Sermon Tone Analysis

| I’m Tired of Life |

| *______________________**Job 3*----

 /At last Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth.

He said: “Let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived.

Let that day be turned to darkness.

Let it be lost even to God on high, and let no light shine on it.

Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.

Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it.

Let that night be blotted off the calendar, \\ never again to be counted among the days of the year, never again to appear among the months….//

//Why wasn’t I born dead?

Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?// //Why is life given to those with no future, those God has surrounded with difficulties?

I cannot eat for sighing; \\ my groans pour out like water.

What I always feared has happened to me.

What I dreaded has come true.

I have no peace, no quietness.

I have no rest; only trouble comes.”//

/--Excerpted from Job 3 (NLT), presented dramatically by Darrell Fulton on October 28, 2007 during Sunday morning worship at the Donelson Fellowship.

~*~*~* In my early years here at The Donelson Fellowship, I invited a British pastor named Geoffrey King to preach here for a Bible conference.

Rev.

King, who is now in heaven, ranks among the top Bible teachers I’ve ever heard in my life, but he was somewhat eccentric.

He dressed peculiarly, had odd views on hygiene, and constantly set me into spasms of laughter without meaning to.

While he was here with us in Nashville, he had two requests.

He wanted to play all the organs in town—and he wanted to ride all the rollercoasters.

One day I look him to Opryland theme park and, despite his age, he headed right to the big coasters.

As we barreled down the first great drop on one of them, he turned to me with a huge grin and shouted, “Rob, Rob, never grow up!  Remember that God has given us richly all things to enjoy!”

It was my one and only sermon on a rollercoaster, but I’ve never forgotten it.

I understood what he was telling me.

Jesus wants us to enjoy life more abundantly.

He surrounds us with goodness and mercy every day of our lives, and from the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.

As Proverbs 15 puts it, “The cheerful heart has a continual feast.”

But there’s another side to that truth.

There are some days and some seasons in life in which it’s hard to hear the melody of the organ or whoosh of the rollercoaster.

Some days and some seasons in life are so full of pain that it’s hard to function.

My favorite old preacher, Vance Havner, wrote in one of his last books:  “It’s nice to visit Disneyland but we cannot live there.

The Christian life is not a vacation but a vocation, not a picnic but a pilgrimage.

Its mountain-top experiences can flatten out and drop from the majestic to the monotonous and even to the miserable.

Even our Lord said, ‘Now is my soul troubled.’

Paul did not spend his last days writing his memoirs on the sunny Riviera.

If you can believe tradition, all the disciples but one died violent deaths.

The roll call of faith heroes in Hebrews lists many who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the swords, and otherwise were eminently successful; but it lists another category (“and others”) who died in adversity.”

(Vance Havner, /Playing Marbles with Diamonds /(Grand Rapids:  Baker Book House, 1985), p. 89 Every single character in the Bible endured hardship, suffering and pain at some point along the way; and Exhibit A is this man named Job.

I want to show you what is happening in the story.

In chapters 1 and 2, we’re introduced to Job, who was described as the best man on earth and the greatest man in the east.

But then Satan came, and in a very short period sent one disaster after another into Job’s life.

Everything dear is taken from him, including his family, his wealth and his health; and within the space of two chapters he went from highest position to deepest pain.

Well, of course, word spread like wildfire; and at the end of chapter 2, Job’s friends came to console him.

Look at Job 2:11-13:  /When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Sophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.

Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.

No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.// /And now we come to chapter 3.

This chapter is a soliloquy; it’s a monologue.

Job opened his mouth and began ventilating his emotions and trying to talk it through and to make some sense of it all.

And here in chapter 3, he had three points to make or three things to say.

There is a definite progress here to his thoughts, and I don’t want to belabor it overmuch, but I’d like for you to see it.

*First, Job wishes that he had never been born (verses 1-10).*

Listen to how he puts it:  /Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

He said:  “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’

That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it; may blackness overwhelm its light….//

/Notice that the dominant idea here is darkness and blackness.

This is the image that Job uses over and over:  /…//may it turn to darkness… may no light shine upon it… May darkness and deep shadow claim it….

May a cloud settle over it… blackness overwhelm its light… may darkness seize it…  /To Job, everything was black, darkness, and hopeless, and he wished that he had never been born.

*Second, in verses 11-19, he wishes that he had died at birth*.

Look at verse 11:  /Why did I not perish at birth and die as I came from the womb?

/And the rest of the paragraph is an expansion and expatiation of that idea.

*Third, in the last part of the chapter (verses 20-26), Job wishes that he could die then and there:*  /Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure….

// /So there you have a simple three-sentence summary of Job 3:  I wish I had never been born; I wish I had died at birth; I wish I could die here and now.

Now, what can we learn from this?

Why did God put this chapter in His Book?

I come away from this chapter with four impressions.

*Pain is Unavoidable in This Life*First, pain is unavoidable in this life.

Every single character in the Bible encountered suffering.

Look at Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Jesus, Paul—none of them were immune.

And sometimes the level of pain that we encounter makes us want to die.

I want to say something very personal, and I’ve wondered whether I should even share this, but I’m going to.

There has been one period in life—I’m not going to discuss details—but there’s been one period in my life in which I felt a level of emotional pain that was so great that I didn’t think I could bear it and I asked the Lord to take me home to heaven.

There were several occasions during this period when I lay on the floor in so much pain and heartache and anxiety that I earnestly asked the Lord to let me die, because I didn’t think I could bear the pain.

So this chapter in Job is very precious to me.

It shows me that a great biblical hero, one of the greatest men in the Bible, once felt just the way that I have felt on a few occasions in my own life.

And not just Job.

Let me show you another passage.

Right now I’m reading through the book of Jeremiah for my devotions, and on Thursday I came to Jeremiah 20.  Look at verses 14ff:  /Cursed be the day I was born!  May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!

Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!”  May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity….

Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?// /Now, I think it’s important to say that this is not suicide talk.

Job and Jeremiah were not suicidal.

They both felt like they wanted to die, but they made no attempt to expedite the process.

But there’s more!

Moses once asked the Lord to take his life because he had so much pressure he didn’t think he could bear it; and Elijah once asked the Lord to take his life, because his emotional pain and depression were so great.

Some of you understand this.

You’ve been through something so horrendous—or you’re going through something right now so horrific—that you just want to die.

You’re not suicidal, and you haven’t lost your faith in the Lord.

It’s just that the pain is almost too great to bear.

Well, you’re in good company.

Some of the greatest heroes of the Bible went through a similar period in their lives, and the Bible records it for us; and somehow I find that strangely encouraging.

*Pain Raises Honest Questions in our Hearts*Second, pain raises honest questions in our hearts.

Look at Job 3:11, and notice the questions:  /Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?

Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?//

/Verse 20 says:  /Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul?// /Verse 23 says:  /Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden?//

/When I began studying the book of Job for this series of messages, I read through all 42 chapters and listed all the questions asked in this book.

I think that I jotted down every single one.

There were 290 questions, and every chapter in the entire book (except for chapter 29) has at least one question mark in it.