Lessons learned from Job #4
In the midst of suffering
Job chapter 4 Selected verses
Introduction- Sermon title- In the midst of suffering…What do you do?
We have been in a study of Job.
We have looked at the trials that have happened to Job and then we say a silent prayer that all those things would not happen to us.
Inflicted with the loss of his wealth, his possessions and while trying to regroup losing his complete family.
Soon after he physically has to deal with boils all over his body.
His wife is no help, she does not understand what is happening and wants her husband to curse God and die.
We have seen a long list of questions answered because of what has happened to Job.
Why do bad things happen to Good people?-because we live in a fallen world, because we have a choice, people do some pretty bad things to each other.
We see from the conversation that God and Satan have concerning his servant Job that God sometimes allows things to happen so that we learn from them and also so God’s glory can be reflected by our actions.
Are we foolish? Are we foolish to believe like Job’s wife that we could curse God and not see consequences in our life?
To listen to the bad advice of someone that moves us away from God instead of toward God.
Last week-
We looked at Job and him dealing with depression and disappointment.
That is one hurting man with a lot of issues.
His heart is laid wide open because of what is happening in his life.
He is yelling at God, crying out to God, and he is looking for some comfort from God and from his friends.
Job chapter 4- Eliphaz speaking to Job in a depressed state of mind
Job 4:1-21
Prayer-
So if we were to highlight the book of Job;
Were learning that chapters 1-3 was God’s test of Job of his faithfulness through Satan attacking every aspect of his life short of killing him. He had no idea that God was allowing this because he could not see the big picture like God could.
Chapters 4-37 is a dialog of his 3 friends giving him advice of what he ought to do since God has forsaken him and is punishing him.
Chapters 38 till the end of Job, Almighty God begins restoration to Jobs life.
Eliphaz believes that all this is happening because Job has sin going on in his life.
He is suffering because he is not listening to God and not obeying God.
When he begins listening, all this turmoil will stop.
4:12- Eliphaz says to Job that God himself woke him up in a dream and told him about what was happening with Job.
While everyone else was sleeping and dreaming Job, God woke me up to talk about you.
Spirit of God came past me and made the hair of my head stand up.
I could not make out his face, but this is what he said to me… “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? “Can even a strong man be more pure than his maker?”
Let that settle a minute
Don’t you just hate a conversation that starts… I don’t want to get into your business but… because it always gets into your business! Amen.
I don’t want to gossip but… I just have to tell you about…
Do you know what I just heard about …
Job 5:8- Eliphaz to Job “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.”
Job the trouble that has come to you is because of sin in your life. Great! Thanks!
The calamites you face are because you are in some kind of rebellion to God. (secret sin)
He tells Job how he can fix it- it’s easy Job, this is all you do… you fear God and come back to faith in Him.
You are not as blameless as you pretend Job. There is sin somewhere.
Job was a super saint to his friends as a wealthy business man but as soon as trouble hit him and this friends saw him under the hand of God’ correction, they felt it was all Job and somewhere he abandoned his faith and his walk with God.
He tells him whatever you did before the crisis began, do it again.
Re-establish you confidence back to what it was and not what it is now.
Eliphaz is probing Job- At one time you trusted God… why did you stop?
Do not turn back from your former ways.
Treating him like a backsliden believer.
Get back to the basics Job. This must be all your fault!
Commentators are divided over the tone of Eliphaz in chapter 4-5.
Some think he is a “sympathetic encourager.”
I see a person who was in judgment of him and did not have all the facts to be advising Job on what to do next. (You know people like that?)
I think he was one of those I don’t want to get into your business… people but he did!
On the surface, Eliphaz advice seems reasonable.
Job certainly needed to trust God. He was to practice a moral lifestyle.
Where he went extremely out of character about God was that God always rewards the righteous. The problem with that reasoning is that it fails to take into account what was really happening in Job’s life. BECAUSE HE COULD NOT SE THE WHOLE PICTURE.
He believed in divine retribution. If anything bad happens to you, there has to be sin in your life. Every bad choice brings God’s wrath and every good things brings God’s rewards.
These are half truths because God does say that we will reap what we sow but it is His judgment on what He does in each situation.
The Bible says-The blessings of God fall on the just and the unjust. God gets to make those choices.
I do believe if we are not rewarded in this world, we will be rewarded later but it is God’s choice when and how.
Here is the statement we will work through this morning- “In the midst of suffering, we must not lose our hope in God.” (Repeat)
In the midst of all the junk in the world that happens to us- Don’t let it lose your focus.
