Introduction:
How Can I Not Blame God for My Suffering?
3 Things to Remind Yourself When You Suffer:
(Job 2:10):
- Foolish people blame God. (Job 2:10a)
- Everything comes from God. (Job 2:10b)
- Not blaming God is a matter of Choice . (Job 2:10c)
Luke 22:31-32 - Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
Hebrews 7:25 - Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:12-01:14
Open up those Bibles to Job chapter two.
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And while you're turning there, let's just pause for a moment.
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I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to faithfully and clearly communicate the word of God.
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And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is that God wants to teach us in his word today.
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All right, let's pray.
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Father in heaven, it's easy for us to get defensive or make excuses when we are addressing a touchy subject.
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We might not wanna hear what your word has to say.
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But I just pray, Father, that we would be able to come here with a heart that sincerely wants to hear from you, and that we would receive whatever it is you tell us through your Word.
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It's not about what I think or my opinion.
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It's really not about anybody's opinion.
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It's about what you have declared to be true.
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So Father, give us hearts and minds that want nothing but that.
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We praise you, Father, for what you're going to do through your Word, through the power of your Holy Spirit conforming us into the image of your Son.
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Father, thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Job chapter two.
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If you were here last week, we went through Job chapter one and we met Job, who was a godly and wealthy man.
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We saw this peak behind the curtain where Satan went before the Lord and questioned Job's motives for worshiping God.
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Does he worship you because you're God and you're worthy of worship?
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Or does he worship you because you give to him?
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Well, Satan was permitted to take away from Job, but not to touch him.
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And we saw in Job chapter one, four waves of tragedy.
03:53-03:57
There were attacks from man.
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There were what we call natural disasters or freak accidents.
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And in one day, Job lost all of his wealth and all 10 of his kids, one day.
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But he still worshiped.
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Now let's look at chapter two.
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I kind of wish Job's story ended before this, but here we go.
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Chapter two says, "Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.
04:38-04:43
And Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
04:43-05:05
And the Lord said to Satan, 'From where have you come?' Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down on it." Like, wait, wait, in this passage that we covered last week, no, this is not deja vu.
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This is another heavenly council meeting.
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We talked a little bit about that last week.
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And I don't know how long it's been since the last one.
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The Bible doesn't tell us.
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But what we do see, same question from God, same answer from Satan, where have you been, what have you been doing?
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Look at verse three.
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And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, "that there is none like him on the earth, "a blameless and upright man who fears God "and turns away from evil?
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"He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." Same commendation as last time, but notice the Lord added a statement.
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He still, he still, you should underline that in your Bible.
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He still, meaning the Lord is saying that despite everything that Job went through.
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His inside still matches the outside.
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Job proved his sincerity.
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We're gonna get back to that.
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Look at verse four.
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It says, "Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "'Skin for skin, all that a man has, "'he will give for his life.'" What's Satan saying here?
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He's saying that a man's life, His physical wellbeing is worth way more than anything and everything that he owns.
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That's a true statement, right?
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Like just imagine this scenario.
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Imagine you were diagnosed with terminal cancer and you went to the doctor and the doctor said, "Yeah, I can treat you and I can cure that.
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"It's gonna cost you everything in your bank account." Show of hands, how many people would pay it?
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Yeah, right?
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Like, yeah, I'll pay any amount.
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That's Satan's point.
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That's why he started this statement saying, "Skin for skin." It was an expression meaning that you're willing to sacrifice someone else's skin if it means saving your own skin.
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Satan goes, yeah, yeah, okay, so, all right, his stuff was taken away, but you know what, Lord?
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A man's life and a man's health is a man's greatest possession.
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That's the claim.
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Look at verse five.
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He says, "But stretch out your hand "and touch his bone and his flesh, "and he will curse you to your face." Here's Satan's new claim.
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He goes, "Look, okay, anybody can recover "from losing his stuff, right?
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"But what if he loses his health?
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"Then, then he will curse you to your face." Satan is persistent.
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And truth be told, after he lost in chapter one, He should have just immediately conceded defeat.
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After the trials of chapter one, Satan said, "You know what, Lord?
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"You're right, you're right.
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"Job is legit.
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"But Satan's persistent.
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"And Satan is malicious.
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"And he's not content to stop.
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"He's gonna keep upping the ante.
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So listen, my friends, don't expect, if you're going through some hard trial in your life right now, that once you get through it, it's gonna be smooth sailing to heaven.
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Doesn't work that way.
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In fact, if Job's story is any indication, it's probably gonna get worse for you.
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Look at verse six.
