Living With Pain - Job 1:20-22
Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday April 5, 2009
Living with pain
Job 1:20-22
A man tells this story - when a boy of 12, while riding a horse on the ranch where he lived, another horse came and bit his thigh, slicing it to the bone from the kneecap almost to the hip. After 106 stitches and days of recovery in the hospital, the doctor told the parents, “I won’t be giving Johnny a crutch. If I do, he’ll be a cripple the rest of his life. He’ll have to learn to walk through his pain.” The leg was maimed/gnarled/painful to touch the ground w/ his foot and put his weight on it. He had to learn to get up after a fall/learn to live w/ and walk through his pain.
Like Johnny, some of you have deeply wounded souls – divorce/ disease/debt/depression/disappointment/personal failure – have laid your soul open to the bone. Like Johnny, if you don’t learn to walk thru your pain, you will end up a spiritual cripple – if you don’t learn to walk through the pain, the pain will walk all over you.
Last week I mentioned how suffering/pain can really mess up our prayer lives because when we suffer/experience pain all we can think of is getting rid of the suffering/relieving the pain. In pain, it’s really hard to be fixed on the will of God, because we are focused on relief/getting help. We counsel, “Please don’t get a divorce.” “I know all I need to know to make the right decision – I’m unhappy.” When you are driven by pain (resentment, bitterness, fear, unhappiness, rejection), you aren’t focused on God’s will. Pain can hijack the agenda. Like Johnny, you’re going to have to learn to live w/ and walk through your pain and not have pain walk all over you.
How do I live w/ pain and not have pain possess me/drive me/ consume me? Job is a good example of how and how not to live w/ pain. You know the story: his oxen, donkeys, camels, sheep, servants, and children were all killed. Here’s what he did:
* He grieved – tore his robe and shaved his head 1:20 It’s OK to grieve.
* He worshiped God 1:20 “God, You are worthy.” It’s not weird to worship. Worship keeps pain from swallowing your soul.
* He confessed the truth 1:21 When his pain went from personal to physical in C2, he continued to confess the truth 2:10
He didn’t let go of his sorrow/Lord/truth. Every one of you will suffer in one way or another. Will you grow bitter toward God, or bow in worship? Job shows the way through. Here is how to live w/ your pain/walk through it: grieve, worship God, confess the truth.
2:11-13 His friends were silent/I think Job was silent, too. There was grieving, but no worship/confession of truth. Job held it together at the beginning, but the length of his suffering – he soaked in it was like an acid to his soul - and it turned his grief into complaining, his worship of God into accusations against God, and his confession of truth into expressions of doubt & suspicion.
Complaining 3:1-4, 11, 20-22
Accusations 9:14-24 NLT
And who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? Even if I were innocent, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy. And even if I summoned him and he responded, he would never listen to me. For he attacks me without reason, and he multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows. As for strength, he has it. As for justice, who can challenge him? Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked. I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me—I despise my life. Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to him. That is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ He laughs when a plague suddenly kills the innocent. The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges and lets them be unfair. If not he, then who?
Job - accusing God of being the devil - distant/cruel/arbitrary/unjust/uncaring
Doubts 7:19-21 NLT
Why won’t you leave me alone—even for a moment? Have I sinned? What have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why have you made me your target? Am I a burden to you? Why not just pardon my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.”
All his life he had a notion of the goodness of God, now he doubts.
Total reverse of 1:21. He grieved/worshiped/confessed truth. Now he complains/accuses/expresses suspicions. The Lord gave/taken away/I am bitter. Something had flip-flopped in Job – from worship to accusation/from blessing to bitterness.
Something has flip-flopped in you. The bitterness of divorce/devastation of bankruptcy/moral failure of trusted spiritual leader/slow painful death of loved one/your own health issues/unhappy marriage/crush of life - at first found you grieving/ worshiping God/confessing truth. But the suffering has lasted so long and your soul has soaked in the acid of pain, that your grief has turned into constant complaint, your worship has turned into accusation, and your confessions of truth have become expressions of doubt and suspicion.
