Introduction:
There are three ancient questions that are as current as this morning’s news. I call them the “Three Questions No One Asks Out Loud.”
1. Is God unfair?
2. Is God silent?
3. Is God hidden?
Plunging into these questions is not simply an intellectual exercise. They are vital issues in every person’s relationship with God. Every day someone somewhere wrestles with these concerns. Inadequate answers have caused more than a few to give up on trusting God. Weak solutions have also kept others from actually beginning to believe.
After all, how can anyone trust God if he is unfair? No one could but God is good while life in this sinful world is often cruel and unfair. Everyone can trust God because the Cross demolished for all time the idea that God would make LIFE fair for us. The Empty Tomb proves that God take our worst pain and make it into a MIRACLE. All that is unfair will be corrected some day.
Could we honestly trust God if he remained totally silent when we suffer? Of course not. He doesn’t ask us to trust Him like that either. JESUS cried out “My God, why have you forsaken me?” on the Cross. So we know that God understands the pain of our QUESTIONS when they seem to go unanswered. The Empty Tomb proves that our suffering is TEMPORARY. One day the pain will end for those who are committed followers of Jesus.
Key Question: In that case, why do we feel so LONELY when we are hurting? Is God hidden from us when we are going through adversity? That seemed to be one of Job’s biggest complaints. He could not sense God’s PRESENCE. The God with whom Job had spent so much time in prayer could not be found.
REMEMBER JOB’S STORY WITH ME.
He had a flawless relationship with God. He had a great family. He was a very rich man. He cared about his children and their spiritual lives. He lost it all in one day, but at least he still had his health. In spite of all his pain, Job worshipped God. Then he lost his health and his wife told him to curse God and die. Job still trusted God. Then, three “friends” came to comfort Job and accused him of committing a terrible sin. They all agreed. God always punishes sin with terrible troubles and since Job was going through horrible times God was punishing him. But Job kept on insisting he was innocent. Listen to one of his prayers that cries out for God.
"Only grant me these two things, O God, and then I will not hide from you: Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?” (Job 13:20-24)
That feeling of loneliness and separation from God was described well by C. S. Lewis, who wrote these words in the midst of deep grief after his wife’s death from cancer:
Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him . . . you will be — or so it feels — welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.
WE NEED TO TAKE IN THE BIG PICTURE.
1. When we read Job’s story we realize there is MORE going on than meets the eye.
Satan accused Job of loving God only because of God’s generosity and protection. God allowed Satan to test Job’s faith by taking his possessions and health (Job 1 & 2). There is more going on than meets the eye. The Bible makes that clear in other places too.
The prophet Daniel prayed and fasted for three weeks in order to receive God’s answer to his prayer. When the angel delivered it, he told Daniel that God had sent the answer as soon as Daniel prayed. However, the angel had encountered a spiritual battle while trying to get to Daniel (Daniel 10). There is more going on than meets the eye.
In his second letter to the Corinthian church Paul described his trouble – physical illness, imprisonment, beatings, attempts on his life and so on – as ”light and momentary” because he focused on the unseen spiritual rewards God has promised rather than on the pain that can be seen.
There is more going on than meets the eye. We need to realize that no matter what we think is going on in our lives, we cannot see it all. We are unaware of all the battles and blessings God is orchestrating around us.
Jesus said it this way: “Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it will go next, so it is with the Spirit" (John 3:8 Living Bible). You may sense his power but you cannot tell what he’ll do next.
2. We look at the parts of the PHYSICAL world. We analyze them and observe how they interact. For example, if I take a hammer and strike a nail, then I can drive it into a chunk of wood.
Because we have become skilled at measuring the cause and effect relationships of the physical parts of the universe, we have medicines, computers, cars – and all the other blessings and curses of technology.
But our skill in this area has activated dilemmas for us in the spiritual. Because we are so comfortable observing and working with the physical parts of creation we tend to overlook the fact that more is going on than meets the eye. We tend to act out the old saying, “out of sight, out of mind.”