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"And the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, he is in your hand.' "Only spare his life." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. And again, we saw this last week. Satan makes this evil, wicked, malicious bet, and God goes with it.
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He permits Satan to proceed.
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He gives him parameters again.
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Notice he says, "Okay, you can touch him, "but do not kill him." And I gotta tell you, look, if I was God, I would've cut this off at this point.
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I mean, if I was God, I would've said, "You know what, that's enough.
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"That's enough.
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"He's suffered enough.
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"He proved himself enough.
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"Knock it off." That's what I would've said.
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You see, the Lord went a bit of a different route because his glory is more important than our comfort.
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See, the question on the table is this, is God worthy of worship?
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And after the events of chapter one, we're like, you know what, yeah, I think so.
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Pretty sure, but now this scene is setting up we have to be absolutely sure.
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Will a man worship God because God is worthy of worship?
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Or does a man only worship God if he gets something out of it?
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Well, look at verse seven again.
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He says, "Satan went up in the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." He previously says Satan left God and there was a day.
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Here it seems that there was an immediate attack.
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It seems here there's no time wasted, that he goes straight from God's presence to attack Job.
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the agents that Satan used were humans and nature, but this looks like it was just a direct attack. Like, "Well, what are these loathsome sores?" Well, we don't really know the exact diagnosis of them. There's been a lot of speculation. Is this some form of leprosy or something like that? We don't know, but does it really matter if we have the exact diagnosis. Look at verse 8, it says, "And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes." Sat in the ashes, that's the burning rubbish heap that's like the place that Jesus used to compare to hell.
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And he scratched himself with broken pottery.
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Here's a man who was prominent and wealthy and had everything, and now he's sitting in the garbage dump scratching himself with garbage.
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He's just completely broken now.
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Everything about Job is broken now.
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what else can you take from them? Because if you kill them, we're not going to get our answer. If a man will find God worthy of worship just because he's God. I wish this story ended here, but Job has another trial, and I can tell you this with complete confidence and complete conviction that of everything that Job experienced to this point, the thing that comes next is the absolute worst thing that Job experienced.
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A sideways wife.
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Some of you men were afraid to laugh at that.
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And I commend you for that.
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Look at verse nine.
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It says, "Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity?
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"Curse God and die." Interestingly, she asked exactly what God declared in verse three.
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Do you still hold fast your integrity?
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She goes, "Just die." Now, if you're familiar with the story though, I think a lot of us get to this point where like, "Oh, I know what's coming.
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Here comes the nasty wife.
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Should be supporting him.
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Instead, she's piling on." And I just want to encourage you to not be so quick to judge Job's wife, because remember, She just lost 10 kids too.
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And I could imagine, like a lot of us, when you're speaking under extreme stress, maybe things come out your mouth the way you don't want them to come out.
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So let's pump the brakes on judging her.
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Whatever her motive was, and I can't speak to her motive, but whatever her motive was, She became the mouthpiece of Satan's temptation.
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She was telling Job to do what Satan wanted Job to do, curse God.
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Just curse God.
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Look, Job, you've suffered enough, okay?
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Apparently, God doesn't care.
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So just curse him and cash in already, okay?
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Enough, enough of this.
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Look at verse 10.
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And he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak." Okay, let's stop there for a second.
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Because I did a lot of reading this week.
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I did a lot of reading, especially about this verse.
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Because this verse is sort of the crux of the whole thing.
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You'll see it on the outline.
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So what I found when I read so many commentators, incidentally, men that I read.
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Immediately rushed to Job's side to say, "Look, what Job said right here wasn't mean." Look at it again.
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He says to his wife, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak." And so many commentators are like, "Well, no, he wasn't being mean, okay?
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He didn't call her foolish.
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He was saying that you speak as a foolish woman." Some commentators said, you know, what Job was saying was, it was really kind of a compliment.
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He was saying, what you're saying is beneath you.
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You're better than that.
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This statement isn't worthy of you.
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You know, I would expect such advice from a fool, but not from you, cupcake.
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(congregation laughing)
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So I read so many commentators that just lined up to defend Job, to say, "Look, what he said wasn't mean, "and it wasn't harsh." So I tried it.
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(congregation laughing)
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Aaron came up to me this past week, and she made some observation about something.
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I don't remember quite the subject matter and you'll understand why this escaped me now.
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But she shared something with me and I said, "Aaron, you speak like a foolish woman.
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Men, husbands, don't.
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Don't say that." Trust me on that.
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The doctor said the bones are setting nicely though.
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Let's go on to verse 10.
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He says, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?
