JOB- When Life hurts! - part 2
Veterans Day Clip!
Theme of the Book: How should righteous people suffer?
Key Verse: Job 3:26 "I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest, but only turmoil.
Key Word: Trials
Introduction:
Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Genesis was not written first, but Job. The time described in Job fit the Patriarchal period of the days of Abraham 2,000 years before Christ. Many believe that the author is Elihu who penned this drama shortly after it occurred.
Job is not a book of answers but rather a revelation of human experience. Job is an everyday man facing circumstances of which he has no control over. They are ordinary life tragedies of human life. Norman Vincent Peale notes:
Everyone, at one time or another, suffers a crisis, or even a defeat. “You can’t win them all, “ someone said. What, then, do you do about the challenges you don’t win? What about the harsh defeats that come? Physical defeats, for example, when you have trouble with your health, when your body begins to give up on you. What do you do about pain, sorrow, suffering, and hardship? What happens when you are defeated in some objective, or in some ambition? Or when you see that some fond hope, cherished for years, is not going to be realized? What happens when life seems to flow away from you, rather than toward you; when things get mixed up and become unhappy; when you are having trouble with yourself, and trouble with everything else? What do you do? The greatest measure of a human being isn’t how he handles himself when things are going well, but how he handles himself when things are going badly, when defeat comes. The attitude a person has in defeat is a great issue in life, for it determines whether one is able to overcome difficulties and be victorious again (In God We Trust, Nelson 1994, page 5).
Job gives us insight into not the why, because we all face trials in life. Friend there are no exceptions to this reality. Job was penned for us to convey insight into how to handle the tragedies of life. It also reveals how to help others who are suffering and teaches what not to do as counselors and care workers. The focus of the book is not on the why Job suffers but how Job handles adversity. Norman Vincent Peale adds this thought:
What are you going to do with defeat? Are you going to let it defeat you? Or are you going to make it a positive, creative experience from which you can extract much know-how and wisdom and from which you will gain strength to proceed? The individual who has placed at the center of his thinking the wonderful affirmation, “I can do all things through Christ” can recover from any defeat and can handle any situation (7).
T.S.- Believe it or not pain with the help of Christ does produce good things. Lets explore the benefits of pain and suffering in life.
I. The positive side to pain and suffering.
a. When pain and suffering comes our way we need to understand that even though it hurts there are benefits.
i. When I touch something hot with my hand I snap back because of the pain. In essence pain helps me from hurting myself more.
1. So we can conclude that in some instances pain helps us from hurting ourselves worse.
2. Philip Yancey in his book When Life Hurts states this about the benefit of pain cells:
a. I confess that I once viewed pain as God’s one great goofs in an otherwise impressive world. Why would He mess up such a world by including pain in it? Without injury and suffering, we would find it so much easier to respect and trust him. Why didn’t he create all the beautiful things in the world, but leave out pain? I discovered the answer to this question in an unusual place. To my amazement I found that a world without pain actually exists-within the walls of a leprosy hospital. People with leprosy, today called Hansen’s disease, do not feel physical pain. But as it turns out, that is the peculiar tragedy of their condition. As the disease spreads, nerve endings that carry pain signals fall silent. Virtually all the physical deformity comes about because the leprosy victim cannot feel pain (14,15).
b. Yancey tells us that leprosy patients have lost their toes because their shoes where to tight. Others have gone blind because they lose the ability to blink when something sprays in their face. Others have gotten sores and open wounds on their hands because of gripping a mop to tightly (15,16).
c. I have heard of others who cut themselves with knives and never knew it. They cut off a finger and don’t realize it. Why because they don’t feel pain.
d. Pain believe it or not does serve us in a positive way. It helps us from injuring ourselves worse than we are. It helps us to be cautious. It alerts us to things we should not be doing.
i. If it hurts to cut myself with a razor then I have a thought, “Don’t do that it hurts!”
e. Yancey adds a few benefits of pain:
i. Without pain warning’s, most sports would be far to risky.
ii. Without pain, our lives would be in constant mortal danger. We would have no warnings of a ruptured appendix, heart attack, or brain tumor.
1. Yes, believe it or not we need pain!
2. I recall a time when I was at Bible Camp and we where sitting on the beach enjoying the day. One of the campers ran into the water and dove in. I saw him stand up looking confused and hurt. He walked out of the water and sat down on the beach.
I went up to him asking if he was okay. He said he had hurt his neck and thought he injured his collar bone because he was in pain. I had him lie down on his back. I then sent for the nurse. When she arrived at the beach she asked, “Where does it hurt?” He described where. She asked him to rotate his neck and he cried out in pain as he tried to move it. His Dad then showed up and asked where did it hurt. He told him. He asked him to rotate his neck, He said it hurt to do that. We decided to take him to the hospital. He walked gingerly to my car and we slowly and gently drove to the hospital. I was waiting in the hall when the doctor came out and shocked me with his findings. The young man had a broken neck! I said, “What!”
The doctor informed me that it was miracle that the teen was not paralyzed. One jar this way or that could have caused the damage to which would have paralyzed the young man. In essence the pain in his neck saved him from doing anything that would have damaged it worse than it already was.
