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Just Say You're Sorry

October 11, 2026 43:57 Cross Church Surprise
Bible Group Guide Service Handout
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Transcript

· Clean yourself up. Get your stuff together. Just say you're sorry. Apologize for stuff,

· even if you don't know if you really did it or not. Just say you're sorry to God,

· and He'll figure it out. But that's not what the gospel says.

· When Zophar says, clean yourself up, then God will come. The gospel says, God came first.

· If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it, open it up, and we're going to be in Job 11 today.

· Job 11. If you don't have a Bible, you can grab the one in the chair right in front of you.

· It works for me on page 447 in that Bible in the chair in front of you.

· But as you're flipping there, let me take you back a few years to

· Teenage Andrew. And when I say a few years, it was actually like 20 years ago.

· I know you're a little shocked by that, but 20 years, four less kids ago, yeah, all that stuff.

· But when I was a teenager, I grew up in church and was a good church boy,

· but my rebellion came in the form of music. I loved my bands, and some of them were

· Christian bands that screamed for Jesus. Some were not so much, and I just loved music.

· I went to show after show. We'd go to dive bars where I'd have to wear the bracelet,

· saying I could not drink alcohol because I was 15 years old, and I would go to these

· concerts and these venues, and I loved it. It was where my heart beats. If you ever say it's

· too loud in here, I went at 30 decibels higher, so I don't put that up. But this last summer,

· all right, they don't listen to me, the sound guys, they're like, ignore Andrew.

· But this last summer, I relived my teenage glory years, all right, and I went to Warp

· Tour in Long Beach. And let me walk you through what was happening in this. So this

· was 65,000 people gathering together in Long Beach. Lots of debauchery was happening. We're

· not gonna lie, all right? People saying things they shouldn't have said from stage, way too

· many people, men dressed like girls, girls dressed like scandalous women. I have other

· words for that. I had my cross-church hat on in case we ever make a cross-church

· Long Beach. I was already starting to promote early on there. But despite all this fun and

· chaos and craziness, here's the one picture I want you to see. You see what's happening in

· the middle here. Day two, as we're walking in and there's a fence that separates the

· 65,000 people from their cars in the road. But across the street, there was a

· microphone reading scripture. And I don't know if you can see these, it says,

· repent or perish. Sinners will go to hell fire. He who sins is of the devil.

· Now those are true statements. And as you see those, maybe you've gone to a Diamondbacks

· game or you've gone to a Suns game, a Cardinals game, or you've gone to a

· public event and you've seen someone on a megaphone screaming scripture with signs,

· repent or go to hell. Now when you see that, let's be honest, what we do,

· we duck our head and walk faster. You'd be like, hey, you know, I know they're

· Christian, but we're like a different family group. Like that's the crazy

· uncle we don't talk about or invite to Thanksgiving. And you see those people

· and you're like, okay, yes, that's true. Maybe the message they're saying,

· the scripture they're reading is true, but it doesn't feel very loving.

· And it doesn't feel very Christ-like. And oftentimes we know when we see

· things like that, their message is true, but they don't know the people

· that are walking into those doors. They don't know the kids or in this case

· in Long Beach, the millennial emos. They don't know the baggage they're

· carrying as they go into that concert. They don't know the divorce they're

· walking through, the kids that are strained, the job that weighs on them.

· And sometimes we can fall into the trap of being the Christians,

· whether to other brothers and sisters who are walking through the trials or

· the loss people around us of just the sounding horn of repent or go to hell

· when we don't truly know what people are going through in the lives around us.

· Well, today, as we continue on in the book of Job and Job,

· chapter 11, and to catch you up a little bit, we're going to continue on

· into the life of this man, Job. And Job here had this crazy story.

· He was this man 4,000 years ago who lived everything that looked like

· the American dream. He was on top of it all. He had the money.

· He had the family. He had the wealth. It was great.

· Everything was going good until it fell apart.

