Our Brother Job

Would you turn with me to the book of Job? Job chapter 1 and verse 1. And here it says, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless. Notice that word, blameless. And he was upright. He was one who feared God and shunned evil. A nice guy, right?

This Job. Sounds like a good guy. Anyone you know? You say, no, I... It's funny thing about Job. He sort of tucked back there and Job was a guy with a big problem and a hard head. It's Job. So it's not anyone we know, is it? It's Job. And you know Job and Job's problem and... That's funny. He was blameless. He was upright. He feared God. He shunned evil. Is Job anyone you know?

You should know someone like Job. You should know Job. Job is sitting in your seat. You and I are Job and that's what the book of Job is about. It describes you. It describes me. It describes your brethren. It describes the patriarchs because Job was one of the patriarchs, one of the oldest patriarchs.

It describes the saints. It describes the first fruits. It describes the New Testament church from the first righteous person, Seth, all the way to the last person who dies in the faith before Christ returns. Job was a particular brother of ours who lived a long time ago. And that's the only unique thing about him. He's your brother. He's an example of you, but he lived a long time ago. Verse 2 talks about his particular life. Back in that day, he had some sons and daughters, three daughters.

Mary and I had three daughters born to us, kind of like us. You can relate to Job. He also had possessions. You have possessions. And Job would swap you for your possessions over his. Running water, TV, electricity, things like that. But he had a lot of sheep. You'd probably be happy to trade a bunch of sheep for what you have, especially 3,000 camels. What would you do with those? 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household.

So that this man was the greatest of all the people in the East. So he did well. In other words, Job was a righteous man. Job had physical things. You could say he was blessed in that physical sense. Or you could say his way of living worked out well. Cause and effect, like we heard last week. Not much else is known about Job. People have scratched their heads and dug through history and tried to figure out where he lived and who he was, this great man of the East, and pretty much drawn a big blank.

The Church has believed down through time that Job predated Abraham. That he was a patriarch before the time of Abraham. But here we have this book about Job. So what is it about this good guy that warrants a 40 chapter book? Why a long treatise about his trials and his suffering? Well, the typical idea is that well Job was self-righteous and he was so hard-headed it took 40 chapters to crack the nut.

And that's the story of Job. Close the book and move on. And he was just such a hardhead that he got a long, long, long book. So don't be a hardhead. Crack easier. Well today, what is the relevance of the experiences that Job had in his life? What are the relevance in your life and my life of the things that he experienced? Today I'd like to see Job a little closer than we normally have and maybe in a new light from what we normally do.

And we might just find ourselves in the story of what I term our brother Job. There are seven truths that the book of Job teaches me and on top of that there are seven lessons that spring from the book of Job and impact my life. That's quite a lot from a book that often times we are curious about its purpose. I'm going to give you the seven truths that spring out to me.

I won't repeat them so you can write them down if you like. But the first one is that God created the universe. You know the book describes the creation in the greatest detail of any place in the Bible. It has the longest explanation of any place in the Bible and it's all done in the first person by the Creator himself.

It's a fascinating expose from the viewpoint of the Creator about the creation he made. The second truth is that God's way is right. God's way is holy. It's good. It works. God's way of love enhances relationships and it steers us towards our goal of salvation. Everything about God's way is perfect. The third point is that man is nothing. God is everything. That's something that we don't tend to just know as human beings. We are on this earth. We see it.

We have an interrelationship with the physical world. We see it. We witness it. We use it. And then we die. We need to see that God is everything. We are nothing. We are just here for a short time to experience everything that God is and that He has made. So man really is nothing and God is everything. Point four is God is developing first fruits. Job is just another brother in the faith, a very honorable brother in the faith.

