JOB 1-3 PREPARE TO HANDLE HARDSHIP LIKE JOB2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Job 1-3 Prepare To Handle Hardship Like Job

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. The book of Job is, well, it's a great book, but it's probably not one that you think of in those terms. You know, we might think of the days of the disciples, right? And think, man, it would be just amazing to be there with...

The disciples learning from Jesus or afterwards and the miracles that were wrought and oh, it'd be so awesome to be part of that, to be there for that. And you might think of the account of King David, you know, in his time and fighting Goliath perhaps. You might think, oh, the Valley of Elah, you know, it'd be great to be there. And when you go visit

Israel, you know, you go visit that valley and you kind of just picture, you know, where David was, where Goliath was and how that battle went down and, oh, it would be so cool to be there and so many different accounts in the scriptures that, you know, it would be so exciting to see in person and we wish we could, you know, kind of live it with the people that we're reading about as we work through their accounts and lives and yet

yet Job is not one of those, right? You don't read the book of Job and go, oh, I wish I could be there, you know, see Job sitting on the pile of hashes and in pain and agony, and that's not one that we typically think of in that way. But you know, over the years, as I've read through the book of Job and typically reading through the Bible in a year, I get it at least once a year, and I

I've grown over the process of time and reading through this book over and over again, I've really grown to really appreciate the book of Job and the value of what the things that are taught in this book and what we learn from Job and through the interactions that take place. There's amazing and valuable lessons that are important for us to consider.

There's questions that are asked in this book that we all wrestle with and sometimes we don't want to think about, but that exist and there's things that happen within us. There's the problem of suffering in the world. There's hard questions that are dealt with. There's the issue of bad doctrine that's dealt with in this book. And there's some correction that needs to be made and a lot of nonsense as you get all of the interaction between Job and his friends and

It kind of helps us to develop a little bit of a nonsense filter because the things that Job's friends speak are not inspired of God and not helpful at all and just a whole lot of nonsense, although they might sound good. And I always cringe a little bit when people quote from the book of Job because usually they're quoting from Job's friends and it's not something that God endorsed. You know, he recorded it.

but it's a lot of nonsense. And so there's things to work through that are nonsense and bad doctrine, hard questions, incredible truth, great encouragement. There's truths about friendship, truths about our emotions and the things that we experience. There's incredible value here in the book of Job. Now, typically, I think we look at the book of Job and

We kind of read through it silently hoping to ourselves, okay, I'm reading this, Lord, but I'm not inviting you to do this in my life. I'm not asking for this. We read through the book of Job and want to figure out how to keep that from happening in our lives. But I think as we work our way through the book of Job, we need to take a different perspective.

and learn instead how to survive the trials of life as well as Job did. And so I've titled the message this morning, Prepare to Handle Hardship Like Job.

And I want to encourage you this morning to look at Job and to consider him as an example, as a model to follow that you would prepare yourself because, well, as Job goes through this process, as he goes through these trials, you need to understand that he didn't start at that time, like at the moment of the trial. Then he began to have integrity and character and worship God and love God. It didn't

it didn't begin in the midst of the trial, but Job had prepared himself and he'd spent his life seeking after the things of God so that he was prepared when these trials came, he was able to endure in, in really an admirable way. And so Job provides for us a great example, even, uh,

James, the author of the epistle in the New Testament, tells us this in James chapter 5. He says, James tells us, look at Job and consider him an example.

An example of suffering and patience. Now again, we don't get excited about the suffering part, but at the same time, we face life and life is filled with hardship. Life is filled with heartache and difficulties and heartbreak and physical pain and emotional turmoil. Life is filled with all of these things that we all face. And so, well, it's important for us to learn how to approach those things

in a way that is honoring to the Lord and that God would say, well done, you know, regarding our approach to the things that we face. And so James says, consider the perseverance of Job. You've seen that, you've heard that. Let that be an example for you of patience and suffering, but also recognizing that the end result is the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. And there's great things that God does through the midst of,

of suffering through the midst of trials and affliction. And so we need to learn to look to Job, to prepare, to handle hardships like Job. And so we're going to look at the first three chapters of Job this morning, not covering all the verses or anything, but just hitting some of the highlights of some of the things that Job says that we might learn from his example.

