Lessons from the Life of Job: Week 8

Well, welcome to Church of the Crossing. My name is Andrew.

If you're new or if this is your first time here,

I'm so glad that you're with us. And just a moment,

we're gonna be opening the Bible to Job chapter forty two.

And before we do that, would you join me in

a word of prayer. Father, God, we thank you for

your grace, and we thank you for your presence. And Father,

we've come today with expectation to receive from you, and

so God, we pray that today you would give us

what we need. God, I know there are some of

us here. We may not know what we need, but

you know what we need. And so God we pray

that your word would be sufficient for what we need.

And so, in the name of Jesus, we silence distraction.

In the name of Jesus, we silence doubt, We silence

misinformation about who you are. God, we invite your spirit,

the spirit of truth, to communicate your love and your

truth today from your word. And we pray all of

this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well Church. As

I was preparing this message today, I wanted to start

by telling you that I love you, I care about you,

I'm so grateful that I get to be one of

your pastors and that God has put us together to

journey through life together. And I want to tell you

that as our church, I care about your problems. I

care about your family, I care about your situation. I

pray for you, I think of you. And I'm so

grateful for how many and our congregation have encouraged me

and prayed for me and supported me. And I'm grateful

that God has brought us together as family. And one

of the things that I love about our church family

is that we can be honest with each other. Our church,

we don't have a problem speaking our mind or we

mean what we say, and we say what we mean.

We can be honest with each other. For example, a

few sundays ago, I was out in the church lobby

after church and talking to a married couple and the

wife said to me, so, today was the last day

in the job series, right, And I said, well, actually,

we've got a few more weeks left in job and

her husband laughed and he said, really a few more weeks?

How many more weeks are we gonna keep in this book?

One of the things I love about our church is

that we can be honest with each other. So I'm

pleased to tell you that today is the final message

in the series on job. You don't have to applaud,

but just wanted you to know. And I know that

throughout these eight weeks, Pastor James and I have felt

the seriousness of this series. We've felt the weight of

our church in these eight weeks. We've suffered, we've endured

these eight weeks. Throughout this series, it seems like every

week I'm speaking with someone in our congregation who's lost

a job or became unemployed. I know many in our

congregation who have had a diagnosis, a surgery, a health

serious health procedure, just in these eight weeks. There are

others who've lost a loved one. I just found out

last week someone in our church had a funeral for

their father. Someone else buried their mother. And many of

us know that two weeks ago our church lost three

family members in a tragic car accident, and we'll be

holding their funeral here just tomorrow. These eight weeks have

been filled with suffering, We've endured, we have experienced pain

in these eight weeks in church. I want to remind

you today that we got to hold on to our

hope in Jesus. We got to hold on to the

hope that we have in the Gospel, and we got

to hold on to each other when we're suffering, because

one day we have a hope for heaven. One day

we have a hope that all this suffering will end.

One day we will rejoice with Jesus, as Revelation tells us,

he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There

will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain,

for the old order of things has passed away. There

will be no more death, there will be no more mourning.

There is coming a day when there will be no

more funerals, no more miscarriages. There will be a day

when there is no heartbreak, no depression. We're looking forward

to a day where there is no pain, no cancer,

no surgeries, no macular degeneration, no arthritis. There is coming

a day, It's not today, but one day where we

will see Jesus face to face and he will wipe

away every tear. That's the hope we hold on to.

And so as we end this message series on job,

you may still have some questions. You may be curious

about these topics. We've discussed pain and suffering, and so

as we end the series, I want to provide a

few recommended resources if you're interested, I recommend a few

of these resources the Problem of Pain and a Grief

Observed or books written by C. S. Lewis, Walking with

God through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller, The book

God on Mute is the best book that I've read,

addressing unanswered prayer or when God Says No, and then

finally Even in Our Darkness by Jack Dear who lost

a son to overdose. Now, as we conclude this series

on the Book of Job, I've titled Today's message what

Job teaches us about our God? Because the Book of

Job bears Job's name. But the Book of Job is

not primarily about Job. Job is the main character, but

he's not the focus of this book. The focus of

this book is on God and his character. So with

that in mine, let's turn to the very last chapter Job,

chapter forty two. We'll start in verse one. Then Job

replied to the Lord, I know that you can do

anything and no one can stop you. 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. You said,

listen and I will speak. I have some questions for you,

and you must answer them. I had only heard about

you before, but now I have seen you with my

own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I

sit in dust in ashes to show my repentance. Right

here in the very first verse of this last chapter.