3. If we ask THE HOLY SPIRIT to help us we can become aware of the spiritual reality, but it’s like “a poor reflection as in a [cloudy] mirror.”
Because our experiences of the spiritual parts of creation are carried to us through our physical faculties, we tend to view a miracle as a supernatural invasion – an interruption to the flow of cause and effect, as we know it. We long to experience them often – especially when we are suffering.
But God calls it a miracle when one person like you opens his or her life up to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He considers it a miracle when you share his love with those in need. Why? Because that’s his most important strategy for revealing what is going on that our physical eyes cannot perceive. When Jesus changes your life, others begin to take in the big picture. They can tell there is more going on than meets the eye when we act like Jesus.
We will not understand the entire big picture until we meet Jesus face to face. Then he will open our eyes to see it all.
In the mean time, as we work to take in as much of the big picture as possible, we must realize that there is more going on than meets the eye. We need to fight the tendency to focus only on the causes and effects we can easily perceive in the physical realm.
4. We should also ask the Holy Spirit for help in sensing God’s presence because God is always CLOSER than we think. Like Job, we feel our pain and not God’s presence. The grief, shock, and disappointment block out everything else. It is a matter of perspective.
Human need is always more apparent than God’s presence for the same reason that the earth always looks flat. The human need is very visible in the sickness, the loneliness, the boredom, and the busyness, while all the signs and symbols of God’s word and presence are several miles away in the church sanctuary. Our awareness of human need crowds out and then takes precedence over our attentiveness to God’s presence.
—Eugene Peterson in Under the Unpredictable Plant
Thesis: Our TRUST in God means more to Him than we could ever imagine – particularly when he seems hidden to us.
God created Adam and Eve to trust him and to obey one simple command. They chose to distrust and to disobey him. Job’s faith was stretched but it did not break. I believe that trust in God is the pivotal point of the entire Bible.
Conclusion: THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF FAITH IN THE BIBLE.
1. One that beats suffering with MIRACLES.
This kind of faith feeds thousands with a sack lunch, heals the sick, raises the dead and casts out demons.
2. The other overcomes by PERSEVERANCE.
This second kind of faith endures torture and refuses release rather than renouncing God. It goes through poverty, hunger, sickness and death knowing that God is still on his throne. This kind of faith is willing to wait for Jesus’ return if that’s what it will take to relieve the pain. One author described this kind of faith with these words:
When the world seems a defeat for God and you are sick with the disorder, the violence, the terror, the war on the streets; when the earth seems to be chaos, say to yourself; “Jesus died and rose again on purpose to save, and his salvation is already with us.”
Every departing missionary is an act
of faith in the resurrection.
Every … commitment is an
act of faith in the resurrection.
When you forgive your enemy
When you feed the hungry
When you defend the weak
you believe in the resurrection.
When you have the courage to marry
When you welcome the newly born child
When you build your home
you believe in the resurrection.
When you wake at peace in the morning
When you sing [because of] the rising sun
When you go to work with joy
you believe in the resurrection.
— Carlo Carretto in Blessed Are You Who Believed
Application: SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BUILD YOUR FAITH?
1. Pray HONESTLY.
2. Read your Bible to discover GOD.
3. Remember the Cross and the Empty Tomb.
4. WAIT on the Lord (Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 40:28-31).
5. Focus on becoming more like JESUS and ask smart questions.
(NOD TO WORSHIP TEAM)
Responding to God:
1. Please stand if you are able.
2. Bow your heads and close your eyes so you can focus your attention on God’s Holy Spirit.
3. Listen to the words of the third verse of our closing song
This is my Father’s world.
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong
seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world.
The battle is not done;
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.
4. Is that your confidence? Do you trust God like that? If so, tell him as we sing “This Is My Father’s World” together. If not, please feel free to come to the altar rail to pray.