The first point we'll see here in chapter one is that we are to worship God no matter what. Here's what we learned from Job, first of all, in Job chapter one. We learn to worship God no matter what is happening in our lives, no matter what we are going through. Jumping again into verse 20, it says, then Job arose, tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshiped.

And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Here is Job experiences this great calamity. It's a multiple calamities really as one after the other. The messengers come and there's been great devastation Job and I'm the only one who has survived and been able to escape and tell you the news. Over and over all of his livestock, all of his material goods and then finally his own children have died as a result of these calamities that have taken place.

And as Job gets that news, one on top of another, his response here is to tear his robe, shave his head, and fall to the ground and worship. To tear his robe and shave his head, these are

things that they would do in their culture to express great sorrow and mourning. They would rip their clothes. They would express themselves in this way. And so here Job is not, you know, in a state of delusion and just kind of like pretending, you know, oh, there's no problems in my life. Praise the Lord, brother. You know, he's not just pretending like everything's okay. At the same time,

It tells us that he worships God in the midst of this. He's mourning, he's hurt, he's devastated, but he falls to the ground and worships. Which worship song do you think that Job sang? Joy to the world. Is it that one? What worship song did Job sing? I'm trying to think of it. I can't think of any. You know, my mind's just blank. I'm not a worship leader.

What worship song did Job sing, do you think? Well, of course, when we think of the word worship, we connect it to the idea of a song. And many times there's this automatic association in our minds with worship and singing. But when it says that he fell to the ground and worshiped, that's not what it's describing at all. Job did not sing at this moment.

It wasn't a song that was his expression of worship, but this word worship literally means to bow down. It means to bow down, to prostrate oneself. That is to, you know, to go face down on the ground. He bows down and it was something that you would do in humility before someone of importance.

It was a statement of reverence. It was a statement of honor, a declaration of honor to someone. And here Job is worshiping the Lord. He bows down before God. And so here in the midst of this calamity, he's hurt, he's heartbroken, he's devastated, but he puts himself in a posture of worship and he bows down before the Lord and reveres and honors the Lord in this way.

He performs this act of respect before the Lord. And he reflects that also in the words that he says in verse 21. Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. I came into this world with nothing, he says. As a baby, I came in. I was just there naked. I didn't have, you know, a suitcase or luggage or a wagon that I pulled behind me that, you know, had all my belongings and everything that I wanted to keep with me. No, I just came with nothing.

And that's how I'm going to go out. When I go out of this life, none of these material things, none of these things that I have here, none of these things will go with me. And so just in the same way that I came in, that's the way I'm going to leave this world. In between those two events, he says, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And here Job keeps himself in a place of honoring God, revering the name of God, uplifting the name of God in the midst of this. It's not what Satan expected. As you read the account there in chapter 1 and you see the interaction and the accusation that Satan brings against Job, Satan declared that Job would curse God to his face.

If God took away all the blessings that he had received and that he had enjoyed in this life. But Job did not respond with cursing as Satan predicted. Pastor John Wesley puts it this way, instead of cursing God, which Satan said he would do, he adored him and gave him the glory of his sovereignty, of his justice, and of his goodness also in this most severe dispensation.

He's receiving severe dispensation. The outpouring of what he's experiencing, the things that he's going through right now is severe. And yet in the midst of this severity, he is adoring God and giving him glory as one who is sovereign, one who is good. And so it tells us in verse 22, and all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. Job sinned.

performs admirably here. He sets for us an example and he worships God. Now, again, the idea here of preparing to handle hardship like Job, Job had lived his life putting himself in a posture of worship. This wasn't the first time that he bows down before the Lord.

This wasn't the first experience that he's had with worship and honoring the Lord. But Job had been worshiping the Lord in this way. His heart was already in this condition so that when this affliction comes, the condition of his heart is revealed.

You know, a lot of times when trials or difficulties hit our lives and we don't perform, we don't behave so admirably, right? We like to blame the trial, the difficulty, the person who irritated us or aggravated us. We like to blame the events or circumstances or people around us for what's happening within and the way that we respond and the way that we acted in the midst of the situation, right?

