What to do When Life Sucks (Job)

Life Sucks Sometimes

Some really sucky stuff has happened recently.

On August 3rd in El Paso Texas, a gunman went into a Walmart and went crazy with his gun. He ended up killing 22 people. 22 people that would not be going home to see their families.

On August 4th in Dayton Ohio, a shooter went into a downtown district and shot wildly. He ended up killing 10 people.

There will be an estimated number of 300 cancer deaths in the state of Washington alone this year.

People are dying of other diseases and accidents every day.

Abortions are performed on babies constantly.

Wars are being fought everywhere.

Over 22,000 people in Washington alone are homeless.

140 Million children worldwide are living as orphans.

Wars are being fought all over the world.

Around 800,000 people worldwide commit suicide each year.

Over 18 million people in the US are diagnosed with depression.

Over 40 million people in the US have some form of anxiety.

So… Life can really suck sometimes. When these kind of things go on, people desperately want answers.

People generally ask one simple question. Do you know what it is?

That questions is why. People want to know why this stuff happens. A lot of these terrible disasters happen to what we might consider to be good people. So what the world??? Why is all this crap going on?

The kind of suffering I talked about is intense. I know you have dealt with some kind of suffering, even if it isn’t exactly the same as what I had talked about.

You might have family members that are dealing with an illness. Maybe it’s cancer. Maybe it’s fatal.

You might have friends that have died. I know there was a tragic accident that happened a couple years ago with two young guys some of you know.

It might be that you have relatives or friends who are ruining their lives. Getting in jail, getting caught in bad relationships and bad business.

Maybe you’ve faced some kind of abuse. Whether it was from family, maybe physical or emotional abuse. Or maybe from peers, it could be the same. You could’ve dealt with bullying. Maybe even sexual abuse.

Maybe you know the pain of being stabbed in the back. Someone lied to you, undercut you, or did something to screw you over.

Maybe you’ve had broken relationships. Or maybe you’re in a broken family filled with fighting, anger, and sadness. Or maybe you lost something important to you. Or you’ve suffered emotionally from some kind of trauma.

Whatever fits you, I know we’ve all dealt with some kind of suffering. I’ve felt it, and so have you. If you’re having a hard time thinking of something, you will certainly deal with suffering at some point. We all do.

Where is God?

So now that you’re depressed...

Let’s get more to the point tonight. Some wack stuff happens to us. We often want to know why. A lot of people point to God and say, “where were you? Why would you let this happen? Are you really good?”, and so on.

It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve thought this. So tonight we’re gonna look at the Bible, and we’re simply gonna talk about “what to do when life really sucks”.

Introducing: Job

We’re gonna look at a story about a guy named Job. Let me read to you a little bit about Job.

New Living Translation Chapter 1

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

Job basically had it all. He was living the good life. He loved God, had an awesome family, was super rich, and overall was at peace. So at this point, we’re all rooting for Job. He hasn’t really done anything wrong, and we probably don’t want anything bad to happen.

The Heavenly Scene

Change scene. Now we move from earth to heaven. Suddenly we see Satan having a conversation with God. Let’s take a look at what happens.

New Living Translation Chapter 1

6 One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”

8 Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

9 Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

12 “All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan.

Basically what happens here is that Satan does not believe Job’s faith is genuine. He tells God that if he is allowed to take away everything Job has, Job will no longer be faithful to God and he will no longer think God is good.

And what does God say? He tells Satan to go ahead.

So Satan gets to work.

First, Satan begins by attacking Job’s riches. He begins by killing all his sheep, oxen, and servants. All of Job’s possessions are suddenly gone.

Next, he attacks his family. While all of his children were having a party, Satan sent a whirlwind that knocked the house down on top of them. Suddenly all of Job’s children are gone.

Job’s Response

Job basically just lost everything. We read that all he really had left was his wife and a couple of his friends. All his riches were gone. His livelihood was gone. Almost all his family was gone. Taken away all in one quick swoop.

We can expect Job to be pretty upset. You might even think that it’s reasonable at this point for Job to curse God and be like “what the heck? I was living for you and you let this happen??”

But how do you think he responded? He said:

New Living Translation Chapter 1

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,

and I will be naked when I leave.

The LORD gave me what I had,

and the LORD has taken it away.

Praise the name of the LORD!”

Job did not curse God. Instead, he saw God as the one who gave him all of the good things, and he knew God was the one who had the power to take them away. He recognized that God is the one who is in control, not him.

Job tested again

Job then suffered more. Satan didn’t think that Job had had enough, so Satan asked God to let him attack Job’s body. God granted him permission. So, Satan struck Job’s body and covered him from head to toe with boils. Job had these nasty, infected, painful bumps all over his body.

Now Job is suffering physically. Every part of him has been attacked. How do you think he responds? He says:

New Living Translation Chapter 2

Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

Even when things were at their worst, Job realized that God was the one in charge, not him. God knew what was best. God was the one with the power.

God confronts Job

So after many, many, many pages of dialogue between Job and his friends, Job makes a large speech. In this speech, he talks about about God and himself. He says that he has been innocent his whole life, and that he does not deserve this punishment. He believes God has been cruel and has forgotten Job.

New Living Translation Chapter 30

20 “I cry to you, O God, but you don’t answer.

I stand before you, but you don’t even look.

21 You have become cruel toward me.

You use your power to persecute me.

22 You throw me into the whirlwind

and destroy me in the storm.

23 And I know you are sending me to my death—

the destination of all who live.

This is the answer we expected from Job. The question “why?” appears here. Why did God let all this happen?

God answers Job. God says gives a large speech and says many things to Job about himself and about who Job is. I handed out some cards, and I want you guys to read your cards out loud for everyone to hear.

Have students read note cards.

