5/18/2025 Worship Service & Sermon: Job’s Early Replies - Three readings from Job

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5/18/25 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Three readings from Job
Title: Job's Early Replies
Speaker: Steve Estes

First reading

Then Job replied: If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas--no wonder my words have been impetuous...What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? (Job 6:1-3, 11-12)

Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, "How long before I get up?" The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. (7:1-7)

Second reading

Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; You will look for me, but I will be no more. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more. (7:7-10)

Why then did You bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment's joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even light is like darkness. (10:18-22)

Third reading

I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is man that You make so much of him, that You give him so much attention, that You examine him every morning and test him at every moment? Will You never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You made me Your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do You not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; You will search for me, but I will be no more. (7:11-21)

Notes:

1. Review
A. The story
B. Our approach working through the Book of Job

2. The Book of Job illustrates that God may allow believers to suffer intensely

3. The Book of Job shows factors that intensify believers' sufferings
A. Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp the role of Satan in them
B. Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp how God's glory can shine through them
C. Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp that heavenly rewards await believers who remain faithful
D. Sufferings intensify through the voices of unhelpful friends

4. The Book of Job shows that true believers who suffer keep engaging God
A. Job frankly speaks about and to God
B. Yet he does not bolt!

5. Lessons
A. Much misery comes from what Christians know yet disbelieve
B. God mercifully receives believers who are far from perfect

3/30/25 Worship Service & Sermon: Job’s Lament - Job 2:11-13, Job 3

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3/30/25 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Job 2:11-13, Job 3
Title: Job's Lament
Speaker: Steve Estes

When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Notes:

1. Introduction
A. Review
B. Job's friends arrive

2. Job begins his lament

3. Job utters a series of curses
A. A curse
B. "May God not care about that day"
C. "May that day be shrouded in darkness

4. "Why?"
A. The universally spoken three-letter word
B. How Job imagines the grave
C. The final "why"
D. Summary

5. Applications
A. God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly
B. It is important for believers to acknowledge another's suffering before explaining it
C. It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’

4 That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.

5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.

6 That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months.

7 May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.

8 May those who curse days[a] curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

9 May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,

10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?

12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?

13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,

15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?

17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.

18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.

19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,

21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?

23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.

25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” #job #lament #curse

Additional Notes:

Job utters a series of curses

1. A curse

2. “God may not care about the day of his birth”

3. “May that day be shrouded in Darkness”

“Why” questions

1. The universally spoken 3-letter word

2. How He imagines the grave

3. Final "“Why”

4. summary

Principle: God sometimes Lets the RIGHTEOUS suffer terribly

1. Yet God himself affirmed Job as righteous

Principle: It is important for believers to acknowledge another’s suffering before explaining it

It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

CONCLUSION