· And it fell apart because God and Satan and Heaven, a conversation that

· Job never saw, were having a wager saying that if you take all this

· away, he won't be faithful anymore. If you lose everything, Job's not

· going to go to church anymore. Job's not going to read his Bible

· anymore. Job's not going to pray anymore. And God said, bet for all you

· gents ears. But then as the story continues, we see Job's life falls

· apart. And as he falls apart, the last couple of weeks, we've seen

· friend after friend, use that in quotes, talk to Job.

· Eliphaz kind of eased into and says, hey, Job, the reason you're

· going through this is because you're getting what you deserve.

· And then his friend, Bill Dad, kind of built on that and he kind of

· struck a little bit harder and closer to the chest. He's like,

· tradition says, my people behind me say you've messed up somehow.

· There is something wrong. But today we come to friend number three,

· Zophar. And if we thought the other two were a jerk, Zophar just

· takes the cake. And Zophar is almost just like the guys on the

· megaphone preaching this message of you have done something wrong

· and honestly preaching this message of Job, just say you're sorry.

· Just repent for the sins you've committed. Just say that you

· screwed up. Say that you're messed up and your life will get

· better. But the problem here today and what we're going to see

· as we go through this text is Zophar is one way to communicate

· to our world. But we're going to see Job's response as a whole

· kind. And I want to take a little different approach with this

· passage. We're going to look at two different ways that

· Christians can come off to the world around us and to each

· other. The first is sometimes, believe it or not, Christians

· can come off like a jerk. Don't you know that?

· If you got a megaphone and telling everyone to go to hell,

· you're going to come off like a jerk. And Christians who

· come off like a jerk, sometimes we're like, that's not my

· intention, but we kind of fall into it when we're not

· careful. And let's see the way Zophar fell into this. And

· Christians who come off like a jerk, the first thing we see

· about them is they are sure about your sin. They are sure

· about your sin. Job chapter 11, starting in verse one,

· it says this, then Zophar, the Naamathite, replied,

· should this abundance of words go unanswered and such

· a talker be acquitted? He's talking about Job. Should

· your babbling put others to silence so that you can keep

· on ridiculing with no one to humiliate you? You have said,

· my teaching is sound and I am pure in your sight. But

· if only God would speak and open his lips against you.

· Remember that verse. In verse six, he says, he would

· show you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has

· two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook

· some of your iniquity. As Zophar begins his first opening

· line to move into this, is he calls Job a talker. In

· verse two, he says, you're such a talker, Job. In

· verse three, he says, you're babbling, Job. He says,

· you're all just about mouth. You're all words and no

· action. Then in verse four, he then puts words in Job's

· mouth. And this is huge. He says, you have said, my

· You see, what's important here and a little note on this is

· Job never said he was pure. Job said he wasn't wicked.

· I mean, Job says, I didn't sin to cause this, but Job

· never said, I have never sinned. There is a big

· difference. But Zophar isn't listening to what Job has

· said throughout the book that we've studied so far.

· Instead, he's listening to what he already decided that

· Job meant. And then he says the line that should make

· every one of us a little bit nervous in verse five.

· He said, if only God would speak and open his lips

· against you. Zophar is so sure about Job's sin, he's

· calling for God to back him up. He's like, hey, God, if

· you want to enter into this argument, we're going to

· tell Job together that he's wrong, right? My cardinals

· are a hot mess right now. We literally just traded our

· number four overall pick from two years ago, but we

· don't know who we traded him to, and we don't know

· what we're getting in return. Never heard of. The

· only way that happens is in the dysfunction of the

· cardinals, all right? And you're hearing a cardinal's

· example and not an OU example, because if you

· were here three years ago when Pastor Jackie was

· here, this whole sermon would be about beating

· Texas yesterday, all right? Who cares about Oklahoma?

· Why are you guys excited right now? Maybe you

· just don't like Texas. I don't know. Anyway, but

· I love watching sports, especially when you watch it

· with other people, because something happens, and even

· if you're in the stands or you're in a sports grill

· and bar, and something happens, you're like, that

· was out. You're like, call the replay. I know it.

