Calling God Out

Have you ever been mad at God? Are you upset with Him? Listen in and consider these lessons that Job learns about evil and how to handle suffering in our world. 

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Good afternoon, good afternoon, and welcome to our noonday service today. We are so blessed that you've joined us. I was looking at my notes, and can you believe it's been since January 11th? That was the last time that I recorded a God's Toolbox message. And so it's time for us to get started again. So I'm so blessed that you're here. And um let us go ahead and begin with prayer. Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come before you this afternoon to say thank you, Lord. Thank you for all the many blessings that you bestowed upon us. It just seems like we just began the year 2026 and it's already May 1st. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for new mercies every day. And we thank you, Lord, that you are with us, keeping us strong, holding us up, moving us forward. We pray for those that are sick among us, Lord. So many, but we call the names of Reverend and Mrs. Purnell on today, and so many others, Lord, that are sick. We also ask you to be with the bereaved families that are among us, Lord. We call the names of the family of Brother Joe Williams and so many others. We pray for churches in our community, pastors in our community, Lord. We pray for children as they are nearing the end of the school term and having to take tests, Lord. I ask you to touch their minds, touch their ability to concentrate, to remember what they've learned. Lord, I ask you to hold our world leaders accountable for the things that they do and to keep evil at bay. Lord, be with all of us. Give us protection, traveling mercies. Be with us in the issues and challenges that we face. And thank you, Lord, now for this opportunity to come and pray. And we ask that your word would go forth and accomplish that which it has been prepared for. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody, and um thank you for again for being with us. And um we pray that this uh noonday service will be a blessing to you. I just felt the Lord saying that so many people need to hear the word. So many don't go to church, and even when we do, just going to church on Sunday is not enough. And so I'm trying to be obedient to the Lord, and um I thank you for supporting this. So turn with me now to the book of Job. The book of Job, chapter 19, and I'm gonna be reading just one verse, chapter 19, verse six, and this is what the word says from the New King James Version. It says, Know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net. Once again, Job chapter 19, verse six says, Know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net. Our subject for this noonday service today is calling God out. Calling God out. Yes, I said it. Calling God out. And so it comes from the book of Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible. And we are all familiar with the suffering that Job endured, and we're familiar with the fact that in the end, Job was blessed. He was blessed indeed. Job was an upright man, so good in fact that God bragged on him to Satan. And this is when Job's troubles began. Because Job removed, excuse me, because God removed from Job his hedge of protection in order to prove to Satan that he was wrong. Satan said that if God stopped protecting Job, that Job would curse God to his face. But God said, No, you're wrong. So I'm going to allow you to take his possessions. And so we see that Job lost in one day his seven sons, his three daughters, and all his possessions, which included seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large house and household of employees. Only a few messengers lived to tell the bad news. But to Job's credit, his response was one of enormous faith in God, just as God had said it would be. Job said, Naked I came into the world, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So the devil failed in his attempt to cause Job to curse God, but he wasn't done. Satan pledged with God to give him another chance. He said, If I touch Job's body, he will most certainly curse you. So God allowed Job, allowed, excuse me, so God allowed Satan to do whatever he wanted to Job's body, but he was not to kill him. So Job broke out in terrible boils. He was in excruciating pain from head to toe. Satan touched his bones and his skin, and Job was a horrible mess, sickness overtaking him. You know the story. His wife tried to make him curse God and die. His friends tried to get him to confess to whatever sin he had committed. But of course, Job hadn't committed any sin. This went on for quite a while, which is the reason Job attempted to call God out. He stated that God has wronged me. And Job was angry at God. In addition to this, Job accused God of being cruel and even called on God to answer Job's questions about how and why he allowed him to suffer. Can you imagine screaming at God to answer you and tell you why he was treating you badly? Why he was allowing this suffering to occur? And then just imagine how this made God feel. Job is calling out our God, who is full of grace and mercy. He was calling him a cruel God. He was saying that God is no better than man. And this is not the only time in the Bible that we see God was called out. Jeremiah said that God had deceived him in Jeremiah 27. And David said that God had forgotten about him in Psalm 13 and 1. And no doubt at times we have all felt abandoned by God. We have thought that God was unfair and cruel. When he has taken loved ones from us, especially when we prayed faithfully for their healing. When he has allowed bad things to happen, evil to prosper. And God has been silent to our request to show up on our behalf. When our prayers have not been answered in the way we wanted them to be, and we tried in our own strength to do what was right, and yet things went haywire and chaotic despite our desires to do the right thing, and because we felt at that time we felt badly towards God. But here's the thing: we see in this story that events take place and conversations are held, and many things are kept from Job, so that this story teaches us lessons that we must remember. The first lesson is that Job didn't have all the information. He didn't know that God was bragging on his uprightness, using him to thwart Satan, to show him, to show Satan as an example of a person who of his own free will trusted God, not because of his possessions, and not because he was a puppet, but because Job had made up in his own heart and mind who God was and that he would serve him