NOW THERE WAS A DAY
Rev. Aubrey Jayroe

JOB 1:1-6 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job: and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household: so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one of his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day…

• We’ve all heard the story of Job. He was a great guy and lived for God. We find that he had a lot of possessions and was well respected. What we don’t know is what happened prior to this time. However, it is for certain he did not wake up one day perfect; he did not wake up one day hating evil; he did not wake up one day fearing God.
• Somewhere he took steps, made decisions, and planned through out the process of time and determined to be what God wanted him to be. Somewhere in his life, probably in his teen years, he chose to be good and to hate evil and as a result he was known as the greatest of all the men of the east.. Somewhere in his life he determined to raise his kids right and the results were they grew up and continued to live right. Somewhere he chose to share his resources with God and as a result God blessed him.
• He deliberately made his choices in life.
  More importantly, he was made by his choices! We are free moral agents, that is for certain and we are given the right to make certain choices. But never forget that we will be made by those choices. We become what we do. The reward of what we do and the reward of a correct response and the reward of wise righteous choices is that God gives more grace to make even better choices. The reward of self-will and iniquity is that it grows easier and easier to do wrong and easier to make selfish choices.
• To become what God intends does not just happen, but it is a series of choices that we make on a daily basis that determines our outcome.
• His name was Dan. He bought a new computer that came with several powerful and sophisticated software programs. The spread-sheet program could track an incredible array of figures several pages in length. If one figure were changed, the program could recalculate the entire report in micro-seconds. It was amazing. Dan didn’t understand how the program worked. That was a mystery to him. But he trusted the accuracy of the program for his business finances.
• God’s ways are often mysterious to us. We do not always understand why undesirable things happen and why other desirable things do not happen. We may wish that God would act in accordance with our own wishes. We may be confused, disappointed, or upset.
• But the correct response to God’s direction is to trust God’s knowledge. God knows all the possible outcomes of any event. God allows or prevents certain events based on this knowledge. If we truly trust God, we can relax and know that whatever comes our way, God will help us survive. It is all determined by our response to what happens to us and our response to trusting our God.
• There are a lot of things we did not ask for, such as our station of birth, our heredity, our environment, the events, and circumstances we must face. While we cannot decide those things, we absolutely can and do decide how we respond to those things.
• Those things are not the reall important ones of life. What is important is how we respond to those things. Because again there is a law of choice and we are going to become what we chose. What we are today and what we have emotionally, spiritually, even materially and more
• importantly eternally, is based on one thing alone – how we respond to God.
  What do you have that was not given to you? Even spiritually, we came to God as a result of a drawing or a calling. We responded to His word; we responded to His spirit. The spirit of God draws us to him. It is how we respond to that calling that is important.
• We respond to the circumstances of life and by the grace of God we even respond to one another. And as we respond correctly, things will go better and we will grow. With the wrong choice it is impossible to grow in God.
• You see, God does not want robots. He did not want robots in heaven. Somehow he gave the angels and Lucifer the ability to choose. And so he gives us a choice and that choice is ours to make. How we respond determines our outcome in life. Don’t ever forget this.
• I believe that scripture will confirm the fact that God is not so concerned as to what happens to us as He is how we respond to what happens to us. He knows that if we respond correctly, everything is going to be all right! It is during this process that we have decisions to make and we will be made by them.
• That is why what I am doing right now – preaching the Word of God – is not the most important part of this service. While we claim that the preaching is the most important part of our services, the most important part of an Apostolic service is how we respond to the preached word. If there is a spotlight on the preaching of the Word, so be it, but that is not the most important part of the service.
• When I conclude my remarks, if they are ordered and blessed of God, at that moment when God allows the word to penetrate, how we respond to it becomes what we will become.
• Does the word mean anything to you; does it touch your life; is it really important to you? That is important, because it is a choice we make. And we become what we chose in life.
• That’s the reason it is a rare thing in any Apostolic service to close that service without an altar call. The most important thing tonight will not be if you remember what I have preached or if I was any good or not at it. What is important is that God will remember how I responded to it.
• What’s lodged in God’s mind and God’s memory is not whether or not we will remember what has been said because a month from now we won’t remember this message. But God is wanting to know and will remember if we responded correctly to the Word. That will stay with us and help determine what we become even though we may not remember it all.
• God will never forget if you respond correctly; God will never forget if you say ‘Lord count me in’; God will never forget if you say, ‘God I want to make some changes in my life’. The response to God’s word is very important in our lives.
