Guest Speaker Jim Rapp | When Plans Go Sideways

One moment you’re cruising along and the next you’re spinning on black ice, doing everything you can just to stay alive. That’s the feeling behind “When Plans Go Sideways,” a message about what happens when life turns without warning and your best laid plans don’t survive the impact. We start with Jesus’ words in John 16:33, because peace is not the absence of trouble, it’s the presence of Christ when trouble shows up. 

From there, we walk through the Book of Job with fresh eyes. Job isn’t reckless, careless, or living in secret sin. He’s faithful, consistent, and still gets hit with devastating loss. We talk honestly about grief, fear, and the gut punch of watching your “normal” disappear. We also slow down on one practical takeaway: remembering who your provider is, thanking God for what you have, and honoring Him with your gifts even when life feels uncertain. 

We also go where real life hurts: the way words from people close to you can cut deeper than any visible wound. Job’s wife and Job’s friends remind us that pain spreads through families and friendships, and that blame is easy when you don’t understand the full story. If you’re searching for Christian hope, faith during trials, biblical teaching on suffering, or encouragement while grieving loss, this conversation points you back to a God who does not leave you alone and who can redeem what feels beyond repair. 

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s going through it, and leave a review so more people can find this message. What part of your life feels “sideways” right now?

Ending

Transcript

Welcome And Message Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thank you, Father. That is so good, it is gonna be a great day, amen. Well, thank you guys for showing up today at Connect Church. We know you could be anywhere around here, but you chose here to come and worship. And we very much appreciate that, amen. Thank you to our praise and worship team. Thank you guys. This morning, I want to bring a message to you that I have entitled When Plans Go Sideways. Yeah. We all make plans as we go through life, do we not? We make plans for a vacation. We plan our day, we plan our week. We even make plans of where we're gonna go eat after church. That was a great place to say amen. But how many of you know our plans don't always go according to plan? Want to read our key verse of

Peace While Trouble Is Certain

SPEAKER_00 1:26

scripture to you. If you would please stand for the reading if you're able. Today I'm gonna be reading out of the New Living Translation throughout this service. We're gonna begin with John 16, 33, and this is Jesus speaking. It says, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world. Amen. You guys can be seated. Here in this time that we have here on earth, we will face trouble, we will have trials that we have to walk through, and we will experience sorrow. That's just a fact. How many of you know that's just life? Amen. You notice here Jesus didn't say everything will be peaches and cream, everything will be easy, you'll never have to struggle. Now I'm gonna be honest, I would have been okay if he had said that. But that's not what the word says.