I wouldn't normally behave that way. I wouldn't normally talk like that. I wouldn't normally, and we like to think that it's, you know, those circumstances which put that thing in our heart, which put those words in our mouth. We like to think that it was those things. But in reality, here's what actually happens. What actually happens is that trial, that affliction, tears away the facade that we have and reveals the real condition of our heart. And as the

condition of Job's heart is revealed, what we see is that he was a man who worshipped God no matter what. He had put himself in a place of admiring, honoring, revering, respecting God. And it's not that this trial, you know, did something in him that wasn't already there, but it revealed the reality of what was happening within. I would encourage you to consider the example of Job and put yourself in a position of worship.

That whether or not the things that are happening in your life, you know, are the things that you always dreamed of and hoped for and wanted and desired, or whether it's some disappointment and hardship and discouragement that you're facing, either way, God hasn't changed and he is still worthy of our reverence and honor and for us to bow down before him. Worship God no matter what. Job shows us how to do that here in Job chapter one this morning.

But we want to continue to consider his example. Moving forward now into chapter two, and here we get point number two, and that is accept whatever God allows. To learn from the example of Job, to follow the pattern that has been established for us and learn the suffering and patience and the things that he modeled for us, we now need to come to this point where we accept whatever God allows in our lives.

And even just saying those words, it's kind of difficult, right? It's like, I don't know if I'm, I don't even want to read that out loud. I don't even want to think that. I don't want to hold on to that and accept that as something that is for us, for me. To accept whatever God allows, that's a difficult thing for us to swallow. And yet it's something that is needed and something that Job does. And so let's jump into Job chapter 2 and I'm going to read verses 6 through 10. Here's what it says.

And the Lord said to Satan, behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Then his wife said to him, do you still hold on or hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.

Here in Job chapter 2, we get the second encounter. We see here Satan come in before the Lord again and say, well, if you allow me to touch his body, he will curse you to your face.

He didn't curse you the previous time, but that's because, God, you set a limit. You wouldn't let me touch his health. You only let me take his stuff and take his kids. But if you let me touch his body, Satan says, he will curse you to your face. And so God gives him permission. Okay, you can take his body. You can touch his body. But verse 6, but spare his life. And so notice that God sets the boundaries. God sets the parameters. Okay?

for this affliction that Job is about to experience. And it tells us in verse 7 that Satan goes out from there and he strikes Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Now, just kind of stop and think through this for a moment. God has set boundaries. You can go this far. You can touch his health, but you can't take his life. You can hurt him. You can harm him. You can

Inflict him with pain, but you can't take his life. And then Satan's response to that is he inflicts Job with painful boils. And there's been a lot of speculation about what exactly Job experienced in this time. But I would just encourage you to kind of think of it this way. Satan has license from the Lord here to inflict Job with pain up to sparing his life.

Anything in that realm is free reign. Go ahead. You get to do what you want up to his life must be spared. And so whatever this was that was brought upon Job was probably, I would suggest like whatever imagination you have about Job's boils. Maybe you don't even want to imagine Job's boils and that's valid too, but times it by 10 or 100.

Like this was the worst thing that Satan could think of. The most painful experience that Satan could imagine. The worst thing that he, you know, because his intention is to get Job to curse God, to turn from God, to fight against God, to rebel against God. And so here's his opportunity and he unleashes all that he has against Job at this time. It was incredibly painful.

When it says painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, that's an understatement, right? What Job is going through at this time is excruciating and horrifying and probably worse than we can imagine. And again, we look at Job and we see how he responds to this. He models for us an example.

I thought F.B. Meyer had some interesting comments on this. He says, the story is very comforting. And you say, wait, which part? I didn't see that comforting part yet, right? He says, the story is very comforting because we see that we are not the sport of chance, but in every detail, our education is being carried out by our Father's hand. Our dearest friends may advise us to renounce God and die, but in Gethsemane, our Lord taught us to take the Father's will at all costs.

Here, F.B. Meyer says, look, there is some comfort in this because we can see, yes, Job is in crazy pain, but the Father set the boundaries. And everything that's happening is happening within the realm of authority of God. And he will not allow what is not appropriate for Job and for the situation at hand.

That God is holding the reins. He is in control and he is setting the limits for the things that will take place. Now, when we go through crazy trials and afflictions, it is hard for us to understand them. When we're reading through the book of Job, it's one thing for us to read through it, right? But

We have the benefit of seeing what's happening behind the scenes, right? We get to read more than just the verses we're looking at. We get to see, you know, the interaction between God and Satan and the things that take place in chapter one and chapter two. But then we also get to see the things that happen. And then we also get to see the end of the account.

