The God We Serve

Introduction

Engage: I was being drug behind a four wheeler, on a sled, in Missouri, in the middle of July. Were all from Missouri here so I don’t have to tell you that it doesn’t snow here in July, not that you should let someone pull you on a sled behind their four wheeler in the snow either, but at least it would have provided a softer landing. We going riding around the yard and soon after I go rolling off the sled and slam into the ground. I immediately knew something was wrong. There was a sharp pain in my collar bone and I couldn’t sit up for the rest of the night without applying pressure on it. Now, I was terrified of getting in trouble so I didn’t tell my parents about it until one day I was winging a baseball bat and I heard a massive pop and fell down in pain. At that point my secret was out. We went to the hospital and sure enough I had a fractured collar bone.

Focus: Now, we know that when bones are broken they repair themselves and come back stronger. This isn’t just true of bones either. When we get sick our bodies become more immune to that sickness, this is how vaccines work. Their is something about pain that grows us as humans and not just physically. We should not view pain and suffering as a curse but as a gift to be thankful for. James 1:2-4- 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

How then can a Christian adopt this mindset? What reasons do we have to be thankful in the midst of suffering?

Set the stage: I want to take a break from our study of 1 Peter to center us on thankfulness today, but I want to do it in a different way. The book of Job is about a righteous man who is caused to suffer in ways we will never fully realize and through it all, he is forced to peer through the hurt and look at God above all things. Job never curses God but he does complain a whole lot and at the end of the book he finally gets an answer from God in a peculiar way that forces a specific response out of him.

In our own lives, Christians, we must be careful lest we groan against God by failing to recognize all He has done and who He is. We must take stock of our positions before Him and submit ourselves in thankfulness and gratitude. As we look at Job to help us see this, is it important to note that the book does not attempt to give a reason or answer as to why Job suffers. Instead, it offers insight into the character of God.

A Christian Attitude of Thanksgiving in all Circumstances:

1. We are thankful because of who He is (v. 1-2):

Job’s chief complaint was an attack on the character of God, but in this verse we see Job grasp the fulness of God’s wisdom, knowledge, and power.

Read

i. He blames God for the ill that has befallen him (12:9- Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?).

1. This is a tricky subject. The beginning of Job seems to suggest that God allowed Satan to inflict Job. We must deal with this, and theologians have attempted to do this. The retribution principle teaches that the righteous will prosper, and the wicked will suffer in correlation with their deeds. The issue here is that Job, whom the Bible decrees as righteous, suffered immensely and still God offers him to Satan to test his faithfulness. Job 1:6-12

Job 1:6–12 ESV

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

2. As Christians we must recognize that God has a purpose, and He alone is wise to work out the details of His plan. What He does is good, wise, and just always. Job does not attempt to defend anything other than the wisdom of God. God does not need to be defended; He needs to be trusted.

ii. So, Job does not attempt to defend God, he appeals to His character instead. But this he does do of his own volition. He is prompted by God to do so.

1. In two speeches God responds to Job. After the first Job pledges silence, in awe, he can no longer speak, but he does not recant his position. It is after the second speech that we find our passage. Why? What prompts Job to utter the words of repentance and praise we find in 42:1-6?

2. There is no more mighty display of who God is from His own mouth in scripture. Chapters 38-41 have the power to silence anyone who might bring presumptuous statements before God. Here are some of my favorite statements from the section. God tells him to “dress for action like a man; I will question you and you make it known to me:

a. 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.

b. 38:12-13 Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?

c. 40:1-2 And the LORD said to Job: Shall a faultfinder contend with the almighty? He who argues with God let him answer it.

d. 40:8-11 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

e. 40:15-18, 24 “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. V. 24 can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?

f. 41:1-3, 10 Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? v. 10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

g. 41:11 Who has first given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

3. What can Job possibly say? What can we possibly say? The only logical response is worship.

b. He who reigns above it all (v.2)

i. Job recognizes that it is God who reigns above all things and his demands turn into worship. This brings us back to the question we asked in the beginning. How do we reconcile a good God with the suffering of righteous people? We do so only by knowing God has a purpose.

ii. There is no way to know His purpose. We know from Hunter’s sermon a few weeks ago that in the end, He will make all things new and that indeed He has loved us enough to save us and these are part of His purpose but perhaps that isn’t satisfactory during suffering.

iii. How can you be thankful during suffering when you don’t see God’s purpose in it? Only through submission to His will and through the Holy Spirit which changes your heart to accept that perfect will

iv. Trust in His plan.

v. I believe that Job’s statement in 1:21 would be a helpful prayer for us to this end: 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Would you make that your prayer Christian?

c. In our fallen mindsets we often assume that righteousness and thanksgiving should be motivated by profit. It is sometimes true that these bring profit, but not always, so we as Christians must remove profit as our motivation. (Unanimous service). We must be satisfied in God and His approval alone and seek pure motives in all we do.