A Black Ice Lesson On Control

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I remember a time when I was working for Brookshire Grocery Company when I was working in Canton but lived in Mineola. Was working the deep nights, and by deep nights, I mean going in at 8 o'clock at night, working till 6 o'clock in the morning. Okay, that's how many of you don't know that's called the graveyard shift, right? I was working that shift, and that morning about six o'clock, we actually got off somewhat on time, which was very much appreciated. But during the night, a sleet storm had came in and had blanketed the area with a beautiful shiny film of ice. Yay. Now I needed to get home. So off I went, albeit very slowly and very carefully. What should have been about a maybe 10-15 minute drive from Canton to Grand Celine was nearly an hour, hour and 15 minutes. Okay, and for any of y'all who know me, who know how I drive, I wasn't speeding. Okay. But once I got to Grand Celine, got onto Highway 80, I noticed something. There was absolutely no nothing that even suggested that there was any ice on the road. So I did what anybody in my position would have done. I put my foot on the gas, got up to speed, I'm not gonna say what, set my cruise control, and I was rolling. And as I made it to the first bridge, it was long about now that I remembered very vaguely in the back of my head my dad talking about this thing that happens when it's really cold and there's precipitation, water in the air around bridges called black ice. Now, if you don't know what black ice is, black ice is hidden. And it's really hidden when it's still dark outside. And as I was going along, I hit that first bridge, and then my truck decided it was going to start doing some acrobatics. The back end of the truck started going this way, and I turned the wheel. Then it would go back over here this way and I'd turn the wheel. And we were doing this a little bit, and I'm like, wait a minute, my cruise control is still set. This is not good. So instead of just clicking a button to unset the cruise control, I did the incredibly smart thing and tapped my brake. At which time I quit doing the side-to-side. But what I started doing was circles. Now, I don't know if any of y'all have ever done circles on a bridge. I do not recommend it. Okay? Now, I don't know exactly how many circles I did. I know it was at least two. In my mind, it was like 15, you know, like I was on some crazy movie or something. I know it wasn't because the bridge wasn't that long. But as I'm doing these circles, I'm thinking, this is not good. Okay, this was not my plan. I did not plan on doing circles in the middle of a bridge on my way home. And then as I'm making my way to the edge of the bridge, something great happened. My tires caught dry pavement again. At which time my truck decided to go back into its little aerobic back and forth thing on the pavement. Except this time it sounded really different. And I almost, almost had it under control when I got to the next bridge. Now back then, and I'm telling on myself when I say this, back then the guardrails, when they started, used to come all the way down to the ground. And then they would gradually go up till they got to their normal guardrail height, and that's where they stayed. Then on the other side of the bridge, they would go down and touch the ground again. Well, it just so happened that I caught the guardrail while it was down on the ground. And I somehow managed to ride that sucker up and over the side of the bridge. And when my headlights lost sight of the trees, I knew I was in trouble. Gravity took over, my truck slammed down, and when it did, I slammed on my brakes. I skidded a little while and it stopped. Still up on solid ground. I could notice up probably about 100, 150 feet ahead of me, I knew where the creek was. And I was safe. A little shaken, but safe. So I get out of my truck, walk up the hill, and as I get to the top of the hill, I see a truck coming. So I'm up there waving my arms, and lo and behold, it's the sand truck from the Department of Road Things there doing their thing, spreading out sand on the road so that people don't do what I just did. And I'm thinking to myself, either I'm five minutes early or he's five minutes late. Either way, my trip home was not going according to plan. He was kind enough to let me get in the truck. We finished sending the bridges, going back that direction. He dropped me off at a gas station. I called my dad, went and got the truck, and everything was fine. Now the truck was in good shape, except I had to replace all the shocks. But other than that, it still ran another 250,000 miles. So that was a good thing. I was very grateful that I wasn't hurt. Now I was shaken up a little bit, I'm not gonna lie, but I wasn't hurt. And in this scenario, I was quite literally going sideways. That was not my plan. But life took me in that direction.

Life Surprises And A Hard Truth

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Life is full of surprises. How many of y'all know that? If you're too young to realize that, hang on. Life will show you. Life is full of twists, it's full of turns, and it's full of all kinds of unexpected things. Not all of the unexpected things are bad. Some can be quite thrilling and even just straight up awesome. But some of them are gonna catch you by surprise and you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, it's just life. Even when we are trying our best to do things the right way, how many of you know life still happens? Because just because you're trying to do things the right way, the person sitting next to you, don't poke your spouse, may not be. Uh-oh. Somebody that you work with may not be. Somebody that you live beside or in close proximity to may not be. But that's okay. I want us to look at a passage of scripture that shows that plans can and do go sideways. We're gonna be looking in the book of Job this morning. Yeah, some of y'all who already know, you already know. We're gonna talk about it anyway.