If you are taking notes
We do not see the big picture-
We cannot see the whole picture of what God is doing or not doing in someone’s life and we need to be careful that we do not give advice that is not only not Godly but could be destroying in a person’s life.
We do not have all the facts! We do not know what has brought that person to where they are at. We do not know what God is doing in the times they are going through.
Illustration-
A few years ago there was an ad on TV that started like this: There was a woman sitting in a car. She's minding her own business, and suddenly this man comes out of the blue, rips the door open, grabs her, and pulls her out of the car roughly. It looks like he's attacking her, and we look on in horror. Then the camera pulls back, and we see that the car is actually on fire, but the woman didn't know it. The man wasn't assaulting the woman; he was rescuing her. The ad finishes by saying, "You need the bigger picture. Channel 10 News gives you the bigger picture."
The faithfulness of God is true and has been proven many times.
God cannot lie, nor can He break an unconditional promise that He says He will fulfill.
Every covenant He made is kept and every promise or foretelling has or will come true.
When we are going through the ordeal of being unfairly attacked, when we are being lied about, when our reputation is being publicly smeared, when our friends betray us, when a spouse abandons us, it may appear impossible that such things could accomplish anything good, but they do. The key is the word “appear.”
We see far less than what God sees. The good that may come from the treachery of others is not planned by the hand of man, is not seen in advance.
Only God can fully satisfy the hungry heart of man.
Many times we mistakenly compare God’s faithfulness to ours.
Sometimes on, Sometimes off. However, God’s faithfulness is far beyond what we could ever succeed on our own.
If there is a measure of faithfulness accredited to us, It’s all because of his faithfulness that gave us strength to do it.
Nothing of God dies when a man of God dies.
We die, but the promises of God live on. They bury us, but they don’t bury God’s promises with us. Your death cannot nullify God’s faithfulness.
Our God is the God of the future. He is the God of the generations to come.
God is so faithful that anyone who seeks Him can find Him. Faith is a gift, but even a gift must be opened to be enjoyed.
As we implement our faith, we begin to realize more and more about God’s faithfulness to us.
God cannot act out of character with His essential nature.
None of God’s attributes can ever contradict any other attribute, but all harmonize perfectly with each other. Since He is perfect and unchangeable, He can never cease to be what He is.
Everything that God has done or everything He will do is consistent with all that He is.
Everything that God does will always agree with all that God is.
Paul says
I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News” (Philippians 1:12 NLT)
If you want to be a joyful person, you need to look at every problem from God’s viewpoint. Joyful people have a larger perspective. They see the big picture. When you don’t see things from God’s point of view, you get discouraged, frustrated, and unhappy.
Ever since Paul became a Christian on the road to Damascus, he had dreamed one great dream: He wanted to preach in Rome, the center of the universe at the time. His dream was to preach the Gospel in the most important city in the world.
But God had another idea. Instead of sending Paul to Rome to preach crusades, God made him a royal prisoner of Caesar, who was at that time Nero. Nero was about as wicked and as bad as you can get.
As a royal prisoner, Paul was chained to a royal guard 24 hours a day for two years, and the guard was changed every four hours. Over two years in prison, he witnessed to 4,380 guards. Who’s the real prisoner here? Who had the captive audience?
This wasn’t Paul’s plan, but it was God’s all along.
Philippians 4 says that within two years, some of Nero’s own family had become believers because of Paul’s witness in the royal court in Rome.
Any time you have a problem that’s starting to get you down, you need to do what Paul did — learn to see it from God’s point of view. Ask, “What is God doing here? What’s the bigger picture? What’s the bigger perspective?” Then you’ll be able to face the problem in faith.
Friends may fail you but God never does (Repeat)
Joshua 21:45
“Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed’ everyone was fulfilled.”
God Never Fails
Isaiah 55:11
"So is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
God's word is trustworthy. His promises are true. What God says he will do, he will do.
2 Corinthians 1:20:
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
That is why we say amen. It means so be it- we hear a truth Amen. So be it Lord!
Close,
How many have been lead astray by poor advice?
How many have lost focus on God and stared at their circumstances?
Job 9:33-35 Job is speaking to his friend Bildad and says;
“If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.”
You know where I am going with this- On this side of the cross, we do- His name is Jesus!
It begins with a head bowed and a heart open- asking him to search our hearts and reveal himself to us.
Job did not know Jesus, but you do, or you can. You have the word of God that tells us that Jesus will not leave us or forsake us and that what He takes us through, he will be there to help us through.
Again this morning is about relationship and trust. Next week we will see how God begins to restore Job and turns some dramatic corners in his life.