Job went from the lord gave and the lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the lord to the lord gave and the lord has taken away and I am bitter. This change occurred because he stopped worshiping and didn’t confess the truth. When you stop worshipping and confessing the truth, your grief will consume you. When your suffering is louder than your worship, when your pain speaks w/ greater authority than truth, you are on the way to being a spiritual casualty. Are you where Job is – a spiritual casualty?
There was a student at college on crutches. He was optimistic/made friends easily/earned many scholastic honors/had the respect of his classmates. One day a new student asked him what had caused him to become so badly crippled. “Infantile paralysis,” replied the young man. “With a disease like that,” exclaimed the other fellow, “how can you be so joyful and optimistic?” The polio victim replied, “The disease never touched my heart.”
There is a lot of pain that touches the hearts of people - 160,000 kids stay home from school everyday because of bullying/are afraid to go to class. 12M Americans annually participate in self-injury (mainly cutting) most are young people.
There is so much pain/suffering that has touched the heart/driven people from God, making them think He’s the devil. So many aren’t walking through their pain, pain is walking all over them.
You can live in a place where suffering/pain don’t touch your heart and control you. Come into a place of faith – a place where you worship God and confess the truth. Job 13:15 Faith in the shadows/silence/suffering. Job came back to where he was in 1:21. He didn’t stay there for long, but by the end of the book he did.
Some of you aren’t going to be delivered from your pain, you’ll have to learn to walk through it. How can you keep your suffering from touching your heart? Keep your heart in that place where it is touching God in worship and truth. God never gave Job a reason or an explanation for his suffering – He offered Job Himself. God offers you Himself this morning – not reasons, but presence.
Table of the Lord – Jesus invites us to eat and drink of Him at the place of His greatest suffering. We are invited to partake of the wounds of God – they will cleanse/salve/heal. Let accusations and doubt give way to worship of God/confession of truth.
Note: human emotion of sorrow before spiritual impulse to worship.
In C38-39 God asks Job about 44 questions. Job knows the answer to none. If Job doesn’t have a clue about things he can see, how understand things he can’t see. If Job not understand God’s natural government, how can he comprehend God’s moral government?
Through Job, God is saying to you: When will you stop pushing your own agenda/insisting on your rights/playing the victim? When will you be silent and wait on Me? When life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would, when tragedy strikes, when things appear all wrong, do you think I am no longer running the universe? I am the LORD - I am above you. I am God.
God doesn’t answer Job’s questions, He reveals Himself. Job wants an explanation – but he receives so much more! A revelation. How do I live with pain? How do I live without pain touching my heart? Live in that place where God is revealing Himself to you. Word/ prayer/worship/fellowship. At first, Job was overwhelmed w/ God and this guided him. But after a while, he became overwhelmed w/ the pain and this guided him. He came back to the place he had been in at the beginning of the book – overwhelmed w/ God.
40:3-5 Job is humbled. His moral outrage/insistence upon self importance crumbles - I am insignificant. Job was hoping for a verdict of innocence, not one of insignificance. Insignificant – can be tr. ‘curse’ - I am fallen/there is a great gulf between us. I thought we could dialogue as equals – we’re not in same league.
Once I have spoken, even twice – I will no longer attempt to justify myself. I couldn’t wait to go one on one w/ God and really tell Him how I feel, but no more.
C40-42 about 25 more questions/series of challenges. 40:8 – this is what we do in our pain. God would move you from 40:8 to 42:3:
I have declared that which I did not understand.
How often we speak w/o knowing all the facts. What if Job had said, “I don’t have a clue what’s going on. I don’t see how I deserve this or how God could be behind this or how God could use this. But I’m going to wait on God. My God will not let me down.”
Job never says, “Now I see it all”, because he didn’t. All he saw was God. andersen
Though he doubts God, he never doubts himself – 27:1-6 NLT
Job continued speaking: “I make this vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, by the Almighty who has embittered my soul. As long as I live, while I have breath from God, my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies. I will never concede that you are right; until I die, I will defend my innocence. I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
God is wrong/I’m right/no one can convince me otherwise - formula for spiritual disaster.
