God, Why Me? Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

The economy takes a dive, and your job disappears. For you, the reason can be hard to understand. When you lose your health or your child, something inside screams, why? But as a man named Job discovered long ago, there is a supreme purpose for suffering.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the mystery of suffering is deep, and today, you will introduce the personalities involved in this unfolding drama to help us understand it. Yes, Dave, it is so important for us to understand that when tragedy comes, God is involved, Satan also may be involved, and of course, we are involved. The remarkable thing about the book of Job is this, that when it opens, these tragedies come without explanation. Only later, as the book goes on and at the end, Job begins to understand something of the purpose that God had in mind. That is why I have written a book entitled God, Why Me?

It is actually based on the sermon series that you are listening to at this time, Lessons from the Life of Job, very accessible, very relatable. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Here is what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, at the end of this message, I am going to be giving you this info again. For now, listen carefully. The thing is that we see here a very interesting picture of how even, can you imagine me saying this in this day and age, how that even a believer is actually harassed by Satan within the parameters of God's will and purpose. Remember in the book of Revelation, it says to one of the churches that Satan shall cast some of you into the fire and into prison.

I don't believe that we ever need to be controlled by Satan to do evil, but there may be at times harassment that comes to us from the enemy that is to purify us, that is to change us, that is to transform us. At least that's certainly what happened in the book of Job. Now, there's a third personality involved and he's the one that we're worried about and that is Job.

We've talked about God. His role is one of control. Satan, his role is one of acting or implementing the suffering and now what happens to Job? You'll notice in verse 20, Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. This is an awesome passage of scripture. You'll notice that Job did not curse.

Now, later on, you're going to see that Job is going to sink into deep, deep depression. We're going to see that in future messages, but for now, he passes the initial stage in this trial with flying colors. He said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. Notice he doesn't blame it on the devil. He says, the Lord gave the Lord. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And though Job knew God did it, the text says he did not blame God. He was not like that man that a friend of mine told about whose house burned to the ground and when he came home and saw that his house had burned he was on the lawn pounding his fist into the sod and cursing the fire department and cursing God and, and just cursing and cursing. Job did not do that. Job worshiped and said, the Lord gave me the children. The Lord took them away.

Blessed be his most holy name. Initial trial, Job passes. What I'd like to do now is to give you four lessons that I want you to write down anywhere that you can write it down.

And even we don't normally do this but even, well I shouldn't say this but I've started to say it so I have to finish it. I was going to say even use one of those offering envelopes you should have used 20 minutes ago for something else if necessary. I taught this first chapter to a Sunday school class not too long ago and I told them that I wanted them to remember these four lessons as long as they live. They might not need the lessons today. You might not need it today but if you live long in this world eventually you will need them. You will need them. I will need them.

We will all need them. Number one and this is shocking. When God wants to try somebody, I mean really try them.

I mean really get at their heart. Nothing is untouchable. Nothing is untouchable. Frankly folks I read this passage of scripture and I am just the wind seems to be taken right out of my lungs. Here God wants to try Job. He and Satan have this little discussion in heaven and as a result of what happens, his children die. Verse 19, 10 children dead and I look at the text and I say well didn't their lives mean anything? You mean to say 10 young people with a wonderful future ahead of them with all kinds of possibilities and God just comes along and he allows through this windstorm for them to die just because God and the devil had made a deal that they wanted to try Job and I say to myself this is almost unbelievable.

Not unbelievable but almost unbelievable. It almost looks as if the children were expendable. God says I want to get at Job's heart and if it means that I have to take his children to do it, I will do it because we're going to determine what it is that Job is really made of and I say wow and I've known people and you have known people too where God has zeroed in and taken from them that which was most precious. I think of the missionary with a sick baby. Every day the missionaries would pray oh God send rain so that the river might be able to flow and that we can get help because that was the only means of transportation and there is no rain and the baby dies and they walk out of the house and torrents of rain come out of the sky.