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In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. Job passed the test again. Job was the same without health as he was without wealth, and now heaven is silent until we get to chapter 38. Here's the issue. Notice Satan kept bringing it up. What did Satan want Job to do? He wanted him to curse God. What's he talking about?
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He's talking about this, my friends, when we suffer, we have this tendency, we have this temptation when we suffer to immediately blame God. Now, please hear me. There is a God's sovereignty over everything.
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And blaming God.
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And cursing God.
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You see, this angry blaming, this resentful, bitter blaming, that's the heart of cursing God.
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It's not, "I know God is allowing this and God's using this." That's not what he's...
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That's not the attitude.
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The attitude here is, "God, you did this!
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You brought this on, God!
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You could have done something about this!" And it's just this angry backlash against God.
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And even when we do it, if we do it, we know deep down, we know that it's not right to blame God.
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It's an emotional reaction.
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But right here we see very clearly Job did not go there.
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And I shared with you last week a little bit about the suffering that our family is enduring.
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So maybe you're like me, maybe you're getting through this passage of Job here and you're like, wow, how can I come through such horrible suffering and not be angry with God about that?
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Or on your outline, how can I not blame God for my suffering?
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Somehow Job managed to not curse God.
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How can I get there?
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Well, it's all found in one verse.
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It's all found in verse 10.
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Here's three things to remind yourself when you suffer.
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You know, when you suffer and you're tempted angry with God, and you're gonna give God a piece of your mind, and you're gonna lash out at God, and you're gonna blame God.
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There's three things to remind yourself, so that you don't curse God with your lips.
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Number one, right, just foolish people blame God.
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Look, I don't know the sense in which Job made that horrible statement to his wife.
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Do you, where he says, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak." But Job, despite his suffering, immediately knew.
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He immediately knew that this idea of cursing or angrily blaming God, Job immediately knew in the middle of the suffering, he goes, "That's foolish to do that." Job was given so much from God.
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And he already acknowledged in chapter one, he's leaving the earth with exactly what he brought into the earth.
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So you see Job's attitude is, look, after everything that God's done for me, you mean to tell me I'm just gonna, at this point, face a little hardship and turn on him?
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After everything he's done for me?
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Come on.
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That's foolish.
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And every single one of you know that that's foolish.
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You know that it is.
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You're like, I'm not sure that I know that.
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I'm sure that you know that.
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Parents, did you ever take your little ones to Kennywood or Waldemere or someplace like that?
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Parents, have you ever done that?
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Taking your like, you're like, we're gonna have a blast today.
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Have you ever done that?
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We're gonna go to the Kennywood and we're gonna ride all the rides and we're gonna get the potato patch fries, right?
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And we're gonna get ice cream and then on the way out, we're gonna get you a balloon and then we're walking to the car and the kid lets go of the balloon and has a complete meltdown, right?
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This is the worst day of my life.
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Excuse me?
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You mean to tell me we just had like 12 hours of the most fun a human can have and you lost your balloon and now your life is over?
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Is that reasonable?
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You're like, no, it's a child.
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It's foolishness, right?
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But I just have to ask us, church, have we really grown out of that?
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Have we really grown out of that?
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Because, you know, maybe our Lord isn't going to take you to Kennywood as an adult.
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That would be fun, but maybe that's not how it's gonna go down.
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But you know, you've been blessed with family.
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You've been blessed with church family.
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Look around the room, you've been blessed with this church family.
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You've eaten, and you get to enjoy football, and you get to enjoy the sunshine, and you get to enjoy puppies.
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And then some hardship comes our way, and we're like, "God hates me!
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"My life is so miserable!" And we're just like that kid at Kennywood that just lost his balloon.
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Oh, and by the way, compared to Job, you have even less reason to blame God.
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Because you got to peek behind the curtain.
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Job had no idea this stuff was going on.
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But see, by this infinite blessing of the word of God, we do know what was going on.
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And it's very clear here.
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Satan is held responsible for what happened to Job.
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Okay, understand.
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It wasn't like God was up in heaven one day is bored, he goes, "Uh, you know, nothing on TV. I guess I'll smite someone that's trying to do the right thing." That's not how this played out. We see exactly how this plays out. Yes, God gave permission, but God was not complicit. And somebody would say, "Yeah, You know what, but God could have stopped it.
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But God allowed it.
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So isn't it, honestly, isn't it kind of from God?
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If he could have stopped it, but he allowed it.
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Isn't that kind of from God when you think about it that way, you know, when you really think about it?
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Well, look at number two on your outline.
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How can I not blame God?
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Here's something to remind yourself.
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Number two, everything comes from God.
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And if you wanna keep yourself from blaming God, if you wanna keep yourself from getting bent at the Almighty every time some hardship comes into your life, you gotta get where Job got.
