Being Anxious About Nothing

Lord, in your presence is fullness of joy, as Aline shared, and it's life everlasting. I pray you would guide the words that are shared, and edify and encourage, and that you would speak to us, and that we would grow thereby in Jesus' name. Amen. We spend a lot of our lifetime thinking about what we're going to eat, and what we're going to wear, and where we're going to live. Probably most of our efforts are put into these kinds of decisions, and about working so that we can provide for ourselves, and for our family, and for others, where we're going to live, who's going to pay the rent, what we're going to eat, you know, who's going to go shopping, who's going to prepare it, are we going to get some skip the dishes, or what's going to happen, what we're going to wear, the kids shoes are wearing out, and how we're going to afford all that. But the Lord says in the scriptures that the Gentiles also seek after these things, and that we as believers are not supposed to make that our focus, because the Lord knows what we need, but the word is to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And he says all these other things will be added unto us. You know, yesterday we got the phone call that our managers are quitting in Prince George, and immediately anxiety wants to come, and want to start to think, well, you know, how am I going to fix this? But the scripture is very clear that we're to be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let's make our requests to God. The Lord knows what we need, and he knows exactly what he's going to do, and so we don't have to panic. You know, in this world we're going to have trouble. We're going to have tribulations. People are going to be upset with us. Sometimes it's going to be our fault, and sometimes it's going to be because of the gospel state. But one thing we know for certain, that the Lord is going to work all these things together for our good, because we love God, and we're called according to his purpose. The word of God says don't think it's strange concerning fiery trials that come to trials, as though some strange thing is happening to you, but he calls us to rejoice to the extent that we're partakers of Christ's sufferings. So our response to trials is either a pass or a fail, and in God's eyes, a pass and a fail is different than the world's eyes. A pass is 50 percent. In God's eyes, a pass is 100 percent, and so we have to overcome. Overcoming isn't just getting by. When the Lord allows trials in our life, what is the purpose of the trial for? To show us those things that are in our hearts. So if I'm bitter with a sister, or I'm angry with a brother, those things are not stirred up unless there's something that manifests with that sister or that brother. And then God gives me a snapshot of it, and I can see that I have a problem internally. Now I can blame, and I can say what those brothers said, or what that sister said is wrong, you know, or they did this to me, and how dare they do that to me, but then I just look in the mirror, and what can I see? The problem is with me. God allowed the trial in my life to show me my issue before him, and if I want to get right with him, then I need to humble myself, because I will never get grace to overcome unless I humble myself, and I start to pray, and I start to seek his faith, and I start to turn from my wicked ways. That's when he's going to hear from heaven. That's when he's going to forgive my sin. That's when I'm going to find healing. You know, sometimes we think we're righteous because we threw our smokes away, right, or we don't masturbate anymore, or look at porn. We say, oh, you know, we're really good folks, but you know what the Pharisees, they weren't doing those things, but they were lovers of money, and you know what, it says you can't serve God and money. The love of money is idolatry. You worship another God, and if we worship another God, we're going to find ourselves across the chasm in a very dark and deep place if we don't get this thing in this order right. A brother's act says money is a wonderful servant or a good tool, but it's a terrible master. If money is your head, and you're driven by money, everything in your heart beckons you on to earn more, and discontentment, and everything revolves around it, then our problem is not with God. Our problem is with ourselves, and then if we find our prayers, what's good is if you take a tape recorder, and you pray out loud, and you put your tape recorder on, and then just forget that it's there, and start listening to your prayers. Lord, Lord, you know we need money. Look at our bills. Look at the managers are quitting. Look at those units are not rented out. Look at all the stuff that went wrong. Our shoes are all wearing out. Where are we going to get money for the kids shoes? How are we going to send them to school? How are we going to afford all these things? I need to get a second job. I need to go and get a third job, and all our focus then begins on ourselves, and praying about ourselves, and all selfishness is manifested in our prayers. What kind of Jesus are we praying to? One that's dead? One that doesn't own anything? One that doesn't own the cattle on a thousand hills? One that is deaf that can't understand that we have needs that need to be met? And so what do we do? We spend most of our time focused on that, and then we say, oh and Lord, if you can do anything with our lost family, with our lost friends, with our lost children, and then we get back on, Lord, you know, like we got to get some money coming in. Bring some jobs. I remember when we were young in the Lord, my friend Jason and