At the very end of the book of Job in chapters 42, we see the end result and we get the benefit of all of this extra insight. But here's Job in the middle of it. He's just experiencing it. He doesn't know about all this background stuff. He doesn't know about what is going on. And that's the way that it is for us. And in the midst of those times, even though we don't know the whole story, we can acknowledge and hold on to this truth, this comforting truth that

Whatever is happening in our lives, it's, well, it's in the realm of God's authority. And God allows it. And we may not agree with it. We may not like it. We may not, it may not feel good. We may not understand the reasons why. But the one who loves you so much that he gave his only begotten son to die upon the cross for your sin and my sin. The one who loves you that much is the one who is ultimately in charge and in control.

And sets the boundaries and the limits and the parameters for the things that you face. In every detail, our education is being carried out by our Father's hands. And Jesus sets the example for us in this as well. In Gethsemane, right before the cross, as he was in turmoil, exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death, he said, describing it to his disciples. He goes off and he prays before the Lord and saying, if there's any other way, Lord, your will be done.

If there's any other way, let's do that. But not my will, but your will be done. And Jesus accepted the Father's will. He accepted what God the Father allowed in his life. And Job accepted in the same way. In verse 8, it tells us, he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. And so in the midst of his pain, and these boils are broken out, and so he grabs a broken piece of pottery. And he's using that to

scratch the itches probably to deal with those open wounds to try to keep away the infection perhaps. He's sitting in a pile of ashes in great agony and pain when his wife tells him in verse 9, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. Now, throughout the years, Job's wife kind of gets a bad rap, I think. It's a good joke. It's an easy joke to make, right? Job's wife, why don't you just curse God and die, right? And it's like, yeah, that's how most spouses are, right? No, it's not. It's not.

I think we need to kind of factor in that Job's wife experienced these things along with Job. Just like Job, she had lost everything. She had lost her children. She's in great turmoil. I think there's room for us to show her a lot of grace. And here she is, having suffered so much loss, and she doesn't have the physical pain that Job is experiencing, but she's watching one that she loves experience that and

She's just wishing, couldn't it just be all over? Why don't you just curse God and die? Now there is the question, you know, do you still hold fast to your integrity? So maybe she is, you know, challenging him to just rebel against God. You can wrestle with that in your mind and yell at her later on in heaven if you want to. But here's Job receiving the exhortation from his wife. Why don't you just turn from God? Why don't you just give up on God? Why do you hold fast to your honor of God?

And he said to her in verse 10, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? We all accept good, right? God's handing out candy bars, sign me up. God's handing out afflictions and trials. There's George, you know. I'm not the first to sign up for that. We want to receive the good from God. We want to receive blessings from God. We want to accept that.

But we want to pick and choose and we want to be the filter and decide, okay, God, I will receive these things from you, but I don't want to receive those things. I will let you tell me, you know, these things, but I won't let you tell me those things. And we like to be the ones who decide, you know, this is what God can do in my life. This is the boundaries that God has in my life. And Job did not have those kinds of boundaries.

He trusted the Lord. His faith in God was such that he accepted from God. God, you love me. You are the filter. You set the boundaries and that's good enough for me. I will accept. If you bring blessing into my life, I will receive it. And Job had enjoyed many years of blessing and great prosperity and God had done good things in his life. And now as this time of affliction has hit in a severe way,

He tells his wife, we will accept this. I will accept this in the same way that I accepted the blessing. This models for us a real faith and trust and confidence in God and his love towards us. And again, what's amazing about Job is that he responds this way, even though he doesn't have the benefit of knowing the behind the scenes story like we do. He really does trust God.

He really is committing himself and his life into God's hands. On Wednesday nights, we are considering and studying the doctrine of grace as we work our way through the book of Galatians. And grace is amazing. We even have a song about it, right? Amazing grace, right? Grace is amazing. God's goodness towards us and the forgiveness that he offers. And sometimes we get confused about grace. One little aspect of that is that

The whole idea of grace is that God is working towards us what is best for us eternally. That God is working in our lives. It's not just in the good times that God is exercising grace towards us, but also in our times of difficulty and affliction. The grace of God is that he is always working for us what is best in eternity. And that includes blessing, but it also includes discipline.