The first thing that Job teaches us about our God

is that nothing is impossible. For our God, nothing's impossible.

Do you feel like you're in an impossible situation right now?

Have you been praying hoping for a miracle? Nothing is

impossible for our God. A few years ago, I was

in a prayer meeting and we were praying for needs,

and there was one woman in the meeting named Anita

who asked for prayer for her health. And Anita shared

with us that she had recently had a medical procedure

and her hips were left out of alignment, and she

had one leg that was shorter than the other. It

was about a half inch or an inch shorter. And Anita,

by vocation, is a dance instructor, and so movement and

dance are important to what she does, and she lived

with this chronic pain in her legs, and she could

not move freely without terrible pain, and so she asked

for prayer. Now this seemed like an impossible situation. But

we gathered around Anita and she sat in a chair

and I held her ankles in my hands, and it

was very clear that one leg was shorter than the other.

The ankle bones did not line up about a half

inch or an inch shorter. And this just seemed impossible.

But with bold faith, all of us there gathered and

we prayed, and God healed her, and her legs grew

into alignment. And then Anita stood up and she bent

down and touched her toes, and she twisted and turned

and moved without any pain, doing things that she could

not do before we had prayed. And then Anita prayed

for the next person and they were healed. And then

that person prayed for the next person and they were healed.

God did what we thought was impossible. Nothing is impossible

for your God, job said in the first line of

our text. He answered the Lord, I know that you

can do all things. Notice this word all things. What

does the text say, Does it say some things? Does

it say easy things. Does it say a few things?

It says all things? You wonder? Can he cure diseases?

All things? Can he fix a marriage? All things? Can

he change a hard hearted boss's heart? Can he meet

a financial need? My God can do all things. Nothing

is impossible for your God. Jesus once said, what is

impossible for people is possible with God. Our faith is

built on God doing the impossible. It seemed impossible that

a perfect man could live a perfect life and then

sacrifice his life on the cross for you and for me,

and then three days later rise from the dead. Our

faith is built on Jesus doing the impossible. So are

you in an impossible situation right now? Are you praying

for a breakthrough? Is it a health issue? Is it

a family or relationship situation? Do you feel stuck like

you don't know what to do or you have two

decisions to make? Has addiction gripped your life? Is there

a sin issue that just seems too big to overcome?

Or who here has been seeking for a job, going

to interviews, applying and just no success. I want to

tell you that nothing is impossible for your God. Our

faith is built on God doing the impossible. Now, when

you pray and you seek God, and you're asking for

a miracle, and you're seeking for a breakthrough, has it

ever felt like your answer has just been delayed a

little bit? Have your plans felt interrupted? A while back,

Loren and I were traveling on vacation and the last

day of the trip, we returned our rental car, and

then we made our way to the airport. And we

got to the airport two hours before our flight home departed,

and plenty of time to check in our luggage and

get through security. And so I walked up to the

baggage counter with our luggage and checked it in, and

the agent there looked up my confirmation number, and the

agent said, sorry, I can't check your luggage. And I

was confused, and I said why, And the luggage agent said, well,

you can't check your luggage more than four hours before

your flight. And I was even more confused because we

were two hours before the flight. We hadn't crossed any

time zones. And then the luggage agent said that my

flight was leaving tomorrow the next day. Now I was

really confused, because, let me tell you, I did have

a flight that day. I did arrive two hours before

that flight departed. Here's what happened. From the time I

returned my rental car to the time I walked up

to the luggage counter. That flight had been canceled, and

the airline automatically rebooked me for the next flight in

the next morning, in a matter of minutes. The luggage

agent knew it before I did, and so my plans

were interrupted. My plans were delayed. The other thing that

we learned from Job is that nothing can interrupt God's plans.

