Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we continue in the Gospel Project today we are going to spend one week learning from an overview of the book of Job.

This is a lot to cover in just one week, 42 chapters actually, so I started to wonder if there was any way to break this down in such a way that we could quickly get to the main point.

I don’t know anyone who does this better than a ministry initiate called The Bible Project.

This ministry began when two guys, a Biblical scholar and a graphic artist got together to share their belief that the whole Bible is one story that points to Jesus in a way that current generations can understand.

Anyway, I thought that a great way to introduce this weeks text would be to let them tell it in their very Biblical and creative way.

So check out Job from The Bible Project.

This week we are going to cover the entire book of Job in just one week.

And the crazy thing is that it is not a short book.

It is not like 2 John which is just one chapter 12 verses long.

Job is 42 chapters long and somehow we are going to handle it in just one week.

Obviously, we are going to cover all of the book this week, but we are going to look at the main point of the entire book.

While there are many smaller themes throughout the book, there is one major theme that clearly jumps out at us.

This is a very unique feature of the book of Job and it is why we can cover it in just one week.

Most of us are familiar with the basic storyline of Job and how he endured sufferingObviously, we are not going to cover all 42 chapters in just one week, but we are going to take a look at the main point of the book, which is What does our suffering say about who God is. .

theas their are many smaller themes throughout the book, but the book of Job is uniqu of the book of Genesis The book of Job is such a unique book in several different ways.

One of the most striking is that we know very little about the background of the book.

We don’t really even know when it was written or by who or what the setting of the storyline is.

All of this seems to be very intentional.

It is almost like God doesn’t want us to pack this story into the pages of history and just take out some key principles that we like.

Another fascinating feature of this bok theas their are many smaller themes throughout the book, but the book of Job is uniqu of the book of Genesis The book of Job is such a unique book in several different ways.

One of the most striking is that we know very little about the background of the book.

We don’t really even know when it was written or by who or what the setting of the storyline is.

All of this seems to be very intentional.

It is almost like God doesn’t want us to pack this story into the pages of history and just take out some key principles that we like.

One of it’s unique features is in how little we know about the background of the book.

We don’t know who wrote it.

We don’t know when it was written.

We don’t know when this story of Job took place.

All of this seems to be very intentional.

It is almost like God doesn’t want us isolate this story to a particular time frame or a particular people group because the main point applies to everyone who has ever lived in every time period.

So that even while looking at it from a fly over view, wecan make connections between this story and our story.

Now I could lay out a verbal out line of the story for you all, but I thought that this morning might be a good time to introduce you to a ministry that has really been a blessing to me.

It is something called “The Bible Project” and it is a ministry initiative taken on by two guys, a Biblical Scholar and a graphic artist. in an attempt to reach out to the current generations, they have created a series of short films covering the major themes of every book in the Bible.

Particularly they are guided by the belief that every part of the Bible points to Jesus.

I found that their film on Job was very compelling and I thought it might help us to begin uncovering the main point of the book of Job this morning.

So sit back and relax as they present for us the 42 chapters of Job in just 6 short minutes.

So sit back and relax as they present for us the 42 chapters of Job in just 6 short minutes.

The Bible Project: Job

Tension

Tension

And that is the story of Job, 42 chapters condensed down into 6 minutes that aims us right at our one big question:

What does our suffering say about who God is?

This is important to us because every person who has ever lived has experienced suffering to some degree or another.

Maybe it was something that happened to them.

Maybe it was something that happened to a loved one of theirs.

Maybe it was the result of something that they did.

Maybe it was result of something that someone else did to them, but every person who has ever lived has encountered suffering.

That is what makes the story of Job so universal.

Every person who has ever lived has experienced suffering to some degree or another.

Maybe it was something that happened to them.

Maybe it was something that happened to a loved one of theirs.

Maybe it was the result of something that they did.

Maybe it was result of something that someone else did to them, but every person who has ever lived has encountered suffering.

What do we do with that, in light of the fact that we have a God who loves us?

How do we explain or make sense of our suffering when we are living in a loving relationship with an all powerful, all knowing, ever present loving God?

What do we do with that?

How do we justify the presence of suffering in our world along side of the presence of our all power, all knowing and all loving God?

In other words, since there is nothing that God cannot do, why doesn’t he doing something to stop our suffering?

What do we do with that, in light of the fact that we have a God who loves us?

How do we explain or make sense of our suffering when we are living in a loving relationship with an all powerful, all knowing, ever present loving God?

And we can’t just tackle these questions intellectually or theologically because they affect us very personally.

How can we still believe all these things are true about God when someone comes up to us and says, “I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you but...” That sentence never ends well:

The diagnosis is cancer

“I’m sorry... but we have eliminated your position in the company”

“I’m sorry... but the test came back positive for cancer”

“I’m sorry... but we can no longer service your mortgage so are foreclosing on your property”

“I “

the test came back positive for cancer” or “

“I’m sorry... but your baby didn’t make it”

The truth is that if you were to poll any group of self-proclaimed atheists or agnostics on why they don’t believe in God this would be one the top responses.

I just can’t reconcile the idea of a loving and present God with the suffering that I have seen.

What is the role of this all powerful and loving God when our world gets turned upside down in ways like this.

How can a wise and just God be present amidst all of this suffering.

This is not just a “theoredical or theological question”.

If you were to poll any group of so called athiests or agnostics on why they don’t believe in God this would be your top response.

I just can’t reconcile a loving and present God with the suffering that I have seen.

And I would like to tell you that all you have to do is throw the book of Job at them and they would have the answers that they seek, but that is not where the book of Job leads us.

The story of Job does give us some very important answers, but they are answers to questions that suffering people don’t typically ask.

Still they might be the answers that they need the most.

If you haven’t already, open your Bibles up to the beginning of the book of Job, (p.

417) I’ll pray and we will get started.

Truth

Wow, what an introduction!

How you would like something like that to be said of you?

And understand, Job was a real person.

It is tempting if you read through all the deep poetry here to think that Job was just a character in a illustrative story, but in several places throughout Scripture Job is pointed to as an example for us.

He is always treated as a real person that you or I could be like.

And understand, Job was a real person.

It is tempting if you read through all the deep poetry here to think that Job was just a character in a principled story, but several places throughout Scripture Job is pointed to as an example for us.

He is always treated as a real person that you or I could be like.

I do wonder though, in the times in our lives when we have been tempted to compare our story of Job, do we remember what was said of Job in the beginning, or are we just willing to compare the suffering part?

At times in our lives we might be tempted to think that our story is very similar to Job’s.

When we think that, however, it is usually just the suffering part.

I wonder how many of us would also claim this introduction to the book as well.

We also might have a hard time relating to the following descriptions of Job’s life:

This verse gives us one of the only clues to the time frame of the story because Job’s wealth is described here not in relation to how much gold he has but how many cattle he owned.

It probably means that his story is set somewhere in the Patriarchal time period but we can’t be sure.

The truth is that each one of us is wealthy when compared the World as a whole.

If you were to go to globalrichlist.com