God is Always With You

Last week we began a new sermon series where we are looking at aspects of God and our relationship with him by using the book of Job. This week we discover that “God is Always with You”. Our scripture comes from Job 23:1-9,16-17.

23 Then Job replied: 2 “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. 3 If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! 4 I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would find out what he would answer me and consider what he would say to me. 6 Would he vigorously oppose me? No, he would not press charges against me. 7 There the upright can establish their innocence before him, and there I would be delivered forever from my judge. 8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. 17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

Please pray with me…

Last week we skipped most of one chapter, this week we are skipping 21 chapters. This means that there are a lot of text that we missed and need to look into in order to completely understand what is taking place in today’s scripture.

We left off last week with Job’s wife questioning why he would still believe in God after all the tragedy that he has recently faced. He lost his servants, his livestock, his children, and now his body is covered in sores from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

His response was “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” which I translated to mean that in life we are to take the good with the bad. The next section of scripture has three of his friends come up to him to “sympathize with him and comfort him.”

(Transition)

This isn’t a part of our official text for today, but I want us to start on these words today. We as followers of Jesus joined together as The Church of the Good Shepherd. We are called to be those that sympathize and comfort those that are hurting in our congregation and in our communities.

That is one way that someone who believes in God can believe that God is “always with them.” They can feel the love of God through those around them. They can recognize that God has not abandoned them as they have followers of God stand by them during their struggles.

What that also may mean is that you have to choose to let those around you know what is going on in your life. You have to be willing to share your struggles with someone that you trust to allow them to sympathize with and comfort you.

This can sometimes be the most difficult thing for us to do. We don’t mind being there for those around us but when it comes to our own lives and our own struggles we are unwilling to share. We either don’t believe what we are going through is big enough or we assume that no one will care.

(Transition)

I also believe that many times we go through our own struggles so that we can help others through the struggles that they are facing. It is much easier to have empathy for someone when you have also been in their shoes at some point.

We know some of the pain that they may be feeling. We understand what they may be thinking. We can use our own, what seems or are negative experiences, to help those around us believe that God is with them.

(Transition)

What we find in Job is that compassion and comfort can over time turn into blame and confrontation. The friends end up arguing with Job. They state that he must have done something against God in order for God to allow bad to happen to him.

It goes back to the belief of a God of blessings and curses. Those that are blessed by God are righteous and doing what God desires for them to do. Those tha tseem to be cursed by God are having bad things happen to them because of something they have done against God.

God is angry with them. Some state it that “God is charging them” for their wrongdoing and this is the treatment that God believes they deserve. We can know in our hearts that this is not true, but yet at times we can ourselves fall into the trap of doubt. We can begin to believe it is God punishing us for something we have done.

The three friendsfall into this trap. They are attempting to get Job to admit what he has done. They also recognize that all he needs to do is repent, and he will be forgiven, and he will be able to be blessed again.

(Transition)

We can see from the response of Job the damage that this can do. He says to the “three friends”:

“You are miserable comforters, all of you! 3 Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? 4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. 5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.”

We need tomake sure that we don’t have our help turn into hurt. I have a friend that is still struggling from losing her sister to cancer over seven years ago. Some have stated she needs to get over it and move on. Others have shut her out of their lives because she continues to mourn.

I had another friend who lost their son to cancer at the age of six. They had people come up to them after his death with statements like “At least your young enough to have another child”, and the most hurtful “You must not have prayed hard enough.”

We have to make sure that compassion and comfort never turns into painful statements. We need to make sure that our help does not turn into hurt. We need to live our lives showing those that are hurting that “God is always with you” instead of letting what we do and say lead people away from God.

One of the best pieces of advice I have received regarding people that are hurting is “if you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything.” We are better off keeping our mouths shut than opening our mouths and saying something hurtful instead of helpful.

In fact, what I have discovered is that many times I am there to listen instead of speaking. I am supposed to be the ear that a person needs in order to get out what they are feeling. We sometimes are supposed to just keep our mouths shut.

(Transition)

“The friends” don’t do a good job at this. They continue to belittle and doubt that Job is innocent. They don’t know what we know. God has allowed for this to happen in order to prove to Satan that those that are blessed by him do not have just a superficial faith.

They are unaware of why this is taking place. It turns on its head this understanding of blessings and curses. It should cause us to understand that sometimes bad things just happen to good people.

