial Everyone around you, again, you've been to this place, everyone around you seems to be speaking for God. When you can't hear Him, you can't sense Him, and all the while you know these things you are hearing from those around you who are not even enduring the trial that you're going through. As they speak words, they're speaking in ignorance at best and foolishness at worst. Everyone around you seems to have a direct line to God, and you're the one in the trial. You cannot sense Him, you cannot feel Him, and you cannot hear Him. What are you to do? First, you need to keep looking for Him. You need to keep looking for Him. In verse 8, Job says, I go forward, but He's not there. and backward, but I do not perceive Him. On the left hand, when He is working, I do not behold Him. He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him. In the midst of these times when we don't sense the presence of God in our life, we need to do as Job did here and at least continue to search and look and look everywhere. Perhaps God has moved somewhere. Perhaps he has moved and he's in front of us spiritually and in this emotional and in the spiritual sense, God has moved and we've stayed back. Maybe he's called us to move to something. Maybe he's called us to repentance in the first place and to come to know him, to be saved. Maybe he's moved there and you've remained. Maybe you already know him and he's called you to something in your life and he's moved forward somewhere. He's moved past and yet you have drug your feet. You have stayed and you have stopped and you've not walked with him where you were supposed to, and so you need to look forward. And Job says, I went forward, I looked ahead. Did I miss something? Was I supposed to do something? Was I supposed to go somewhere? And he says, but he's not there. Maybe I've moved forward and he stayed, and I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to. And so he goes, and I went backward. Maybe he's to the right or to the left. And he says, I've looked all around, and he's not there. But we need to keep Looking in God's silence, we need to continue to look for him. Whatever the issue is, you must be determined to make sure you have not walked away from God, that through ignorance or intention or outright sin, you've not strayed from him. When you can't sense him, search for him. When you can't sense God in your life, search for him, your life depends on it. Your eternity depends on it, and your life here depends on it. You can't sense Him. If you can, listen, if you can live your life, if you can go through your day never feeling a sense of a need for God, if you can live your life exactly, if you would live your life exactly the same way, whether or not you are connected with God, you're not connected with Him. If you can go through your days and never have a thought for the fact that you are in desperate need of a connection with God, you need to stop everything and start there, because there's the foundation upon which everything else needs to be built. Because if you don't build it on that foundation, the storms that are coming are going to knock down everything in your life and you're not going to have anything left. Where is he? He's there. But if you don't sense Him, you need to be searching for Him. Don't ignore that fact. Don't say that this is okay, it's just a normal process of life, and we have spiritual ups, and we have downs, and we surf revivals, and we go from one exciting emotional experience, maybe, and then a down time, and then we're back, and we're kind of, something new happens, maybe some new preacher, somebody who actually can speak well and eloquently comes along, He speaks to us, and we feel a connection with God, and we get all excited again, and then life hits, and we go back down into the valley, and we just do this rollercoaster ride, and when we're down in the valley, we say, you know what, it's just the way it is. Most of the time, you're not really connected with God. These people who talk about really being in fellowship with the Lord, they're lying. I don't believe them because I don't experience that. If you don't experience that, then look for Him. Maybe he's in front, maybe he's in back, maybe he's right to the left. You need to look for him. And Job was searching diligently. Oh, that I knew where he was. He's absent, he's silent, and I don't understand why. And I'm looking for him. You're telling me I need to find him, and I'm telling you, yeah, I know that. But all too often, we get wrapped up in the world when God seems to be silent. and the vacuum in our heart gets filled with the things of this life rather than with God. And then we go from one thing to another, to another, to another. Oh, that I knew where He was. Verse 9, He says, On the left and on the right I've looked. In verse 10, though, He says, What else should we do? We should look. Secondly, we should remember that God knows exactly where we are. He knows, He says in the 10th verse, He knows the way that I take. In the midst of this trial, when we don't feel a sense of God like we desire to feel, in the midst of that silence. And maybe that silence lasts a day, maybe it lasts a portion of a day, maybe it lasts a week, maybe