The question of suffering is a timeless one. It shall continually be raised until Jesus comes. The book of Job while providing insight into our pain and potential causes, it also points to a greater answer given in Jesus. Job’s story sheds an increasing light on the death and suffering of Jesus. And we find that Christ is in Job. In ways that inspire us bear the troubles of life a bit longer but never alone.

<p>The question of suffering is a timeless one. It shall continually be raised until Jesus comes. The book of Job while providing insight into our pain and potential causes, it also points to a greater answer given in Jesus. Job’s story sheds an increasing light on the death and suffering of Jesus. And we find that Christ is in Job. In ways that inspire us bear the troubles of life a bit longer but never alone.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Great Lakes Adventist Academy

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

Sebastien Braxton

In the Midst of Chaos

The Heartless, the Spineless, and the Nameless

Reality Check

Why People Don’t Do Right

The Divine Process

Yes, Lord

The Questions of God

I Need A Miracle

Christ in Job

The Good Soldier

Father in heaven, we just want to thank you for Christian fellowship and community.

We want to thank you for the opportunity to give.

And we also give you thanks, Lord, for what you have given, and being the first to be a heart that is liberal in your most precious gifts.

We pray, Father, that You would speak to our hearts this morning, that You would guide us through the passages of Scripture and help us to arrive at truth, to arrive at the feet of Jesus and to love Him more is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

Just go to the book of Psalms and then go back 1 book.

When I was in college, right as I was coming into my conversion to Christianity, I used to be a CNN addict.

I was obsessed with CNN, and I would watch the news for at least an hour or 2 hours every day before I went to school.

And forgive me for this illustration, but we're all adults, and we promised that we will keep it real, so I'm gonna do just that.

But as I was watching CNN, they were discussing the rapid expansion of the AIDS epidemic throughout the continent of Africa and that they were highlighting 1 particular instance in which a group of men in an African village decided to rape a virgin girl who was very, very, very young because they were told that if you sleep with a virgin, you will lose your AIDS.

And as I watch this story, and I remember, you know, I don't cry about many things.

Short of Christ and short of the gospel and the forgiveness of God, there's very few things that can bring me to tears.

And that's just the result of growing up with a hard life.

You already seen a lot of things at a very young age.

So you just become callous, because you have to just learn to move on in life.

But this instance just got to my heart and Of course on the news they're highlighting this and people are talking, you know, look at these tragedies And of course someone comes on and says see what did this what did this young girl this baby girl?

Do to deserve this terrible act Why is it that bad things happen to good people?

And so, in looking at this question, I immediately find that amongst college students, amongst even high school students, and even amongst the most staunch atheists and people who refuse to give their lives to God, this is 1 of the underlying issues and questions.

And I'm not proposing to you that in the next 28, 29 minutes that I'm going to solve this eternal conundrum of many ages and centuries.

But I do believe that the Bible does shed light upon this.

And as many of you have known so far that when we've talked about questions that you have had 1 of the critical things to do is that each question comes with a bag of assumptions And so you want to challenge the questioner in their question?

So for example when someone says why is it that bad things happen to good people?

It comes with a bag of assumptions and so I look at them and I say so you're assuming that bad things should only and always happen to bad people, right?

Because if bad things only and always happen to bad people you wouldn't be asking the question and in your question you're assuming good things should only and always happen to good people And the person kind of looks at you like yeah, I guess I kind of agree with that so now if bad things should only and always happen to bad people and good things should only and always Happen to good people.

How many sins can you commit and still be a good person?

Then they start getting a little uncomfortable because you just said you believe that bad things should only and always happen to bad people.

And a bad person is a person who does what?

And how many sins does it take for us to be bad?

How many that's all it took for Adam right we discussed that in our senior Bible class through 1 man 1 choice at 1 moment So in looking at the book of Job, I believe that if we don't understand this question and these concepts as the background to the book of Job, we miss what I believe God is trying to say to us through the book of Job on the issue of suffering and pain.

And I wish I could just do the whole week of prayer on this just because there's so much in here.

Genesis 1, Job chapter 1, the lessons are endless on the issue of suffering and pain and evil.