And God is developing first fruits. He is working to develop first fruits. Point five, Satan seeks to thwart and to destroy the first fruits. Point six, Jesus Christ is a shield, a helper of the first fruits. And point seven, God's plan of salvation will be successful. Now there are seven basic fundamental truths that Job teaches me. As humans, we again do not naturally understand the plan of God. And so why the book of Job? Well, the process of salvation, the plan of God, is presented through the book of Job who is a role model to you and me, one who is walking ahead of us, an example of this plan and how this process works.

There are lessons to help us understand our calling, what we go through in this life and how it relates to the plan of God. The Bible is full of examples. You know what it says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11? Now all these things happen to them as examples and that they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. Here are all these examples, and you take heed of those examples and of yourself, lest you who think you stand, like other people, may fall. Surprises are coming. There are tactics that are unexpected out there. They're unseen enemies. You and I can be like the British in the 1700s. We're going to go fight those rebel yanks. So line up. Let's wear red coats. Let's march in little steps towards them.

Who are these buffoons popping up out of the grass and getting us in surprises from bushes and trees? We can't even see them. They're wearing brown and green and whatever they have. Things aren't always as we expect them. And so consequently, we need to take heed lest we fall. Job can teach us a lot that whether we stand or fall depends in part on what we are learning from these examples. Otherwise, we can be blindsided, too. So in addition to these seven truths that I have mentioned above, I'd like to spend some time with seven other lessons that the book of Job illustrates. Lesson one is, I'll call it lesson A. Lesson A is God is judging us carefully. You're not just going through life and at the end you have to give some report for how you did. No, God is judging us carefully. The firstfruits, the church, the ecclesia, are called the called-out ones, those who are separated. They're in a special group that God is judging. It says in 1 Peter 4 and verse 17, judgment has begun at the house of God. Upon us, Peter says, judgment has begun with us, those firstfruits. We see in Job 1 and verse 8 this explained. Then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? I have. Have you? And here's what I have found, God says. There is none like him on the earth. How do I know? I have compared. I have judged. He is a blameless and upright man. How do I know? I have judged. I judge this man. And he is one who fears God and shuns evil. God is judging us carefully. That's a lesson that should be very clear to us by what Job, the book of Job, tells us. The second lesson is that Satan's role is alongside Christ's role. Now, this is a hard one to accept. It's hard for me to accept. I don't want to think of Satan having any role like God's at all. But in fact, the book of Job teaches us that Satan's role runs right alongside the role of God. Humans tend to forget about Satan. We don't want to know about Satan. The Bible says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. So he's out of there. He's gone. He did that. I did that a number of years ago, so I haven't seen him since. When in fact, this book is going to teach us that Satan is right there. God's working with us. Satan's working with us. They work alongside each other, not in the physical sense or the spatial sense of they're a team, but you are a single individual. I'm a single individual and they're both there. They each have a role and those roles work alongside each other. Humans tend to discount Satan and accentuate Christ's role. We like to think about God and his role, but we like to ignore Satan. Has he vanished? In fact, Satan is right there. In a sense, with God, where you are, you have both. Both want you. Both are influencing you. Both are pulling for you. Job brings us out so clearly. In verse 6 of chapter 1 of Job says, there was a day when the sons of God, which is a term referring to the angels, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

Now, what's he doing here? What's this? A one-time fluke. He somehow popped up to heaven. I thought he was down here on earth. Well, let's go to chapter 2 in verse 1. Again, again, at another time, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. You get the idea here that the angels report to God with matters that are taking place on earth, and so does Satan. And here we see again, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

There's God's business and there's Satan's business, and it goes on at the same time.

You know, Satan is mentioned 11 times in the first two chapters of Job. That's a lot of mentions.

11 times in two chapters, and Satan's all over the place.