it lasts a month, maybe it lasts longer. I pray that it doesn't. But for however long that it's taking, we need to be searching for him. And in the midst of his silence, we need to continue to remember. We need to continue to believe. We need to continue to understand that though I might not sense him, he knows exactly where I am. I am not hidden from him. My trouble is not hidden to his eyes. My heartache is not unknown to his heart. He knows. In the midst of all of this, he continued to believe, he continued to trust, he continued to contribute to God, or attribute to God his omniscience. Think about the significance of this. In the very midst of the trial, when all his friends and even his wife had left him, when Job could not sense God's presence, when there appeared to be no evidence of God's protection, provision, and care, he still believed. Do you see that? In the midst of the absence of God, Job still believed. We'll get to more of this to the end, but we feel like we need to say this to temper maybe our thoughts about this. God's absence is not forever, but there are times that He's going to seem absent to us. And in those times, we need to do as Job did. Number one, look and search diligently. Examine our own hearts. Secondly, we need to remember that though I'm not sure where He is, He knows where I am. Now listen again. There's massive implications for us. If we could settle in and dwell on this one thought, When God appeared absent, when God appeared apathetic, Job continued to believe in Him. I wonder, this was an arrow that struck me right in the heart, right in the forehead, however you want to say it. I wonder how much of our faith actually depends on sight. How much of our faith actually depends upon the blessings. that God has given to us? And how would we face these times of silence and absence of His presence? How much of our faith rests in the blessings He's given? Massive implications for us to think about. Think about it. We believe in God when He sends healing for our sicknesses. provision for our troubles, guidance in our lives, but what about the times when He's absent, when the sickness remains, when the provision disappears, when God seems to be nowhere to be found? What then? Where's your faith then? Where's mine? a tribute to God, His character that you know and have been taught in the midst of these times. 13th verse as we move on. In the midst of these trials where God seems absent, we also need to remember that He is provident over everything. He is in control. Verse 13, He's unchangeable, Job says. Who can turn Him back? What He desires, He does. In the midst of these trials, we need to remember that all that happens is in accord with His providence. And there's a mystery here, and we wrestle with this mystery often, even in our Bible studies and in our conversations and our discussions. This mystery between God's providence and His will and our freedom of choice and our humanness that He's given to us to choose, unlike any other created thing. The depth of Job's spiritual maturity in the midst of this trial should be something we all strive to obtain. You want to know where you are spiritually. What would you do in the midst of this kind of a trial? And we need to strive for Job's maturity. He's searching for him. He knows God knows where he is, even though he's confused at the time. And then he also knows, look, this is happening. God's in control. He's unchangeable. Nobody can change his ways. What he desires, that's what he does. And again, in the backdrop of all of this, and it perhaps doesn't need to be said, but remember, Job was not sent a notice from God. Hey, Job, you're going to go through a trial. Satan has challenged me. I've chosen you. Good luck. It's not what happened. Job had no idea of this conversation between Satan and God. Everything just changed. He didn't know why. He didn't know that he'd done anything to deserve this specifically. He's going through this trial. And yet what does he do? He says, I don't know what's going on. I can't sense him. I can't hear him. But he knows where I am and I know he's providential. Job's been thrust into this trial. He's been abandoned again by those he loves. He's been accused by those he's called friend of all kinds of terrible things. Worst of all, he can't hear, see, or sense or perceive God in the midst. He's searched for Him. He knows God knows where He is. But for some reason, he's chosen to withhold His presence. And yet still, Job says, it's all according to his providential hand. I am His to do with as He pleases. Do you really think that about God? Do you really think that about God? God, I am Yours to do with as You please. My life is not my own. It's been bought with a price. Therefore, God, help me to glorify You, whatever the road might be. It's as though he throws up his hands in resignation of his own wisdom and in his submission to God. And it's a beautiful thing to see and to behold. He lets go of his own wisdom. He's resigned to the fact that God is in control somehow. And I don't see it and I don't understand it. And the worst part of it is he's not answering me when I call. When I stand out and I throw rocks at his window to try to get his attention, I don't