Job’s Integrity And The Test

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Now, Job was a man of great wealth and honor. And we're gonna pick up in Job chapter 1, the very first verse of the book. We're gonna go through the first three verses here. And it says this There was once a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. Good gravy. That's ten kids, in case you didn't catch that. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen. And a team is at least two, so that's at least a thousand oxen. That's a lot of animals to feed. Amen. He also had five hundred female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area. Sounds like Job's got it going on. Like he's living the high life. And he was. Job had material wealth as well as having ten children. And back in the Bible days, having huge families was a sign of God's blessing on your life. Amen. It was. Today it would even the thought of having ten kids would just freak me out. I'm just gonna be honest. Okay. He was blameless and a man of complete integrity. Now think about that for just a minute. Complete integrity, which means he always did what was right, even when somebody wasn't watching. That'll preach. He loved God and he was doing his best to live a committed life to God. But then we jump down to verse six, still in chapter one of Job, and it says, One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser Satan came with them. Where have you come from? The Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going on. Then the Lord asked Satan, have you considered my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless, a man of complete integrity, he fears God and stays away from evil. Satan replied to the Lord, Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is. But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. All right, you may test him, said the Lord to Satan. Do whatever you want to his possessions, but don't harm him physically. So Satan left the Lord's presence. Now before we get into this, I want to let you guys know something just in case you don't. The devil never ever has a good day planned for any of us. The devil is not going to come to you and say, Hey, on January 6th, about 4 p.m., I'm going to come in and turn your life upside down. That okay with you? How many of you know he's not going to do that? But he's going to do any and everything in his power to make all of us as miserable as we can be. So Job was enjoying the blessing of this wall of protection that God had placed around him and on him. Even the devil noticed the wall. Now think about that. The devil is convinced that you take away all Job's stuff, and he will straight up cuss you to your face. That's a pretty pretty strong opinion, isn't it? God gives the devil permission to test job, to test Job, Job. Gotta watch that pronunciation there. Sorry about that. The devil is given permission to take away Job's stuff, but not his health. Okay. Stuff, not his health. Now, something that caught my eye here, Job is not living a lifestyle of sin. He is not participating in wild party after party after party. Job is not seeing how far he can push God and still be blessed. He's not sitting here at the edge going, how close can I walk and not fall? He's not doing that. He's trying to do life the right way, God's way. And even through all of this, Job is going to be tested. I want to throw this out there too. How many of y'all have ever had to take a test when you were in school? Anybody? Okay. When the test was going on, what was the teacher doing? Was the teacher watching? Yeah. Was the teacher up there on the board giving examples of how to do this problem or what to do with this passage? No. The teacher was silent during the test. So if you find yourself today in a position that you keep calling out to God, but things are whirling around you, you just might be in the middle of a test. Okay. But just understand that if God is allowing the test, he believes that you are ready for that test. Okay, I don't know that y'all agreed with me on that. That's okay.

Loss Arrives In Rapid Succession

SPEAKER_00 18:48

So when we go back to Job, we're going to go down to verse 13. Satan has left the presence of God and has permission to test Job. Says one day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother's house, a messenger arrived at Job's home with this news. Your oxen were ploughing with the donkeys feeding beside them when the Sabaeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news. I am the only one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news. Three bands of Chowdian raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. How many of you know Job's having a bad day?

unknown 20:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news. Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's home. Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. Sounds kind of like a tornado to me. Doesn't say that, but that's what it sounds like to me. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you. Wow. Talk about things going sideways quick and not a little bit sideways. I'm talking like going in circles sideways. Job's plans for his life and his family have gone completely off the rails. Job lost all of his material wealth. Think about that for a minute. Seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teens of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, poof. They're all gone. Before Job can even process what was being told to him about his wealth, then he gets the news that all of his children are dead. I cannot even imagine. I don't want to try to imagine, to be real honest. In a world where many people seem to try to Want to one up each other today on whose life is worst. How many of you know they're gonna have a hard time trying to one up Job? Okay, that's one man that I don't want to one up. Not like that. I'm just saying. I know even my worst times can't compare with what Job was just hit with. Talk about a bad day. Now, most of us here, we don't have donkeys, we don't have sheep, we don't have camels, we don't have oxen. You may have cows, you may have goats, something like that. But I would venture to say even then most of us don't. Okay. But we do have checking accounts, hopefully savings accounts. Maybe you've got some money tucked away underneath a mattress or in a sock hidden in some crazy drawer. Okay? Maybe you've buried a can of money outside in the yard somewhere. Okay. We have retirement accounts, we have portfolios. But I want to ask you a question. How would you react today if your financial world was ripped away from you in one fail swoop? I think most of us would not have a very positive reaction. I don't think I would. Well, actually, I can tell you 100% for sure I would not have a positive reaction. Okay? That's just a fact. Job's hit with all this news about his financial stuff, and then he's hit with the news that his children are dead. Talk about kicking a guy while he's down. You know what? The devil, he doesn't care how miserable you are. The more miserable you are, the more he grins. Okay? That's our enemy. Now I want us to take a look at Job's reaction to all of this bad news.