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And here's where Job got.
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Everything comes from God.
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Look at this statement.
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The reason Job didn't curse, it's all in this one statement here.
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He says, "Shall we receive good from God "and shall we not receive evil?" Like, how does that help?
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How does that help anybody?
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Well, first of all, notice he said we, he was including her.
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Job wasn't speaking self-centeredly or magnanimously.
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Job was speaking for both of them.
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But in so doing, he gives a general principle for us all.
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everything good in your life you have received from God.
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So, can we not trust that same God to give us things that maybe look harmful?
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Believing that God knows what is best for us.
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This past Friday, I told you about my son a little bit last week.
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19 years old, suffers from some pretty severe health issues and as you know, mostly nonverbal.
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But this past Friday, we took him to Children's Hospital for a medical infusion.
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And I don't know how much he really understood about what was going on on Friday.
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But you know, I got to thinking, and I want to encourage you, imagine this scenario from his perspective, okay?
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'Cause I mean, it's natural, you might try to imagine this from my perspective, forget that.
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I want you to imagine the trip to Children's Hospital from my son's perspective.
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that dad makes you get dressed and get in the car, and dad drives you down to the city.
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And dad and mom, Aaron was there too.
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But I'm gonna take the heat for this.
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Dad made him sit in a chair, while a stranger came and shoved an enormous needle in his arm.
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What do you think he was thinking in that moment?
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Like, I thought dad loved me.
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Why would dad do this?
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Why would dad bring me here?
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Why would dad allow this person to make me suffer like this?
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Why would dad do that?
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I thought dad cared about me.
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So no, stick this giant needle in your arm.
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Now don't move for an hour.
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So okay, so not only is dad allowing this person to stab me, but dad's forbidding me to move from this place.
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And for him, an hour seems like about three weeks.
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Do you think there's a chance that that suffering that he experienced on Friday might've looked evil to him?
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Do you think?
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Do you think maybe somehow in his own way, trying to process this.
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Do you think maybe the question crossed his mind, why would dad allow this to happen to me?
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But you know that dad was allowing that suffering because dad loves him.
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So my question to you is, is it possible?
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Is it possible that God has allowed suffering into my life to ultimately bless me?
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Is it possible that the suffering that I'm experiencing in my life right now is sort of the equivalent to dad sitting me in a chair and allowing a stranger to stick an IV into my arm?
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You see, when I suffer, there's a lot that I don't know.
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When you suffer, there's a lot you don't know.
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How long do I have to endure this?
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What's God's, what is God's ultimate goal here?
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How is God ultimately going to use this in my life or in the lives of others or for this church?
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That there is, despite all the questions that I have, there is one thing that I know with absolute certainty in the face of any suffering that I endure, and it is God's character.
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I know that.
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He loves me with an eternal love.
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He loves me with a love that's greater than the love that I have for my own son.
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And once again, we get this peek behind the curtain In Job chapter two, and once again, it's like God wants us to know there is nothing that is coming into your life that doesn't go through his hands first.
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Anything Satan wants to do to you has to go across his desk, has to go across God's desk before it comes into your life.
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Remember the end of chapter one, Job says, "God does nothing empty." So if I'm suffering, God is not only allowing it, but he's using it, even if I don't see how.
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He's using it.
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And if I get that, if I get to the place, everything comes from God.
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Even this thing that looks horrible had to have come from him, then I'm not gonna curse him.
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And finally, number three, how do I not blame God for my suffering?
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Remind yourself this, not blaming God is a matter of choice.
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It's a matter of choice.
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Look at verse 10 again, last phrase.
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It says in all this, "Job did not sin with his lips." Job did not sin with his lips.
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You're like, okay, well, what about his heart?
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I don't know.
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I do know for sure that Job struggled to make sense of all of this.
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I do know that because you read the rest of the book, you're gonna see him trying to process, making sense of this horrible suffering.
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But, Job sinning with his lips is what Satan predicted.
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And Job sinning with his lips is not what Job did.
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And so, Satan was wrong again. Look, I don't want any of this to come across like some cold, detached, clinical, academic evaluation of suffering. No, look, we already talked about this a little bit last week.
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Feelings are feelings, right?
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Job wasn't a robot.
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You can't help how you feel, okay?
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Feelings aren't wrong.
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I have people all the time when I'm counseling, they say, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff?
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"I know it's wrong, but I feel that." No, no, no, feelings are never wrong.
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Feelings are a reaction.
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What I wanna get to is what are you thinking that's making you feel that way?
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because maybe your thinking's off.