Satan's role in your life is alongside God's role in your life. Do we recognize that? Do we appreciate that? Do we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling? In Zechariah chapter 3 in verse 1, we see a reference to Joshua the high priest. It says, then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

When you see these activities, when you see these events, when you see things taking place with character, with growth, development, the church, the firstfruits, the people of God, you see angels assisting Christ, you see Satan and his demons assisting him. And they are working, in a sense, in tandem. You can go back to Genesis chapter 3 and you'll see right there. Here's God working with Adam and Eve. Here's Satan working with Adam and Eve. You have God walking in the garden. You have Satan crawling in the garden. I guess the question for me is, do you ever sense that Satan is constantly vying for you? No, I don't tend to think that. I tend to probably be more like Job was, going about his business, tending his sheep, enjoying his three daughters, whatever. And look what all's going on in the background. In Luke chapter 22 and verse 31, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. We don't see this, do we? Here's Jesus Christ working with Simon Peter. Satan's asking for him. Give me a crack at this guy.

Like I got a crack at Job. Like I got a crack at Joshua. Like I got a crack at, you know, David.

It's not a one-time event.

Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. This is before Simon even had God's Holy Spirit. He wasn't even a converted Christian yet. What do you think came on later? It got him crucified.

Second question is, do you sense the ever-present Jesus Christ as your helper? Just continuing on there, verse 32. But I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith should not fail. See how these two are there? Jesus Christ is pulling for us and Satan is pulling for us. They both are vying for us. Ever-present, working in tandem in our life. It's a huge lesson for Job.

God is revealing to us, I believe.

Lesson C. Satan is an adversary. And how big of an adversary? When you read through the Book of Job, you just, even the scriptures we've already read, you really get the sense of how despotic this individual is. He really, really is an adversary. He is one who wants to kill us physically, but more than anything, to work against and cause us not to succeed. He'll work through others. He'll work through other humans. He'll send out his little attitudes into you and me and others, to where we can discourage one another. We can say a few things and offend somebody. And next thing you know, that person drops out or gives up or goes away or whatever it is.

He's an adversary. An example of this is in Zechariah chapter 3 in verse 2.

The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan. Here they are, working in tandem, hand in. I mean, they were working at the same time in the same location. And the Lord says, rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? This is referring to the remnant of Israel that goes back to Jerusalem, that Satan wants to go after. It's not this little remnant. Aren't they a brand plucked from the fire?

And in that sense, does this not also refer to the church? Are we not a brand plucked from the fire?

And Satan wants to crush everything. He is an adversary to everything. And that's why in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, Peter was inspired to write, Be sober and be vigilant because you're your adversary. Not Job's adversary, not Peter's, not somebody else's, but your personal adversary.

The devil walks about like a roaring lion. He wants to rip you apart, seeking whom he may devour. And that is his role alongside Jesus Christ.

That's his role. That's what he does. God's role is to try and help you and try to save you. He is our savior from the lion, is one example. And we are to resist this lion. We are to be vigilant. We are to recognize this adversary. God can do a certain amount of sheltering, but there's a lot of responsibility that we have as well. Lesson D.

Lesson D. Our loyalty to God, our loyalty to godliness, the nature of God, the kingdom of God, that is going to be challenged. Challenged. In other words, you may be a devout Christian, but somebody is challenging that. In other words, he's bringing that into question, saying, John, Mary, Joe, Bill, Susie, Jane, you're faking it. You're faking it. It's going to be brought into question.

Temptations will try to distract us. Other things will cause, perhaps, that time of distraction to be a great opportunity for one, for the adversary, to say, you know what? This person's faking it. They don't really believe that way. They're just in it for themselves. They're just in it for what they can get out of it. They just want the blessings. They just want your favor. And so, back in Job, chapter 2, let's look.

Job, chapter 2. Actually, you know, in verse 1, Satan answered the Lord in verse 9. He says, does Job fear God for nothing? In verse 11, but now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. In other words, he's faking it. I challenge Job's real righteousness. I say he's faking it. I say you do this to him, and he'll show his true colors. And then in chapter 2, we see something similar happens when verse 4, he says, skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life, but stretch out your hand, and you touch his bone in his flesh, and then he will curse. He's faking it.