Nothing can delay God's plans, interrupt God's plans. Recently, I

was speaking with somebody from our church who had questions

about Job, and they said, to me, doesn't it seem

like Job is a pawn between God and Satan and

God is God and Satan are struggling to use Job's

life in this in this battle. And yes, it's easy

to read this story and think that there's this cosmic

struggle between good and evil and God's trying to get

the upper hand and the Devil's trying to get the

upper hand and they're using Job to battle it out. Well,

that's just not the case, because we need to have

good theology about this. You see, Yes, the devil is

your enemy, but he is not God's enemy. Let me

explain that. Yes, the devil is our enemy. Satan tempts us,

Satan torments us, Satan attacks us, he tries to sabotage

and distract you. But he is not on equal footing

with God. He is a created being. Yes he's powerful.

Yes he can do evil things, but he is not

equal to God. He is bound by the limits that

God has established. Look at what Job teaches us. We

see this in chapter one. All right, you may test him,

the Lord said to Satan. Do whatever you want with

everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically. God put

a limit on Satan's power again in chapter two. All right,

do with him as you please, the Lord said to Satan,

but spare his life. The devil is bound by the

limits that our God puts on him. That's why in

our main text we read I know that you can

do all things. Nothing can put a stop to your plans,

nothing can interrupt God's plans. God is not surprised by

the delay that you are facing. God's not surprised by

the interruption. Yes, you may have setbacks, Yes you may

be surprised. Someone you trusted may let you down. You

may not know what to do. Your plans may get

tossed out the window. But let me tell you, when

you're sitting in confusion, when you're concerned, when you are

knocked sideways, your God is not in heaven wringing his

hands things thinking, oh no, I didn't see this coming.

God is not interrupted. Nothing can interrupt his plans. Remember,

the Gospel of Jesus teaches us that God always fulfills

his plans. We read in Acts chapter two. But God

raised Jesus from the dead, freeing him from the agony

of death because it was impossible for death to keep

his hold on him. Death could not hold Jesus. I

just gotta imagine that Satan was pretty happy when Jesus died.

I imagine that Satan was celebrating that he had killed

the son of God. But nothing interrupts God's plans, because

three days later Jesus rose from the dead. You need

to know that there is resurrection on the other side

of your interruption, and so death will not hold you back.

Cancer will not keep you down. Hopelessness does not get

the final say. Grief will not hold you back. Addiction

will keep you trapped. Nothing will interrupt God's plans When

we suffer, When you're in pain, when you're disappointed, what

question do you ask? Most often? Well, for me, it's

the question why, why did this happen? Why am I suffering?

Why didn't I see this coming? You may ask why

did your spouse walk out? Why did your adult children

cut you off? Why did your parents let you get hurt?

Why were you all alone? Why? That's a legitimate question.

In this story, Job has three friends elfas build out

and so far. And these three friends they try to

rationalize the question why. They try to give an explanation

for why Job is suffering. And all three of these

friends agree that it's impossible for an innocent person to

suffer as greatly as Job did. They just assume there's

no way an innocent person could suffer this much, And

so they believe that Job must have done something wrong,

that Job had sinned or offended God, even inadvertently. But

they believe Job had done something wrong. And Bill Dad

was the worst. He went way out on a limb,

and here's what he said. Your children must have sinned

against God, so their punishment was well deserved. He said,

your children deserve to die in that tornado. How cruel

is that? How insensitive and inappropriate is that? I mean,

I can't imagine any one of us saying that to

somebody else. I can't imagine walking into a hospital room

and saying, well, you know, you get what you deserve.

I mean, can you imagine being at a funeral and

hearing someone say, well, what goes around comes around? Of

course not. But what have we heard said? What are

the sayings that we often hear? Tell me if this

sounds familiar, Everything happens for a reason, or every cloud

has a silver lining, or God teaches us lessons, or

the one that really honestly irritates me is God just

needed another angel. These are dumb sayings. These are not

in the Bible. They are unbiblical. They are trite and

petty attempts to answer that deep heartfelt question why. Why.

