- God is so good.
I just wanted to take a couple of minutes really quickly.
Pastor Kevin is ministering at another church this morning
and so that is why he's not occupying this space over here.
And that's why we're kind of running amuck.
But anyway, I know God is using him this morning.
I've had a couple of messages back and forth from him
and I know God is moving and we're so grateful for that.
I wanna let you know about a couple of things.
This week we do begin our midweek gatherings again.
So I wanna invite you to come and have,
we have dinner in the cafe at five o'clock.
Then your children can go to children's ministries.
We have a wonderful program going for them.
Youth and I think Doug and Jody got about 25 new kids
this week, so keep them in your prayers.
It's gonna be wonderful.
We have open tables next Sunday.
If you have never been a part of that,
we hope that you will.
There are signups on the app.
You just pick a restaurant,
go join with some brothers and sisters and enjoy lunch.
And I'm gonna ask you guys,
when you're sitting at those tables next week,
snap a picture, upload it that just says we are Springhouse
because I love the fellowship and community
that we see in that.
And Monday evening, next Monday, we have a blue meeting.
If you are new to the church and you are like,
I would really love to get plugged in
with some of the women, this announcement is for women.
Just, I'm just putting that out there.
If you're new to the church, you're like,
yeah, I'd like to meet a few people.
Anyway, Bloom Monday night and our own Pastor Sherry O'Dea
will be bringing the Word and sharing with us Monday night.
So come and support that.
Now we have this morning,
with this person being one of the younger people
on our teaching team or the newer additions,
we like to give him simple subjects like Lamentations
and Revelations or this morning, the Book of Job.
Would you welcome Pastor Justin?
(congregation applauding)
- Good morning, good people.
I hope you brought your Bibles and your brains
and your hearts today and your seatbelt.
You better buckle up Mary Sue,
it's fixing to get real wild up here.
It's good to be back and on the platform in the pulpit.
This is an honor to be here and share
as a part of the teaching team
and the teaching dynamic here.
Didn't Hadassah O'Dea do a fantastic job last week?
(congregation applauding)
With the reading of Esther.
I went to her as her service after the service,
I said, hey, just a thought,
would you consider doing all 42 chapters of Job next week?
And she looked at me like I was speaking
a different language and I said, that's fine, I got it.
I've been prepared.
Also found this guy sitting right here
on the table this morning.
I was about 13 seconds away last week from being,
all right listen up, we're not doing nothing else
until somebody get Pastor Kevin, his dad gone click her back.
But somebody must have got the memo,
knew I'd do it a little bit more pushups
and I got a little bit more bass, okay?
Nick Click was right here.
So don't ever do that Pastor Kevin again
'cause I got his back, all right?
If it's a kid, a dog, whoever it is,
hey, it's a package deal.
Listen, they went for Jesus
and they had to contend with Peter.
I'm just saying, Peter tried to cut the guy's head off
and Jesus like, chill, right?
You're lucky I didn't whoop somebody
for the clicker last week.
He's like, Peter, chill.
And I was like, you're right, you're right,
you're right, you're right.
So it's here though, I'll tell you that.
Golly man, what a subject.
I feel like this is either an amazing test
of study and faithfulness
or completely oblivious to the subject matter at hand.
This is one of the oldest stories ever recorded
and possibly the oldest book in scripture.
It very well could be the oldest book.
This is an ancient book.
This is a story of a real man
who lived in a real place in a real time.
It's dated around the time of the patriarchs
based on the context and the subject matter.
This is a very famous book.
And today we're gonna do a study, an overview, a synopsis,
not a deep dive 'cause we don't have that much time,
but we're going to study the book in the life of Job.
If you would stand with me,
we're gonna read six verses
towards the back end of the chapter
and then we'll go back to chapter one
and we'll figure out how we got to this point.
Here we go.
Then Job answered the Lord and said,
"I know that you can do all things
"and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
"Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?
"Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
"things too wonderful for me which I did not know.