Lesson D is, our loyalty to God, loyalty to God, to his kingdom, to the God's nature, will be challenged. It will be challenged, and it probably constantly is challenged.

In verse 7 of chapter 2, so Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a postured with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Was he genuine? Would he be genuine? What was he all about? Job got to sit down and think about this.

Job got to demonstrate. He got to do all kinds of things, but Job was brought down all the way down. Family wiped out. His own body, his own health wiped out. I mean, he was just down to nothing. Some of the commentators will say about this. They believe that Job actually either left the area, left town, or was forced out or rejected and went to a different place and sat down and had nothing. So where he was just a total repudiated scum, outscouring, outcast. That can't be proved from the Scriptures. But this is a test. How genuine is your faith?

How genuine is your faith? It will come into question. You can guarantee it, because we are taught in the book of Job right here in two times, two chapters, and two different levels. This is what Satan does. Lesson E. Jesus Christ is our shield. He's our helper. He's our defender.

He's our advocate. If we look at Job 1 and verse 9 again, we see something that Satan actually reveals to us about God. So Satan answered the Lord and says, does Job fear God for nothing? Verse 10, have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? Satan reveals something here to you and me about God. He is a shield to the called out ones. A shield, a hedge. In Africa, instead of a barbed wire fence, they build hedges. And the hedges are made with thorny hedges. And nobody goes into the hedges. They're better than a barbed wire fence. They hurt really bad. And you don't get through them. So everybody's, when they build something, they start planting these little things and water them real well. In a couple years, you have a hedge around you. And it gives protection.

This is part of God's role. And it's one of Satan's complaints about God. You're protecting him, so I can't get to him. I can't get to him. I can't get to his family. And I can't get to his possessions.

That's a revealed lesson. An example of the interaction that Christ has with his church, the shelter, the assistance that he gives with the church, can be found in Revelation 12.

Let's notice the altercation of Revelation 12.

I find this fascinating after reading this part of Job and coming to realize this hedge that God is.

Remember, the two are working simultaneously. I'm not saying as a team by any means. Don't get that idea. But they are working simultaneously on the same group, on the first fruit, or when it comes to the group, the first fruits. Here we see some prophetic, divine revelation about what happens in the background. Now, when the dragon saw that he'd been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Satan goes after the church. Remember? He is the adversary. He wants to hurt, to harm, to kill. What is Christ's role? He is the shield, the defender. So what we see is verse 14. When he went after the church, the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness. And she was nourished there. He defended and nourished there for three and a half years from the presence of the serpent. Protect it again. So, the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But Jesus Christ caused the earth to help the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of her mouth. See how these two are working together? See how Satan is an adversary? And see how Jesus Christ is our Savior? He's our protector. He's our hedge, our shield. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now, chapter 12 ends there. This particular story ends there. But does Jesus Christ end there? What do you think Jesus Christ does next? When Satan goes off to make war with the remnant who are keeping the commandments, what does Jesus Christ do? We're not told. We're not told. Are those the ones who are not defended and give their lives in the tribulation? We can assume that, but we're not told. Does Christ not also go and intercede and intervene for them so that they continue to grow and develop and are part of the 144,000 or the innumerable multitude? They're in Revelation who die, who are beheaded, who are killed, but never worship the beast. How could they have done that on their own? If Christ weren't spiritually, at least, they're to shield them from things like deception, from fatigue, from, you know, demoralization. How can you stay strong?

Who's the young man? The deacon in Acts chapter 6. Pardon? Who was killed after Stephen? Remember? How can you go through that? Well, if you read that story very carefully, you'll find Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, came into him, emboldened him, and put words in his mouth, and he preached a terrific sermon, and at the end of it he was stoned and killed, but Jesus Christ opened the heavens and he got to see God on the throne.

So, God is there, fighting for us, and that's his role. He's our helper, our defender, our advocate.

