Sermon Tone Analysis
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\\ \\ * How do I overcome bitterness from suffering?*
\\ Job 3:1-Job 5:27 \\ \\ Title: How Do I Overcome Bitterness from Suffering?
\\ Text: Job 3.1-5.27
\\ \\ \\ \\ Kurt Cobain ended his life about 10 years ago (4~/1994).
filled with bitterness and anger.
He was the founder and lead singer of the group "Nirvana."
His violent suicide prompted a lot of questions.
"Why?
He had it all…a great career, dedicated fans, plenty of money, a beautiful wife and a 19 month old daughter…So why did he kill himself?" \\ \\ To many it made no sense.
But Kurt Cobain simply lived out his beliefs to their logical conclusion.
He was a professed humanist and nihilist.
He believed that there was no God and there was no meaning or purpose to life.
He was the center of his own universe, and he was bitter so why stick around.
His poetry (music) clearly showed what he believed.
Kurt Cobain pioneered grunge rock, which has given us the alternative rock of today.
This music is opposed to anything mainstream.
\\ \\ Cobain was very vocal about his bitterness from being a child of divorce and moved from house to house and eventually without a home.
He felt that life was rotten and meaningless and his music often spoke of his anger and disillusionment.
One of his songs was called "Nevermind."
Its recurring line was "Oh well, whatever, nevermind."
Another song that he wrote was never released because it was too objectionable.
It was called, "I Hate Myself, And I Want To Die." That’s bitterness.
\\ \\ Friends of Cobain say he often acted without reason.
He was constantly on an emotional roller coaster.
But his dips into despair got deeper and deeper.
Once, a member of his road crew asked him why he was moping around so much.
\\ Cobain replied, "I’m awake, aren’t I?" \\ \\ Cobain had no idea he was in the midst of a spiritual battle.
He believed the lies of Satan: nihilism.
He had passion, but for nothing.
He had a void in his heart that nothing he pursued could fill, and he believed that nothing could or ever would.
\\ He had no purpose, no meaning, so he played it out to its logical conclusion, death (Edited from Scott Weber, Sermon Central).
\\ \\ Today we’re going to look at another man in the midst of bitterness.
But Job somehow found meaning and purpose in his bitter suffering.
Job’s poems were quite different.
Although he expressed his bitterness, especially in today’s text, he also held out for hope in the Lord.
Later in the poem he says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19.25-26, NIV).
\\ \\ There’s an old saying that says “trails make you bitter or better.”
When they make you bitter you continue to suffer and others continue to suffer.
When they make you better, you’re equipped to help others when they suffer.
You find purpose in everything God allows to happen.
\\ \\ Thus far in the book of Job we’re seen that God is all-powerful.
Satan can only cause suffering that God allows.
We tacked a few questions: \\ • Can I prevent suffering?
No, even the righteous suffer.
\\ • How should I respond to suffering?
Expect it.
Be honest about the pain and live by faith and God’s power.
\\ Worship while you mourn.
Thank God for what He’s given.
Maintain your integrity and surround yourself with supportive friends.
\\ \\ Throughout this series we’re seeing that there is always a Mystery to Suffering.
We want answers.
God makes it clear that Job wasn’t meant to understand all of the mysteries of suffering.
The book of Job won’t answer all of our questions, but the lessons from Job’s suffering, and the attempts of his friends to comfort him, help us answer some of our own questions.
\\ \\ Today we’re going to answer the question: How do I overcome bitterness?
\\ \\ 1. UNDERSTAND THAT BITTERNESS DESTROYS US \\ \\ We don’t have to look at Job’s bitterness for very long to see how utterly destructive bitterness is.
After seven days and seven nights of silence, Job finally speaks in chapter 3. \\ \\ This begins a long poem.
It’s a 40 chapter poem with Job responding to each of his three friends.
Then, just when you think his friends are running out of ideas, a fourth friend lifts us up with some better advice.
Then the Lord of the universe dramatically speaks at the end of the poem.
Yet some things still remain a mystery.
\\ \\ We’ve covered a chapter a week for the past two weeks.
We’re going to pick up the pace a little in the coming weeks, sifting out some redeemable principles from Job’s friends.
It’s important to realize that not everything recorded in Scripture is true.
It’s accurately recorded, but much of his friends’ advice is later proven to be false when the Lord speaks.
\\ \\ It’s human advice from Job’s well-meaning friends.
But they didn’t have access to the behind the scenes information that we have.
They couldn’t see suffering from the perspective of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, and the promise of eternal life though his sacrifice.
\\ Their main flaw is they think you always reap what you sow.
Sometimes we don’t get what we deserve, instead we benefit from God’s grace... Other times we don’t get the reward that we deserve on this earth, instead we’re pruned to make us stronger, as Jesus spoke about (John 15).
\\ \\ We’re often uncomfortable with extended periods of silence.
There’s also a lot of pressure on the first speaker.
The words that break a period of silence have to be good.
You can’t be silent for that long and not have something profound to say.
But what could his friends say.
What can you say to someone who’s lost his fortune and his family?
And now he’s covered with sores and scabs.
He’s an outcast.
People used to come to him for help and guidance; now he’s sitting in a pile of ashes in the city dump scraping himself with a broken piece of pottery.
\\ \\ What do you say to a man like this? Job relieved the pressure.
He spoke first.
\\ \\ Here’s Eugene Peterson’s rendition of what Job said: “Then Job broke the silence.
He spoke up and cursed his fate: “Obliterate the day I was born.
Blank out the night I was conceived!
Let it be a black hole in space.
May God above forget it ever happened.
Erase it from the books!
May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
And the night of my conception - the devil take it!
Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac.
Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn” (Job 3.1-9, Message).
\\ \\ Job’s bitterness spews forth, but he never curses God.
He curses the day of his birth, but he doesn’t curse God.
He wonders why he was born to suffer so much.
He wishes he had not been born.
He isn’t blaming anyone yet, he’s just wishing he didn’t have to go through it.
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