"Here and I will speak.
"I will question you and you make it known to me.
"I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
"but now my eye sees you.
"Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the power and the life that it brings.
I pray that you would open the hearts of your people
to hear clearly from you.
And I pray for an encounter with you
that everything Justin B has to say today,
that's not what your Holy Spirit wants to imprint
on their hearts will be quickly forgotten,
but that you would remain and comfort your people
who are in a time of need.
God, we love you and thank you.
It's in Christ's name, amen.
And amen, you can be nice and be seated.
Job is a very famous figure in history, very famous.
And he's not just in the church.
Many cultures have written about Job.
We use phrases like the patience of Job
or my personal favorite in the evangelical church is,
I'm in a Job season, a Job season of testing.
I've even said that before.
And those I've said it around,
like my mom have quickly reminded me, no, Stupo,
this is a result of your own decisions.
These are, she didn't call me a Stupo,
but I was being a Stupo.
These are the natural consequences of your actions.
You are not in a Job season, okay?
There are positive and negative consequences
that come with your actions, okay?
Here's an example of a positive consequence.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Here's an example of a negative consequence.
Talk back to your mom and you might be missing teeth.
Natural consequence,
depends how many rows you sit behind her.
We said pews and I knew that she could only reach
the pew right behind her.
(congregation laughing)
So I sat two rows back to the side.
But that era, you also had everybody's a mama.
So if she couldn't get to me, somebody else could.
Listen to your mama.
Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.
The prophet Ezekiel links Job with Noah and Daniel
as the three most righteous men to ever live.
That's Ezekiel 14, 14.
For those of you that are familiar with the book,
you know that suffering is at the forefront of the pages.
However, the book of Job is not primarily
about one man's suffering and pain.
Job's problem is not so much financial or social or medical.
His central problem is theological.
Job must deal with the fact that in this life,
God does not act the way he thought he would or should.
In this drama, the book of Job is not so much a record
of solutions and explanations to this problem.
It's more of a revelation of Job's experience
and the answers carried within his experience.
Something that I want you guys to note
and file away in your mental file cabinet.
Every statement in the Bible is in context of a book
and the meaning of that book
determines the meaning of the verse.
You cannot simply pick passages that fit or frame your POV
or your theology to prove your point
if it is intended to be taken out of context.
Here's an example.
Quoting Job's friends is dangerous.
And if you've read the book, you know why.
Because when you get to the end,
God was like, these guys are out of control.
He rebukes Job's friends.
So you be careful quoting Job's friends.
David Paulson says, "The Bible is all of God's word,
but not all of God's truth."
Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The Bible is all of God's word, but not all of God's truth.
Give you a real life example.
I'm over at a friend's house and I'm in the bathroom
and I'm washing my hands
and they got this little paper calendar, right?
And I'm gonna give you a, it's got like a date on it.
Like, what is this?
August 3rd and then it's got a little Bible verse.
Are you with me?
Right, they make them for far side too,
but this one's got the Bible verse.
And I'm washing my hands and I look down and it's,
I'm gonna paraphrase, it's Matthew 4, 9.
And it says, "If you bow down and worship me,
all that you see will be yours."
And I said, "That Satan said that."
(congregation laughing)
Look it up.
It was when the devil was tempting Jesus in the desert.
And I was like, "They have no idea.
They did not look it up, it just sounded good.
If you bow down and worship me,
all that you see will be yours."
I wadded that thing up, threw it in the trash.
That was a day off, rest of the year.
Dead serious, Fred, my bad.
Dead serious.
Why?
Because it was taken out of context.
And what sounded good was not good.
Because the one who said it was the devil.
So be careful quoting Job's friends.
The Bible is all of God's word,
but it's not all of God's truth.
This book presents an answer
to some of life's biggest questions.
Why is there pain and suffering?
Why do good people endure suffering
and why do bad people escape it?
And the even bigger question, does God even care about it?