Grief That Still Chooses Worship

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Beginning in verse 20, it says, Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord. In all of this Job did not sin by blaming God. Job tore his clothes and he shaved his head. This was an outward expression from Job that was letting the people around him know that he was dealing with some stuff. That there was some grief, some heartache going on in his life. Job then fell to the ground and he worshiped God. In the middle of the worst day imaginable, he made a choice to lift high the name of God. Think about that for a minute. That's impressive. I'm just saying. God was not cursed by Job. Job didn't curse him, didn't cuss at him. Job did not blame God for what happened. Has anybody ever heard people blame God for when bad things happen? Tornado comes through. What does the insurance company say? It was an act of God. They're blaming God.

Remember Who Your Provider Is

SPEAKER_00 26:20

And that brings me to point number one. Point number one, remember who your provider is. Remember who your provider is. Job acknowledges that it was God who provided all of his blessings. Job acknowledges he knows the stuff really belonged to God that it was just on loan to him. Okay, that's huge right there. It's nice to have blessings. Amen. It's nice to have stuff. It's nice to have money in the bank. It's nice to have more money in the bank than bills for the end of the month. Well, that was a great place to say amen. I don't know. Okay. I know it was Christmas. We're still dealing with that. We just need to remember who it is that blesses us with what we have. We need to remember to thank God for our blessings. Amen. How many of you know that God will not get mad and upset when we say thank you? That sounds kind of silly to even think that, but you know what? Just think about in your own mind. I'm not asking nobody to raise their hand. I'm not asking anybody to give a timeline. When was the last time you truly thanked God for what you have? For the stuff you have, for the people, the relationships that are in your life. If it's been a minute, you may want to take a minute in thanking. Amen. Sometimes it's our own bad decisions that cost us money or causes us to have to part with our stuff. Sometimes life just happens. Has anyone ever made a bad decision where money is concerned? Anybody? I know I have. Okay. I think most people have, whether they're going to admit it or not. But we need to remember that it is God who provided the skills and talents that we have, who gives us breath in our lungs so that we can go do what we do to earn the money or to do the things that we do so that we can have the things we have. Amen? We also need to remember to honor God with our skills, our gifts and our talents. God did not give us the gifts, the talents, and the skills that we have just so that we could accumulate wealth and accumulate stuff just to make our own selves happy. Okay? Is it okay to be happy having stuff? Absolutely. But that's not the key reason, amen? Now, we want to make sure that we are using these gifts and talents in a way that brings glory and honor to God. And that brings me to point number two.