I, we had no work. NDP had ruined everything. We said, well it's time to seek the Lord. The Lord has brought us to our knees. We have no work. We have no money. We were young in the Lord. We got on our knees. I think it's the only time me and Teagan got on our knees, praying that the Lord would give us jobs. And the Lord answered Teagan's request. The next day, he got a job working with the excavator at a pit, cleaning out ponds. And that, from that time, was the last time that we got on our knees and asked the Lord to have mercy on us and to help us, because he had met our natural needs, but yet our spiritual needs are far greater. We should have got together and started to pray for spiritual needs, because the God of the universe cares about all of our needs, yet we don't seek him first. And I said to myself after that day, I said, Lord, even though you desire to provide for us and to meet our natural needs, that I won't forget about you when times turn good, that I'll remember you more often when the food is on the table and the bread is in the oven, and there's good times, prosperous times, that we would remember the Lord even in those times. But many people, they forget the Lord in prosperous times, as the children of Israel did many times. When there was leanness in their souls, and when they lacked bread and they lacked water, they cried out to the Lord, and the Lord answered them. And then when he gave them bread from heaven to eat, and he gave them meat to eat in the evening, and he brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, and he gave them cities that they had not built, and he blessed them, and he prospered them, then they began to pick up one by one the gods of the nations, and he began to serve them. And you know, we see today the gods of the nations, they look different. Yes, we can have a Buddha, and people can bow down and worship the Buddha, or we can put gurus on the wall, right, or we can pray to Muhammad and all that. But you know what? We worship money. We love pleasures. We find ourselves being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And what happens in our fellowship? We have a form of godliness. We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't swear, but inside is dead man's bones. And we get upset at those who drink, smoke, and swear, but ourselves have no life. And so we try to keep a stiff upper lip, and what do we do? We search the scriptures. We might memorize scriptures. We might clean and wash outwardly, and we might find ourselves as whitewashed tombs. But inside, what about the inside, where you can't get at? You can't get at the inside. You can only get at the outside. We can make everything all beautiful on the outside, but inside is dead man's bones. We can search the scriptures, thinking in them we have life, but we won't come to Jesus to have the life. We want to remain in control. We want to be Lord. We want to sit in the throne. We confess with our mouth Jesus, but our lives are surrounded around self. What about myself? What about my needs? What about what I want? And in the marriage, we take it in the marriage. Well, you're not interested in my needs. You're not meeting my needs. What do I want? Whether it be husband or wife. You're not doing your job. You're not doing your role. You're not doing this. You're not doing that. Brother, sister, look in the mirror. The problem is not with them. It's with you. If you make yourself of no reputation, and you don't have expectations of people, then you will be at peace with all men. If you just say, you know what, I have zero expectation of my husband or my wife. I have zero expectation of my brother or my sister. Then there's no reason to get offended. You know, the other thing is we have absolutely zero reason to be offended. First off, if we forgive our brother his trespasses against me, then our Heavenly Father is going to forgive us. But if we hold something against our brother or sister, then we're going to find out that we're going to find ourselves in a prison. We're going to find ourselves in bondage. Our hearts are going to become hardened. And what will happen then? He's going to send the tormentors, so we can sit in a church, and we can be in total torment, because we will not release someone their trespass against us. Then our Heavenly Father will say, you sit there with your demons, and you're bound in fetters and unforgiveness until seven times passes, and you go and claw on the ground and eat grass. So be it until you can humble yourself and look up. May the Lord give us understanding in these things. We don't have a right to hold anybody to any kind of grudge, because how much has God forgiven us? If you pile up all your grudges on a napkin, and then you pile up all your dung and your garbage that you've committed crimes against Christ, if you actually would get the veil removed, then you could see how much crimes we've committed against Christ. You know what? I think if we would sit down and write a napkin, all of the crimes we've committed against Christ, we'd probably have one or two. In our own heads, we think we've committed small, small, small offenses against Christ, compared to all this long napkin that we have of offenses that others have committed against us. But we have a wrong understanding of our crimes that we've committed against Christ. And when we get a right understanding that we've sinned against Heaven and against Him, why do we have to commit adultery before we get light on ourselves? Why can't we see in the mirror exactly our true state? Why don't we get some discernment? If we would all look inward, and my people who are called by my name, God says, will