I was talking with a brother in between services
and the problem that we have
when we think of good people suffering
is because we only know good
in the context of human understanding.
Jesus even had an interaction with somebody.
He said, "Good teacher."
And he said, "Why do you call me good?
"There's only one that's good and that's God."
How do you know what is good?
What you think is good
is not necessarily what God thinks is good.
Romans 8, 28 says, "For we know that all things
"work together for the good of those who love Him
"and are called according to His purpose."
All things means all things.
But verse 29 gives us the reason
why those things work together
because it's making us more into the image of His son, Jesus.
You mean to tell me suffering can be good for me?
I don't want that.
Give me the pleasant circumstances.
Let me, listen.
Solomon tried to say riches and all that and it ain't worth it.
I'm like, I wonder if God can test me in that.
Like, can that be a test I can try to overcome?
Just tons of wealth.
Let me see if this is really true for everybody.
I don't want his women problems.
I just, let me try that money out, God.
See if it's as corruptible as you say it is.
You only believe suffering is wrong
if you already have a belief that God is good
and suffering is bad.
You only think that suffering is wrong
if you already have a belief God is good
and anything that's not good cannot be God.
But what do we know of good?
Problem is that we also believe
suffering negates God's goodness.
Let me be clear when I say this, everything is not a test.
Everything you encounter is not a test.
And all suffering is not the result of a heavenly wager
to test your faithfulness.
Sometimes it's of your own making.
Case in point.
Sometimes it's from the enemy.
Sometimes it's from the Lord.
This is the story of Job,
but it is not an allegory for all of life.
It's this Job story.
It's a story of Job's life, not human existence.
So now let's look into the wager
because the book starts off,
have you ever been to like a theme park?
I went to Universal Studios recently
and this is my kid's first time being on a roller coaster.
It's like five out of the six, okay?
And I put them on a roller coaster,
didn't do any of the background checks, 64 miles an hour.
That's different in a car than just strapped to a chair.
Open air, swear.
They may get us go through a metal detector
after you go through the lockers
to make sure you don't have quarters or iPhones
or anything in your pocket.
'Cause can you imagine one of those coming out
at 65 miles an hour?
And I'm in the front, which is probably best
'cause I couldn't see their faces behind me.
And this thing shoots out like a rocket
and it's zoom zoom and you're 65 miles an hour.
And it's a full on adrenaline rush.
The book of Job starts off at 65 miles an hour.
And most Christians or readers of the book
get through about a third of the way through chapter one,
but I have no idea what's happening right now.
I'm just gonna skip it, right?
You just say, I shouldn't even be on this ride.
But it's important to understand what's happening
at the beginning so that we can wrestle
with the middle and the end.
This book reveals what's happening in the heavenly realms
so we make sense of what happens here on earth.
We can learn some valuable lessons.
The writer of the book of Job
either had incredible revelation and insight,
or he was completely blasphemous
because he sets up a scene
and he attributes things to Yahweh
that if it's not true,
then our understanding of God is way off.
Let's just read chapter one, verses six through 12.
And just leave you set up.
The Bible opens up says there was a man named Job
and he lived in the land of Uz
and Job had how many fat?
7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 oxen, 500 donkeys,
tons of servant, lots of lands,
his kids would have parties on the weekend
and they would all get together and bring their friends.
And then Job on Monday morning
or whenever after their partying was over,
he'd go and offer prayers to Yahweh
and make sacrifices by if they sin, please forgive them.
Like Job was a righteous man.
So the book opens up and then you get to verse six
and here we are.
There was a day when the sons of God came
to present themselves before the Lord
and Satan also came with them, full stop.
There was a day when the sons of God,
Ben-elohim came to present themselves before Yahweh
and Satan came with them.
And you've got a few ways you can go with this.
You can go, I don't know what that's about.
Let's keep reading.
Or you can say, I don't know what that's about.
Let's find out.
Quick word study or reveal to you
that this proper name Satan may or may not be
the character we refer to as the devil.
