Rethinking Our Need for Answers

Welcome

Well, good morning friends! Good to be with you all again. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan and I serve as the teaching pastor for Lifepoint | Worthington. We’re grateful to be with you today.

Series Recap

Let me remind you where you how we’re working through the book of Job.

It’s 42 chapters long - and we’re covering it in five weeks. It’s sounds crazy - but I actually think it’s helpful to cover book it like this because it gives us the opportunity to get the full picture of what is, unquestionably, a very challenging book of the bible.

What we’re focusing on is a series of invitations the book of Job offers to us - invitations to reimagine or rethink some aspect of God or ourselves. Two weeks ago, we talked about how the book of Job is an invitation for us to reimagine how God operates in the world. Last week, we saw Job as an invitation to honestly face what we called “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Next week, we’ll see an invitation to reimagine God’s end game, or what He is ultimately doing in this world.

If you have a bible with you - meet me in the Old Testament book of Job. Old Testament book of Job. We’ll be spending most of our time in chapter 30.

A Feel For the Game

And while you’re turning there…

This year my oldest son, Malachi started coach-pitch baseball. Which feels like a rite of passage for Courtney and I - like we’ve officially entered that season of life!

So we’ve got the practices and games. Malachi and I have been practicing at home - watching games talking about how it all works. It’s honestly been a TON of fun!

But the thing with CP is you have to go in with…I won’t say low expectations, it’s more like the correctly calibrated expectations. Because as fun as hitting or catching the ball can be….there is something about boys that makes them infinitely more interested in the size of the dust cloud they can make by repeatedly kicking the dirt, right? This is not ESPN’s top 10. Lot’s of almost plays - that kind of thing.

At the end of the day, there’s just a bit of chaos in coach pitch…you’ve got endlessly distracted kids…which was to be expected, but what I didn’t prepare myself for - was the parents - particularly the dads.

My goodness…

Like there must be something about being a dad - like a moth to a flame - we’re all up at that fence, lovingly, but loudly, shouting hopeless complicated instructions to our kids. “Remember, you’re playing short-stop, and there’s a runner on first so, you need to play back a little bit, if you get the ball throw it to second so that he can throw it to first.” And it happens EVERY INNING! And in EVERY INNING the kids are playing different positions so the rules the dads are are shouting a different every time! It’s nuts!

And in all that chaos, our coach is not passively sitting back, I’ve noticed he’s way more calm with the feedback he’s giving to boys when they come off the field.

And it’s not because he’s checked out!

See, it’s because he knows that, in the moment, what those boys need - is not the answers to what do. They don’t really need the rules. They definitely don’t need multiple people shouting the rules to them in real time. What they really need is a “feel” for the game. They need to develop the instinct for the game. And there’s no way around it - it just takes time. A LONG time.

Why am I brining this up?

Well, think about it this way - we’ve been looking at the ancient story from the Old Testament book of Job - a story about profound grief and sorrow - disappointment and anger. It’s a book meant to offer us wisdom on how WE might navigate the kinds of seasons that Job himself is in.

And in a lot of ways, what’s offered to us in this book is not a refresh of the “rules”…but reminder that what we really need (even if we don’t want it right now) is a “feel for the game.” In other words, we need to become the kinds of people who are increasingly in-tune with God’s realities for how He has organized the world the function and flourish - so that we develop an instinct for His ways. Which, I will readily admit, right now probably feels like a very unsatisfying response.

But you see, in a world that is very eager to provide answers and swiftly ascribe meaning...and in increasingly in the age of AI...with almost everything at our finger tips, Job offers us a different way forward - in many uncomfortable ways, the book of Job is an invitation to rethink our need for answers.

So, again, if you have your bible with you - meet me in Job 30. Job 30 - and I’ll start in v. 16.

I’ll read this passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

Job 30:16–31 ESV

16 “And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. 17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. 18 With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. 19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. 24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help? 25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. 27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 29 I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. 31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

PRAY

Job’s Questions

Alright, let’s go ahead and get started.

Now, I know that was a long passage - but the reason I wanted to read the whole thing is because I think it offers us a really good sense of what Job’s got going on in his inner world — what he feels in his soul.