Here is what God is saying:

At the end of the day, God is God, and we are not. We don’t know what’s best. His ways are so above us that we cannot even comprehend why He does what He does. But, in the end we know that whatever happens, God is good. Everything He does, or everything that He allows to happen has some sort of purpose. After Job hears everything from God, he makes a final statement.

New Living Translation Chapter 42

Then Job replied to the LORD:

2 “I know that you can do anything,

and no one can stop you.

3 You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’

It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,

things far too wonderful for me.

4 You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!

I have some questions for you,

and you must answer them.’

5 I had only heard about you before,

but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

6 I take back everything I said,

and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

Job acknowledges that God is above him. He knows that God is good, perfect, and holy, and that He

Why do bad things happen?

To get our attention

To show we aren’t in control

To tell us we need God

Because we are all sinners

It teaches us to rely on God alone

So here’s a question for you:

What do YOU do when life sucks? When bad things are happening, how do you respond? When things go south, how do you react?

It’s important to figure this out, because either you’re suffering right now, or you will in the future. I say this often: “If you don’t have a battle plan, you’re going to lose the battle.” So the next time suffering hits you in the face, you have to decide how you’re going to respond. You can either fight it off, cower, rely on yourself, run away, or, you can trust God and face it head on.

When we choose to trust God while we suffer, we don’t have to be weighed down with heavy loads. Suffering is emotionally, physically and spiritually draining. But when you realize that God is in control, that HE has a plan for this suffering, that HE allowed it for a reason, and that HE will still be good at the end of the day, you really don’t have anything to worry about. There will still be hurt, but God is the one in charge, not you or me.

Gospel Presentation

The worst part about suffering, is I believe many of you are suffering without hope. When we endure pain, we feel better about it if there’s some kind of hope. I recently went on a really long hike, and it HURT. But I was able to keep pushing myself to move forward, because I had a hope that eventually I would reach the summit.

This crazy mess called life is filled with suffering, and when we suffer with no hope, the suffering becomes absolutely miserable. When you really think about it, things aren’t going to get much better. Disease will never be completely eliminated, murder will always happen, people will always lie, cheat and scheme, and pain and suffering will always be around. It doesn’t seem like there is going to be a “summit” in life.

But here’s the thing: Christians have a hope. Christians have a “summit” that they are looking towards. Christians know where they’re going. Christians know that pushing through the suffering is worth it.

Suffering ultimately exists in our lives because humanity has rejected God, the loving Father. The reason bad stuff happens is really our fault. Since we have rejected God, we have completely lost sight of what is good and right. So we fight, kill, steal, lie, and hurt each other. Awful things happen. The earth is dying, and death runs rampant because we let sin into the world. And the end result is we deserve all the suffering. Because we rejected God, we deserve nothing but pain, suffering, and ultimately hell.

The cure for this is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is God, came to earth as a perfect human. He had no sin, and therefore, he took all the suffering that we deserve. All the sin that humanity had was placed on Jesus Christ. He suffered and ultimately died. Why? So we don’t have to. All He asks is that we turn to Him and follow Him. We need to stop rejecting God, and ask Him to lead us. He is the light at the end of the tunnel. He is the star in the night. He is the summit we are climbing towards.

This hope God offers is not exactly what we saw with Job. God doesn’t promise Christians that they will get abunch of good stuff. Instead, He offers an eternal and perfect promise. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, God talks about the future.

New Living Translation Chapter 21

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

God is going to fix everything for those who trust Him. He will create a whole new world with no sadness, no pain, no tears, no suffering. Everything will be perfect. This is the amazing hope that a Christian can hold onto. But I want to give a warning as well, because the verses don’t stop there.

New Living Translation Chapter 21

8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

This new earth is not for everyone. Those who continue to reject God will suffer forever, with no escape. It’s dark, it’s blunt, no one wants to hear it, but it’s true. I don’t want any of you to suffer forever. That sounds awful. I wanna cry thinking about anyone having to suffer for ETERNITY. So I urge you, that if you haven’t ever given Jesus a second thought, think about it tonight. If you think God has been cruel and wanted nothing to do with Him, reconsider it. If you have ever had any kind of questions about God, tonight is the night to ask it. Don’t hesitate. Your life and soul could depend on it.

So what do you do when life sucks?

Here’s the hard part of suffering. We as people often forget who we really are. We think we are way better than we really are. Can you think of some people that act like they’re way better than they really are? Okay, well put your hand down, because you’re the same way. We have such a hard time with suffering because it reminds us that we’re not the ones in control. We don’t have power over most everything around us.

How many things do you really have power over?

Why was Job so upset about all his suffering? Because it made him realize that he was not in control. Not being in control is a scary thought. It’s terrifying in fact.

You are not almighty, powerful, and in charge over the universe. You are small, weak, and scared. But, I happen to know the person who is almighty, powerful, and in charge over everything. He is God. God is what we call sovereign. It means He is in charge over everything. Nothing happens without His approval. Along with God being sovereign, He is also good. God’s desire is for the people He created to come to Him, be with Him, enjoy Him, and love Him. He ultimately does want the good of all of that. We don’t see that in the middle of suffering.

When life sucks, all we think is that we want out of it. But God has a reason for us being in the middle of suffering. He wants us to trust Him. He has a well-thought out plan.

Imagine it like this: If you offer a toddler a hot wheels car right now, or a Lamborghini in 20 years, what do you think he will choose?

Our vision as people is very shortsighted. We only think in the moment. God has the big picture in mind, and He knows that our suffering has a purpose.

You have two choices when life sucks: Trust yourself, or trust God. When things go bad, you have the choice to turn to God and trust that His ultimate plan is way better than whatever you desire. Or, you can trust yourself. You can wallow in self-pity, you can try and distract yourself, you can fight to be and do better, but eventually it’s all in vain.