"Book of Job" sermon series
Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
For a single file that contains this series and 62 others click here: 1,000+ Sermon Archive.
Click on titles to read each sermon:
| Job 1:1-11 | "Do You Fear God For Nothing?" | ||||
| Introduction to Job. Many people identify with him because of his struggles. A key theme in Job is believing even when your faith does not "work." | |||||
| Job 3:20-26 | "Better Off Dead" | ||||
| Job's struggles are highlighted. He preferred to life and felt God was his enemy, as many people sometimes feel. Job's real crisis is faith, not suffering. In the midst of disaster, God can grant us peace. | |||||
| Job 8:1-9 | "When Friends Fail" | ||||
| Job's three friends talked too much and listened too little. We should resist interpreting God's will for another person's disaster. What people really need is compassionate listeners. | |||||
| Job 14:13-17 | "There's Always Hope" | ||||
| We may feel hemmed in by circumstances - and God - but believers always have hope. Even Job held to the hope of heaven in his despair. Sermon ends with a long real-life Korean War illustration. | |||||
| Job 25:4-6 | "Worm Theology" | ||||
| Job felt lower than a worm; should Christians? The Bible says all humans are sinners and we should be ashamed of our sins, but through the grace of God and salvation in Jesus we can stand tall. All humans have worth in God's eyes. (This sermon was given three years before the 1998 series.) | |||||
| Job 28:1-13 | "Digging Deeper" | ||||
| This chapter is a beautiful poem comparing a miner's search for treasure within the earth to a believer's search for the wisdom of God. Sermon looks at the nature of God's revelation and encourages Christians to seek God with all their heart and mind. | |||||
| Job 31:1-13 | "If...." | ||||
| Job consistently defends his integrity and challenges his friends to disprove it. Sermon focuses on the importance of inner purity, integrity before people, and integrity before God. We should regularly take assessment of our morality, but also realize our morality by itself will never be sufficient before a holy God. | |||||
| Job 32:1-12 | "Wisdom of youth" | ||||
| Can young people know something the old folk have missed? Toward the end of Job the young friend Elihu appears. He challenges the others on the grace, justice and majesty of God. He claims to speak not from experience but revelation and is the only friend not condemned by God. | |||||
| Job 38:1-14 | "Out of the Whirlwind" | ||||
| The climax of Job is familiar to many churchgoers. Storms make a great setting for theophanies but the message can be unsettling to modern readers. God does not explain why Job has suffered, but focuses on God's overwhelming knowledge, power and majesty - and the limitations of humans. His second speech says God is still moral, and his treatment of Job at the end shows he is magnanimous. In the end, Job is not about understanding suffering but maintaining belief against all odds. | |||||
| Christianity Today | "When the Facts Don't Add Up" | ||||
| An excellent article on the book of Job by Philip Yancey. I refer to this throughout my series. | |||||
| Christianity Today | "Why Did God Let It Happen?" | ||||
| Thoughts on Job and suffering by Alvera Michelson: "Perhaps the real point of the Book of Job is not to answer the question, 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' but rather to answer, 'How does a person of faith respond to the tragedies and joys that come in life?'" | |||||
| Rabbi Harold Kushner | "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" | ||||
| My summarization of Rabbi Kushner's popular treatment of the problem of theodicy in the book of Job. | |||||
First Baptist Church; Ledgewood, New Jersey
This document last modified July 14, 2003