get anything in response. There's seemingly one-way communication that's going on. I'm calling upon him all the time, and I really want an answer to what's going on in my life. But every time I knock on the door, every time I bow up on my knees, every time I cry to him and say, God, I just want to... hear your voice, I want to tell you what's going on in my heart, I want you to understand what's going on in my mind, so that you then could speak to me, so that I could understand, and yet it's just dead silence. Just deafening silence, it's all that he hears. What would you do in those moments? What do we do in those moments defines our spiritual maturity and the path that we're gonna take. Because do you know what's going to happen in this world? This is, by the way, why you need to keep this book open in front of you every day. It's why you need Christian friends in your life. It's why you need others to come and to carry you along at times. Because if you don't have those things in your life, the world is going to fill that vacuum. And you know what they're going to tell you? God isn't even real. They're going to say, he doesn't exist. You can't, in those moments when you can't hear from him, you're going to be susceptible to that nonsense. You're going to be susceptible to this absolute insanity that all of this just somehow cosmically happened by accident. And that your life somehow doesn't make any real sense. You're going to die and you're just this carbon-based life form in this dirt that's going to go back and that's it. And that insanity and silliness is going to make sense to you. And you're going to buy it. And then you're going to make decisions in your life. And you're going to stop looking for God. You're going to stop listening for God. You're going to stop putting people around you that remind you to look for Him. Habits are a powerful thing. Make it habitual in your life to read this book, to pray, to be with friends who know Him and desire to honor Him in their life. It's just so critical for you and so important for you to do that. Because there's going to be times when he just seems absent. And you know he's not. Right? You know he's there. You know that there's not a step that you take. There's not a hair that falls out of your head. There's not a scratch on your hand that he does not observe. You know that about him. But for whatever reason, there's silence right now. What should I do? Keep looking? Keep praying. Remember, He is providential over everything. And then may that understanding, may those things lead to where it led Job. He goes on, and listen to him. Does this sound like the God that so much of, quote, Christianity in our culture today talks about? Because the God that so many talk about today, and actually, I don't want to be too hard on this. I believe there are a lot of people who know the Lord and are really trying to serve him. But I also believe that Satan has a counterfeit. And I believe there's a lot of people that paint God like that benevolent grandpa that always has a piece of candy and he's just interested in your happiness. They can't explain Job with that idea of God. That God is somehow our servant rather than we being his. Somehow God's our creation rather than we being his. Because listen to what Job says about this. In the 15th verse, he talks about all these things. Then he says, therefore, because of all of these other things, I'm terrified at his presence. I know who he is, and I'm terrified at his presence. When I consider, I'm in dread of him. You want to know why so many are not in dread of God like we ought to be? Because we don't do the first part of that phrase. We don't consider. We don't think. We don't stop and think. Our ideas of our certainty of our own life and our confidence that tomorrow will come, we forget and we don't consider and we're not in dread of God. It goes on in the 16th verse, God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. Job is confused. He is heartbroken. He is destitute. He is desperately desiring God's presence. But do you know what he never does? He never curses God. Never. And that was the challenge. A lot of people misunderstand. They think Job's challenge was to be perfect and to be sinless. He wasn't. The challenge specifically from Satan to God, you take your protecting hand away from him and he'll curse you. Job never did that. And why is this important? Because I think sometimes when we experience trials like this and we go through difficulties and we knock and we pound on the door of God and say, God, I need to hear from you. And then we get into this place that is so, so very dangerous. called entitlement. God, you owe me an answer. God, I call you to account, to tell me and explain to me what you are doing, and I somehow am your master. That's what people can often get to. They get mad and angry at God, don't they? Don't we? God, I've just tried to serve you, and here's all this that we get in response. God, you have to answer to me. Job says, you could have gone down that path that so many have gone down, and then they shake their fist at God, and they say, I will not serve you because I will not abide this trial that you've put in my life, and they don't know that