If only that rain had come a day earlier or two days earlier they could have gotten help for what wasn't that difficult a medical problem. Almost as if God is saying I want you to trust me and I want to prove to you that I can take from you that which is most precious because when I want to try somebody nothing is untouchable. Nothing. When God says to Abraham, Abraham I want you to offer your son as a sacrifice. Abraham says okay let's go with Ishmael. God says I'm sorry but because I want to really try you Abraham it's going to be Isaac. It's going to be the son whom you love the most. There's a second lesson that we need to learn and that is in every trial that's including those that we bring upon ourselves and as I was looking at this I was reminded of the fact that many people are going to say well Pastor Luther this doesn't apply to me because Job had wind and hail and the Chaldeans and the Sabeans came whereas my problem is self-made.

Some of you have made for yourselves a nice big problem haven't you? Well I want you to know today that God stands as ready to help you and to comfort you in the problem that you have made as he is to help people in the problems that other people and circumstances have made for them. But number two at stake in any trial is always the worth of God. Always the worth of God. The fundamental question always is how much is God worth to you? You say well where is that in the text?

Look at this I read it quickly deliberately so that you wouldn't think about it too much so that we could think about it more carefully together now. You remember when Satan and God are having this dialogue and the Lord says you know Satan you have to realize that Job is a great man he's blameless and upright and he fears God and he turns away from evil. You know what Satan says in effect is?

Well who wouldn't? Look at Jesus. Hast thou not made a hedge about him on every side in his house? You've given him a wonderful family you've blessed the work of his hands his possessions have increased in the land. You know you've been buying him off. You've been bribing him. You've been giving him so many blessings and the more blessings you feed him the more he worships you and that only makes sense but God if you were to take from him those blessings that you have showered upon this man with all of his money and all of his servants and his fine family that everybody in town is admiring if you were to take all that from him then you would see that he would curse you to your face don't you understand that Job is in this because it is profitable to worship God but let it become unprofitable and he will curse you and that's your temptation and that is mine oh how easy it is how really easy it is to worship God when everything is going well when you are healthy and well and when the family is fine and when circumstances are good worship comes easily but when God does things you think that a good God should not do and when the difficulties of life begin to break in upon your soul and when you begin to see the pain in your life or in the life of other people and the things that you seemingly work your life for all taken away then the question is is God still a value to you or not his worth is always at stake in our trials number three events on earth events on earth must always be interpreted in light of events in heaven events on earth I've always got to be interpreted in light of events in heaven we need to try to see beyond the physical to the spiritual world you know we're going to be going through the book of job and we're going to be seeing some very interesting things as to what his friends are saying and the whole bit but you know it would have been so much easier for job if he had only known the first chapter of his book if he had only known that God and the devil had had this little dialogue he'd have said to himself you know I'm going to remain true to God no matter what if I'm important enough for the devil and God to talk about me I'm going to hang in but he didn't know that the tragedy came out of the blue without explanation without context without interpretation it just simply happened period but you know if we could remember that in the spirit world there is discussion about us some of you bless you who are going through excruciating trials if you could just remember that maybe God and the devil that are talking about you and saying you know have you considered my servant Mary or my servant Ruth or my servant John or Peter or Paul or whatever your name might be and there's a discussion going on as to whether or not you're going to go on believing God even when it seems as if he is no longer loving you and no longer blessing you have you ever thought of how much easier that would be to endure if you only knew it was happening I'm here to say to you today that maybe it is maybe it is Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer used to say that a secret sin on earth is an open scandal in heaven we commit a sin and it's secret and nobody knows it and in heaven you know it's it's big news because the devil is there is saying see see you redeemed him God but look at that look at how he's disobeying you and Jesus Christ is standing there and saying my precious blood was shed that this sinner be accepted and redeemed and that my righteousness be credited to his account despite his disobedience and and so you see there are things that are going on in the spirit world which you and I if we were privy to it would really impact the way we live here because the way we live here is really really really important but we don't see that so we think to ourselves no big deal all that happens is out of the blue life falls in without explanation without comment without interpretation it just happens and from our standpoint senselessly senselessly when I was a student at a Christian high school in Canada there was a young man there who trained to be a missionary pilot he's flying in India his first flight into a storm plane crashes in a mountain young woman left with three young children and I have to tell you in all honesty it makes absolutely no sense to me whatever none isn't God interested in helping the missionaries fly in India so that they can get around more easily why all this training to be a pilot who creates the storm you say well you know the storm was from the devil yeah of course yeah let's let's give the devil credit for the storm but who says to Satan here's something you can do here's a storm you can create because it is all in my power but God and that's why that young widow at that funeral could say it is God who took my husband events on earth have to be interpreted in light of events in heaven and finally it is possible it is possible to worship God without any explanations it's possible to worship God without explanations I admire job here he tears his robe and he shaves his head that's an Old Testament way of indicating your mourning and your grief and he falls to the ground and he worships and there's no interpretation of his trial given to him there's no sense that he is able to discern of it but he falls before God and he worships and he says naked I came from my mother's womb if I was born healthy it was because of God's grace and now if my health should be taken from me is it not of God naked came I from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there it is the Lord who gave it is the Lord who took away blessed be the name of the Lord without explanations my wife and I know some folks who've experienced suicide within their family circumstances that have never been resolved all these issues that are kind of out there and you'd like explanations and you can't seem to get a handle on those explanations because you're not privy to the knowledge and to the interpretation into the understanding and you have your own doubts as to what really happened and and you live and and you know that in this life no explanations will be given you have to wait until you get to glory to really find out all the answers as to what really happened what do you do in the meantime you fall on the ground and you worship and you say let God be God because it is possible to worship him even without without the kinds of explanations that you and I as humans so desperately seek I walked a mile with pleasure she chattered all the way but left me none the wiser for all she had to say I walked a mile with sorrow and there a word said she but all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me Lord gave the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord a footnote when I speak about worshiping God I need to remind you that in the New Testament that worship must always take place in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because that is our entrance into the throne room of the Heavenly Father and if you do not know Christ as Savior your worship will always be aborted because it is through the Savior who died for us that we can worship even when we don't understand would you join me now in prayer our father we stand amazed at the passage that we have just opened and read we stand amazed because of the breathtaking purposes that you have and the lengths to which you sometimes go to prove a point and we pray today that you might comfort all of us by knowing that behind the perplexities of life there is a God who holds us a God who limits a God who loves who keeps loving and a God who tries and a God who disciplines and a God who purifies help us to be comfortable with that God because it is you Oh Father it is you and bring us to a point of submission and yieldedness that before you with questions filling our minds we say in great humility blessed blessed be the name of the Lord for he doeth all things well father do your work in our hearts we pray and make us as responsive as job to your probing in Jesus name amen well at this moment I want to have a personal word with you from my heart to yours many of you are going through difficult trials heartbreaks death in the family a wayward child accidents sickness the list is long but I want you to know that in the midst of it if you are a believer God is there God is the one who can be believed God is the one whom we trust even when we do not understand as frequently as has been said we do not live by explanations but we do live by promises and you know in the book of Job what you discover is a man by the name of Zophar who says this widest thou strive against the almighty he giveth not account of his matters are you striving with God I encourage you to lay it down I've written a book entitled God why me lessons from the life of job it's actually based of course upon the sermon series that you are listening to right now for a gift of any amount this book can be yours here's what you do go to RTW offer.com that's RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 remember that running to win exists to make resources available to help you make it all the way to the finish line to run the race of life successfully and thanks in advance for helping us remember the title of the book God why me go to RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 I believe that this book will be of help and you'll be able to pass it along to others who need its message based on Job's experience. You can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 life can take tragic turns your retirement investments lose their value loved ones die you can experience great sorrow and disappointment but we must learn as Job did that God is still there next time on running to win how to face calamity when there's no apparent reason for it don't miss God I've lost everything thanks for listening for Dr. Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.