And both are God's grace towards us. Both are God's goodness and mercy being poured out upon us. In times of great joy and in times of difficult sorrow, God is still working towards us in grace. Still working towards us as a result of his love for us. Job was better off for all eternity because of what God allowed here. Think about that.

Job's eternity was better because of what God allowed in the midst of this time in his life. And you say, well, I'd rather a better life now. It's not worth it, right? But it is worth it. And that's where it brings us back to our faith and our trust in God. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 4.

He says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Now Paul here makes reference to a light affliction, which is but for a moment. But if you look at the verses leading up to this, he's talking about affliction that is

Well, they were crushed and perplexed and despaired even of life. He's able to call it a light affliction, not because it was an easy trial. He just barely stubbed his toe. So, you know, no problem. No, no, it was a severe thing that he was experiencing, but he's able to call it a light affliction because he looks ahead to eternity and he says, it's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We can accept what God allows in our lives.

Because we can trust and we can know that even when it's affliction that is brought into our lives and difficulty and things that we have a hard time understanding or accepting that God's work is bigger than we know and it's working out something far better for us in eternity. And we are very tempted to just look at the temporary and we, well, I just want to, you know, see what I can see and understand what I can understand and limit myself to that. But

But to walk with God and to trust in God takes us beyond the realm of what we can see. And it takes us into the realm of trusting God. God, you love me. You know what's best for me. You want what's best for me for all eternity. And so I will accept. I won't fight against you when you allow these things in my life. I won't run away from you when you allow these things in my life. But Lord, even if you allow these difficulties and hardships and tragedies,

I will trust in you. I will honor you. I will follow you. That was the position of Job's heart. And it tells us at the end there that he did not sin with his lips in all of this. He is setting for us an example. Again, we look at Job and want to figure out how to keep that from happening to us. When we should be looking at Job and learning how to survive as well as he did.

To learn to worship God, no matter what. To honor Him above all, no matter what is going on, and accept whatever God allows. To receive from God both the good things and the difficult things that we don't understand is, well, it's an important part of our relationship with God. If we only accept from God what we can accept, what we can agree with, what we, you know, would prefer, we're trying to be our own filter. We're trying to call the shots. We're trying to say that we know better than God.

And the whole idea of the fact that there is a God is like, look, if you can understand God, then he's not worthy of your worship. But the whole point here is we have a God that is far above what we can understand and know, and yet has revealed himself, has declared himself, has promised to love us and do what's best for us. And he calls us by faith to trust him, to worship him, to accept his work in our lives.

knowing that he loves us. And it was proven once and for all, demonstrated at the cross. Well, moving now into chapter three of Job, we get the third point this morning, and that is be real about what you feel. Be real about what you feel. Now here in Job chapter three, we're kind of moving into the next segment of the book of Job, where we have Job's

what he's going through and then his friends interacting with him. And we'll get into that a little bit more next week and talk about the friends of Job. But here in Job chapter 3, we see his first outcry. And maybe you could describe it as an emotional outburst. You know, he in chapter 3 describes a little bit of what's happening in his head and in his heart as he's going through all of these things.

There's some important things for us to consider in this. So looking at Job chapter 3, let me read for you verses 1 through 10. It says this, After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, A male child is conceived. May that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it.

Verse 6. I'm sorry.

Here is Job begins to speak. What comes out is something that we might find a bit shocking.

Especially considering chapters 1 and 2 and all the favorable things that, you know, we had to say about Job and he did not sin with his lips. And then in chapter 3, all of a sudden, he curses the day of his birth. Essentially, he says, I wish I had never been born. Why did I ever have to be born? Why did my mom ever have to give birth? Man, if only that day had ended differently.

It would have been better if I had been stillborn. It would have been better if, you know, why do I have to be alive? Why did that day have to exist? And the book of Job is a poetic book. And so he says, you know, the same thing. He goes into kind of elaborate detail to say that in a variety of ways. And it's effective at bringing forth the reality of what's happening within Job's heart and mind. Look, if I was going to suffer this much today,

Why should I have even been born? Why should I even exist to go through these kinds of experiences? It would have been better off if that day wasn't on the calendar. If that day didn't exist, if that day had never happened, if the events had turned out differently, he curses the day of his birth. In thinking about this, Pastor J. Vernon McGee says this, one would almost get the impression that Job has lost his faith. He actually has not.

I would advise caution in being critical of Job as you work your way through the book of Job. There's a lot of things that he says that challenge us, that maybe we could disagree with or we could kind of argue about.