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Living with pain
Job 1:20-22
A man tells this story - when a boy of 12, while riding a horse on the ranch where he lived, another horse came and bit his thigh, slicing it to the bone from the kneecap almost to the hip. After 106 stitches and days of recovery in the hospital, the doctor told the parents, “I won’t be giving Johnny a crutch. If I do, he’ll be a cripple the rest of his life. He’ll have to learn to walk through his pain.” The leg was maimed/gnarled/painful to touch the ground w/ his foot and put his weight on it. He had to learn to get up after a fall/learn to live w/ and walk through his pain.
Like Johnny, some of you have deeply wounded souls – divorce/ disease/debt/depression/disappointment/personal failure – have laid your soul open to the bone. Like Johnny, if you don’t learn to walk thru your pain, you will end up a spiritual cripple – if you don’t learn to walk through the pain, the pain will walk all over you.
Last week I mentioned how suffering/pain can really mess up our prayer lives because when we suffer/experience pain all we can think of is getting rid of the suffering/relieving the pain. In pain, it’s really hard to be fixed on the will of God, because we are focused on relief/getting help. We counsel, “Please don’t get a divorce.” “I know all I need to know to make the right decision – I’m unhappy.” When you are driven by pain (resentment, bitterness, fear, unhappiness, rejection), you aren’t focused on God’s will. Pain can hijack the agenda. Like Johnny, you’re going to have to learn to live w/ and walk through your pain and not have pain walk all over you.
How do I live w/ pain and not have pain possess me/drive me/ consume me? Job is a good example of how and how not to live w/ pain. You know the story: his oxen, donkeys, camels, sheep, servants, and children were all killed. Here’s what he did:
* He grieved – tore his robe and shaved his head 1:20 It’s OK to grieve.
* He worshiped God 1:20 “God, You are worthy.” It’s not weird to worship. Worship keeps pain from swallowing your soul.
* He confessed the truth 1:21 When his pain went from personal to physical in C2, he continued to confess the truth 2:10
He didn’t let go of his sorrow/Lord/truth. Every one of you will suffer in one way or another. Will you grow bitter toward God, or bow in worship? Job shows the way through. Here is how to live w/ your pain/walk through it: grieve, worship God, confess the truth.
2:11-13 His friends were silent/I think Job was silent, too. There was grieving, but no worship/confession of truth. Job held it together at the beginning, but the length of his suffering – he soaked in it was like an acid to his soul - and it turned his grief into complaining, his worship of God into accusations against God, and his confession of truth into expressions of doubt & suspicion.
Complaining 3:1-4, 11, 20-22
Accusations 9:14-24 NLT
And who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? Even if I were innocent, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy. And even if I summoned him and he responded, he would never listen to me. For he attacks me without reason, and he multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows. As for strength, he has it. As for justice, who can challenge him? Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked. I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me—I despise my life. Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to him. That is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ He laughs when a plague suddenly kills the innocent. The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges and lets them be unfair. If not he, then who?
Job - accusing God of being the devil - distant/cruel/arbitrary/unjust/uncaring
Doubts 7:19-21 NLT
Why won’t you leave me alone—even for a moment? Have I sinned? What have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why have you made me your target? Am I a burden to you? Why not just pardon my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.”
All his life he had a notion of the goodness of God, now he doubts.
Total reverse of 1:21. He grieved/worshiped/confessed truth. Now he complains/accuses/expresses suspicions. The Lord gave/taken away/I am bitter. Something had flip-flopped in Job – from worship to accusation/from blessing to bitterness.
Something has flip-flopped in you. The bitterness of divorce/devastation of bankruptcy/moral failure of trusted spiritual leader/slow painful death of loved one/your own health issues/unhappy marriage/crush of life - at first found you grieving/ worshiping God/confessing truth. But the suffering has lasted so long and your soul has soaked in the acid of pain, that your grief has turned into constant complaint, your worship has turned into accusation, and your confessions of truth have become expressions of doubt and suspicion.
Job went from the lord gave and the lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the lord to the lord gave and the lord has taken away and I am bitter. This change occurred because he stopped worshiping and didn’t confess the truth. When you stop worshipping and confessing the truth, your grief will consume you. When your suffering is louder than your worship, when your pain speaks w/ greater authority than truth, you are on the way to being a spiritual casualty. Are you where Job is – a spiritual casualty?