• Don’t ever forget we make our choices and we are going to be made by them. Job responded well to the things in life. Job’s balance sheet was awesome and his life was going well. Then verse six says, ‘Now there came a day’. There will always come a day! Where all plans are put to the test. When all motives are put together. When all ideas, and all integrity, and all of our righteousness will be tried. There comes a day!! Everyone faces this. Everyone.
• There is a true story told about a marine sergeant who in 1965 was considered the best of the elite in long range rifle shooting in the armed services. He had been known to make shots at 2,000 yards. So he found himself in Vietnam as did many others. He was approached by his superiors because there was a North Vietnamese sniper who was creating havoc to the US boys stationed there. So they asked the sergeant if he would consent to training to become a sniper. He conceded to do so and after his training, his first assignment was to get that sniper. In the process the two men stalked each other.
• He came to a place and sat for several days knowing the sniper was there. Finally, he saw off in the distance a tiny glimpse of light. On a hunch and a prayer he took a shot at 1,200 yards. The light went out. He went back in his silence. Finally his forces found out he did kill the sniper. When they found the sniper they found the bullet had gone through the telescope of the sniper and into his eye. The sergeant realized that while he was beaming his rifle toward the sniper, the sniper was in turn pointing at him. The only way the sergeant survived was he had pulled the trigger first.
• So then the book says the last job he was asked to do was prior to his discharge. He had two weeks left and was approached to assist the US forces because there was a Viet Nameese general who was creating havoc also among the US troops. The sergeant was asked to please help and take one last assignment.
  It was a suicidal mission and the sergeant was told he would not be blamed if he did not do it. He quickly decided to accept the task and was taken to the area where the general was supposed to be. There was a clearing about 2,000 yards apart where they thought the general was. The plan was for the sergeant to crawl across the clearing. At 1,200 yards there was a ditch where he was to lie down and wait for the general. He began the process. It took the sergeant three days to plan and crawl 1,000 yards. Very slow, very deliberate he crawled. The only time he stopped was in the evening when the enemy troops walked in the field to inspect it for opposing soldiers.
• During that time he did not eat but only took little lids of water from his canteen. Ants, bugs, and all kind of insects bit him everywhere, but he could not stop. He had to keep going. So at the end of three days and 1,000 yards he was spent mentally and physically and emotionally. He was tortured by the insects. Here he decided he would go no further and decided to stay here and take his shot.
• In that moment and in that time he stopped and he began to commune with himself. He lay there weary and tired. After stopping and telling himself he could go no further but would stop here to complete the job, he stopped himself and said, ‘No, I planned this when I was in my right mind. I’m not in my right mind now. I’m tired now. I’m weary and almost sick enough to die. But when I planned this trip I was in my right mind. And I’m going to stick with my plans that were made when I was in my right mind.’
• I’m going to tell you tonight that Job came to his day when the servants footsteps came by his door and they told him about the loss of his kids, told him about the destruction of his crops, told him about the animals that had been stolen, told him all that had been loss.
• When this happened, there was something that rose up in this man that could say, “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away”!!! I’m not turning back now. I planned this when I was in my right mind. I planned this a long time ago and I’m not quitting now.
• That’s why when we know that troubles are coming and turbulences are going to happen, you have to set your face toward God while you are in your right mind. You have to make some decisions. You have to say, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” You have to determine to remain righteous. You have to say that whatever God wants for you, you will continue. You have to plan it when you are in your right mind.
  I read in this Book of a young man by the name of Joseph. We understand that while he was a young man, somewhere, someplace, sometime, something stirred in him. Something was triggered in him. He said ‘I’m going to be different than my brothers’.
• Perhaps it was a night while on his way to his tent he was on the outside his father Jacob’s tent. He could have heard the sobs of his father because his older brother Rueben had gone to his father’s bed. Maybe it was another time when Simeon and Levi had performed a treacherous act. But somewhere, someplace, sometime, Joseph said,
• I will not be like my brothers. I am going to please my God and my father’. In his right mind he chose the creed by which he would live. And he lived his creed in all his days.
• But there came a day…when the pit came, and the auction block, and Potiphar’s house, and prison. And there came a day when Potipjar’s wife came and made her advances toward him. Then he said, ‘Lady you don’t understand. There’s none greater in his house than my master, your husband. The master does not even know what he owns because he has put it in my charge. I will not, therefore, sin against him this day and do this great wickedness against my God. Do you understand what he was saying? Lady, I’m telling you tonight, I planned this when I was in my right mind. I made my decision a long time ago’.
• Don’t forget we make our choices, but we are made by our choices!