That's a legitimate question, that's a natural question. That's the

cry of heartbreak. Why. And I'll be honest, nothing I

say today can give a satisfactory answer to that question,

because I don't know why, and sometimes we may never

know why we suffer, why something bad happens. But I

believe that the Book of Job teaches us something greater

about our God. The Book of Job teaches us that

our God always has the final say. Our God always

has the final say. You see Job's three friends. They talked,

and they talked, and they talked, and they tried to

give an explanation, and they tried to give reason, and

they accused Job of hidden sin. They accused Job of

all these things. But Job maintained that he was innocent.

And here in the last chapter of this story, God

has the final say. Look at verse seven. After the

Lord had said these things to Job, he said to

Eliphaz the tem night, I'm angry with you and your

two friends because you have not spoken the truth about me,

as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls

and seven rams and go to my servant Job and

sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will

pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and

not deal with you. According to your folly. You have

not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

Job rebukes God rebukes Job's three friends because in the end,

God has the final say. My favorite night of the

week is Tuesday night, because that's when Celebrate Recovery meets

here at church at the Crossing and often we say

welcome to Celebrate Recovery, the best place to be on

Tuesday Night. Celebrate Recovery is one of our worship services

that focuses on helping people find freedom from hurts, habits,

and hang ups. And on Tuesdays, we hear stories of

how God has changed people's lives. We hear about those

who suffered abuse finding healing in Jesus. We've heard stories

about people on the recovery journey out of addiction. Others

share how they were stuck in depression, or in self hate,

or stuck in shame, or even wanting to consider suicide,

but God intervened. You see, I call these stories but

God stories. Someone was trapped but God intervened. Someone was

stuck in sin but God intervened. Somebody was in jail

but God showed up. I wonder, do you have a

butt God story? Because God always has the final say,

Job has a butt God story. I want you to

read what Job said right in the middle of the book.

In chapter nineteen. Job is at his lowest, Job is suffering,

Job is hurting. Job's friends are accusing him what does

he say? He said, But as for me, I know

that my redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the

earth at last, and after my body has decayed. Yet

in my body I will see God. I will see

him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my

own eyes. You see, Job says, but God has the

final say. He says. I may be hurting, I may

be in pain, I may be confused, I may even

be angry. But God is my redeemer. Redeemer is the

person who rescues or who saves. Jesus is our redeemer

because he substituted his life by dying on the cross.

He took on your punishment. He took on the punishment

for our sin and paid that price so that we

can be saved. You see, the gospel is a but

God story. You were stuck in sin, but God stepped in.

You were trapped in disobedience, you were you were struggling

in addiction, but God. You were sick, but God, you

were overwhelmed. But God, you were hurting and alone. But God.

Who here has a but God's story? Who will testify

that God has the last say? God always has the

final say. And I know but listening right now, there

are parents praying for your children to return to the Lord.

God has the final say. There are some today feeling

afraid and feeling anxious. God has the final say. There

may even be somebody listening who's thought about ending your life.

There is more because God has the final say. You

may have heard the word words, inoperable, incurable. Let me

remind you. Our God always has the final say. Our

God has a final say. Do you know which verse

in the Book of Job God gives Job an explanation

for his suffering. Do you remember at what moment in

this story God tells him, here's why all this suffering? Well,

I'm sorry, it's a trick question because God never tells

him why. Job never gets an explanation. And it is

the most confounding and most confusing part of this book.

And I'll just tell you I don't like that. It's

okay to not like something in the Bible. It doesn't

mean it's any less true. It's still God's word, it's

still the truth. We just have to conform ourselves to it.

It's confusing because Job doesn't get an explanation. Job gets

something greater than an explanation. Job meets someone greater than

an explanation. We read in verse five. I had only

heard about you before, but now I have seen you

with my own eyes. God came closer to Job in

his suffering. God met Job face to face at the

worst moment in his life. God didn't give Job an explanation.

