"Out Of The Whirlwind” Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

Job is humbled by God (38:1-42:6)

Job is questioned by God #1: Can you explain my creation? (38:1-38).

Job is questioned by God #2: Can you oversea my creation? (38:39-39:30).

Job is questioned by God #3: Can you subdue my creation? (40:6-41:34)

Job replies to God (42: 1-6)

Job is rewarded by God (42: 10-16)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• Prof Stephen Hawking, was the eminent Cambridge scientist and cosmologist,

• Was, to put it simply a very clever man!

• But he was an ardent atheist, who once said:

• "Heaven is a fairy story created for people who are afraid of the dark"

• In response Prof John Lennox (Christian apologist) said this:

• "Atheism is a fairy story for those who are afraid of the light."

• TRANSITION:

• Two very clever men who hold two very different views regarding life & God.

• Quote: Frederick Langbridge (1849-1922) British Clergyman and author.

• “Two men looked out from prison bars, one saw mud, the other stars"

• We are often blinded by what we are looking for!

Ill:

• Prof Stephen Hawking had ALS Syndrome (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis),

• Which is a form of motor neurone disease,

• In 1963, when Hawking was 21, he was diagnosed with this crippling disease.

• And at the time, Hawking’s doctors told him that he would only live for two years.

• Well, he beat those odds and dies aged 76

• But his life was spent life in a wheelchair,

• Paralysed and able to communicate only via a computer speech synthesiser.

• Hawking said that before he became ill, he had very little interest in life.

• He called it a "…pointless existence" resulting from sheer boredom.

• He drank too much and did very little work.

• Then he learned he had ALS Syndrome,

• And given only two years to live.

• The news though shocking actually had a positive effect on him.

• He claimed to have been happier after he was afflicted than before.

• How can that be understood?

• Hawking himself provided the answer.

"When one's expectations are reduced to zero," he said, "one really appreciates everything that one does have."

• Stated another way:

• Contentment in life is determined in part by what a person anticipates from it.

• To a man like Hawking who thought he would soon die quickly,

• Everything takes on meaning;

• e.g. A sunrise or a walk in a park or the laughter of children.

• e.g. Suddenly, each small pleasure becomes precious.

• By contrast, those who believe life owes them a free ride,

• Are often discontent with its finest gifts.

• TRANSITION: When we experience suffering and loss,

• We either become bitter or better!

• And there is only one letter that separates those two words;

• And it is the letter, ‘I’

• And it all depends how I respond when difficulties and tragedies hit me.

• The choice for the Christian is simple;

• We either look within ourselves and wallow in self-pity, and resentment,

• Or we can look up ‘in faith’ to God to find the comfort, courage, the strength to go on.

Job experienced pain in all its fulness:

• Physical pain as he lost his health and suffered greatly;

• He was afflicted with sores from his head to his toes.

• Remember he lived in an age without pain relief,

• Or the many pills and potions available to you and me today.

• Emotional pain:

• As he experienced depression and anguish and despair.

• Intellectual pain as he struggled with the question of ‘Why?’

• Why did God allow all this suffering to take place to him?

• When he saw himself as a righteous person?

• Spiritual pain:

• How could the God he followed and was obedient to?

• Allow these things to happen to him?

• And why didn’t God intervene and answer his prayers.

Ill:

• Tulip Scott was a man with a strange name,

• Not many men are named after a flower,

• (But I am told he was no pansy, no weakling, no push over!)

• He reflects on when he was a child.

• And he recants how his mother used to take his hands and tie them together,

• Then she would tie them to his legs.

• He would struggle and scream and fighting as she did it,

• And being a child with limited understanding;

• He was convinced his mother was being cruel.

• It wasn’t until he was older when he had the capacity to understand,

• That his mother was able to explain to him what she was doing.

• He had smallpox and to stop him scratching away,