You know, when he said, after I go, I'm going to send you the helper, the helper is the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do? It dwells in us. What does that do? Jesus said, My Father and I will come and dwell in you, and you will be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You will be the temple of God. So, Jesus Christ really is the one in us. He is the helper, and God the Father is the helper, through the Holy Spirit.

We have responsibility in that shelter, however. God shelters us, his angels assist, the demons work against us, but we have a responsibility. Don't forget. Don't just say, Oh, God's out there defending me. Well, he is up to a point. But Ephesians 6, verse 10, says that we have a responsibility in that shelter as well, because it says, Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Yes. But that's followed in verse 11 with, You put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

You have to put on the armor of God. Yes, he is a shield. Jesus Christ is a shield, but you have to pick up the shield. You have to pick up the sword. You have to be girded with the belt and shod with the shoes. And you have to have the helmet of salvation, you see. We have a responsibility in order to be protected. We must resist the wrong. We must resist Satan. We must embrace the right. We must embrace God. And therefore, those who are in the right place those symbolic protective garments are truth and righteousness and living God's way, staying close to his word, doing the will of God. Jesus Christ will never leave or forsake us, but we must not ever leave or forsake God. That's why we're told, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It's because God is not going to leave us, but we have that responsibility to never leave or forsake him. We have that responsibility also. Lesson F.

We must be genuine. Testing is required. Testing is required. We don't like tests, do we?

Job shows us that testing is required.

In verse 9 through 11, of Job, Satan answered and said to the Lord, Does Job fear for nothing? That's a very fundamental question.

Haven't you made this hedge around him, around his house, on every side?

But Satan says, Now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to his face. So here in chapter 1, he's saying, You test him.

Test him. And God allowed the test to take place.

Satan challenged the motive that Job had for serving God.

It's one thing to serve God, but what's your motive? And Satan challenged that motive. Now here's an important thing to realize. Satan cannot read your thoughts. He doesn't know your motives. Satan has no idea what you're thinking. He can probably hear when you speak, so watch what you say.

I've tried to live by that rule and teach that rule.

Be careful what you say. Be careful what statements you make.

But at the same time, he will make insinuations that your motives are wrong, and he will accuse you of things before God, just like he did Job.

He can't determine your motives.

He can only accuse and lie about it. He can make rash accusations.

He can spread rumors. He can create gossip.

He can do cheap shots. He can make guesses. Well, I saw that, so obviously it's that. He's a great mind-reader, like humans. Oh, I know what they're thinking.

We don't really have a clue, but we just make all these assumptions.

Hearsay, rumors. He's the father of lies.

There's a scripture in the Bible that says, you know, there's a scripture in the Bible that says, they speak great, swelling, empty words of things they don't know.

We as humans can take on that characteristic of Satan if we're not careful. So he will come up spewing all manner of things that are invented, you know, supposed guesses, and some testing will take place. Some testing will take place. Lesson G.

The testing and trial of Job was not a one-time historical event. There wasn't a day when Satan came before God and they went after Job, and end of the story, Job, you know, Job was okay.

No, no, no. This is not a one-time historical event. Matthew 4, verse 8. Again, the devil took Jesus up on an exceedingly high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory, and said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

He went after Jesus Christ.

And not only the other individuals that we've covered during the sermon, but Jesus' response was also an example to what you and I should do. He said, away with you, Satan.

Another place where Peter was acting up, he said, get behind me, Satan.

And then he told him why. The attitude that was coming on there was opposing what God's will was.

Away with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him.

Yes, we are to rebuke Satan. We are to resist the devil. He will flee from us for a while.

Satan just forever leave Jesus Christ and never bothered him again? No, he ended up taking his life.

Came right back and the Bible says he entered Judas.

It's not just for Jesus Christ. It's not just for Job that this thing has taken place.

It happens to you. It happens to me. Revelation 12 says he is the accuser of the brethren. Notice that term, the accuser, that goes with point F.

That he is this one who spreads and accuses.