And yet at the very end of the book of Job, God has something to say to Job's friends. In Job chapter 42 verse 7, he tells the friends of Job, listen, you guys, you need to ask Job for prayer because you have misrepresented me, God says. And God has some harsh and severe things to say about Job's friends. But he says, not like Job. You've not been like Job. You haven't spoken righteousness about me like Job has, right?

And what we find, and what I find interesting here in the book of Job is that, yeah, Job spoke a lot of things about that he didn't understand. He spoke about a lot of things he didn't understand. He wrestled with things. And yet, God is not rebuking Job for all of these different things that he says. And I think that's an important lesson that we learn here from the book of Job. And then as we work our way into the Psalms,

There's a lot of things that go on in our hearts and minds that we wrestle with. And what God desires from us is a real honesty about the condition and state of our mind and heart. God was not offended by Job and his words.

And sometimes we kind of get the idea that, you know, God is easily offended, that he's like, you know, kind of like some stuffy old woman that, you know, you just kind of like, oh, you can't talk about that around God because, you know, he'll just get upset or be so shocked, you know, like, I can't believe that would be in your mind. No, listen, God's not easily offended. He knows. You might gasp and tell someone not to say that, but God says, bring it to me. He's able to handle that.

The things that are happening within our hearts. God wants your honest communication with him. He wants us to be real about how we feel and the things that are going on within. What we tend to do often is we kind of put on a facade. We kind of wrestle with, well, I don't know that I should feel this way. You know, if you were in the position where you're cursing the day of your birth, you'd be wrestling with that in your mind and in your heart. You'd be like, I don't think I should be thinking these things. I don't know if I should be feeling these things. And so let me pretend like I'm not.

And so we put on a facade, we fake that we're not feeling that way instead of being real and addressing what is actually happening within. Now, I'm not suggesting that we go to Walmart and when the greeter says, hey, how's your day today? And then we pour out Job chapter three on him, right? I'm not suggesting that. That doesn't mean we tell everybody everything that's happening in our heart, but well, at least with God, we should be able to express there needs to be those people in our lives that

We can express what's happening, what's going on. That we could be real about what we feel and what's happening within. As Job here wrestles with these things, he goes on in the rest of chapter 3 to ask a series of questions. He is really struggling to understand. In verse 11, he says, Why did I not die at birth?

Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Verse 20, why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of soul? Why is light given to a man, verse 23, whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? Why am I still alive? Why does God keep me around? I mean, he could just take me home. Why let me suffer like this? Why was I born? Why am I still alive? Job is wrestling and asking all of these questions.

Asking questions is not the same thing as questioning God. The idea of questioning God is the idea of like challenging God and God, I know what's better, you know, you don't know what's better. That's the wrong kind of heart and attitude. But God's okay with your questions. You have questions. There's things you don't understand. You wrestle with why. Why is this? Why would God allow this? The truth that we don't really like that much is that we may not get to know why this side of eternity. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask the question.

It doesn't mean that we shouldn't go to God with those questions and those things that we're struggling with within. Again, Jesus provides a good example for this. In Mark 15, verse 34, as he's hanging upon the cross, it tells us at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's a quotation from Psalm 22, but it's also a question and it's from Jesus. He knows what's going on.

At the same time, he's expressing what he's experiencing emotionally. He's expressing what's going on within. He experienced humanity. He experienced those kinds of things that we experience in our minds and hearts. Without sin, but...

You can experience these kinds of emotions without sin. Even the scriptures say, right, be anger, but in your anger, do not sin. Be angry and do not sin, right? That's an emotion. You're experiencing it and it's a valid experience. And it's not that you should then pretend, okay, I'm going to pretend like I'm not angry. No, no, no. That's not healthy. That's not good. You need to be real about what you feel and bring that to the Lord so that he can help you work through it.