· I'm sure. I got this. And then you watch the replay

· and you're like, maybe I wasn't as right as I

· thought I was right. I see things through a

· goggle of bias and depression for my Arizona

· sports teams, all right? Everything goes towards

· my team. But Zophar, he's like, hey, let the

· booze decide. He's like, the booze is God. He's

· like, rewind the tape. He's like, it's going to

· overturn the call. Job, you are going to be

· found out. The funny thing about this is in

· Job chapter 38, when God does speak, he

· actually rules in Job's favor and not Zophar.

· So be careful what you wish for. But verse

· six, verse six is one of the cruelest math

· things we've seen in this book so far is he

· says, know then that God has chosen to overlook

· some of your iniquity. He's like, Job, you've

· lost everything. You've lost your wealth. You've

· lost your kids and you've lost your health.

· But guess what? God's still being gracious

· to you because you deserve even worse than

· that.

· Oh,

· Job, you buried your kids. You lost

· everything, but you're getting off easy.

· Church, this is what it sounds like when

· you are sure about somebody else's sin.

· You stop listening to their story because

· you have already written the ending for

· their life, but Zophar is not done. He's

· just getting warmed up. Actually, he's not

· only sure about his sin, but it's a

· short trip to as he continues down this

· line, he is smug about God. And this is

· the same line that we take with

· Christians who come off like a jerk.

· He's smug about God. Keep going in

· verse seven of chapter 11. It says,

· can you fathom the depths of God or

· discover the limits of the Almighty?

· They are higher than the heavens. What

· can you do? They are deeper than

· what can you know? Their measure is

· longer than the earth and wider than

· the sea.

· Job is an interesting book because

· there's some beautiful words written.

· If you take these three verses and

· you put them on a coffee mug or put

· them on a sign and put it in your

· house, it is beautiful on their own.

· He's saying higher than the heavens,

· deeper than the grave, wider than

· the sea. Zophar's theology of God's

· greatness, of what we just saying in

· the greatness of God, it's exactly

· right. But here's the problem. In one

· breath, he says God is unsearchable.

· No one can figure him out. And in

· the next breath, he has figured out

· exactly why God is doing what he's

· doing to Job. In one breath, we're

· like, God is so big I can't even

· fathom him. In the next breath,

· we're like, you know why your life

· is messed up? Because God is

· punishing you because you're an

· idiot. Those don't go together.

· And then verse 12, he really drops

· the gloves. All right, you ready for

· verse 12? Just have your ears open

· at verse 12. This is in the Bible,

· okay? But a stupid person will gain

· understanding as soon as a wild

· donkey is born a human.

· I didn't edit that. That is the

· translation from the ancient Hebrew

· into English. He just called Job a

· donkey. Now today, this is like,

· this is a bad theology 101, all

· right? Because this is where all

· of a sudden Zophar is just going

· off. He's like, Job, you're a

· stupid donkey, right? But here's

· what it's like today. I think it's

· like the social media influencers who

· like go on chat GPT and ask about

· Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible,

· and then all of a sudden they make

· a TikTok video and they know more

· than the theologians who spent 40,

· 50, 60 years of their life

· studying God. But all of a sudden

· this TikTok guy who has a free

· subscription to chat GPT knows

· more about God than the

· theologian. And here Zophar's

· like, Job, I know you've been

· walking faithfully with God,

· but I talked to him and you're

· a stupid donkey, right? He's

· like, I got it figured out. I

· know what's wrong with you. And

· we see this line that smug

· knows a lot about God, but very

· little about people. And sure

· and smug always ends up in

· the same place. This is building

· this picture that we see

· of Zophar is he is sure

· about Job's sin. He is smug

· about what he thinks he knows

· about God, even though he

· doesn't have the full picture,

· but then it leads him to being

· stingy with grace. Check out

· verse 13 right after he calls

· him a stupid person and

· donkey. He says this in verse

· 13, as for you, if you

· redirect your heart and you

· spread out your hands to him

· in prayer, if there is

· iniquity or sin in your hand,

· remove it and don't allow

· injustice to dwell in your

· tents. Then you will hold

· your head high, free from

· salt from faults, and you

· will be firmly established

· and unafraid. There it is

· the title of the message. Job,

· if you just say you're sorry,

· if you just repents, if you

· do that, then this will

· happen. And let's be fair

· to Zophar a little bit.