2. We are thankful because of who we are (v. 3):

When we question God, we tread water we are not fit to swim.

In recognition of who God is we come to a humble recognition of our humanity. Of where we stand before this mighty God.

ii. Job repeats God’s question to himself in verse three. Job has wandered into territory he is not fit to wander into. The game of questioning God is a dangerous game we are not fit to play.

Read

iii. Job finally recognizes that he spoke out of ignorance, but he isn’t ashamed. He has not been made low in a humiliating manner. He has been liberated from striving to find the right answer and from always trying to do the right things.

b. Ready to trust.

i. This second response from Job shows that he is ready to trust God.

There are two characters from God speech that demonstrate his trustworthiness.

1. Behemoth- God’s stability and trust. It is a strong and sturdy working animal that can be trusted in labor.

2. Leviathan- The folly of questioning God. The Levithan is too mighty to be tamed let alone created. Who are you to question its creator?

ii. This again challenges us to submit to God’s plan and will regardless of our understanding. Rom. 9:20- But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

iii.

c. It would be enough to say that we are thankful and submit to God because of who He is and where we stand before Him alone. A quick reading of Job’s repentance might suggest that it was he does, but given the whole of the book of Job and what we know to be true of redemption I don’t believe this is the case.

3. We are thankful because of what He has done (v. 4-5, Job 19):

Hope realized. We recognize that because God is not only our creator but also our redeemer and we respond in gratitude.

Job has know had a full encounter with God. He has fully seen God for who he is and is ready to worship.

Read

i. “I had heard you by the hearing of my ears, but now my eye sees you”

ii. What fascinates me about Job is that he intrinsically knew all along that it was God who was in control. The entirety of the book is filled with discourse of him laying out principles of who God is and how He acts. His ears had heard of this God.

iii. After the Lord’s response to him, however, he experiences the reality of who God really is. His eyes see and he experiences God not just in theory but in actuality.

1. The personal experience of God (now my eyes have seen you; 5) transcends the suffering, the isolation, and the sense of injustice as much as it transcends mere theory about God (My ears had heard of you; 5).- Clines

iv. What Job declared in chapter 19 now reigns true not only in his mind but in his heart.

Job 19:25–27 ESV

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

v. Job realizes his hope. That God lives and indeed He is the redeemer of all mankind.

vi. Job is ultimately thankful and worshipful because of what God has done. And so must we be.

b. Thanksgiving flows from the Gospel

i. If Job has grounds to rejoice in thanksgiving because of who God was to him then how much more, Christians, ought we to walk in thanksgiving in light of the Gospel?

ii. We have said already that God has a purpose and He alone is capable of working that purpose out and yet He thought it fitting to include our salvations into that purpose.

1. Psalm 98:1-3- Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation;

he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

iii. O Christian that you might know what a blessing your salvation is. We serve a good master. Yes because of who He is but also because of what He has done in bringing us to Himself. I have to believe that if we would see the cross, even in light of our own suffering, we would live lives marked by thanksgiving.

1. Rom. 5:8- But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

2. John 10:11- 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

c. The implications of salvation.

i. I said early that now Job is a free man. So are we.

1. John 8:36- So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

2. Romans 8:15- For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

ii. We don’t live enslaved to fear, sin, anxiety, or depression. These things keep us from living in thanksgiving. We live as Children of the Most High God with our eyes humbly fixated upon Him, who He is, and what He has done.

1. Landon- what do you have to be anxious about?

iii. The cross of Christ is so radical that I am no longer focused on my circumstances but on Jesus.

4. We repent in dust and ashes (v.6)

Job repents by falling on his knees in humble recognition of his ingraditude.

Read

a. Despise = regret

b. We end our mourning

c. Take stock of your attitude. Is it thankful or today do you need to look at your God and repeat the words of Job?

d. I have to believe that if we took this mindset the impact it would have at our thanksgiving day tables and in the rest of our lives would be immaculate.

Conclusion:

· The end of Job shows God restoring Job’s fortune. Certainly, there will be times when this is the case for us. We suffer for a while and God restores all that He had previously taken, but not always.

· Christian, will Jesus be enough for you to be thankful in all circumstances? Not because things are great but because our God is great.

o Re-read Job 19:25-27

Job 19:25–27 ESV

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Benediction:

Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O God, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ and set him at your right hand in the kingdom of glory. Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O Lord Jesus Christ, you lamb of God who has redeemed us by your blood, you heavenly priest who ever lives to make intercession for us, you eternal King who comes again to make all things new. Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O Holy Spirit, who has shed abroad the love of God, who makes us alive together with Christ, and makes us to sit with him in heavenly places, and to taste the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. Blessing and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and might, be unto our God forever and ever.