God gave him more of himself. Because our God always

shows up. This is the greatest lesson that we can

learn from the Book of Job. Our God always shows

up in our suffering and in our pain. Our God

is near. His presence is with you, His grace is

with you. And I want you to please listen to

what I'm about to say. Please look at me and

hear this. The Lord is often closest to you in

your darkest moments. The Lord is often closest to you

in your worst suffering. Many times we may not know why,

but we can know who He is with us. He

is holding us, He's connected to us, he is walking

with us. And nobody knows this better than Jesus. Think

about the worst moment in Jesus's life, his worst night.

It was the night before his crucifixion, alone in the

garden of gethsemone Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow. He was

burdened with grief. Judas was bringing a band of soldiers

to arrest him. Peter and the other disciples were falling asleep,

and Jesus was all alone, and he cries out to

the Father, asking for relief, asking for any way to

avoid the inevitable crass, But the Father said no. Jesus

was arrested. Jesus was humiliated. Jesus was tortured. They shoved

the crown of thorns on his head. The Father did

not spare him from the nails on the cross. But

that night in the garden, at his worst moment, Jesus

cried out to the Father, and the Father showed up

the Gospel of Luke tells us, Father, if you're willing

take this cup from me, yet not my will, but

yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him

and strengthened him. The Father strengthened Jesus in his worst moment.

He loved Jesus, He comforted Jesus, He showed up. How

could Jesus go through with the crucifixion. How could Jesus

go through with the pain and the suffering? How could

he forgive his enemies because God the Father showed up.

Our God always shows up. If Jesus is the Lord

and savior of your life, he always shows up in

your pain. That's why you can endure the treatment plan

because he shows up. That's why you can get out

of bed the next morning, because he shows up. That's

the reason that grief will not paralyze you. It's the

reason you can forgive. It's the reason you can heal

because our God shows up. He always shows up. So

now we come to the very end the story of Job.

Let's turn to verse ten. The final words of this

entire story says, the Lord returned to Job all the

things that he had lost. When he prayed for his friends,

the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then all his brothers and sisters, and all who had

known him before came to him and ate bread with

him in his house. They showed pity and comforted him

for all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him.

Each one gave him one piece of money in a

gold ring. The Lord brought more good to Job in

his later years than in his beginning. He had fourteen

thousand sheep, six thousand camels, two thousand oxen, and a

thousand female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. Also,

he gave the first the name Jemima, the second Keziah,

and the third Karen. No women were found in all

the land who were as beautiful as Job's daughters, and

their father gave them a share among their brothers. After this,

Job lived one hundred and forty years and saw his sons,

his grandsons, and even their sons. Then Job died an

old man, having lived many years. The last thing that

we learned from this text is that our God is

able to restore what was lost. Our God is able

to restore what was lost. God showed up and he

restored what Job had lost. Now, before we leave, before

we end here, it's important that we have good theology

about this, because we could read this and we could

come to the conclusion that Job's story is just a

fairy tale and he lived happily ever after. But there

are some principles that we should keep in mind so

that we have good theology. One of those principles is

that God owes me nothing. His restoration is a gift

of grace. You see because God does not owe us

a pain free life. God does not owe us a

happy life. God does not owe us an explanation. You

see the blessings and the gifts we receive in this life,

it's all because of God's grace. I want you to

notice that in the story, Job did not earn God's

favor because he endured so well. God didn't owe him anything.

He didn't earn it. You see, Job always had God's favor.

It says in the very beginning, before all the suffering,

Job was righteous and God favored him. Job always had

God's favor. He lost his belongings, he lost his possessions,

he lost his wealth, but he did not lose the

grace of God. God's restoration is just a gift of

his grace. The other principle that we need to remember

is that restoration may come in this life or in

the next. Job received back his restoration on earth, but

it's not always the case. Because God operates outside of

time and space. Restoration may happen in this life, often

it may happen in eternity in heaven. God can make

perfect restoration, whether it's here and now or in heaven.

He's not bound by the limits of Earth. The other

principle we need to remember is that restoration does not

diminish the pain of suffering. Job's restoration did not erase

his memory. He still suffered, He's still endured. His pain

was not forgotten. Even when God restores us, we still

carry the scars from the wounds in the past. Even

the resurrected Jesus victorious over death has scars from the nails.