God calls some and gives them free choice. Satan goes after them, tries to deceive them, tells lies about them, spreads falsehood about them, tries to get other people to discourage them, upset them, get them to leave, give up, do anything possible.

It began in the garden, tricked Eve.

God came to save the whole world but Noah, Job, Abraham, David, Jesus Christ, the apostles, etc., other patriarchs and prophets. God allows him to be very forceful. If you read the latter part of Hebrews 11, which is often referred to as the faith chapter, you'll see the faithful there. Many of them went through just terrible, terrible physical suffering and died through it.

Sometimes these things are very forceful as trials.

These things are very forceful as trials.

In 1 Peter 5, verse 9, nevertheless we are told to resist him.

Resist the devil.

Be steadfast in the faith.

We're going to be tried.

It's not just something that happened to Job or these other people. You are going to be tried in the genuineness of your faith, and the trials are so that the genuineness of our faith can shine, can show.

But you resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

See, this isn't a one-time event. These same sufferings are experienced by the brethren, by the church, by the firstfruits, including our brother Job.

He was one of the early ones to have this recorded about him. I mean, it's for you and me, I believe, so that we can see his example, appreciate the example, see some of the points and factors that are part of the Christian life, part of our calling, part of our growth.

Testing and trying is going to happen to all of us. It's going to happen repeatedly to all of us. Some will stand, some will fall, the Bible says.

Job is in a waste of 40 chapters about serious suffering and trials.

Job is 40 chapters to show us how the process works and a good example of a man who stood and in the end received all the physical back and more.

2 Corinthians 2, 11 says, Lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. It's a huge, huge clue and help that we get through the experiences of our brother Job, to realize that Satan was trying to take advantage of us and we need not be ignorant of his devices. 1 Timothy 5, 15, For some have already turned aside after Satan, to realize that when we think we stand, we may indeed fall if we're not very careful, because some have.

Growth comes through adversity.

Before someone tries to determine what the great lesson of Job is, we should realize that all of us have many flaws in our life.

Many, many, many flaws. And God does not curse us. God does not go after us and chastise us for our sins. It's not the way he does it.

But rather, through a process of all of these 14 points, God refines us and presents us eventually to the Father as his children.

And so it was that Job learned something through all of this. Growth always comes through adversity. You can't go through adversity without learning something. What did Job learn?

Maybe this time it was self-righteousness.

Maybe Job was a little too reliant on himself.

Well, great. Job learned a lesson.

Maybe that was his lesson for the day or for the event.

You and I can learn many lessons and hopefully do learn many lessons. What are you seeing in your life? What am I seeing in mine when trials and adversity come along?

That stake for Job was everything.

That stake for you is everything.

That stake for all of us is everything.

This is really one of the greatest lessons of all time.

So let's not forget the lessons of our brother, Job.

Let's not forget that God will never give up on us. He will continue working, helping, if we will continue serving him.

If we continue down the path of his righteousness and seeking his righteousness, then his plan of salvation will absorb you and me. We will be part of that.

We continue to thwart Satan and his devices.

You know, in closing, I'd like to just read Acts chapter 26 and verse 18.

The apostle Paul is called for a purpose.

The church is here for a purpose. This Bible is here for a purpose. It's to instruct us. It's to teach us. It's to guide us through an unseen labyrinth, as it were, of surprises, of challenges, of the spiritual darkness that we cannot determine as humans, but we are revealed to from the Bible. And also the righteousness and the righteous works of God, our Father and our elder brother, Jesus Christ, and the wonderful angels that assist him.

The ministry, the Bible, the church, these are all serving a purpose that is brought out here in Acts chapter 26 verse 18. It's there to open their eyes, to open our eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

That's who we are. Here's where we are. And that's what we're to be.

And our brother Job walked the walk ahead of us, and he left us a great legacy, and God inspired a lot of information to be given to us about our calling, our plan, and our future.