Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway!

Psalm 34:1-6

Pray

Intro

I remember a car ride home with my mom from church when I was about 12 and I was a real know-it-all.

Our church just got a new youth pastor, and my mom was asking me about the service.

“How’d it go?

What’d you think of the new guy?”

“He seems nice, but I didn’t really like his message.”

“Oh yeah?

Why’s that?”

“Well, everything he said…I mean…I just know it all already.”

“You do?

You know everything?”

“I mean I don’t know everything but yeah…I sorta do.”

Maybe you were like me as a kid, and just because you’re in school, and maybe you were a church kid, you think you’ve got the world figured out.

I had book smarts.

Go to school, get good grades, it’s not that complicated.

Jesus loves me, He’s God, super simple what’s so complicated about that, I read my Bible and pray, I and my life works out just fine.

But then…you run into what we can call “The School of Life.”

You start to learn that things are not so simple, and how little we really know.

For me it was in 2017 when I got a phone call that my best friend from college died of an enlarged heart the day before his daughter was born.

All of the sudden, everything I thought I knew - the simple formula of do good things and good things happen to you - began to unravel.

Maybe you had a similar experience of catastrophic loss, or maybe yours was getting into your job or career and feeling like, “Is this it?

I’m just a cog in the machine.

Is there any point to this? Do I have a purpose anymore?”

Or maybe you’re like me and you still feel like a kid in an adult’s body and you go, “Man, adulting is hard!

Living the good life was easy as a kid.

Dinner just showed up on the table.

Now I have to meal plan, shop for my own groceries…I just wrote my own will for crying out loud can I please go back to playing football in the street with my friends?”

Where do we find wisdom to guide us through life in a complex, complicated, broken world?

As Christians we follow Jesus, and Jesus viewed his whole life through the lens of Scripture.

And that’s why we’ve been calling 2022 the Year of Biblical Exploration, walking through the story of the Bible at a 30,000 foot level to see how the Bible is...

The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.

And starting this Sunday and thru the next 4 weeks, we’re starting a series called “The School of Life” where we’ll be looking at the wisdom books of the Bible - Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and seeing how these books help guide us towards wisdom in a complex world.

How do I go through suffering - especially when life is horribly unfair?

How do I live the good life?

How do I find meaning and purpose in my daily life?

The Bible is not an answer book, but it does help guide us along the path of life with Jesus.

So this morning we’re starting with Job…all of it.

All 42 chapters.

If you’ve read your Bible much, or were close the Bible at all, when you think of Job, what do you think of?

Suffering.

And what question specifically…why do bad things happen to good people?

We all wonder.

I don’t think that’s what the book is about.

Job is about suffering…but now the why of suffering.

I think there are two things (at least) that Job is about and I want to talk about those things morning.

Before we do that, let’s pray.

Pray

My friends and yours at the Bible Project put an amazing set of videos together about the wisdom books of the Bible, and we’re going to watch one now on the book of Job.

We’re doing ours in a slightly different order than they will, but I trust you can follow along.

Watch Video (6:14)

End of sermon.

Let’s go home.

Super grateful for the Bible Project, they have another Job video that’s very helpful, and Tim Mackie recently gave a message in Portland on Job that I found insightful and helpful for this sermon.

Helpful?

These wisdom books are a part of your Old Testament.

The Bible Project went through them in the order of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and then Job, we’re going to look at them in the order they appear in your Bible which is Job first then Proverbs and finally Ecclesiastes.

And then on May 15 Fletcher is going to preach on how these each contribute to the problem of evil: why do bad things happen to good people in a world created by a good God?

Fletcher is going to single handedly solve the problem of evil, I can’t wait.

Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes each give us a unique perspective on wisdom and fear of the LORD.

I think Job’s angle is something like this:

How do you live wisely and trust God (fear of the LORD) when life isn’t fair?

What does wisdom look like when your loved ones die for no apparent reason?

How might Job help a devout Christian Afghan refugee, running for their lives from their home when they are completely innocent?

I remember driving in the Fred Meyer parking lot after a particularly difficult season of life, and saying to God, “God, what’s the point?

if this is what I get for following you, what’s the point?”

St Teresa of Avila is said to have prayed to God, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!”

CS Lewis felt this pain.

In his book, A Grief Observed, which is his journal after the death of his wife whom he lost to cancer, he says,

“Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God.

The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him.

The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So this is what God's really like.

Deceive yourself no longer.”

- CS Lewis, A Grief Observed

Have you been there?

We want to know WHY, but Job actually doesn’t give us that answer.

As the video explained, the WHY is too complex for our human minds to comprehend, BUT, Job helps us to see HOW to suffer.

How

What do I mean by that?

Let’s briefly look again at the whole arc of the book of Job.

It’s essentially a three-part book.

Intro - Job 1-2.

We’re introduced to Job.

He’s a man from the land of Uz - which is far east of Israel - it basically means Timbuktu.

Job from Timbuktu.

Job is an awesome guy.

We read he’s blameless and upright, fears God and turns away from evil.

He obeys God, and is healthy, wealthy, and wise.

We walk away from the first verses going, “Whoa, Job is impressive!”

Then we’re introduced to this divine court room scene.

These divine beings come before God and one of whom is called ‘The Satan’ which is a title that means ‘The Opposer’ or ‘The Adversary.’

And God says, “What do you think of Job? He’s pretty awesome.”

And the Satan says, “He’s only awesome because you bless him.

He’s trying to rig the system…he doesn’t really love you!

If you pulled your blessings from him, he would curse you to your face!”

And God says, “I don’t need to have this conversation with you, be gone Satan!” No…he says

God gives permission for Job’s life to unravel.

His children die in a series of horrendous events.