A better translation of this from the Septuagint
is Hasatan which means the Satan, the accuser.
It's less proper name and more of a job title
or description.
And if not, you have to contend with the fact
that well, we know that the proper name Satan
has fallen from heaven.
So now I read this, does he have VIP access
and he can just come back and forth whenever he wants to?
What's happening here?
Or is there something deeper going on?
There's a possibility that this is not even a bad guy.
That his role or responsibility is one of prosecutor,
one of accuser and thus Satan is different
than proper name Satan.
And he derives his name from this verse here
which says he is the ultimate accuser of the brethren.
The ultimate accuser that accuses us day and night
before God and he gets it from this scene here
which is an extension of Deuteronomy 32
and now they're coming and giving progress reports.
Why?
Because God has entrusted them to watch over mankind
and we have a sneak peek into what's happening in heaven
before we see it happening here on earth.
This is transcending information guys.
And look at this.
There was a day when the sons of God
came to present themselves before the Lord
and Satan also came among them.
The Lord said to the Satan, from where have you come?
And the Satan answered, well, going to and fro on the earth
and walking up and down on it.
And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered
my servant Job that there's none like him on the earth,
a blameless and upright man who fears God
and turns away from evil?
The Satan answered the Lord and said,
does Job fear God for no reason
if you not put a hedge around him in his house
and all that he has on every side?
You bless the work of his hands,
his possessions have increased in the land.
Stretch out your hand and touch all he has
and he will curse you to your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, behold,
all he has is in your hand,
only it gets him to not stretch out your hand.
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
You know something that messed me up
the first time I read that?
Whose idea was it?
Whose?
You said it, I didn't say it.
That's an observation.
Hang on, man.
Have you considered my servant Job?
He's like, yeah, I thought about him.
But did you notice he said, yeah, I thought about him,
but I can't do nothing to him
'cause you've got a hedge of protection around him.
What if you were to know all the things and the ways
that the enemy was trying to come against you,
you had no idea about 'cause they couldn't get to you
'cause you had a hedge of protection around you
that you knew nothing about
'cause you didn't have insight to a heavenly scene.
And God been protecting you and carrying you
and covering you unbeknownst to your mind
and your knowledge.
Running around complaining about this and that
and this and that, you ain't got a clue
how much I've been keeping off your back.
Whining about a stoplight
and missing a bus or something dumb.
They trying to kill you, man.
And then what happens next?
What happens next is brutal.
It's brutal.
So we have the divine council scene here.
We have the Satan.
We have two plots that are woven together.
We have a heavenly plot and the earthly plot.
And what causes the tension is we know
that there's a wager for Job, but Job doesn't know it.
Job has no idea what is transpiring in the heavenlies,
but we know it.
And this is what creates the tension.
None of us really know all of the reasons for suffering.
None of us really know all of the reasons
why there is suffering.
So after permission is granted to the Satan
and the divine council leaves,
we see Job's property destroyed.
His income is wiped out.
His children are killed and his health is decimated.
His health is decimated.
His wife tells him, "Curse God and die."
What a friend.
Thanks, babe.
You can't pray for me.
You can't pat me on my back.
Me and my mom were discussing this the other day.
She said, "You know what?
I feel like Job's wife gets a bad rap."
(congregation laughing)
No, think about this.
Those were her kids too.
They were, you assume they were.
We don't know for sure.
Either way, at least they're stepkids, adopted kids.
Here's her family.
That was her property as well.
Their income.
Now her husband's covered in,
she's like, "Curse God and die already."
My mom said, "I feel like she got a bad rap.
She had probably one of the worst days
and weeks of her life."
And all we know her for is being like, "Just forget it.
You should commit suicide, Job."
It's what she told him.
Maybe we should try giving a little bit of grace
every now and then.
So his wife tells him, "Curse God and die."
Then three of his friends show up and he's unrecognizable.
And what I mean by unrecognizable,
Job's health is afflicted because the Satan comes back
and he was like, "Hey, what about Job?"