• And that right mind stood firm when the reward was the prison house. Then his right mind kept him when vengeance and pay back would have seemed in order. When his brothers stood before him, he did not pay them back in the way we feel they might have deserved. His right mind decisions had been determined many years prior and he vowed to stay within the parameters of those decisions.
• Decisions in your past determine how you respond to life today. Decisions and choices make up your character today. You live with your choices today. That’s why you must make right choices now, because they will determine who you are in the future.
• David, when you’re running from Saul in and out of your wilderness, wondering if you will ever survive, don’t ever forget. You planned this when you were in your right mind.
• Jeremiah, when you are sunk up to your arm pits in the muck and mire and the only thing coming into your mouth is bread and water and you find utter affliction is your companion. Don’t forget, you planned this when you were in your right mind.
• Abraham, when you are on the top of the mount, and you’ve got your only son whom you love, and he’s staked out on a bed of wood and rocks to be sacrificed and set ablaze and the knife’s in your hand and all you know is that your God told you to come here. Remember, Abraham, when you planned this you were in your right mind.
• Simon Peter, when you are outside of Rome being crucified upside down and Jesus said there would be days like this, remember, you planned this when you were in your right mind.
• Paul: Three times I was beaten with rods; one I was stoned; three time I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I spent in the deep; in journeyings often; in perils of waters; perils of robbers; in perils by my own countrymen. I’ve had perils in the city, among the heathens, in the sea, and among false brethren. I know what it is like to be weary and have pain. I’ve been hungry and thirsty on so many occasions. I’ve fasted and sometime out of necessity. I’ve been cold and I’ve been hungry and I’ve been without.
• Besides all this, there are the daily things that comes on me like the care of all the churches. Every day. Every day things come my way.
• Paul, how could you? What made you hang on? When I was in my right mind…at the beginning there were decisions to be made and throughout like there have been decisions and I’ve made the right ones and they keep me going.
• I’ve planned this during the past thirty years of serving him and nothing now is going to change that. Nothing moves me because I planned for what would happen when these things came along. Paul made his choice and his choices made him.
• There are many people who love the church. They love the preacher and even the preaching. They have fallen in love with the people of the church and like the music and all that goes with it. But the problem is they have not fallen in love with HIM.
• In all the decisions we make in life, we must make one that is so important. We must fall in love with Jesus Christ. I do fear that in all the decisions we make, too many people are missing out on the decision to fall in love with Him. I must love Him with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. And if you will make that choice, you will be made by that choice. And it will make every other choice easier.
  We must plan it out when we are in our right mind to live for God. Regardless of the circumstances; regardless who hurts you; regardless of how life treats you, you must have some plans to keep on serving him. You have to do it before the troubles come and before the temptations arise and before the circumstances turn against you. If you make the right choices, then when these things come, nothing will move you.
• Sink or swim, my mind’s made up. Come hell or high water, my mind’s made up. Come what may, say what you wish, my minds made up. I’m living for HIM!
• I’m going to do what is right. If momma don’t want to, I am. If daddy quits, I’m going on. If my wife stops, so be it, but a long time ago I made up my mind. I made a decision and now I’m sticking with it.
  You must make your choice. You will be made by it.
• Roger Evans tells the story that when he was young he remembered seeing a man sitting on the back of a hay truck playing an accordion. Roger says the songs were wonderful; the man was performing magic with that instrument. It was like a one man orchestra. Roger Evans says that while that man was playing the accordion the temp arose to a high pitch and all of a sudden the man threw the accordion up in the air. People watched as the accordion turned in the air and the player caught it upside down and kept on playing, never missing a lick. He just kept right on playing the song while the accordion was upside down.
• Let me tell you something about life, friend. Until you can learn how to play life while it’s upside down you really don’t know how to play. You have to make up your mind you’re going to live this life, you’re going to walk this walk, you’re going to be faithful to you God no matter what. If your world gets upside down, you planned this a long time ago to stay with it.
• We’ve all been presented with the chance to quit. We all know what it’s like to throw in the towel because the problems were too big for us; the troubles were hurting too bad; the circumstances were to awesome. But in spite of it all, some made up their mind years before the troubles came and months before the problems got tough.
• I made up my mind a long time ago. I made some decisions and some choices. I was in my right mind and made the correct plans. That does not mean I have not went through some difficulties. I’ve been where Abraham was when the Bible says he was given the opportunity to return to his family and country. I could have quit. I could have stopped. I could have turned around. But I made some decisions and choices when I was in my right mind. Now when the troubles come I stick by my choices.
  I have been made by my choices. You will be made by your choices.