Life's Wake Up Call

, 14-15

Life’s Wake Up Call

Introduction: Major life changes literally shake up our world and invite us, or [even] pressure us to interact with life in new ways.

Introduction: (The Sudden & Tragic Death of Koby Bryant)

Here are some major life changes:

●career change

●children arrive

●children leave the nest

●death of people close to you

●divorce

●financial windfall

●illness

●loss of job/income

●relocation

●retirement

These are major life changes that can literally shake up our world and invite us, or [even] pressure us to interact with life in new ways.

A thematic thread of suffering runs through the fabric of Job's book. There is always the question of why the righteous have to suffer?

Job suffered in the areas that involved his family, his faith, his finances, and his friends.

Tim Keller said, "Job never saw why he suffered, but he saw God!"

Every since Job asked the age-old question, it has been asked by people through the centuries.

Job seemed to be clear that life was short, Job was sure there is a brevity of life because he said, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” However, there are few factors realities about change that must be adhered to.

I. Death is a Present Reality (1)

•Job seemed to be clear that life was short, Job was sure there is a brevity of life because he said, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”

LIFE is UNCERTAIN, but DEATH is REAL!

Death - death is the illegitimate child of death.

Death - death is the illegitimate child of death.

• Job was familiar with death -- he had buried 10 children already...he had 10 obituaries already...he had heard 10 resolutions already...he had purchased 10 burial plots already...he heard the preacher say earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust already...he was familiar with death!

• Job did not have an issue with death...Job rhetorically asks, “If a man die…” meaning, not “if a man dies…” but, “when a man dies…”

• Death is inevitable, the Hebrew writer said that "it is appointed unto man to die, but after this, the judgment."

• Paul said, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus."

• Job did not have an issue with death!

II. Death Raises Questions (14a)

• Job question had to do with what happens after death???

• Is it all over at death?

• Some people not only feel like there is no life after death, they live like there is no life after death!

• When the doctor walks out the room, and the cover your face with the sheet, and they call for the sector to take your remains, is that it?

• When the preacher, or whoever, says the last words and rites over you...is that it?

III. Death Creates a Spark of Hope (14b)

III. Change is Job’s Hope

• Job demonstrates his HOPE in the “b- portion” of the text-- “All the days of my appointed time will I WAIT until my change comes!”

• Job demonstrates his HOPE in the “b- portion” of the text-- “All the days of my appointed time will I WAIT until my change comes!”

• hope (webster dictionary definition) = desires something good for the future

• hope (biblical) = Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. And it not only expects it to happen; it is confident that it will happen. There is a moral certainty that the good we expect and desire will be done. (Piper)

• "...all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."

• 14Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. (New Living Translation)

• If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come. (English Standard Version)

Death Will Get an Answer (15)

“Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee...”

• , "Jesus said unto her, 'I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die...'"