* Sometimes pain is a pain the neck. But it will always prevent us from injuring ourselves worse if we respond to it appropriately.
f. Pain does have beneficial results at times we may not understand it at the moment but later on someone could tell us how our pain prevented a worse injury.
ii. Pain also helps to produce character in our lives.
1. James 1:2-4
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
2. Romans 8:28
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,£ who£ have been called according to his purpose
3. Romans 5:1-5
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we£ have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we£ rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we£ also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
* Have you noticed in our society with has less pain and suffering than most other countries in the world that we seem to lack character. Could it be because we don’t experience enough pain and suffering in our society.
iii. Pain helps us to check to make sure our lives are in order.
1. James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
iv. Pain and suffering helps us to glorify God more.
1. Jesus’ pain and suffering glorified God so will ours!
T.S.- Lets now explore how we as Christians should handle the times of pain and suffering that will come in our lives.
II. Job teaches how to deal with pain and sufferings.
a. He role modeled things we need to do as we go through pain and suffering.
i. We need to keep a heavenly perspective through our pain.
1. In other words we need to stay focused on the Lord.
* Job 12:10 “In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.”
a. He knew that God was still in control even though he was in agony.
b. Job in the midst of his pain cries out, “I cry out to you O God, but you do not answer…”
i. Job discovers that God does answer in his timing. God appears to Job later on in his ordeal - chapter 38.
c. Dr. Dobson stated, “Let it be said, simply, that there is often a quiet awareness in the midst of chaos that the Lord is there and He is still in control. Millions of people have reported this persistent presence when life is systematically unraveling “(125).
i. Dr. Dobson shares the tragedy of losing 4 friends in a plane crash in 1987. All men of God.
ii. The 5 of them had been together the night before and the 4 took off the next morning to go back to Dallas but they never made it. Their plane was found crashed in a remote canyon with no survivors.
1. Four families where decimated.
2. They where asking why?
a. Where was God?
b. Why did he let four Godly men die?
c. Why would he take four Godly fathers from their families?
d. They where in agony!
3. The why was never answered directly. But he said they did discover God’s presence at the funerals. After the funeral was over they where standing outside talking and someone pointed to the sky and said, “Look at that!”. The four families devastated looked to the sky. Dobson stated, “Suspended directly above the steeple was a rainbow in the shape of a smile. There had been no precipitation that day and no more than a few fleecy clouds. Yet this beautiful little rainbow appeared above the church. We learned later that it had been hovering there through most of the funeral service. It was as though the Lord was saying to the grieving wives and children, ‘Be at peace. Your men are with Me, and all is well. I know you don’t understand, but I want you to trust Me. I’m going to take care of you, and this rainbow is a sign to remember.”
4. Mr. William Mueller by the church had the insight to take a picture of the rainbow. When they developed it there in the sky next to the rainbow was a small private plane cradled near the rainbow.
a. Pass around the picture!
b. The families had a visual touch of the presence of God to hang on to and to look at to remember “His presence is enough!”
2. We need to look for God’s comforting presence through the pain and in the midst of the pain.
a. Look for God in the storm!
i. Job 38:1-14 The Holy Bible, New International Version
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said :“Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels£ shouted for joy? “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
ii. David Holwick states, “God meets people in the storms.”
iii. Psalm 29 – reaffirms this
iv. In Job 38:1-14 instructs us:
1. God gives no answers, but he does bring his presence to Job.
2. Joni told us at the AACC Convention two years ago that God’s presence is enough to help us endure and push through the suffering.
3. She was injured 34 years ago and she still proclaims His presence is enough. When she is in pain as she was this day God’s presence comes in like a flood and it enough to help her endure the pain.
4. In suffering do you look for God’s presence?
b. Dr. James Dobson says this about God’s presence:
i. His presence is not inconstant. It is your perception of Him that comes and goes. If your spiritual walk is dependent on the ebb and flow of emotion, your confidence as a believer will pitch and roll like a ship on a stormy sea. Very little in human experience is as undependable as the way we feel from day to day. That’s why our faith must be grounded in a solid commitment of the will, in our prayer life, and in careful study of Scripture (122).
c. He is the one that will help us and deliver us from our present trial. He will gives us encouragement and strength.
3. We need to place our faith in the fact that one day we will be renewed in Heaven.
Job 14:14 If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal£ to come.
ii. Never allow the pain to push you away from God.
. Job 1:21 - 1and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart.£
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.”
Job 6:8-10 - 8 “Oh, that I might have my request,
that God would grant what I hope for,
9 that God would be willing to crush me,
to let loose his hand and cut me off!
10 Then I would still have this consolation—
my joy in unrelenting pain—
that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
1. We need to never allow tragedy to drive us away from God
a. He knew his Redeemer was God Job 19:25-27
I know that my Redeemer£ lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.£
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet£ in£ my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
2. We need to decide to never allow the pain and suffering to push us away from God.
a. What was Satan up to with God when he afflicted Job with pain and suffering? His purpose was to drive Job away from God. He does the same today to you and I.