humble themselves. You know, when we get together to pray, you know what begins to happen? We begin to pray from the heart, because what begins to manifest as we begin to pray, we're really at spiritually. Thank you, Lord, I'm not like brother here, who committed sins again yesterday. We can't be like that. Thank you, Lord, I'm a whitewashed tomb. That's what I'm hearing. And that's what God hears. Why don't we just be genuine? Why don't we just be honest? You know, God sees it as it is. We need to get light on it so we can see it as He sees it. Then there'll be no boasting in His presence. Why should we boast? Are we so great? Are we so holy? Have we attained to something in the flesh? What does Paul say? All things that were gained to me, we shared on this last week, these I have counted lost for Christ. You know what was gained to him? You know what he wrote on his napkin when he got light? All his righteous requirements that he obeyed, for reputation's sake. All the good things that he had done, and all these things that he had done for all those Pharisees and all those brothers, and how he was exceedingly more zealous against the church and against Christ. He got light on himself that he was doing it for men and he was doing it for his own self-reputation. He was holding himself to a cause that was the devil's cause. And when he got light on it, he said, all these things I count as done that I might gain Christ. He had known all about Him in searching the scriptures all his life until he met Jesus on Damascus Road. And then he found life. Can you imagine being Ananias, hearing the Holy Spirit say, I want you to go to street called Straight, there's a man there. I want you to lay your hands on him and pray for him that he might receive his sight and that he might receive the Holy Ghost. Can you imagine hearing that? I would say, this is a thought from the devil. Absolutely not. In Jesus' name, get thee behind me, Satan. He's going to throw me in the jail, and I'm going to save my life. No, he knew the voice of God. That's why God spoke to him. He told the Lord, this man has done the church much harm. And the Lord rebuked him. And he said, listen, this man, one Saul of Tarsus is a chosen vessel of mine, and he will suffer many things for the things he's done. I'm going to show him how much he's going to suffer for my name sake. But you, be obedient. You know, when God calls you to something, be obedient. Because if you're not obedient, then God will call someone else. And if that guy's not obedient, he'll call someone else. I remember Reinhard Bonnke one time sharing in his testimony, the Lord called him to go to Africa or wherever he went there to preach the gospel. And he said, Lord, it's such a privilege that you called me to go and to be a minister to those people there. And he said, the Lord spoke to him, and he said, you are my third choice. He said, choice number one, and choice number two said, no, you are my third choice. And when I heard that, it gave me conviction. I said, Lord, if you prompt me to be obedient to something, help me to obey quickly, to be a man who loves God who obeys quickly, not dragging our feet, not reasoning it out in our heads. Faith has nothing to do with reason. Faith has everything to do with a walk that you cannot see where you're going. Abraham, he was called of God to leave his family and relatives. And in the process of time, he obeyed God, not knowing where he was going. That's what faith is, not knowing what's going to happen when you get there. But once you get your feet moving, you get more instructions along the way and you get more light. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the rhema word of God. This word is the written word. We call this the logos, the logos word. It's good. In them, the words of eternal life are written. But unless those things are acted upon by faith, they won't become life in the inner man. And so the translation from the head to the heart is the distance between heaven, hell and heaven. Hell and heaven, 18 inches. May the Lord give us understanding in these things. We cannot reason through the scriptures. We have to walk by faith and not by sight. For by grace, brothers, you have been saved through faith, not through works. It's not of yourselves. It's a gift from God. Lest any man should what? Boast. So when we walk by faith and God does miracles, where can we boast? We cannot boast. But if we go do something great, like Naaman the leper wanted to do something great, and instead he just told him the man of God sent his servant to go tell him to wash. How humbling is that? You come as a mighty commander of a Syrian army perhaps and you're there and you're waiting for the man of God to show up and you want him to put his hands on you and to heal you. And then he sends his low force out. He sends his servant out. Some hired hand comes out there and he says, yeah, my master sent me and he told you just go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan, you know, and God will cleanse you. What? Doesn't he know who I am? How offended he could have been. It was a test on to Naaman. He got so angry. But you know what? Some of the servants who were with him calmed him down. You know, the interesting thing is he was able to listen to his servants. He listened to the advice of his servants and he humbled himself and he listened to the Elijah's servants. We need to be humble enough to listen to the servants of God so that we can get instruction from God. Because sometimes we think we're hearing, we want to hear from God directly and God is speaking to donkeys. God is speaking through the least likely person, sometimes