Dealing With Discouragement Series

Dealing with Discouragement

Job Sermon Series, Part 4

Introduction (Job Slide)

- After Job’s worst day ever, Satan challenges God to stop protecting Job

-- Satan proclaims that Job’s saving comes from the charge: “Skin for skin!”

-- The meaning of this is: Job will do anything to save his own life!

- God allows Satan to inflict Job, and the pain is nearly unbearable (re: boils)

-- Even Job’s wife tells him to “Curse God and die”

-- But his response is to rebuke her and proclaim (don’t miss this):

-- “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (expound)

- Job’s confidence in God is remarkable, it is a mark of spiritual maturity

-- APP: We ought to get a hold of this also: God is the provider of everything!

- Big Idea: God allows Job to be tested again, but Job STILL remains faithful.

-- For us: When we see God at work, sometimes no words are necessary

-- Sometimes, there is nothing we need to do but focus on God’s grace

-- Often, our best option is to sit and rely on what God has said to us

- Today … we see Job begin to speak on his current condition

-- Imp to observe: It isn’t all sunshine and roses for Job (re: 7 days silence)

-- Stick with me through this, and at the end I promise we will learn from it

- Read Job 3:1-26

- Pray

Point 1 – Job Weeps

- Job is in such a state he begins to wish he had never been born (v1)

-- He does not curse God in this; but he regrets that he ever entered the world

- He actually says, through the burden of his heart, what he feels (v2)

-- May the day that he was born, be forgotten about in history

-- Literally: He wishes he was in a non-existent state; the day never happened

-- Even the announcement that “a boy is born” he wishes never occurred

-- APP: Job is in complete desperation due to his condition

-Going even further, his hope is that day would turn to darkness (v4)

-- His wish is that even the night of his birth be eliminated from the calendar

-- So much so, that it may not even be recorded in the history books

-- APP: Instead of joy at that announcement, let it barren/empty/void of life (v7-8)

- He curses this day because of the pain it would one day bring (v10)

-- Had that day failed to ever exist, he would not be in this state today

-- His pain would be gone, and he would not know sorrow like this

- TRANS: His sorrow then turns into a deep cry for help

Point 2 – Job Wails

- Job asks (anyone) a question that truly has no answer to it (v11)

-- Says, “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?”

-- APP: Since the day of his birth DID occur, why wasn’t he stillborn?

- Even more, he asks why did he have anyone that cared about him? (v12)

-- He wonders why his mother had even bother to sustain his life

-- If she had abandoned him, he would be free of this and at rest

-- Consider: Surely, this would be better than the current state he was in

- APP: To him, death would be the great equalizer and it would be better

-- He would be in a place of comfort, instead of the life of torment (v13)

- Interesting: Job confesses that he would be at rest, peace … with who?

-- With God! (IMP) His faith is still secure, but his heart is crushed

-- He imagines himself in a magnificent tomb, at peace forever (v15)

- To him, being stillborn would be a far better life than he has today (v16)

-- His yearning is to be, “an infant who never saw the light of day”

-- CRY: “Oh God, why can’t I be where even the weary are at rest?”

- To Job, death would a place of rest (v19)

--He sees himself as a small person because of his adversity; broken

-- In his final resting place, he would be “freed from his master” (pain)

- TRANS: Surely, for distress of this type … death would be best!

Point 3 – Job’s Distress

- His sorrow now reaches a crescendo of wailing and woe (v20)

-- “Why is light given to those in misery, life to the bitter of soul?”

-- He is wondering aloud why God would allow him to continue to live?

-- Why would he be made to continue suffering in this present state?

- His heart wants to die, to be no more, to be forgotten (v21-22)