In fact, one of the most striking features about the book of Job is how transparent he is with the “darkness” he is walking through.

We know this from the opening chapters of the book that Job is experiencing an overwhelming sense of loss. He has has lost just about every meaningful aspect in his life - all of this has been taken away from him.

And none of what he’s experiencing makes any sense to him…so most of the book follows these long discussions between Job and his friends who’ve gathered around him all trying to find some kind of meaning in his suffering.

In a lot of ways, his friends are like the other dads during coach-pitch game! All taking turns to shout the rules and give answers to Job’s questions.

They have such a high view of God’s justice and fairness that they can only come to one conclusion as to what’s going on: Job has obviously messed up!

Somewhere along the way, He’s done something to upset God who is now, clearly punishing him!

His friends say it this way in chapter 4:

Job 4:7–8 ESV

7 “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

And yet, Job, for the life of him, genuinely cannot think of what he could have done. Actually, we know from the very beginning of the book that he was “…blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”

But what he’s experiencing now does not make any sense.

There’s nothing he can point to that would indicate he’s somehow deserved the loss of his health, his livelihood, even his own children!

And what we saw last week was that as a result, Job, the man is actually quite hopeless.

Which, I think, is problematic for us - because at the end of the day, we don’t really want a hopeless Job. We want the ‘can-do’ Job…the ‘shining star’ Job because if HE can do it…if HE can make through, then maybe we can too as we move through our own seasons of pain, disappointment, grief and loss!

PAUSE

But…like we saw last week…

What if there’s something about naming that hopelessness…honestly facing that hopelessness…that is actually apart of the way God is forming us into something different…something new?

What if, what feels like abandonment is more like of a weaning process - transitioning to a more robust, rich, and ultimately more satisfying relationship with Him? What if, just like a child being weaned from milk to solid food, our own season of loss, grief, and disappointment are part of the way that God continues to refine us...to shape us - using even the profound brokenness of this world for the GOOD of those who love Him?

If you listened to last week’s message, you’ll remember we spent a long time talking about what’s called “The Dark Night of the Soul”…which is the way Christians for centuries have talked about a general feeling of abandonment by God - not just a brief moment in time, but an extended season during which you are keenly aware that something in your relationship with God is off…something’s changed…not right…even if you can’t put your finger on exact what happened, what changed, or why.

The Dark Night of the Soul

And that’s still where Job is as we look at chapter 30.

He’s still in that deeply disorienting season of trying to make sense of where God is, what God’s doing and, conceivably, what he should do to make it all stop!

Look again at Job 30, starting in v. 19.

Job 30:19–21 ESV

19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.

What’s going on here?

Again, He’s being brutally honest about how he believes God has treated him; honest about the anguish he feels in seemingly being ignored.

V. 20.

“God, why won’t you answer me?!”

And this is a consistent theme in the book.

You will find at least 10 times where Job cries out to God…desperately seeking answers for what’s happening to him. Which, by the way, is the most natural thing in the world isn’t it?

PAUSE

Especially in loss - we want to know what God is doing - why we’re going through any of this. We want to know why a God who says he loves us would allow us to watch our spouse slowly pass - who would just watch the way we’re being treated by a family member…who would just sit back and do nothing. Why a God who can heal...not. Like if that’s really in your tool box, why wouldn’t you do it all the time?

Of course we would ask questions like this!

After all, how could an answer not be helpful?

PAUSE

But as a I read through the book of Job - I thinking the thing I’m struck by most...is that time and time again….to all of the Job’s questions…for the most part, he gets silence.

And that silence from God has produced a very specific - and probably predictable response in Job. Look with me starting at v. 27.

Job 30:27–28 ESV

27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

This, again, is what many followers of Jesus throughout history have called “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

Now, let me be clear here. Job is expressing what he truly feels. That is not the same thing as saying he is right; only that he’s honest.

And if you back up for a moment, it’s his honesty that provokes his friends standing out by the fences, to shout the rules back to him! To try and give him the answers he’s looking for!