and him alone. So when Job was complaining, he was doing so from a place of unenlightenment. He didn't know the full story. So that often is our case. We don't know how God is working behind the scenes. We don't have we have limited knowledge and understanding. We don't know how he's controlling our situations and protecting us, growing us, moving us forward. We don't know why sometimes he takes our loved ones. Maybe because he's saving them from greater harm or growing us up or creating their legacy. We don't understand why he closes a door until a window opens or an even better door. We don't understand why he had to, why we had to go through that season of hardness, of suffering, until we realize how much we have grown. And sometimes we never know the full story. Just like Job never knew about the conversation between God and Satan. We don't know everything. So we must make up in our minds to trust God because he knows best. The second lesson the book of Job teaches us is that God never rebuked Job for his bad feelings towards him. And he will never rebuke us. God is not asking us to pretend that everything is alright. When we feel angry, the Bible says be angry, but don't sin. Jesus was angry with the money changers in the temple, so angry that he turned over the tables and drove them out. When we feel lonely, hurt, discouraged, and sad, God is still there. He doesn't ask us to mask our feelings, but what he urges us to do is to bring it all to him in prayer. The songwriter says, What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pains we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. God knows, He understands, and He is waiting for us to come to Him and bring all our feelings, anger, disappointment, hurt, doubt, fear, disillusionment, our questions, our issues, our challenges, bring it all to Him. So that leads us to our third lesson. The third lesson we learn from Job is that while God doesn't punish us for questioning his goodness and fairness towards us, he is not bound to give us any answers because he is God and God alone. Job wanted to know why, why God was allowing such horrible suffering when he had done nothing wrong. And in essence, Job wanted to know what many of us want to know. Why does God allow such suffering among the young, the poor, good people, people who try so hard to do what is right? Why must they suffer? We all ask the ageless question, why do bad things happen to good people? Like children, we're asking, but why? But why God? And just like we know from dealing with our own children that they sometimes cannot comprehend the answers because it's too complex for them, God being our parent, knows this as well for us. And he answers in his own way. But what we find is that in Job chapters 38 through 41, and you need to go back and read these, God asked Job questions. He asked the questions to Job. Questions about creation, reminding Job of His vastness and greatness, demonstrating his divine wisdom and power. God asked, Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who marked off its dimensions and set a measuring line across it? Who marked off the limitations, shut up the sea behind the doors? Have you ever given orders to the morning, Job? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Tell me, Job, what is the way to the light and where does the darkness reside? Tell me, Job, what is the place where lightning is dispersed and winds are scattered? Who cuts a channel for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm? Can you bring the constellations in their season or raise your voice to the clouds? Job, can you provide food for the ravens when they and other animals cry out for lack of food? Does the hawk take fight by your wisdom, Job? Who holds back the evil in our world? Tell me, Job. You think it's evil now? What if I let go? So God shows Job that justice is often very complex. And with our human limitations, it is impossible to explain all that is going on. But our job is to trust that God is always in control rather than trying to seek understandable explanations for everything because we don't know the half of all that God does. And finally, the last lesson that God shows Job is that those of us who persist in trusting God, we will be rewarded in due season if we faint not, whether on this side or in the eternal life to come, or both. So why should we challenge God's way of ruling earth? We often think we know what is best for us and for others. But God made us and He knows all about us, even the thoughts of our heart. Can we do a better job than God at ruling the world? Some of us actually think we can. But can we be everywhere at once? Listen to and answer all the prayers played, prayed, capture everyone's tears in a bottle? Can we number the hairs on all our heads? Provide new mercies every day? No. And beside God we are but a speck in the universe. So like the psalmist said, what is man that God is even mindful of him? We have a good and loving Father, a friend indeed. Look at how he blessed Job at the end of his life, giving him double what he had before. And he can do the same for us. Don't call God out, don't challenge his justice, don't despise his plans. You can be upset. You can even have godly anger, sadness, and disappointment. But don't live there. Never stop trusting God, that his will is what's best for us. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this lesson today. A reminder from Joe that we don't have all the information. Lord, we don't know the half of what you do. And it's okay for us to feel sad and depressed and disappointed, to even sometimes show anger. You gave us these emotions. But Lord, we also know that you're not bound to give us any answers. And so we just need to trust you. To trust you that you are doing what's best for us. And in due season, we might understand it better by and by. We thank you, Lord. We ask that you would help us to grow in you and to each and every day be stronger, to be the salt and light of this world that you're calling us to be. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody. It feels so good to be back to doing the noonday service. I thank you for your attention. I thank you for your participation, your support, and I hope that we can continue this for a long time to come. So until next week, where we have another episode of God's Toolbox, the Bible, Noonday Inspiration. Let us repeat the benediction. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding great joy. Be glory, majesty, dominion, and power. Both now and forevermore, let us all say amen. Now go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday. God bless you.