He's like, "Yeah, I beat him down,
but I can't touch his health."
And he was like, "I'd like you to touch his health
this time."
And all these, Job had these boils all over his skin
and they hurt so bad and they probably were so itchy
because he took pottery and broke it
and took broken pieces of pottery and scraped his skin.
You ever had a mosquito bite?
How bad it hitches, you know what I mean?
And you're just like, "Stop scratching,
this'll make it worse."
Imagine something being so bad that the only relief
is to take broken pieces of pottery and scrape your skin.
And it's the result of a heavenly wager.
And he shows up and he's pitiful.
His whole life is destroyed and he's sitting on the ground
with ashes on him and his boys show up
and they are heartbroken.
They are heartbroken.
And the scripture says they don't even recognize him.
They get a lot wrong throughout the book.
I'm not just here to defend Job's friends
'cause they're out of control,
but they do get one thing right and it's this.
They sat with him on the ground for seven days
and seven nights and no one spoke a word to him
for they saw his suffering was very great.
Church, I wanna say this for a long time.
When somebody is grieving, shut up.
I don't mean to be mean about it,
but a multitude of words is not what somebody needs
in a moment of grief.
They need your presence there.
They don't need, "I'm so sorry."
And I get it from a good place.
I get it from a good heart.
You wanna say something that brings them comfort.
But what brought Job comfort was that they was there
and they cried with him and they put dust on their head
and they sat with him.
They knew he cared because they,
he knew they cared because they were there.
They were trying to fix it with a bunch of extra stuff
he didn't need.
Next time you encounter a friend grieving, just be with them.
I feel like that we wouldn't even had this rest
of this discourse if Job didn't open his mouth.
Because Job breaks the silence.
And then after this, we have 30 chapters of back and forth
between Job and his friends.
They were just waiting on him to say something.
And Job opens his mouth and he starts complaining.
He's like, "Oh God, the day that I was born,
curse the day that I was born,
I probably wish I was better off being stillborn
or if they didn't nurse me."
And then he has this David-like wrestling match
where he's like, "Break all my enemy's teeth,
blessed be the name of the Lord."
He's like, "I curse the day I was born,
but naked I came into this world and naked I'll return,
blessed be the name of the Lord."
And it's this interesting wrestling match
that Job encounters throughout the entire book.
And the discourse among his friends is that Job has sinned
and this suffering is a result of the curse.
And Job is confident in his own righteousness.
You hear me?
His own righteousness.
And it culminates in a confrontation with Yahweh
at the end of the book.
Job's friends, he would say something
and one of his friends would respond
and he'd say something else and another one would respond.
And they go in a wise order because the eldest speaks first
and then the oldest speaks first 'cause he's the wisest
and that's usually how it goes.
And then the guy that's a little bit younger
than the oldest ever last guy in the room speaks, right?
Then you got the pursuit guy down here and he speaks last.
And then you got the kid in the youth group
that thinks he knows everything,
that waits till everybody's done.
And he says, "Oh, I actually got it figured out."
That's literally what happens.
It goes like, it goes Fred, Kevin, Justin, which one?
Eli Minchi right there on the bottom.
That was the order.
Here's what you should do.
Next time you guys have a group Bible study,
you should do this like we do at the theater
and they do these readings and just pick out parts
and be like, you'll be Bildad and you'll be Eliphaz
and you'll be Zophaz and you'll be Elihu and I'll be Job
and we'll read it back and forth.
And I bet it adds a little context to this discourse
that Job has among his friends.
So Job's friends start running their mouth to him
and Eliphaz, which was the elder,
he basically talks about God's transcendence.
God knows everything.
And Job, you are actually conscious of your sin
but you're not telling us about your sin.
But you know you've sinned and God knows you've sinned.
So therefore repent and the suffering will stop.
And Job's like, "No, that's not really what's going on."
He's like, "No, that's really what's going on."
You've sinned.