Everyone Faces Loss And Grief

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Everyone also deals with loss. Okay, this is not one that I like to talk about, but it's a fact. Every person in this room today, and every person listening online has experienced loss on some level. Okay. Some of us may have lost jobs. Some have lost money in the stock market or maybe another bad investment. Many have experienced death of a relative, a friend, or even a pet. Some have lost their marriage. Some of us have experienced the loss of a dear friendship. You may have lost a vehicle. You may have lost your home. Dealing with loss is a natural part of life. Often how we deal with a particular loss is dependent upon how much value we place on our stuff or that relationship. How many of you know that? Some stuff when we lose it, it's like, well, that's unfortunate. Other stuff hits a lot harder. In a time of loss, we need to remember something very key. It is okay to not be okay. It's also okay to ask for help. It is okay to ask for advice or for just someone to spend time with you, not trying to fix what's going on, but just being there. Amen. Asking for help is not, everyone say not, not a sign of weakness. Okay? Oftentimes asking for help is a sign of maturity. Because it's that recognizing that I can't do this on my own. We also need to remember that people grieve in different ways and grieve for different lengths of time. So if someone has experienced the loss of a friend, a relative, or even a pet, and it's been two weeks, and you don't need to be walking in going, dude, get over it. Okay? If you come in with that attitude, there's a good chance you're gonna get throat punched. And I'm not gonna pray for you. Okay? There is no one rule when it comes to dealing with loss and grief. Everyone deals with it differently. Amen. Psalm 3418 says, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. When we see someone who is down, that is not a time to kick them. Come on. The world will do enough of that.

When Suffering Hits The Body

SPEAKER_00 33:42

In the first part of Job chapter 2, we see Satan and God talking again. God tells Satan that even though you struck Job, he remained loyal and dedicated. That's a pretty good testimony, amen. When God's saying, Hey, you gave him a pretty hard shot there, and he's still praising me. He's still dedicated to me. But then we see Satan's response. In chapter 2, verses 4 through 7, it says this. Satan replied to the Lord, skin for skin. A man will give up everything he has to save his life. But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face. All right. Do with him as you please, the Lord said to Satan, but spare his life. So Satan left the Lord's presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot. Now we don't know how much time has passed between Job's really bad day of losing his stuff and his children to being struck with boils. We don't know what that time frame is. We don't know if Job is still trying to wrap his head around everything. We don't know if all of it has really hit home yet. But what we do know is Satan didn't care. Satan came in and did what he does best, and that's caused havoc and spread lies, spread disease, spread just another bad day. Job is still dealing with the loss. And how many of you know that now he has these sores all over his body, and there is no relief in no way for him to be comfortable. Doesn't matter if you're sitting down, laying down, trying to stand up from head to foot. That's got to be some kind of miserable. And it's at this point that we are introduced to Job's wife. Now, for many of y'all who have read this story, you know that Mrs. Job has taken a lot of heat over the years for what she has said to her husband. And we'll see more about that in a minute. But this brings me to point number three.

Words That Cut Deepest

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Point number three is this words from others can cut deep. Especially words from those who are closest to us. Because we place the most trust and the most confidence in the ones that are closest to us, don't we? The dumbest thing I believe I've ever heard in my life is this. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. What a load of manure! Okay? If I get hit with a stick, if I get hit with a stone, is it gonna hurt? Very quite possibly. It may hurt a lot. But the hurt that comes from the people around us, those are the hurts that nobody sees the bruise. Nobody sees a cut on my face. But how many of you know that hurt is still very, very real? Very real. Now I want to challenge you for a minute. Ladies, I want you to sit up and pay close attention because God gave me a revelation about Mrs. Job that I think you're gonna like. Guys, this is gonna play into you as well, so y'all need to continue to listen also. But first, before I get to the revelation part, I want us to read this next passage here. Job chapter 2, verses 8 through 10. This is what it says. Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die. Wow. Okay, we'll we'll we'll come back to that. But Job replied, You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad? So in all of this Job said nothing wrong. Now, if you'll notice, Job says, You talk like a foolish woman. He didn't say, You foolish woman. Okay, I mean if you know there's a difference. Come on. Okay, Job was he he he was still calling his wife out, but not too far out. Just saying. Job was sitting in the ashes trying to get some relief from the sores that were on his body, using a piece of broken pottery to scrape the sores. How? There's nothing pleasant about that. Then we hear the hurtful and aggressive sounding words from Mrs. Job, curse God and die. And it was about here that God spoke to me. These words would have had a sting to them simply because of who they came from. Job's closest confidant, his wife. These words had to have cut Job deep. But I want you to think about something.

