Living Faithfully in a Broken World
Notes
Transcript
I was thinking about celebrating Memorial day and all those that have given the supreme cost for our country and the privileges of being Americans that we enjoy. That thought got me thinking about what we are facing in our current pandemic as a country. Which cause me to think about those who are now 100 years old. Just think about what they have seen and endured in their lives. Just to name a few:
· They were born in the aftermath of WWI.
· When they were 9 years old they entered the great depression which lasted a decade of the lives. This took them through their teenage years.
· There teenage years were capped off with having the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor which thrust these men and women into the challenge of WWII.
· WWII ended in 1945 only to have the Korean War begin in 1950 and the Vienam War begin in 1965.
· They saw the rise of the Soviet Union and lived through the Cold war lasting from 1947-1991.
· They saw us almost enter a nuclear war with Russia in the Cuban Missle Crisis in 1962.
· They have seen multiple conflicts throughout the world in the middle east and else where.
· They saw Terrorist fly planes into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The change of our world due to that
· And now a world wide pandemic.
My generation has known a relatively calm experience in the world. And those Millenials, and Generation Z have little framework to understand suffering.
But, suffering is a major reality in this world.
We may not always understand completely why we suffer on this side of heaven. But, here is a rock solid truth of life: We all are going to endure suffering, pain, and grief.
Jesus promised it
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The question is, “how are we to respond to the tribulation?” “How are we to respond to God in the midst of suffering”
This was a question that Job was forces to deal with. Job had a crisis moment in his life. Everything was going well. He was living a prosperous life; he was healthy; his family was well; he had a great reputation among his peers; he had a strong relationship with God. And in one day, his life crumbled around him.
God pointed out to Satan how faithful Job was. Satan said, “Well of course, look how much you have blessed him!”
Job 1 tells that God allowed Satan to persecute Job to prove that faith perseveres. Satan contended.
11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
The only problem here is that Job was not privy to that information. In one day, all of his children, servants, and livestock were killed. At the end of Job 1 all he has left is his wife and his health. Yet by chapter 2, his health is gone and wife tells him to curse God and die.
And as a result, this man can identify with our pain. He was not perfect in his response, but he does give us great insight into how God’s people should react to suffering.
I. Trust
I. Trust
As we read Job there are certainly times that his faith wavers some, but undergirding all of his questions and complaints is a rock solid trust in God.
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
You say, “I just don’t understand why God is allowing this to happen to me!” Job didn’t know either. Job got confused, frustrated, and crossways with God. However, he refused to let suffering destroy his faith in God.
His wife challenged what to her seemed like disloyality to their children. Listen to what she says,
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Which is her way of saying, “Didn’t you love our children at all? God allowed them to be killed! How can you still worship him?!” Before we are too hard on her, remember that they were her children too.
And his response
10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
In other words, God is not merely worthy of worship because of what he gives us. He is worthy of worship because of who he is. Our suffering does not change the truth that God is still God and our only hope is to trust in him despite our lack of understanding.
It’s coming face to face with what God says to Isaiah,
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Yes, there is going to be times is our lives that we do not understand what God is doing. There are going to be times that we hurt and wonder where God is. There is going to be times where question, “God why are you letting this happen to me?”
Job helps us see that our lack of understanding does not mean that God is not God. But, our lack of understanding means that we are not God.
Our faith has got to be rooted in more than simply “God loves me, and has a wonderful plan for my life.”
If that is your theology, when the pain is great enough, like Job’s wife, you will one day abandon God. Our theology has got to be rooted in not what we want from God, but it must be rooted in the fact that God is God.
Job understood what we must understand, trusting God in the midst of suffering has got to start with admitting, “God is God. And I am not.”
II. Pain and Protest
II. Pain and Protest
Just because we are trusting in God and not willing to waver in our trust regardless of the pain does not mean that we don’t hurt and that we don’t have questions. Job voiced his pain to God.
1 “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
And he had the courage to ask, “Why?!”
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.
Yet, God would not give him an answer. As a result, he struggled greatly with God’s silence toward him.
24 Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.
*It’s like when Misty is trying to talk with me and I’m trying to watch the ballgame. I’ll turn and look at her, and I see her lips moving. But, I’m actually listening to the game.Believe it or not, she can tell that I’m just looking at her and not listening.
That’s what Job feels like God is doing to him. God why do you just stand there looking at me? You must not really be listening to me are surely you would be doing something! That’s a natural feeling that we all have when God is allowing us to suffer.
At the core of Job’s problem was what he knew to be true about God.
1. He was convinced that God is Sovereign
2. He is equally convinced that God is good
3. And he knew that the conclusion of his friends that God was punishing him for his sins was wrong.
It’s pretty natural to ask, “Have I done something that God is punishing me for?” The answer can be, “Yes!” Our sins have consequences. God often allows us to endure the earthly consequences of our sins. An alcoholic is thrown in jail because of DUI. A college student flunks out of school because of laziness and a lack of discipline.
Or, the answer may be, “No!” God is not punishing you. Our suffering does not always correlate to our actions.
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Sometimes our suffering has nothing to do with us, but what God intends to do through us.
If there is one thing we see from God in Job is that God is big enough to handle our questions. He is wise enough to understand the pain from which they come from.
Therefore, in our pain we must be honest with God. We must honest with God and tell him exactly how we feel. Listen to Job; he pulls no punches with God.
1 “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
8 Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9 Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
The reason we can speak to God with this type of honesty is because of the our relationship with God. Our protest is sheltered by our relationship with God. Job is working out issues with God within a context of a rock-solid trust in God.
Job can only be so honest with God because he has completely taken off the table any notion that he might abandon God.
The faith makes the protest possible.
15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.
It’s the same thing that we see with Jesus on the cross in the midst of bearing the wrath of God for sin,
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus asks this incredibly bold statement only within the context of being able to call God, “my God.”
+ How many times have you known bad things to happen to people and they get mad at God and turn there back on him?
You can face our hurts and trials without turning our back on God, when we look at the cross, and our crystal clear that God has not turned in back on us.
III. Hope
III. Hope
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Job knew that one day this life would be over with all its pain and sorrows. On that day, he would see God and nothing else will matter.
+Let me propose to you that we have a clearer understanding this matter than even Job. For Job did not understand that God would come himself in the person of Jesus Christ his son and bear the cross himself to overcome suffering and death once and for all.
Yet, if Job could hope in God despite great suffering, then we can as well.
IV. Submission
IV. Submission
Hope ultimately leads to submission. At the end of the book, God’s answer to Job was not to let him in on the backstory and show how God used Job’s faith to shame the Devil. He could have let him in on the back story, but he didn’t.
Instead God’s answer to Job is to remind him what it means for God to be God.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
For 4 chapters, God unloads question after question after question to show Job what it means for God to be God.
One of the benefits that God brings from our suffering is that if we hold on to our faith in the midst of suffering, we will discover what it means for God to be God like never before. And, as a result have a more profound view of God than we could ever imagined.
When we get that profound view of God, questions and protest turn into silence.
In the middle of this barrage of questioning by God, Job answers God and said,
3 Then Job answered the Lord and said:
4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
And ultimately silence turns into submission. And submission turns into new blessings.
Ultimately God restored all that Job had lost.
10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations.
17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
I don’t know whether God will restore us from our suffering on this side of heaven or on the other side. But, what I know is that our Redeemer lives. God is our hope. And ultimately that is enough.
Trust, Pain and Protest, Hope, and Submission