You see. Job received his wealth back, but it didn't

erase the suffering. Job had ten more children, but that

didn't change the fact that he lost ten children. Job

received back his health, but I imagine that he still had

scars from the boils and the sores and the scraping

with the pots. The restoration does not diminish the pain

of suffering. Our God is able to restore what is life.

And so today I want to close by sharing a

real story about how my family has experienced God's grace

and his restoration even in the midst of terrible tragedy.

My in laws are Bob and Kristen, and Bob and

Kristen have two baby boys who are in heaven. You see, Lauren,

my wife is Bob's daughter, from his first marriage and

later in life, Bob married Kristen and they wanted to

have children of their own, and so they were so

excited more than eighteen years ago when they became pregnant

with a baby boy, and they were excited and preparing

and anticipating having their first child together. But sadly, the

baby was still born premature before his due date. Well

almost two years later, they became pregnant again with a

second baby boy, and this time the family was cautiously optimistic,

taking every precaution that they could, praying and hoping and trusting.

But then, similar to us before, the second baby was

born premature and lived less than ten days before passing away.

The whole family was devastated. The family was just in turmoil,

and those questions of like, why why did God let

this happen? Why did God let this happen twice? There

are few things in life more hopeless than attending the

funeral with a tiny casket, And there were doubts, there

were questions. The whole church they were a part of

grieved and was bewildered. Yet Bob and Christen still hung

on to some faith that God gets the final say,

and so they started looking into adoption, and in July

of two thousand and nine, Bob and Christen got a

call that a baby boy was being born in California

that they could adopt, and so immediately they dropped everything

and they jumped on the next flight to California to

meet their son. And a few weeks later they brought

home Brendan. And it just so happens that Brendan turned

sixteen three days ago this week. And that's not the end,

because about two years later, men Law's got another phone

call that Brendan's birth mother was pregnant again with another

baby boy, and this baby would enter foster care unless

he was adopted. So, just as before, they dropped everything

and jumped on the next flight to California to meet

their second son, Brendan's brother, whose name is Brock. And

now these two boys are growing up in a Christian family,

knowing about God. And you know what I think is

most special is that Brock and Brendan are just about

two years apart, which is just about the age apart

as the other two babies who passed. Now, I'm not

saying that God replaced the loss. I'm not saying that

God erase the pain of losing two babies. But God

did restore the dream of having children. God did restore

our family in a special way. It doesn't minimize the pain,

it doesn't erase the suffering. But God has brought healing

and hope. And so Church, as we conclude, as we

end this series on job, I know that our suffering

does not end today. We will suffer, we will hurt,

we will grieve. But I want to remind you that

you can count on your God. Your God shows up.

Your God is with you. You can call on him,

you can depend on him, you can lean on him,

and he will never leave you no matter how bad

it gets, no matter how painful it is, no matter

how many tears you cry, Your God is with you.

And so that's why I think it's appropriate today that

we conclude by turning to Him and calling on Him.

And so we're gonna enter a time of prayer and

also a time of anointing. And so I want to

invite you to stand with me, and if you're a

prayer partner, you can come forward and prepare. But we

believe that God hears our prayers. We believe that God

answers our prayers, and the Bible says that if any

of you is in need or sick, call for the

leaders of the church to pray and anoint with oil.

And so today, if you are in need of prayer,

if you are in need of God's touch, if you

are in need of healing of breakthrough, you are invited

to come forward. I'd encourage you to if you want

to receive prayer anointing, to come down this middle aisle

and will help connect you to a prayer partner here

on the side. Let me open this response time in prayer. Father, God,

we thank you for your grace, We thank you for

your power. That you are greater than our suffering, greater

than our circumstance. And so God, we ask right now

that you administered us. God, would you increase hope for

the one who's feeling hopeless. God, will you come for

the one who's feeling alone? God, for any one of

us who has a need, a financial need, of material need. God,

would you meet that need. God, we're calling on you

to do what you do best, to step in and

change the impossible. And so God, we come in these

next few moments to meet you and to receive. We

Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen,