As we continue to study Job’s story today, we will learn that God is never wasteful. God uses the good things in our lives to bless us, but the Lord also uses the trials and suffering that come our way to make us more like Jesus. Pastor Terry teaches us that through suffering, Jesus refines us and rids us of impurity just as gold is refined by fire. Trials also keep us humble and reliant upon the Lord. It is through seasons of suffering that we gain eternal perspective and a heavenly mindset. Job produced many of these holy fruits through his trial, and we too can expect heavenly fruits to manifest through suffering.

Job suffered the loss of his wealth and family. When learning of Job’s troubles, his friends came to try and console him. However, as soon as the friends open their mouths, they throw accusation after accusation at him. They believed that in order for Job to suffer so devastatingly, he must have done something to offend the Lord. They were wrong. Pastor Terry points out that we should never approach those who mourn with platitudes or patented advice. Instead, we should be slow to speak and never assume.

The book of Job is full of question marks because it is also full of pain and suffering. Among all the questions of “Why is this happening?”, and, “Why me?”, Job also asks the most important question of all time: “How can a man be right with God?” Pastor Terry begins to answer Job’s question in today’s message by teaching us what does not make us right with God. We cannot earn our way to heaven by doing good works. We also cannot enter into God’s presence by trying to be a good person. The Bible says that there is no one that is good.

Pastor Terry preaches from the Book of Job today to shares the Gospel. Try as we might, none of us, not a single person that has ever walked the face of the earth has ever lived a perfect life: except Jesus Christ. Because God is just, He demands that payment be made for our mistakes, or our sin. We all stand guilty before a holy God. However, sinless perfect Jesus died on the cross to pay just the penalty for our sin. In God’s love, He offers us eternal life and reunion with Him if we only put our trust in Christ’s sacrifice.

In the midst of Job’s suffering, he has a moment of terrible clarity. Job laments that he needs a mediator that would speak for him to God. Job knows that a wall of sin separates him from a holy God. Pastor Terry recognizes the wisdom in Job’s words and uses them to point us to Christ. Jesus is the God-man. He is the perfect chosen One that was fully human, but also fully God. Jesus lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death on the cross for us. Now, Christ lives in heaven constantly interceding on our behalf. What Job could only long for, God has now provided.

In the book of Job, we hear Job long for a mediator between God and man. God gave that gift in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. Pastor Terry reminds us today that there is no human experience that Jesus did not live through. Christ was hungry, thirsty, felt rejection and unspeakable loss. Because our Savior lived a fully human life, He can relate to us when we come to Him with our pain. He has compassion towards us and can empathize with our suffering.

Have you ever wondered why God allows so much suffering and pain in the world? Most people have at some point in their life, and sadly, many people will use this question and what they think is an incomplete answer to turn away from God! But Pastor Terry has a different take on the topic in today’s message: God didn’t create evil. Rather, he created people with free will, and therefore created the possibility of evil. That doesn’t make living with the results of evil any easier, but be assured, God has a tendency to take hard things and make them beautiful!

We can never see the whole picture, especially when we are in the middle of the heartache that inevitably comes with life in a fallen world. God, on the other hand, sees well beyond what we can, and orchestrates everything for a greater purpose. Pastor Terry wants to reassure us today that God has not made a mistake in creating humans; rather, God has created opportunities for people to FREELY choose to love Him, and want to be a part of His bigger picture. While this doesn’t come without the potential for pain, it will come with a great reward!

A week after Job lost everything he had, he finally found a little strength to speak to his friends. Pastor Terry reads through Job’s laments in chapter three and teaches us that what Job says and feels in these verses is very much akin to what many people do and say during grief. Job is so downtrodden that he wishes he had never been born. Job is also very angry. Although Job is a very strong man in the Lord, his grief causes him to have tunnel vision and forget everything that God has done in the past.

When we are hit by the throws of grief, it can take everything we have not to be swallowed up. Pastor Terry teaches us to look to Job’s example when we are battling through suffering. Although Job was angry, downtrodden, and grieving, he never once gave up fighting. He also took solace in the Lord. As Christians, we can also take comfort in the fact that when we are sad and grieving, the Lord promises to walk through the pain with us. Jesus is near to those who mourn and comforts those who lack peace.