“Job, you can’t talk to God that way. You know how all this works! He is absolutely just…Job, I hate to say it - but maybe you just need to hear it now, you must have done something to earn this, after all, no one is perfect!”

And it’s in that space - spent and exhausted from all of this where he feebly offers up these words in v. 30:

Job 30:30–31 ESV

30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. 31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

In other words, “I’m done.”

And if it’s enough to make Job’s friends uncomfortable, I’m sure his honesty can make us feel the same way. Actually I think this is part of why we don’t always know what to do with the book of Job - and sometimes try to rush and find the silver lining in it - to get to the end of the story!

The irony is, in rushing through it, I wonder if we largely end up missing the point?

PAUSE

See, what if point of the book of Job is to bring us to The Dark Night of the Soul…to bring us to that place where it feels like God has walked away…where it feels like He’s not listening…not there…and maybe doesn’t even care. To teach us not to run, but lean in?

What if the point of the book is to bring us to the season where we are profoundly aware God no longer neatly fits in the “box” we may have placed him in? Which is not to say it’s an easy season to walk through - it’s actually super disorienting!

Think back to the illustration I used last week, drawing from some of the ancient writers of the church who compared the Dark Night of the Soul to what an infant experiences during the weaning process.

On this side of that experience (which all of us have had) we understand that it’s good and right and necessary for that baby to be weaned from milk to solid food. The baby needs that!

But the baby doesn’t know that while it’s happening! They feel left behind, ignored, neglected by the one they used to be able to depend on in a very specific way!

Friends, we will often find God is doing His most transformative work in the weaning process….or in other words: it is in and through the Dark Night of the Soul that He is developing within us a feel for the game…a feel for the way the way He operates in the world.

It is in and through the Dark Night of the Soul that we are becoming the kinds of people who are increasingly in-tune with how the Goodness of God shows up in the midst of the brokenness of our world.

How to Hear from God

The question then, is how is God developing within us a “feel for the game”?

How does any of this process work?

Well, first of all, I think we have to acknowledge that developing a “feel for the game” is not an overnight process.

Jump back to my son Malachi for a moment. We can spend all the time we want preparing for a game - in fact, we even set up little baseball figurines and talk through what happens in different situations and the remarkable thing is he almost always knows the answer.

But at his stage, the moment the ball comes to him, he freezes…and he questions everything from “How do I hold my glove again?” to “And why do I through it to second instead of first?”

And what that means for us is that at first, when we have our Job moment, none of us enter into it perfectly poised and put together. We often freeze!

Like I said last week, the Job moment…the Dark Night…it forces us into some pretty painful questions - we feel like we’re doubting - either a big decision we made, whether we heard God as clear as we thought we did, or doubting Him altogether!

That’s why it feels like He’s walked away from us!

But it is over time, as we face the Dark Night of the Soul, as we honestly name the emptiness - the hopelessness - the frustration - the disappointment we actually feel - it’s in the process that God is actually cultivating a different kind of connection with Us. He is cultivating a different kind of dependence on Him from what we are used to.

Transition

Think again about Malachi playing baseball…he knows the rules…he knows the answers, but they are not automatic - they are not instinct yet.

The Disciplines

But here’s the second thing, developing a feel for the game is not just a process, we are also watching our relationship with God transition from “trying” to “training.”

I can tell you, I’m not sure Malachi could try any harder at baseball! Every time he’s on the field, he’s giving 110%! And how pointless would it be for him to have me standing beside him when he’s a bat saying, “Buddy, if you want to hit, you just need to try harder!”

He doesn’t need trying…he needs training.

Isn’t it interesting that when we’re in the Dark Night of the Soul, most of the “counsel” we get from others is basically some iteration of “try harder”? Try reading more of your bible…Try praying harder…try singing MORE music. Trying giving more…serving more…Try harder!

But in the dark night of the soul, we eventually come to realize that trying harder is not the answer - because if it were, we wouldn’t be in that place any more! Instead, the Dark Night prompts us to explore the sometime more tedious activities from Jesus’ own way of life.

And some of the best Christian thinkers and teachers of the modern era have some iteration of this.