We will often be unaware of the circumstances that are causing a person to act or react the way that they are. What will often happen is that we will assume we know what is going on. We will believe we know best when we have no idea the pain that a person is facing.

Job’s suffering and the lack of “compassion and comfort shown by his friends have led Job to a dark place. A place in which he is attempting to find God in the darkness. He is seeking God to help him understand why this is happening to him.

A Christian mystic from the 1500s wrote of this time many of us have faced or will face in our lives. He is known as John of the Cross, and he wrote a poem that has been titled “Dark Night of the Soul.” It speaks of this time in which we seek God and don’t seem to be able to find him.

This is a place of loneliness. Again, this is why as followers of God we need to walk beside people during their struggles. It may not stop them from entering this place, but we are able to help lift them out of the pit of despair.

Job has never quit seeking God despite the struggles that he has faced. He believes that God is with him and is worth following despite what he has heard from his wife and his three friends. He doesn’t give up on God.

Verses six and seven of our reading points out that he believes in the forgiveness of God. He says that God “would not press charges against him.” If he can find him that God would establish his innocence before him, and there he would be delivered forever.”

Job continues to seek God and knows that even if he did something that he was unaware of doing that God would forgive him. It may take us facing hardships to get to the point that we believe that our only hope is to cry out to God.

I recently heard a song by Ee-veth Luna entitled “Give It to Jesus. After focusing on our scripture, what caught my attention was the course of the song. It says,

“Gotta give it to Jesus every trial. Every wounded heavy hurt. Bring it all let Him heal it, let it go now. He can turn it all around. I'm gonna give it to the one who will never leave or walk away.”

Job didn’t know of a Savior that came down to earth and died for his sins. Job did not have the Holy Spirit. He did not have God within him and be able to speak to him during his times of struggle.

We are blessed because we have help, and hope that was unavailable to Job. We don’t have to seek out God. We have God with us always and when we allow him, he can help us with the pain and suffering that we are facing.

This does not mean that we are not going to face the hardships of life. This does not mean that we won’t find ourselves in our own “Dark Night of the Soul.” But what it does mean, that when we are there, we can believe that God is beside us. He is taking the journey with us.

This poem is said to be about John of the Cross’ own journey into darkness. Him seeking God in the darkness. It is through the darkness that the poem points out that we are able to grow in our relationship with the light. It may take the darkness for us to become closer to God.

One stanza of his poem speaks of finding God in the darkness, “Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn, Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

John of the Cross ends the poem with what finding God in the darkness has done for him. “Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.” It was through finding God in the darkness that allowed for him to leave his problems behind.

Often it can be through those “dark nights of the soul” that we can end up becoming closer to God. We can reach that point as was mentioned in the song where we “Give It to Jesus.” We give up and ask God to lead us away from our pain which should remind us that God is always with us.

Our first reading brings up the ways we should desire to act and react. We can discover we are closer to God when our reactions are more often pleasing to God. We first should be people of worship.

The scripture tells us to “rejoice in the Lord always,” reminding us that worship should not be only a Sunday occurrence. We should constantly be choosing to praise and worship God through all that he does for us.

The worship of God can also be a reminder to us that God is always with us. It is through worship that we cry out to God. We pray to God and ask for him to intervene in our lives. Praying and praising God is a sign that we believe that God is with us.

The scripture tells us that we should “not be anxious about anything.” This one is way easier said than done. Worry and anxiety are usually pertaining to things that we anticipate happening instead of what has happened. The scripture wants us to focus on the moment and trust that God is involved.

This sounds good but we also know that things do not always turn out as we would desire. Job would not have wanted to go through all the death and loss and pain. But yet, he never lost faith, he believed God was with him. We should attempt to live our lives the same way.

The scripture goes on to tell us where our focus should be. Philippians 4 verse 8 tells us we should focus on “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

We should focus on God. We should believe that even as we are going through life’s struggles that God is with us. You may need help finding goodness. You may need help finding what is pure, lovely, and admirable.

Be willing to seek help. Be willing to have God help you find these traits in the world around you. Not only will this help you find God, but it may also help you stay away from those things in life that can move you away from God.

Job did not let the darkness around him stop him from reaching out to God. Let us be willing to believe that God is with us and to cry out to him for our own circumstances and for the pain we are seeing being faced by those around us.

Please pray with me…