Giving Mrs Job A Break

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Early on, way back in chapter one, when Satan and God were having their little discussion, God didn't say, Have you considered my servant Mrs. Job? That's not what he said. He said, Have you considered my servant Job? Mrs. Job was not the target of the test. Come on. But how many of you know that she was in close proximity when the test came? All of the loss that Job experienced, Mrs. Job also experienced. All of it. Mrs. Job had her wealth instantly stripped away. Job lost seven sons and three daughters. Guess what? So did Mrs. Job. But guess what? Job did not carry those ten babies for nine months each. That's ninety months of pregnancy. In case you're trying to add that up, that is seven and a half years that Mrs. Job was in some stage of pregnancy. I just want to go on record as saying I am not near man enough to have a baby. Okay? I'm just saying. Seven and a half years. And then that's not even counting the time that Mrs. Job was taking care of these kids, feeding them. I'm gonna leave it at that, nursing the kids. Just as Job experienced a bad day, Mrs. Job experienced the same bad day. And now, on top of all of that, Mrs. Job is having to sit and watch her husband suffer with these boils all over his body, not being able to bring him healing or comfort. She was powerless to do that. So I understand that in a moment of weakness and frustration, how Mrs. Job could have said some hurtful things. But I want to ask you another question. Can you sit here today and honestly say that you think about your own self that you have never said anything harmful to somebody else? I can't. And once again it goes back to the ones that we love the most are often the ones that we hurt the most, which is sad and unfortunate. So maybe, just maybe, what do you say we give Mrs. Job a break? As the story goes on, three of Job's friends show up.

Friends Who Blame Without Knowing

SPEAKER_00 44:33

And we're not going to read all that because that's thirty plus chapters. You're welcome. But during that 30 plus chapters, basically what Job's friends are telling him is this. Dude, this is all your fault. All you need to do, Job, is to repent, come clean, and confess your sin before God. Now, isn't it awesome to have friends that come in and just all over you? I mean, let's just be honest. The devil has done enough to kick Job. And now my people that I'm going to call my friends are going to come in and start serving this mess up. And we know from what we read early on that Job experienced this loss not because of sin, but just because he was in a very, very intense protest. Man. Job never sinned and God never left Job's side. That's huge. Even when life appears to be falling in around us, if we have placed our hope and faith in Jesus and the sacrifice that he made by dying on the cross for our sins, being buried and then being brought back to life, we would never have to be alone. How many of you know that's a good thing? Because even on our worst day, if everybody else abandons us, God never will.

Lean Into God And Hold On

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Robert, if you can go ahead and come on up if you would. Even when people close to us, people who should know better run their mouths about things that they are clearly clueless about, how many of you know that God still fights for us? He still fights for us. If you have been hurt by people's words of doubt about you or your abilities, if you've been hurt by condemnation that they just try to dump on you by the tractor load, or people are just straight up telling lies about you. Anybody ever had a lie told about you? I think all of us have. Amen. I want to challenge you to lean into God during times of trials, during times of tribulation, during times of trouble. God will see you through. Amen. Now, if we were to skip all the way over to chapter 42 of Job, we see that God redeems everything that had been taken away from Job. As a matter of fact, all of his camels, donkeys, all of his livestock was doubled. Pretty awesome. He also had seven more sons and three more daughters. Which means poor Mrs. Job had another 90 months of pregnancy. Bless her heart. I'm telling you, we need to give Mrs. Job a break. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Job got to see, now think about this. He remained faithful during his test. And as a result, he got to see four generations of his kids and grandkids. Job lived a long and full life. Was it free of trials? Was it free of tests? Absolutely not. But God. Amen.