Philosopher Dallas Willard says it this way:

“The star performer himself didn’t achieve his excellence by trying to behave in a certain way only during the game. Instead, he chose an overall life of preparation of mind and body, pouring all his energies into that total preparation, to provide a foundation in the body’s automatic responses and strength for his conscious efforts during the game. Those exquisite responses we see, the amazing timing and strength such an athlete displays, aren’t produced and maintained by the short hours of the game itself. They are available to the athlete for those short and all-important hours because of a daily regimen no one sees…A successful performance at a moment of crisis rests largely and essentially upon the depths of a self wisely and rigorously prepared in the totality of its being—mind and body.

You’ll remember we spent most of the summer talking about Practices of Jesus - classically known as the Spiritual Disciplines. And one of the fears with that series is that it would become that series we did one time on the Spiritual Disciplines…which is about the worst thing that could happen with that - and I don’t just say that as the person who planned the series.

No!

It was fear that we would segregate a vital conversation for us about our overall formation and the process of becoming more like Jesus into a “thing we talked about one time” rather than an overall way of life that we, at Lifepoint Church, have been invited into!

Friends, here’s the connection. The practices we talked about: scripture, generosity, prayer, fasting, sabbath, serving, worship…none of these are intended to be things we just try to do better. They were and are intended as part of the overall training we take on in our pursuit of Jesus! Both as a way to prepare FOR our Job moments, but also to endure through our Job moments!

In the Dark Night - you will feel like God is not “speaking to you” through His Word like he used to…you will feel like he’s not listening to you when you pray…fasting, serving, worship, all become monotonous - and I almost guarantee that you’ll feel a real sense of shame because it’s not supposed to “be that way.”

But I am NOT saying the way out of the Dark Night is to double down and recommit to all of the practices - that would just be the trying thing!

I’m saying that when we view the practices as training…we begin to see that they were never actually intended to produce immediate results! Your Bible was never meant to function as silver bullet to make you feel better…instead, as training, they are forming us in more ways than we can possibly imagine.

When the disciples are no longer about trying to get God’s attention…to get His affection…but about training for who we are becoming…we will find ourselves undergoing a process. We find our relationship with God is able to withstand all of the questions…all of the frustrations…all of the doubt…it is able to endure through all of the grief.

It is in this process of facing the Dark Night of the Soul with Job, that we…eventually…like Job, are not stuck in our hopelessness…not trapped in the emptiness and feeling of abandonment…we find that, like Job, we are ultimately liberated from our need for answers and instead develop a feel for the game.

PAUSE

But friends, here's where the story gets even better for us. Because Job shows us how to walk through the silence. But as followers of Jesus, know the one who is in the silence with us.

Think about it this way. The most intense "Job moment" in the scriptures... is not in the book of Job. It comes from Jesus. On the cross, He lets out this raw, most-human cry:

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

It was cry of anguish - as He too was misunderstood and mistreated by the most religious people! He was abandoned by those closest to him, rejected and subjected to suffering and pain. And in that moment, what answer does Jesus get? What profound piece of wisdom does the Father offer?

Silence.

And that silence hangs there. It stretches into the next day.

Holy Saturday. But for his followers? It was just… Saturday. The worst Saturday of their lives. Imagine being Peter that day. Or Mary. Every hope you had, every rule you thought you knew about how God works… it’s all buried in a borrowed tomb. The silence isn't just an absence of noise; it's the crushing feeling that everything you believed in is gone.

Friends, that is the ultimate Dark Night of the Soul.

And this is the connection for us. This is why this matters so much. Jesus knows what that silence feels like.

Remember that baseball story? Jesus didn't just stand on the sidelines like one of those dads at the fence, shouting the rules at us. No! He got on the field. He stepped into the chaos and endured the ultimate Dark Night… so that in ours, we would never truly be alone.

This is what is offered to us in following Jesus. Today may be the day you

Because in following Jesus, when you find yourself in that season of silence… when you’re crying out and you don't feel an answer… you're not lost. You're not doing it wrong. You're actually on holy ground, because Jesus has been there before you. And His story teaches us the most important part of the game: Saturday's silence is real, but it never, ever gets the final word.

Let’s pray.