through our children, sometimes through an unbeliever. He's spoken to me through an unbeliever. I've gotten light on myself. It matters not the person or the thing that God uses to speak. What matters is, is are we humble enough to hear? The problem is our pride. Our pride keeps us from knowing God. We know about God, but we don't come to know God because we seem to be something and we want to maintain our reputation among the brothers. But if we can become of no reputation, if we can say I count all things lost for the excellence of knowing him, not knowing about him, but knowing him. I think of Job. Job, he was a man who was righteous. He was so righteous that even when his children would go and have a banquet and a party together, maybe they would drink wine in a house, all the brothers and sisters would get together. Job was concerned that perhaps in their And he made sacrifices for his children that perhaps if some one of them said something against God in ignorance while they were drinking wine and having a ha-ha and having a good time, that God would pass over those things. And God points out Job to Satan and he says, you notice my servant Job, he is righteous. And the Satan says, well, is he righteous for nothing? You've blessed him. You have a hedger on him. We can't touch him. That's very interesting that nothing can come into your life that God does not allow. If you're walking faithfully with the Lord, if something has been allowed in your life to shake you or to try you, God has allowed it for a purpose for you to get light on yourself so that you might know him better and more, to know his will and his ways. Heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. Where is the house that we will build for him? Where is the place of our rest? God never asked for a house when he was on the earth, yet he permitted them to move around in a tent, in a tabernacle. It was very specific how it was created, but he allowed Solomon to build him a house. But he told David, he said, one coming from your own body will make me a house. He wasn't speaking of Solomon there. He was speaking of Christ. Moses was faithful in all his house, in the same way Jesus is faithful to build himself a house for God. You are God's house. You are God's building. You, a follower of God who, where the Holy Spirit dwells, has become the temple of the living God. As God said, I'm not going to get you to go build me a temple in the natural Jerusalem, but in the heavenly Zion, I'm making you a house. I'm knitting you together into a spiritual tabernacle, both individually and corporately. We need to be knit together in the spirit. Job, it was allowed by Satan to touch Job's family and his possessions. In one day, he lost all his possessions. In one day, he lost all his children. Only his wife was there who said, curse God and die. And you know what? He had a fear of God, and he was righteous before God. He said that you speak as a foolish woman speaks. Has the Lord not only given, but now he's taken away. He said, I am not going to sin with my mouth. I will bless the Lord. This is a man who deals with integrity. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The word says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be on my lips. Can you praise the Lord in adversity? Can you praise the Lord in tough times? When it says in James 1, count it all joy when you face various trials in the testing of your faith. It produces perseverance and patience. We have to allow this kind of work in our lives to perform its perfect work, so that we can become complete and mature spiritually, lacking nothing. Because what if there would be a brother or sister come among us, and they're not growing as fast as we think they should grow. And God sees that we've been faithful with the unrighteous man, and he entrusts us with the true riches, which are the people in the kingdom of God. And then we haven't learned patience in overcoming trials with natural things. And you know what you'll do? You'll go to a brother. You'll go to a sister, and you'll tell them exactly how you experienced them. You'll point out all their flaws to them. You won't give them time for God to convict them. You'll be the junior Holy Spirit, and you'll grab them. They might be sticking out of the ground, maybe three inches. You'll grab them, and you'll say, time to grow, buddy. And you'll just rip them right out by the roots. This is not the right way in which we lead. God wants to take us deeper than this. He wants us to learn His ways. So therefore, He's allowing us to still deal with the unrighteous mammon. We still have to deal with the unrighteous things and be found faithful with those things, because if we're unjust in little things, then we'll also be unjust in other things. And if we're still selfish for mammon and money and me and mine, then we're going to see people as belonging to us. The people do not belong to us. There's one good shepherd, and we are the sheep of His pasture. But He puts stewards over top of His sheep, and He says to feed them and to give them drink and to give them food at the proper time. But if we take a stick and we start to beat them because they're not toying the line, or that we start to give them the stick because they're not doing what we think they should be doing by now, then we're in danger of losing our stewardship. We're in danger of being stripped of our stewardship, being cut in half, and being our portion with the unbelievers. When it says cutting them in two, you know what I see there? I see that's a covenant. It's between a husband and a wife. When the husband and wife are separated, it's like they're cut in two. This