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But feelings aren't inherently wrong.
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You feel what you feel.
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And no one is expecting you to love suffering, okay?
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Look, you can't choose how you feel.
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but you can choose what you're gonna do with your mouth.
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You have that choice.
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And with this mouth, you can curse God, or you can worship God.
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I gotta tell you, the first couple of chapters of Job, they're scary.
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And when I say they're scary, I don't mean like, like a horror movie, right?
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Do you like the scary movies?
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I remember as a kid seeing "Jaws." Did you ever see "Jaws?" Saw it as an adult.
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Didn't have the same impact it had on me when I was, when I was a kid, it terrified me.
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But Job is scary.
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But see, it's different because in Jaws, I just stay out of the ocean.
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So I can watch the movie and I can have those feelings, but not for me.
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That's like getting eaten by a shark.
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That's your problem.
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You know, no sharks in Zillionopel.
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But you know what makes Job so scary?
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is because this could be your story.
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Job's story can become your story too.
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That's what makes this so terrifying.
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You're like, "Wait, how do we know Job "ain't a one and done?" Well, I do know Revelation 12 looked that up sometime.
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Satan is called the accuser of the brothers.
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How about this one?
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Did you know, did you know that Satan went to God about Peter the same way that Satan went to God about Job?
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Do we have those verses?
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What is it, Luke 22?
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Yeah, there it is.
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This is what Jesus said to Peter.
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He said, "Simon, Simon, behold, "Satan demanded to have you." Sound familiar?
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It's the same stuff.
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Oh yeah, what do you mean?
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Jesus says that he might sift you like wheat.
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What's that mean?
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Means I'm gonna put him through the ringer and see if he's legit.
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Sound familiar?
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Satan demanded to have you, he might sift you like wheat.
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Look at this, "But I have prayed for you "that your faith may not fail.
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"And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Notice there, Jesus didn't pray that it wouldn't happen.
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Did you notice that?
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He prayed for Peter's faith.
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And Jesus told Peter on the other side of his suffering, he'll be equipped to minister to others.
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And they're like, yeah, good for Peter.
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I mean, could you imagine the rush that you would get if the Lord Jesus Christ himself came and said, hey, I've been praying for you.
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Like good for Peter, he had God incarnate praying for him.
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Well, let's look at another verse, Hebrews chapter seven.
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Look at this, talking about Jesus, it says, "Consequently, he is able to save to the other most those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Do you know that Jesus is praying for you?
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And I don't mean Jesus is praying for you in the lie that we tell at church, like I've been praying for you when we haven't been, or I will pray for you when we won't.
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Jesus is actually right now praying for you.
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And if his statement to Peter is any indication, Jesus isn't praying for you the way most of us pray for others.
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You know, we often would say, "God, God, heal him." That's what we would do.
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"Heal him, God, God, please heal him." And there's nothing wrong with praying that.
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God, ease her suffering.
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Please, God, take her suffering away.
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There's nothing really wrong with praying that either.
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I want you to notice that Jesus is praying.
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that through your suffering you have a stronger faith that you're going to use to lift others up.
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So whether it looks good or bad, whether you see God's purpose for your suffering right now, or you have no idea what he's doing. You've got to land on the truth that kept Job from cursing God. And that is the acknowledgement and the belief and the firm conviction that everything comes from God.
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So we're gonna worship Him.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, it is a terrifying thought for us to think that someone like Satan would wanna destroy us just because he likes to destroy.
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In fact, we even see in your Word, Father, You said to Satan that he tried to incite you against Job to destroy him without reason.
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It's a horrifying thought.
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But what an eternally comforting thought to know that there's not a thing that Satan could do to any of us, that you don't have to okay first, and that you're going to use whatever suffering Satan wants to bring, you're going to turn it back on his head and you're going to use it to bless us and bless others.
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Father, I just pray today, 'cause I know there are so many people suffering here.
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Some have suffered loss.
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Some are suffering with health issues.
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Some are suffering with relationship issues.
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We all got something.
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But I just pray today, Father, that you would energize and refresh and encourage our hearts with the truth that everything comes from you.
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So we will worship.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Job 2:1-10
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why did Satan say that physical suffering will turn a man against God, when losing wealth wouldn’t (Job 2:4-5)? Do you think there’s truth in that? Why or why not?
Note the last sentence in Job 2:3. What did God mean that Satan “incited God against Job to destroy Job without reason”? What does this say about Satan’s motives?
Job’s reason for not cursing God is given in the question Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? (Job 2:10) How is this a reasonable explanation to not curse God in your suffering? What does it mean that God “gives evil”?
Breakout
Pray for one another.