And so I wanna go through this very quickly this morning to at least make 1 of the points that I think the author of Job, which inspiration tells us is Moses, is trying to make on this issue of suffering.

So the first thing is, in Job chapter 1, verse 1, the Bible says, There was a man in the land of what?

So you have a man named afflicted from a place of wood.

Obviously Job is not a good Bible baby name, right?

I just wouldn't recommend it, but someone decided to name their son Job, which is afflicted.

And it says in verse 1, we're going to notice at least 5 to 6 attributes about Job.

So we're going to go through these very quickly.

So point number 1 in verse 1, it says, whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright, 1 who what?

So the first thing we learn about Job is his character is his what?

Character, please Please don't ever forget this In the eyes of heaven a man or a woman is just what they are in their character We assess people by height by skill by ability by knowledge But the first thing God is concerned about is your character Are you a person of integrity?

Too many times Atheists will come to me and they say Sebastian, you know, I'd love to believe in God and you guys use this designer argument Look you had a pizza If you a pizza showed up at your door, you wouldn't be like oh look it evolved into a pizza at my door and The atheist argues and says well Sebastian.

I wouldn't think that but here's the difference I can go to Louie's pizza, and I can go and see Louie make a pizza, but I can't go to God's universe factory and see where he produced the universe I Can't watch him at work according to you So therefore I would conclude right If a pizza ended up and there's no Louie's pizza, it didn't come from Louie and You say well Louie made this pizza, but you can't go to where Louie is and They said look if you show me God's universe factory.

I'll believe in him and Then I look at them.

I said so what you're saying is If I took you to show you God's universe factory, you will believe in God.

Yes So Let's back up a little bit so what you're saying is you have a principle of life That when you come to know something to be true you immediately apply it to your life.

They're like yes So then Do you know that smoking causes cancer?

Then it seems to me that Your issue is not an issue of knowledge because you know many things that are right that are wrong that are true that are false And yet you do not apply them to your life So don't tell me if I give you x y & z evidence You will believe that is a lie because your life says I follow the truth that I want to follow.

Not all truth, just the truth that's convenient for me.

And so this issue of character, Character is determined.

What you do with what you know reveals your character.

You see, if I look at this young man and I know that he's sick and I'm a doctor, and I know that I have the cure to cure him of his disease and I don't cure him what kind of doctor am I am I a good doctor or an evil doctor If I know that you know If I start dating this girl, I know that I have no feelings for her I have no interest for her and eventually we're gonna break up and it's gonna break her heart and she'll be crushed and I still Date her what kind of person am I?

Because what I do with what I know reveals my character.

And at the very heart of Job's life, to say that the man is blameless, upright, 1 who fears God and shuns evil that means Job is a man that says when you Reveal something to me as the truth.

I follow that That is the basis of life And In the judgment, no one's gonna be lost because they didn't have access to some secret knowledge No one's gonna be lost because they didn't do x y & z action unless you climb Mount Everest and get to the top you cannot enter into heaven But you know what people will be lost for?

And I wish I could take more time to preach about what it means to fear God, because there's too many people in this world that do not fear God.

Some of us are bold, audacious, prideful.

The stuff that comes out of some people's mouth, I'm like you cannot fear God and do you know who you're talking about I Don't care.

You know, I'll just tell God to his face an atheist guy was in a debate and he said look What are you gonna do?

If when you die you appear before the judgment seat of God, and you find out all along you were wrong, God does exist, there is a judgment.

The atheist man said, I'll tell him, not enough evidence.

We haven't even been in the presence of God.

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Series

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

Christ in Job

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Revelation of Jesus Christ

1h 17m

Plenary

Final Charge: Take up Your Cross

1h 9m

Suffering, The Story of God’s Presence

39m

Not Ashamed

41m

Plenary Sessions

AMEN 2022 Mission Program

50m

Plenary

Wounds of a Whisperer

52m

Growing Above and Beyond Faith Even When God Is Silent

1h 26m

Preparing For the End of Time

1. Why Prayer Matters

45m

Trey Williams Weekend

Where is He?

51m

A Man that Understands Depression

49m

Gracious

41m

Emotional Health

Breaking the Power of the Past

48m

Sound Doctrine