There was a student at college on crutches. He was optimistic/made friends easily/earned many scholastic honors/had the respect of his classmates. One day a new student asked him what had caused him to become so badly crippled. “Infantile paralysis,” replied the young man. “With a disease like that,” exclaimed the other fellow, “how can you be so joyful and optimistic?” The polio victim replied, “The disease never touched my heart.”
There is a lot of pain that touches the hearts of people - 160,000 kids stay home from school everyday because of bullying/are afraid to go to class. 12M Americans annually participate in self-injury (mainly cutting) most are young people.
There is so much pain/suffering that has touched the heart/driven people from God, making them think He’s the devil. So many aren’t walking through their pain, pain is walking all over them.
You can live in a place where suffering/pain don’t touch your heart and control you. Come into a place of faith – a place where you worship God and confess the truth. Job 13:15 Faith in the shadows/silence/suffering. Job came back to where he was in 1:21. He didn’t stay there for long, but by the end of the book he did.
Some of you aren’t going to be delivered from your pain, you’ll have to learn to walk through it. How can you keep your suffering from touching your heart? Keep your heart in that place where it is touching God in worship and truth. God never gave Job a reason or an explanation for his suffering – He offered Job Himself. God offers you Himself this morning – not reasons, but presence.
Table of the Lord – Jesus invites us to eat and drink of Him at the place of His greatest suffering. We are invited to partake of the wounds of God – they will cleanse/salve/heal. Let accusations and doubt give way to worship of God/confession of truth.
Note: human emotion of sorrow before spiritual impulse to worship.
In C38-39 God asks Job about 44 questions. Job knows the answer to none. If Job doesn’t have a clue about things he can see, how understand things he can’t see. If Job not understand God’s natural government, how can he comprehend God’s moral government?
Through Job, God is saying to you: When will you stop pushing your own agenda/insisting on your rights/playing the victim? When will you be silent and wait on Me? When life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would, when tragedy strikes, when things appear all wrong, do you think I am no longer running the universe? I am the LORD - I am above you. I am God.
God doesn’t answer Job’s questions, He reveals Himself. Job wants an explanation – but he receives so much more! A revelation. How do I live with pain? How do I live without pain touching my heart? Live in that place where God is revealing Himself to you. Word/ prayer/worship/fellowship. At first, Job was overwhelmed w/ God and this guided him. But after a while, he became overwhelmed w/ the pain and this guided him. He came back to the place he had been in at the beginning of the book – overwhelmed w/ God.
40:3-5 Job is humbled. His moral outrage/insistence upon self importance crumbles - I am insignificant. Job was hoping for a verdict of innocence, not one of insignificance. Insignificant – can be tr. ‘curse’ - I am fallen/there is a great gulf between us. I thought we could dialogue as equals – we’re not in same league.
Once I have spoken, even twice – I will no longer attempt to justify myself. I couldn’t wait to go one on one w/ God and really tell Him how I feel, but no more.
C40-42 about 25 more questions/series of challenges. 40:8 – this is what we do in our pain. God would move you from 40:8 to 42:3:
I have declared that which I did not understand.
How often we speak w/o knowing all the facts. What if Job had said, “I don’t have a clue what’s going on. I don’t see how I deserve this or how God could be behind this or how God could use this. But I’m going to wait on God. My God will not let me down.”
Job never says, “Now I see it all”, because he didn’t. All he saw was God. andersen
Though he doubts God, he never doubts himself – 27:1-6 NLT
Job continued speaking: “I make this vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, by the Almighty who has embittered my soul. As long as I live, while I have breath from God, my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies. I will never concede that you are right; until I die, I will defend my innocence. I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
God is wrong/I’m right/no one can convince me otherwise - formula for spiritual disaster.
thank you for this message. I would like to subscribe to this blog.
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some messages really touch your heart.this is one of those............
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I like your analogy. We do have to learn how to walk though our pain, otherwise we will never learn to grow. I guess that's why they call it growing pains.
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Very well written. It really touched my heart.
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Wonderful post shared very mush informative
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