But pretending because you know, well, like, I'm not supposed to feel this way. I'm a Christian. You know, I've been a Christian for 20 years. I'm not supposed to feel this way. You know, that's not going to help you and grow you. Instead, we need to lose the facade and be real about what's going on in our minds and in our hearts, especially with the Lord, but also with those around us. God can handle your emotions. And throughout the book of Job, we see a range of emotions, cries of grief, complaints, questions,

ignorance and professions of ignorance. And we see Job go through all of these things and that's okay. You're going to go through those things. We are all going to experience these things. Again, in the book of Psalms, as we get there, the psalmist at different times is going through a variety of things and all of the range of emotions that we experience are expressed in the Psalms as well. It's part of who we are. It's part of our experience as men and women and

We don't allow emotions to rule our lives and make all of our decisions for us. But at the same time, we don't just pretend like we don't have them because we think we're not supposed to feel this way. No, we need to be real and experience those things and bring them before the Lord and allow him to help us through the experience. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way. We sense the great emotion in Job's speech.

He was not stoic or concerned with keeping what is known as a stiff upper lip in the midst of his calamity. Such an emotionless Christian life is never presented to us as a biblical ideal. And sometimes we have that mindset. Sometimes that mindset is, you know, pressed upon us. Like you should be able to, you shouldn't be feeling that way. You shouldn't be thinking that way. You shouldn't be talking that way. You shouldn't be, you know, and sometimes that is pressed upon us internally or externally, right?

But that's not presented as an ideal biblically. Instead, we see, well, the example of Job. We see the example of the psalmist. We see the example of Jesus. Jesus was tired. Jesus was sad. Jesus was angry. Jesus was happy. There's those emotions. There's things that we work through. And it's part of God's work in our lives and our walk with him. Again, that doesn't mean that we let emotions rule our lives and we do everything based on how we feel. But that's a big difference between...

pretending like we don't have the emotions and the feelings that we have. No, God wants you to be real about what you feel and to come to him with those things. Yes, there's questions. Yes, there's struggles. Yes, there's uncertainties. Yes, there's hardship and hurt and heartache and turmoil. Yes, all of that. We all experience that and we all will experience that. That is part of life.

It's part of living in a fallen world where sin has brought devastation. We're going to experience hardship. And the best thing for us to do is to prepare for that. To prepare for that right now. Now maybe you're in hardship right now. It's still not too late. We can follow the example of Job. We can look at these things and learn from his example to worship God no matter what. To bow down before him and submit ourselves to him.

to lift him up in honor, not to fight against him, not to speak against him, not to run away from him, but to bow ourselves down before him and say, Lord, I accept what you allow. I trust you enough. I know I'm not gonna understand it. I know that it's gonna be difficult. I know that I'm gonna be challenged by it, but Lord, I trust you enough to receive from you whatever is best for me. And if what's best for me is a Ferrari, yes and amen. Amen.

And if what's best for me is frustration, I'll receive it. I'll accept it. Whatever you want. It's a trust and confidence in God that we need to have. And as he allows those things, well, we're going to have some feelings about it. There's going to be some processing that has to happen within. It doesn't do us any good to pretend like there's not that difficulty within. No, what's best is for us to be real and to come before God with confidence.

those feelings, those struggles, those perplexities, present them to him. It doesn't necessarily mean that we get an immediate answer. We don't necessarily have those things resolved. It takes Job some time to work through these things before God answers at the end. And then God doesn't even answer a lot of the questions. He asks Job more questions. But he meets Job and ministers to him.

And expressing these things to the Lord is a healthy part of his relationship with God and receiving and experiencing what God has for him. And so this morning, I would encourage you to let Job teach you how to prepare for hardship, how to handle hardship, to worship God, accept what he allows, and to be real about what you feel. I want to invite the worship team to close us in the I will trust in you.

and just kind of help us to solidify that in our hearts. And as they come up and get prepared, I'll finish off again with this quotation from James chapter five. James says, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed to endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, but the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

And Lord, as we consider the example of Job, we pray that you would help us to follow that example, to receive, Lord, this model that you've set before us, that we would learn to worship you, to accept your will with confidence, trusting in your love, trusting in your goodness and grace. And Lord, even though we know that you're at work and we know that you want what's best for us,

What we know and what we feel are sometimes two different things. And when there is that conflict, Lord, that turmoil within, I pray that you would help us to respond in a healthy way, an appropriate way, to bring those things to you. Not faking it, not pretending like these struggles aren't there, but Lord, being real with you about what we experience. Lord, that you might help us in that time of need and work through that

those feelings, those thoughts, those questions, Lord, that we might learn even more to trust you and worship you. And so I pray that you'd build us up in this, that we'd be able to follow this example and be men and women who trust in you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Let's stand together and sing this song.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.