Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
Last week we discussed the importance of speaking the truth to sufferers.
Since sufferers need to hear God’s perspective, we must graciously, prophetically, and impartially speak.
When we think about addressing a sufferer we need to have three distinct categories in mind.
Specifically of people, as saints, sufferers, and sinners.
Saints - The redeemed perspective of our being.
Sinners - The sinful aspect of our being.
Sufferers - The suffering aspect of our being.
Prior to speaking truth in love… Elihu has...
Sat with Job in his suffering and just wept.
Listened with patience.
He allowed room for Job to lament of his present suffering.
Ask questions and pray.
With this in mind, Elihu will now turn to address the sufferer.
The points that Elihu will make are instructive for us as well as for the sufferer.
They reveal temptations that sufferers are prone to.
They reveal important theological categories that we need to speak to when addressing a sufferer.
God is Gracious
“His Speech Intends to Save”
Jack felt dejected.
He had been married to Joanne for thirty years.
Their children were finally raised, and he retired early to enjoy the “golden years.”
But those retirement years did not prove to be golden.
His doctor discovered intestinal cancer.
He faced chemotherapy, sickness, and no guarantee of recovery.
He withdrew from family and friends.
Brooding over his “bad luck,” he spiraled deeper and deeper into the pit of self-pity.
The Journal of Biblical Counseling: Volume 25, Number 3, Summer 2007 (Spiritual Poison)
The temptation for the sufferer is that God is NOT gracious.
The temptation for a sufferer is to believe that God is somehow silent.
The temptation is to believe that God is NOT gracious.
Words
“Heed the Prophets Words”
This first section represents Elihu’s desire for Job to pay him mind.
Elihu gives several reasons for why he should be listened to.
Because I’m Sincere
He’s not coming to him to show how right he is.
He’s coming to him because he loves him.
Because I’m Made from the Spirit
He’s not coming to him in his own understanding.
He is approaching him because God has given him the life to do so.
And he says he has an obligation toward Job.
Because I am Your Equal
He’s not coming because he thinks he is somehow superior to Job.
He’s coming to him because he realizes that he also is a creature in desperate need.
Because I Won’t Pressure You
He’s not coming to Job to lay greater weights upon his back.
He’s coming to him to bring life.
Now, these for emphasis are very important for us, and we could spend whole weeks discussing each of them.
What I hope you do say though, is that Elihu has Jobs best interest in mind.
Correction
“Why You’re Wrong!”
Job has not said he is sinless.
He has actually admitted that he was a sinner in multiple places.
He knows he’s a sinner.
Elihu is confronting a self-righteous attitude in Job.
A self-righteous attitude that is beginning to form within Job.
There’s an attitude that is festering in Jobs heart that needs removed.
Job has clearly shown that he didn’t do anything to deserve the suffering but in the mean time has overlooked his festering attitude of self-righteousness.
Though it may be hard to hear, often times sufferers struggle from this same self righteous attitude that Job is struggling with here.
Which is why they need our correction.
They need us to speak on God’s behalf to them.
They need God‘s perspective.
There are four ways that Elihu addresses Job.
And these for ways reveal four different areas as needed correction.
The first is that God is unfair and secondly that God is silent.
Unfair
“God Does Not Treat Me Right”
Elihu has also called out the fact that Job feels as though he has been treated unfairly.
Since God is greater than all mankind, Job had no right to vent his frustration.
He’s not prohibiting lament, his point is the Job and God are not equal.
Remember how the friends spoke with Job, how they told him that his suffering was a result of sin.
Elihu is rather saying, you are not suffering from sin but have sinned in your suffering.
The sin Job committed is anchored to the fact that he believes that God is unfair toward him.
Application
The same is also true for people who suffer.
They begin to believe that God has been unfair toward them.
Silent
“God is NOT Speaking”
The sin he has committed is that God does not speak.
Application - Warning to Sufferers
Woe to the clay that strives with the potter; for he gives no account of any of his matters.
He is under no obligation to show us a reason for what he does, neither to tell us what he designs to do (in what method, at what time, by what instruments) nor to tell us why he deals thus with us.
At this point, it’s important to circle up and remind each of us of the temptations to come our way in suffering.
When you suffer, there will be a temptation to believe that God is silent.
There will be a temptation to believe in someway.
God is not fair to you.
When these temptations come, brothers and sisters, we must not ignore them.
Do not think that if you ignore these temptations that they will just passively fall away.
No, if we ignore them, they will destroy us.
God’s perspective is heard when He speaks, and His speech intends to save.
He concludes by showing Job that God does indeed speak.
God does speak to humans.
And His purpose in speaking to humans is to rescue them from the grave.
He desires to rescue them from the grave that they may enjoy the light of life.
Speech
“God Does Speak”
God specifically speaks to us through His word.
This means that if we want to know what God has to say about a matter, we open our Bibles.
I never wanna minimize this.
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