Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

Think about a time you lost something of value to you.

Maybe it was something that you misplaced.

You put it down somewhere safe.

You know that much, but now you couldn’t seem to find the item.

We have all experienced situations like this and we know how frustrating they are.

We also know that if the item is of significant importance to us, we will not give up after a minor search; we will diligently tear the house apart trying to find what we have misplaced; quite possibly we will even lay awake at night trying to mentally retrace our steps so that we can figure out where the item might be.

Involvement:

This morning we are going to consider a missing item that every person universally searches for throughout their life.

Context:

Today we are going to take a break from our series through 1 Thessalonians.

I knew that several of our church family will be away for the weekend, so I decided we would turn elsewhere for our sermon today…coming back to 1 Thessalonians, Lord willing, next week when most of our church will be together again.

As you can see behind me, we are going to be looking at a passage in the 28th chapter of book of Job this morning.

Without going into too much detail, it is important to realize that the 28th chapter of Job contains a poem that has been positioned by the author as a pivotal element to the book.

The entire structure of book of Job is designed to place emphasis this chapter as its pivot chapter.

I think we are all fairly familiar with Job’s story but I will take just a couple of moments to dust its flow off a bit in our minds.

Job thought he understood life.

Job 1:1 tells us that Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.”

The first few verses of the book go on to tell us how extremely wealthy Job was.

He thought he had life figured out…if he did things according to the rules of God, God would bless him.

In fact, he thought his successful life was evidence of this truth.

But, as we know, in one fell swoop all of Job’s possessions were taken away through God-ordained calamities.

Job’s entire understanding of creation’s order was completely blown away.

His understanding of wisdom was shaken to its roots.In the midst of his sufferings, we know that Job’s three friends come to comfort him but Job eventually ends up arguing with them about why he was suffering.

When we get to chapter 28, Job has just completed the debates with these friends during which they had tried to convince him that his previous understanding of wisdom was correct; in other words, God always, even mechanically, rewards good behavior and punishes bad.

They claimed that it was Job’s interpretation of his situation that was flawed; Job thought he was a righteous man, but they argues that he really was a sinner as proven by the events that had transpired.

Job is convinced that they are not correct so he needs to come up with a different interpretation for events.

Job 28 is positions right before the literary climax of the book brings us face to face with a man who is searching for something; how to make sense of his life.

Preview:

The author of Job has worked hard to focus our attention on this chapter, so as approach it with we should have high expectations.

Job’s search is presented for us through a series of questions in the first verse of our passage.

Look with me at verse 20...<read>.

What Job was searching for in this verse is wisdom.

What is wisdom?

Wisdom, in its simplest form, it can be defined as the search for creation’s order so as to master life.

We all want to master the complexities of life and we attempt to do this using what we call wisdom.

It is the application of our understanding of how creation is ordered or operates in our lives that we are referring to when we say we are using wisdom.

Wisdom is the search for creation’s order so as to master life.

Illustration

When I worked in the corporate world I had a co-worker who had a lot of scientific training and engaged in archeology as a hobby.

In fact, he had, and I assume that this is still the case, the largest private collection of Indian artifacts in the state.

All his archeological work though has not answered his fundamental question—what is life all about.

He and I discussed this question several times.

In the middle of one of the times when we were again discussing God and the Bible…while I was giving the Bible’s view of creation (with the Gospel sprinkled in) and he was defending evolution…in the course of that conversation he made a statement that perfectly sums up the frustration of man’s search for wisdom.

He said, “As a scientist I can envision how the mechanism of evolution could work, but I cannot then explain why life has any purpose.

If we simply evolved how can there be any purpose and how can there be right and wrong?”

Job is searching for something and as my friend demonstrates, it is something for which each of us searches as well.

Where does wisdom come from?

Where is the place of understanding?

These are synonymous terms.

These questions basically come down to a fundamental question: “How can we discover wisdom?”

This is a basic question of human existence and one we deal with daily.

Application

Why is this important to us?

Just like Job, we might possibly on the brink of having our understanding of wisdom turned upside down.

We regularly attend church where we hear biblical preaching.

We have hopefully structured our lives to apply the various things that we have learned.

We strive to please God with our activities.

We fully expect God to bless our efforts as we are faithful to biblical principles.

But, what if he doesn’t?

We may very well be falling into the same trap as Job was in…a trap that will spring the moment our world is suddenly turned upside down.

When that happens we must be ready to answer this question, “How can I understand life?”

Transition from introduction to body:

As we have seen, in verse 20 our basic question is phrased “how can I discover wisdom?”

In the next two verses, an answer resulting from a careful search is given.

The result of that search is that…

BODY:

I. We cannot discover wisdom (vv.

21–22)

The poem contained in chapter 28 has three sections.

The first section, verses 1–11 highlights how ingenious mankind is; man is able to discover all kinds of hidden things, like gems buried deep in the earth.

Yet, the second section shows that wisdom is not found through man’s ingenuity.

In fact, man cannot even acquire wisdom with any of the various riches he acquires.

That is why Job has asked the question of verse 20, leading to the conclusion of these two verses.

Transition:

Job will search for wisdom by looking at the things all around him; he will observe everything that he can observe and in the end determine that first of all,…

A. We cannot discover wisdom in this life (v.

21)

Look at verse 21…<read>.

Job declares that he has looked around and determined that he can not discover wisdom.

Furthermore, he declares that it is hidden from “all living creatures.”

He refers to the birds of the air which are known for their keen eyesight.

Even the birds of the air are not able to discover wisdom.

Job, as I said, marveled in the first 11 verses of the chapter over man’s inquisitive nature and his technical ability.

Man has an amazing ability to mine deep into the ground and bring hidden things to light which even the mighty birds of prey could not see.

Yet, he concludes that wisdom lies concealed from the eyes and minds of all mortals.

Application

Herein lays the crux of the danger for each of us.

When our life does not progress as expected, we may begin to doubt our understanding of what really constitutes wise decisions.

Maybe it is our business ventures or maybe our efforts to provide and lead our families.

Maybe it is even our attempt to set a spiritual direction with our lives.

When our efforts fail to achieve the ends that we want, we may very well begin the search for a more accurate understanding of wisdom.

This is not wrong in and of itself.

If things are not working out as expected in our undertakings, it is proper to question our understanding.

In the same way as Job, we should ask if we have a true perspective on wisdom.

But will we look at what gives the appearance of success in the life of our neighbor or in the church down the street?

This verse tells us that wisdom cannot be discovered through any of the things that man has done.

Transition:

Since Job is not able to discover wisdom among the living, he moves on in the next verse to consider the afterlife.

Here he finds that…

B. We will not discover wisdom beyond this life (v.