is not a good thing. This happened to us with our fellowship because I was not a good steward, and the Lord allowed the fellowship to be cut in two, and we suffered many things from it. In Israel, in Solomon's day, things went sideways. The kingdom of Israel was cut in two, right? There was Judah, and then there was all of Israel. And so God wants to restore these things, but in the process of time, there's consequences for sin. How about also cutting in two? Speaking of Christ in the church, He is our head, and we're the body. And so if we are not faithful stewards, then we're going to find ourselves severed from Christ. May it never be, because it says, the one who knew the master's will, right, and did things deserving of stripes will be beaten with many blows. This is where the Lord deals with us. But the one who did not know shall be beaten with you, because the Lord is just, and He knows how to deal with each one accordingly. Now we can sit there and lick our wounds and grovel and complain why we're wounded in the house of our friends, or we can repent. We can look in the mirror, and we can say, Lord, it's my problem. Lord, it's me. You know, Job, after he dealt with them and all these things, and then he had some friends, and you know his friends? For the first week, I respect them. They kept their mouth shut. You know, we've had friends, they keep their mouth shut for one or two days, and then they've got lots to say about why the Lord's dealing with you. You know, but Job's friends kept their mouth shut for seven days, but eventually God allowed them to start to speak. They had wisdom. They heard from God. They were preachers, and they started to say, Job, you must have, you know, ripped off somebody in your business dealings. That's why God's dealing with you. You must have, you know, you talked about how generous you are with the poor. You must have not helped that widow that came to you for help. You must have said, you know what, I've helped enough this month. You know, come back next month and see if I have anything left, or you don't even understand. I've suffered some losses lately. You know, I'm going through some hard times. You know, figure it out yourself. This is not the heart of God, and then in the process of time, Job started to respond to his friends, and he held to something that we are not allowed to hold on to, our integrity. Job held on to his integrity. He said, you know, I've not done these things. I am innocent. I am blameless. I am righteous. Don't you know? And in his heart, he knew that he had done all these good things. Those things were gained to him, and he was hanging on to those things while his ship was sinking, but then God began to speak to Job, and Job turned his bitterness and his resentment toward God, and he said, look what you all did to me. I did nothing to you, and he started to speak all boastfully toward God, and God said, listen, what can you do? Can you go and put a fishhook in the Leviathan, and can you reel him in? What can you do, Job? Can you turn, you know, can you just, you just showed him all his creation, the greatness and the awesomeness of God, and the littleness and the insignificance of the man, and through it, he got something that we are very needful of, conviction. He got conviction. God rebuked him, and he got conviction. He got light on himself. He saw his self-righteousness. He saw his pride. Naaman got light on himself while he was being exhorted by his servants, and by the man of God, his servant, he said, if he had asked you to do something great and climb some great mountain or hike some great hill, would you not have done it? If your healing depended on it, absolutely you would have, but now he's asked you to do something simple, something of insignificance, nothing you can boast in to gain your healing. He's asked you to humble yourself, and go wash, and keep washing, and go in again, and seven times keep dipping until your leprosy is removed from you. Leprosy is a hardness of heart that we don't feel conviction when we read the Word of God. We don't get convicted when the preacher screams and frosts at the mouth the words of God. We get no conviction because our hearts are like cement. This Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy, and it says his skin became as clean as a baby. You know, when God gets through to us, and he takes the leprous heart off of us, and we begin to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit again, the small pinprick of his conviction through the Holy Spirit's dealings, we're able to just say, oh Lord, that word I spoke, oh Lord, that thought that I had, oh how I spoke to my husband was love. Forgive me, Lord. That's how God wants us to walk. Pure in heart shall see God. We want to be pure in heart, and we need to get the leprosy off. We need the Lord to cleanse our hearts from this not feeling. Leprosy is you don't feel. You lose feeling, and Naaman had lost feeling in his body, and the Lord restored that through humbling himself. We can humble ourselves, and the Lord can restore feeling in our hearts again to feel the presence of God, to feel the mercy and the compassion of God, to feel the conviction of the word again, but you have to humble yourself. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, how do we humble ourselves? Brothers, sisters, we start to pray. You pray in your room. You start confessing to the Lord. Lately in the last month, we've been praying together. It says that we should not forsake the gathering together as the manner of some. Brothers, and so much more as we see the day approaching. If we neglect having prayer together, we neglect it, like it's not important to us. We can pray at home. We can pray in the car. We pray whenever, but we don't allow the Holy Spirit to knit us together as a people of God and pray and to seek his face, right? Then we're not going to get light on the things that we need to turn from, and if we don't turn from our wicked ways, then he's not going to hear from heaven. So we can confess, I'm bitter, I'm angry, I'm frustrated, I love money. We can confess it all, but if there's not a turning from those things, there's no healing, and only God can cause us to turn from them. We can confess them. We can bring them to the Lord, and we can pray for one another. It says, confess your faults one toward another and pray for one another that you may be healed. How do we do that? Well, we can do it corporately. That's the way we should do it. We can do it one in a home here and one in there, but I believe there's something to be said about when we come together and humble ourselves before the Lord that the Lord is able to lift us up, and he knits us together. He builds love between our hearts so the enemy doesn't bring bitterness and division because there's ample opportunity for us to be bitter at one toward another. But you know what? You cannot offend a dead man. A dead man, you can give him one good punch in the face, and he will not respond in anger, hatred, or would come up with fists flying, right? If you're in the UFC and you get one punch in the face, you'll come up, and if you've got lots of demons, you'll come fist flying, feet flying. This is not the way it's supposed to be in the church, right? It says when you're reviled, we're not to what? Revile and return. As the lamb before the shearer was silent, we're not to open our mouth. This is not the gospel we believe in. We believe in a gospel which accords with godliness. Jesus, when he was reviled, he gave us the pattern. He did not revile. When they made accusations, he didn't defend himself, and he didn't hold bitterness. If he would have held bitterness and unforgiveness, then he would have died in sin, and we would have no hope. But he made sure of it, and you know how he made sure of it? He said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. You cannot offend a dead man, one who's in a right relationship with the Lord. We have to release all offenses, otherwise the enemy is at the door, and his desire is for you, but you need to overcome it, or you will end up like Cain. You'll find yourself killing your brother, and that is a place we cannot go, because Satan would love that to happen. Brothers rising up against brothers. That's the way he says it's going to be. Brother against brother, father against son, mother against daughter, and a man's enemies would be those of his own household. Two against three, and three against two. May it not be in his church, brothers. Maybe it's like that in the world, but not in his church. He said he desires that we would be unified, that we would come to the unity of the faith, after we unite in unity of spirit, that the Holy Spirit will teach us his ways, that we can grow together, and knit together, and become one in the spirit, and one in the Lord. I think of Job at the end of his life, not his life, but the end of his trials, and he gets light on himself. This righteous man who was holding to his dharma. He was holding to his integrity. He was holding to his rubbish. Those things that were gained to him, and all of a sudden he got light on himself, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up. He said, you are holy, and I myself am vile. This holy righteous man, according to the law, we could say was blameless, just like this one Saul of Tarsus, according to the law was blameless, got light on himself. He repented. He said, I repent. I speak like one of the foolish ones speaks. I repent in dust and ashes. I loathe myself for the things that I've done, and it says that at that moment, the Lord had mercy on Job, and he turned towards his friends. You see, when the Lord's dealing with Job, he's also dealing with his friends, and so he told the friends who heard from God. They also heard from God. He said, listen, you need to go and make things right with Job, and he told Job, when your friends come, you better release them of the offenses against you, and you better pray for them, because it's imperative if you want to be restored. So Job's friends came one by one. Here they come, and they said, could you pray for me, brother? We spoke things we didn't understand. We accused you of things that were false. Please forgive us, and it says when Job prayed for his friends, then the Lord restored Job. It was after he made a conscious decision to pray and bless his friends and to forgive them that God restored Job. God dealt with Job's self-righteousness. He dealt with his bitterness and his unforgiveness, and he was able to be restored to fulfill the purpose of God in his life, and it says the Lord restored all that Job had, plus some, because God does not afflict willingly. He had to get at the root of the self-righteousness. He had to get at the root of his pride, because that's the thing that causes us to be separated from God. If we don't get at that, then we're wasting our time. If we can see ourselves in the light of the way the Holy Spirit enlightens us, we get light on ourselves, then we can humble ourselves, and we can pray and say, Lord, forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom, not my kingdom, thy kingdom. Thine is the power, not my power, what I can do to justify myself. Thy power to forgive everyone their trespasses against me. The power and the glory unto the Lord forever and ever. Amen.