Repent.
Then the Justin of the group, the Bildad,
talks about God's omnipotence.
He says, "God is all powerful and might is right.
So who are you to question God?
Because he's stronger than you and he's bigger than you
and so if you're suffering,
then you're just gonna have to deal with it
because you're not bigger than God."
And Job's like, "Well, I don't really know
if that makes much sense right now.
That's not really what's happening."
And then Zophaz talks about God's omniscience.
He says, "Job, you're probably, what's really going on is
you've sinned but you're just unaware that you have sinned.
And if you will just confess your unknown sin to God,
then maybe he'll stop your suffering
because you must have sinned."
One said, "You know you've sinned."
The other one said, "It doesn't matter if you sin or not,
God's bigger than you and so he's just gonna bully you."
And his third friend says, "You don't really know
about what sin you've committed.
Either way, you're in the wrong and God is in the right."
All three of Job's friends took refuge
in a specific aspect about God and made it into doctrine
and forcing the facts to fit their faith
instead of allowing their faith to fit the facts.
The same way it starts in chapter one where you're like,
"I don't understand this, so I'm gonna dismiss it
or I'm gonna reason or logic it away."
The late Dr. Michael Heiser said of this, he said,
"My conscience would not simply let me dismiss
the facts of the scripture in order to fit the theology
which I was comfortable with.
Is my loyalty to the text or Christian doctrine?
Is my loyalty to the word or Christian doctrine?
And we have taken Proverbs in the scripture
and turn them into promises."
This is a major fallacy when it comes to doctrine
and theology and I wanna caution us
about turning general truths into absolute truths.
General truths against absolute truths.
Here was the general truth.
Suffering is caused by sin.
Therefore, if you are suffering, it's because of your sin.
They made sowing and reaping an arbitrary law.
And this was absolutely cruel because it caused Job
to crawl around inside of his own conscience.
They said, "You had to have done something wrong
because God's not gonna punish somebody.
He's not gonna allow suffering for somebody
that hasn't done something wrong."
And Job was racking his life.
And I've done that in my own life.
I remember my mom saying, "I hope you have five boys
and act just like you."
And I'm like, "Please God, no.
No, not that.
Send me to the stocks, whatever.
Don't do that."
What a blessing that would be to have five of me
running around, wouldn't it mom?
Y'all like, "Whoa, whoa, calm down."
And I do got five just like me.
I do got five just like me.
Noah, Kat, DJ, Allie and Jessalyn, I'll tell you that.
But I've looked back on my life at times and been like,
"Man, is this the result of something I did way back here?
Am I reaping something now I have sown back in my childhood?
Maybe, or maybe not, but we can't be arbitrary about it.
It was cruel.
And we do this in the church when we say,
"You didn't get healed 'cause you didn't have enough faith.
How dare we?
Now you've added somebody that's unhealed,
then now they're saying it's my fault.
What about Lazarus?
Lazarus have enough faith?
Lazarus was dead.
(audience laughing)
Think about it.
When we tell somebody you didn't have enough faith
to get healed, that's why you didn't get healed.
Lazarus, how much faith did that man got?
Think about it.
He was dead and got raised from the dead.
I had a discipler, long time mentor, if you will,
of mine named Derek Faulkner.
And he got diagnosed with stomach cancer in November,
several years ago.
And he had faith God would heal him with cancer.
He died in February, four months later.
You mean to tell me he didn't have faith?
The scripture God gave him was a verse out of Job
that says, "Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.
Though he slay me."
You mean to tell me he associated his human suffering
with God's goodness?
That's real faith, guys.
So what is sometimes true, it's not always true.
And we must be careful how we handle the scriptures
when it comes to people, because God cares about people.
And you don't want to hurt somebody.
And that insult to injury by taking a general truth
and turning it into an absolute truth.
Job's responses to his friends become bolder and bolder.
And the more he thinks about it,
the more justified he feels.
You ever had somebody tell you about your life?
