Bad things and good people - The Bible in a Year
Pastor Kile Baker - August 20th, 2023
Car Show 75 Classic cars, Raise $2,600 for Senior Care Ministry.
Students Camp Hume Lake: 18 students decisions to follow Jesus. 9 decisions resulted in students wanting to be baptized.
Back to School Bash: 372 students sponsored, $7,440 worth of support.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
If there is no God, there is no answer to this question.
What we’re really asking is: “Why did God let this happen to me?”
There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.
His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.
All the bad things happen to Job.
Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job 2
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her.
“Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
The three things we want when good things happen to bad people
Explanation
Vindication
Explanation - “I want to speak to God.”
Appeal to God - “What’s the reason? What’s the purpose? Why me? Why us? Do you even care? “
Accuse God - “You did this! Where were you? A good God wouldn’t let this happen. You just watched and did nothing!”
Abandon God - “You’re not worth following. You’re not good. You don’t even exist. You’re nothing, you’re a myth. I’m done with you.”
The wise person: Appeals to God, accepts the good He gives them, grows closer to Him through adversity..
Vindication - “I don’t deserve this.”
Key question: Do we live in a just and fair world?
“You get what you deserve.”
You don’t want to get what you deserve, you want to get better than you deserve.
Jesus received the suffering we deserved, and we received the blessing He deserved.
The wise person: Knows that the world isn’t just, but God is, and lives with the hope God will give them better than they deserve.
Salvation - “I want this suffering to end.”
When bad things happen to us, we tend to focus on the moment.
Suffering drives us to the God we hope will bring all suffering to an end, and bring never-ending good.
The wise person: Tries to take an eternal perspective on everything.
Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:
Next Week: God gives and takes away