3. C.S. Lewis clip
a. His response about pain prior to his wife’s death to cancer, “Pain is God’s megaphone to get our attention.”, “Go wants to use it!”
b. His response when enduring pain!
i. See the movie clip!
c. His response after suffering under the pain
i. “I have discovered that prayer does not change God it changes me.”
d. James 5:7-11 Patience in suffering
7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
iii. We need to learn to embrace the good with the bad.
1. Job 2:10
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish£ woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
2. Paul tells us to be content no matter what comes our way.
3. Joni tells us over and over how we need to keep a good perspective when it comes to trials and tribulations.
a. Just because we are in pain should not drive us to deny God’s Word!
b. We need to praise the Lord no matter what. In trials and in good times!
iv. We need to remember that God is a just and Holy God.
1. He is never in the wrong it’s against His nature-He is right always!
2. We are not to accuse God of doing evil.
a. Job 28:28
And he said to man,
‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.’”
b. We need to fear God and shun evil.
i. He has nothing to do with evil.
c. It is healthy to fear God
d. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the beginning of knowledge and wisdom is to fear God.
i. Do you?
3. James 1:13 –15
13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
T.S.- Job not only teaches us how to suffer but it also teaches how not to suffer.
III. Job teaches us what not to do in our pain and suffering.
a. Elihu a young friend of Job appears on the scene in chapter 32.
i. He is empathetic with Job’s suffering and speaks with sincerity.
ii. He never calls him a sinner.
iii. He never says its your fault.
iv. He never points the finger at Job.
v. He enters onto the scene directed by the Lord to give understanding on how to suffer, not why Job is suffering.
1. He is the only friend of Job not condemned by God.
2. He is the only one who gives good counsel to a hurting man.
b. Elihu corrects Job’s misunderstandings of God caused by his pain, suffering and agony.
i. He tells Job and us that God is not his enemy as Job felt he was from 33:8-13
“But you have said in my hearing—
I heard the very words—
‘I am pure and without sin;
I am clean and free from guilt.
Yet God has found fault with me;
he considers me his enemy.
He fastens my feet in shackles;
he keeps close watch on all my paths.’
“But I tell you, in this you are not right,
for God is greater than man.
Why do you complain to him
that he answers none of man’s words£?
1. We are not to say in the midst of our suffering that God is out to get us and we are his enemy.
a. This is not the truth. Here is the truth!
b. John 3:16-18a “For God so loved the world that he gave hi one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned…”
c. When you suffer and you will-remember- that God loves you and if you are living in the right He promises to be with you through the pain.
d. However, if you are in the wrong then you need to repent and get right with God and he will help you through.
ii. We are not to accuse God of being driven by emotions and feelings as we are. God does not just decide not to talk to people in pain because he is angry with them. He does not give people the silent treatment to punish them.
1. Philip Yancey states this about God, “Pain is not an innovation God devised at the last moment of creation just to make our lives miserable.”
2. Elihu 33:8-18 addresses this error in thought.
“But you have said in my hearing—
I heard the very words—
‘I am pure and without sin;
I am clean and free from guilt.
Yet God has found fault with me;
he considers me his enemy.
He fastens my feet in shackles;
he keeps close watch on all my paths.’
“But I tell you, in this you are not right,
for God is greater than man.
Why do you complain to him
that he answers none of man’s words£?
For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though man may not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
to preserve his soul from the pit,£
his life from perishing by the sword.£
3. Note especially verses 12-15
4. He is not!
5. Holwick states, “God is greater than us, and not accountable to us.”
6. He adds, “If he seems indifferent to us, realize he has a larger perspective.”
c. We are not to accuse God of evil deeds.
i. We are not say that he is unfair or unjust!
ii. Elihu tells them in 34:10 “…Far be it from God to do evil, from the almighty to do wrong.’
iii. He adds, “It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice.”
d. We are not to say that living for God is not worth it. I should have sinned. So what’s the difference.
i. Job 26:21 “Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction.”
e. Job listens to Elihu and then God appears in the storm and Job immediately repents for his accusations against God.
i. Job 40:1-5
The LORD said to Job:
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Then Job answered the LORD:
“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
I spoke once, but I have no answer—
twice, but I will say no more.”
ii. The Lord instructs Job
iii. Job responds again with a pure heart in 42:1-6
1Then Job replied to the LORD:
“I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Conclusion:
In the last Chapter 42:7-17, Job is blessed and vindicated by God. We need to remember that Job had none of the New Testament teaching of God’s grace, yet this book reveals that he knew that God loved him. He knew that God was not an ogre, but a free giving and forgiving loving God.
The point to learn here is this:
Trials will come your way but remember, God loves you and He will bring you through. What we need to do is to go through the trial and carry an attitude and a response that stays focused on the Lord.
Easy way to summarize today’s teaching “Do not cop and attitude with God in tough times.”
Altar Call- Play CD song #11 Through the Pain!
While this song is playing if you would like prayer please come forward and we will pray with you! The Lord is here and His presence is enough!