Feel like the Lord, and I'm like, "Nope, he didn't."
You ever feel justified about something?
Has anybody ever shared something with you
and you're like, "That ain't happening."
Has anybody shared a word with you that's wrong?
It ain't gotta be like a thus saith the Lord,
but I've had people tell me something,
I'm like, "That's not what's happening,
that's not what's going on."
And then the older I got, the more I started saying,
instead of immediately dismissing, I started going,
"Okay, God, is there any truth to this?
If not, let me not walk in that identity."
Are you hearing me?
Let me not be identified that, but if there is truth,
let me make the changes.
Job felt justified in his case.
And he lays a case for righteousness in chapter 31.
He lays out a case for righteousness in chapter 31.
And you would think about, if you read it,
he was listening to Jesus's teachings
at the Sermon on the Mount.
You would think this guy had actually sat
at the foot of Jesus, the way he responds.
And he lays out a case for innocence.
He starts off chapter 31 with this verse, he says,
"I have made a covenant with my eyes.
How then could I gaze at a virgin?"
Some translations say a young maiden.
Didn't know what a young maiden was till I got an ESV.
Now I know that's a young lady.
And Job said, "I made a covenant with my eyes.
I'm not gonna look lustfully on a young woman."
In verses five through eight,
he talks about his integrity.
In nine through 12, he claims his purity.
And then justice and generosity.
In verses 24 through 28, he talks about his faithfulness,
his right worship, blessing others, hospitality,
his genuineness.
He was prayerful and he was a good steward.
Job said, "I'm a good person.
Why is this happening to me?
I'm a good person.
Why is this happening to me?
I love God.
Why is this going on in my life?
I did all the things.
I confessed all known sin.
I did my prayers.
I've been following along in the Bible plan.
Like I did the things you told me to do.
Why is this happening to me?"
And all of it's really directed towards God.
He's talking to his friends,
but he's really saying, "God, this isn't fair.
You're not being fair to me."
And he explains to his friends in one final appeal.
And then we see Elihu, the teenager, comes up and he says,
"Hey guys, you can go.
I got it from here.
Read the book.
Read it with your friends.
I promise."
He goes, "Thanks.
You guys are all wrong, by the way.
Just like a regular teenager, normal teenagers do.
I heard what you said.
I've been listening."
He was like, "I actually have been timid to speak
'cause I'm so young.
However, I'm gonna take three chapters
to say what I have to say."
(congregation laughing)
He does.
And Job done, he mansions him.
I can just picture Job like he's rubbing his eyes.
'Cause he says the exact same thing the other guys say.
"It's your fault, Job.
You've sinned.
You've sinned."
And at this point, Job's over.
He's like, "I just laid out my case.
I'm telling you guys, I did nothing wrong.
And yet my life is still in suffering."
All of his friends applied sowing and reaping
as a law to Job.
And Job's crying out to God.
And he's like, "Why is this happening?
Why are you doing this to me?"
And then finally God responds
and it's absolutely terrifying.
God finally says, "Okay, big boy, stand up."
Like, remember the first time one of your sons
kind of got a little bit puffed up, James, right?
And he was like, "I'm gonna tell you right now,
you're not as big as you think you are."
I remember the first time I got actually bigger than my dad,
physically bigger than my dad.
And then I realized my dad's a stone cold killer.
I should probably...
(congregation laughing)
Multiple black belts, probably strapped.
I was like, "It's a bad idea."
Thought my height.
Can you imagine the creator of the universe responds to you
and he opens up like this?
This is how God opens up.
I think it'd be dumb.
He says in chapter 38,
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
'Who is this that darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?
Dressed for action like a man,
I will question you and you make it known to me.'"
You've been asking me all these questions.
Why is this happening?
Let me ask you some questions, Job.
And then I want you to answer.
And this is what he says to Job.
He goes on for two chapters.
And first his response is as the creator
and then he responds as the creation.