the blessing down that road that they just endure and just tremble and fear and be reverent to God that one day it will all be well. Listen, a thousand years from right now, it's going to all be well for me. Ten thousand years from right now, it's going to be well. Ten million years It's going to be well. And in the midst of those trials, Satan wants to grab our minds and our hearts and focus upon that trial and then call God to account. Rather than coming to a place of he's provident, he's God. And I faint and I tremble at his presence because I'm his. And there is nothing that can stand before Him yet. And it closes in the 17th verse, and it's one of those times, by the way, I think in Scripture, we know that the chapters and the verses weren't original in the Scripture, and really, you just need to keep reading. But we're gonna end with this chapter as they've ended it, because there's actually a beautiful picture. You know, in this darkest storm, and this chapter ends like there's just this little ray of light One ray of light. It's like in this terrible dark sky with storms and lightning. It's like somehow the clouds in one little place open up and the sun shines through in verse 17. Because he says, yet, yet I'm not silenced because of the darkness. Nor, or not because thick darkness covers my face. He says, yes, I tremble. I don't understand. I tremble before this God. But that does not mean he does not hear my voice. I call upon him and I approach him in boldness because of my Redeemer. Because Jesus Christ, right? Do you understand what he's saying in these scriptures when Jesus says, I am standing at the right hand of God making intercession for you? Put your name there. I know that's a silly thing to think about sometimes, but Jesus, Jesus is interceding on your behalf to God. And so Job says, He will not hear me silent. I will call upon Him until I hear from Him. And maybe that's today. Maybe that's a week. Maybe that's the rest of my life. I don't believe that will happen, but maybe. In your dread, in the dread, yet in the midst of all that, the faintheartedness, remember that your advocate is there with God to argue your case. And do not be silent. There have been times in my life where I've experienced these things and I've not endured the trial like I should. In fact, my percentage is probably pretty poor in the way I face trials. But there have been times where On my knees, just call out to God and say, please, listen to the one who is interceding for me. Hear him on my behalf. Because my righteousness is as filthy rags to you, but his shines as the bright noonday sun. And he will be the light of the city, so do not look upon me, but look upon him. And in his grace and in your grace and mercy, restore me through this trial. but help me not to curse you, to disbelieve you, to say anything that would discourage others. It's a terrible dreadful thing to stand behind anything and preach the Word of God because it's just a big old target. And anytime you share your faith with someone else, Satan's going to paint a target over you. But it does not mean that we have to walk on eggshells and be in fear because it's not our righteousness, our strength that we depend on. It's His. But in the midst of this dread, we must not remain silent. Call out to Him. Cry out to Him. Keep banging on the door. Keep throwing the rocks at the window. Keep bowing your knee. Keep searching for Him. Go before, go to the right, go to the left. Find Him. Search for Him. Put everything else in your life on hold. It can wait. Don't talk about the texting, don't text and drive. It can wait, it's true. Everything else in your life, everything else in your life can wait if you're not right with God. Everything else can wait. It can all be put on the back burner. It must be put on the back burner and you must come to God and say, Lord, I've got nothing. I have nothing to offer you but my heart and I give it to you. And I don't care if you're silent. I'm going to keep giving it to you. I don't care if I don't hear from you tomorrow. I'm going to keep living for you. I'm going to keep telling people that you are the greatest and the most almighty and the loving and benevolent Father, that I know you to be. Help me not to fill that void with bitterness toward you, but more and more love and respect and reverence. The absence of God, it's real. But do not make the mistake that God's absence, don't mistake God's absence for His indifference, or allow our secular culture to convince you to dismiss Him. We all know the end for Job, blessed twofold. Our end will be similar if we hold fast to our faith in God, our trust of God, and our submission to God, even if He might appear absent for a time. In fact, And I'll close with this. It's a thought that the Lord put on my heart as we were driving here. We often hear things more clearly in the storm than we ever do in the calm. God can tell us things in the storm that we would never hear in the calm seas of life. Has He been silent? Has He been silent to you and for you? Search for Him. Keep seeking Him. He is there. You know He's real. Find Him and restore. Maybe if you've been saved, restore that relationship. If you're lost, find it for the first time.