"I Didn’t Deserve It"

Job 1:1, 2:1-10 I didn’t Deserve It

1. Consider Job and his character:

Blameless, upright, faithful, long-suffering, steadfast, honest ...

2. Now consider some underserving acts that came up on this man

A. Job Loses his Property

B. Job loses his children

C. and Job loses his health

3. Consider How Job felt as a result of his Sufferings. "I didn’t Deserve It"

• Job 3:1-3 Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

• He said: 3"May the day of my birth perish and the night it was said, `A boy is born!’

• Job 10 :1 “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul” .

• Job 17:1 His will to live ceased ” Job screams, “My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me” .

• Job 23:16-17 Then he moans, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!” (23:16-17).

4. Consider some of these thoughts about suffering

A. Let us understood that not all human suffering is deserved

B. Human suffering can happen to anyone even the upright

C. Jesus says this about suffering It rains on the just and the unjust

D. Suffering is never deserved but suffering happens to the righteous as well as the unrighteous

5. One thing find during suffering it is critical to Remain Faithfull:

A. Gerald Sittser was a history professor with a wonderful family. But one day, his wife, his 4-year-old daughter and his mother were all killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Sittser’s life had been going very well, but then, in one horrible moment, he lost three of the most precious people in his life. His suffering was compounded eight months later, when the driver of the other car was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter. The defense attorney was able to cast enough suspicion on the testimony of several witnesses that he was able to get his client off the hook. Sittser was enraged. But then he began to be bothered by his assumption that he had a right to complete fairness in life. “Granted, I did not deserve to lose three members of my family,” he writes in his book A Grace Disguised (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). “But then again, I am not sure I deserved to have them in the first place.” His wife was a woman who loved him through some very hard times. His mother lived well and served people to her life’s end. His daughter with sparkled enthusiasm and helped to fill his home with noise and excitement. “Perhaps I did not deserve their deaths,” he concludes; “but I did not deserve their presence in my life either.”

B. Job Remained Faithful to God during all the suffering even his wife said Curse God an die"

• Job 1:20"Job said, "Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

C. Gerald Sittser remained faithful and even said I didn’t deserve it but neither did I deserve to have them as my family

6. No we do not deserve it to suffer, nor do we deserve the grace that God gives

A. I didn’t deserve it the salvation as a result of another who suffered horrifically just for me

B. I didn’t deserve it Good health when others suffer with disease in the body

C. I didn’t deserve the wealth I have when other barely can make it and put food on their table

D. I didn’t deserve it. When I visit nursing homes, hospitals, flood victims, disasters, and other misfortunes no they didn’t deserve it but nor do I deserve the good things that happen

7. No we do not deserve the bad things nor the good things that come our way, but as a result of accepting Jesus as Lord consider these words from old hymns:

• It’ll be worth it after all, child, It’ll be worth it after all, after all of this climbing, we’ll hear Jesus call,

• Pass me not Oh Gentile Savior heal my wounded broken spirit save me by thy grace, Savior Savior hear my humble cry while on others thou art calling please do not pass me by

Idea from Homiletics Issue September October 2012 volume 24