As I've been studying Job for the last two and a half,
three years, literally in my own time,
long before I knew this was a thing,
I probably listened to this song I'm gonna share with you
probably no less than 200 times.
And every time I feel like the size of an ant,
but just not thinking about all the times
I have arbitrarily gone against the creator of the universe
and I want him to answer my questions.
Why did this happen?
Why did that person walk through this?
Why does that person go through that?
Why did you take that from them?
Why did you give that to them?
And this is God's response to Job.
Where were you, Job?
Where were you when I created all of this?
(gentle music)
And Job was undone and he repents.
Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it.
Then Job answered and said, behold, I am of small account.
What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once and I will not answer twice,
but I will proceed no further.
He said, God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, look, Dad.
When I get the belt out, the kid's like,
look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
And God said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Stand back up, I got more to say to you.
And then he says, stand up like a man.
Tighten your boots this time.
And then he goes to proceed and tell him about his creation.
He says, do you even know why I made a hippopotamus
and a crocodile?
Calls him a behemoth and a Leviathan.
He says, you don't even know why I made a hippo
and a crocodile and you're gonna answer me about ethics?
You're gonna question me?
You have no idea, Job.
It's so much bigger than you.
And he's not beating him down for questioning God.
It's that Job lost touch with God through the suffering
and that was his real problem.
That was his real problem.
Job repents.
We read the beginning.
Job says, my ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
For us to get to a place where it's that I've heard
about this God but now I've seen this God.
He's back connected to the Creator.
Then he gets a happy ending, I guess, of sorts.
Scripture says, Job prays for his friends
and after he prayed for his friends,
then God restored everything back to him.
The same guys that gave him hard counsel that was untrue,
Job prayed for them.
So what was his real pain?
Was it physical?
Was it relational?
Was it social isolation or mental anguish?
No, Job's real pain was spiritual.
Job had lost touch with God.
Through the suffering and that's the biggest obstacle
that we must overcome when it's dealing with suffering.
And you know what?
Job didn't have that you have the hope of Jesus Christ.
Job didn't have a hope that all is gonna be made right.
They didn't know, they had an idea.
But he didn't know that like Paul said,
our light and momentary affliction is preparing for us
an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
You have the hope of Christ and that allows us
to have peace in the midst of suffering.
You wanna know what never happens?
Job never gets an answer to his questions.
Huh.
You mean I read 42 chapters to find out
he still doesn't know?
He never knew about the heavenly wager.
He never knew and he worked through his suffering.
He worked through his pain.
He crawled around in his conscience.
He felt God leave and he felt God close.
God never clued him in on him.
(gentle music)
David Paulson says that it's not about finding
the answers to your questions.
It's getting to the point in your relationship with God
where you do not need them.
It's not about finding the answers.
It's getting to the place where you don't need 'em.
I don't know why suffering exists.
I don't know why babies die.
I don't know why people die of cancer.
I don't know why there's pain.
I don't know why there's wrong.
What I do know is that God is good
and whenever we cross over and I find out
that what he did with all that,
it's gonna be good because he is good
and that's enough for me and that is enough for you.
So would you stand with me, Spring Houses?
We worship and close out this service.
(gentle music)
God don't want us to stop asking questions.
This is not a dad saying,
"I know better than you, don't ask me why."
It's not the question, it's the heart behind it.
The heart that says, "God, I don't get it.
"I don't know why this is happening in life.
"I don't know why this is happening to me.
"I don't know why this is happening to them,
"but I trust you."
And some of you need to get to a place where you say,
"I trust you despite what my circumstances look like,
"despite the pain that I'm walking through right now,
"I trust you and I know that you're gonna work it out
"for my good and your glory
"because whatever you do is gonna be good."
And so if you need to pray with somebody and confess that
or if you need to come out here
and do business with the Lord,
whatever you walk through,
whatever you're about to walk through,
whatever you've been walking through,
God is with you.
We must never lose touch with God through our suffering.
My prayer people, come down here
and let's worship and pray.