· Repentance is good counsel.

· It is never a bad thing

· for us to repent of the

· sin that is in our life.

· When you've sinned, we

· turn back to God. That is

· true. But it just doesn't

· apply to Job. In Job, chapter

· one, the conversation that

· Job doesn't even know about

· and his friends don't know

· about, heaven, God himself

· said this whole thing isn't

· about the sin in Job's life.

· This is about Satan trying

· to prove God wrong.

· But catch the fine print here

· is Zophar's grace has

· conditions. When he says

· repent, what he also

· continues to say is Job

· clean yourself up, remove

· the sin from your life,

· get your act together,

· then God will show up.

· It's like those car

· commercials where they're

· like, dude, zero interest

· down, zero payment,

· and you get a Mercedes.

· That sounds great.

· And they're like zero

· down, zero here,

· and you get this car.

· And then at the very end,

· there's this fine print.

· They're like, not available

· in all states. You will

· sign your life away.

· If you don't pay us,

· we will take your whole

· house. And like it says

· the fine print super,

· super fast. There's actually

· an Arizona, we have a

· politician who is at the

· Arizona house, Nick

· Cupper, who's running

· for reelection.

· But he put a bill in

· last year to make it

· to those have to say

· it in the same pace

· and tone in commercials

· is they have to say

· the fine print the same

· as they say the happy

· stuff. So, you know,

· like when you say

· a prescription, this will

· change your life.

· It'll make great.

· There's a 50% chance

· you will die in six days.

· Like, why you got to

· say that part quiet?

· All right, don't talk

· about the hemorrhoids.

· They don't say that loud.

· They say it low, right?

· In so far, that's what

· we're talking about, right?

· So far, how many times

· have I said hemorrhoids

· in the sermon?

· I didn't even put that

· in my notes.

· It's more than one,

· which is a problem.

· All right.

· But this is so far as grace.

· You get this good stuff.

· But here's the asterisk,

· the fine print on it.

· You got to get

· your stuff together.

· But listen to how so far

· ends this entire beautiful

· super encouraging sermon

· that he's giving Job

· in verse 20,

· chapter 11 verse 20.

· He says this.

· He continues on.

· He says, but the sight

· of the wicked will fail.

· Their way of escape

· will be cut off.

· In their only hope

· is their last breath.

· That is quite the altar call.

· He's holding the sign.

· Repent or perish.

· If you're wicked,

· you're going to hell.

· True, but not loving.

· And you see, this is

· his closing line

· to a grieving man.

· He's like Job,

· if you don't do

· what I said,

· you know where you're going to go.

· The only hope you have

· is in your last breath.

· So far, like Christians

· who be kin can come off

· like a jerk is sure

· about someone else's sin.

· He is smug about God.

· He is stingy with grace.

· And the saddest part of all this

· is so far things

· he's defending God,

· which we'll talk about

· in a second.

· But now Job gets

· to answer him.

· And in three chapters of Pushback,

· Job shows us

· what friends should have been like.

· And I just love this

· because Job needed a friend,

· but Job didn't get a friend

· from so far.

· Instead, Job gets to show them

· what a friend should have looked like.

· And we saw Christians

· who come off like a jerk.

· What about Christians

· who come off like a friend?

· And see, here's the first thing

· we see from the life of Job

· in his speech

· is they see what they lost.

· See what they lost.

· Flip over to chapter 12,

· starting in verse five,

· in verse four, I'm sorry.

· Job, as he's answering him,

· he says this,

· I am a laughing stock

· to my friends

· by calling on God who answers me.

· He's like, my life

· has become a wreck.

· He's like, me calling on God

· to ask for something?

· He's like, you guys are laughing at it.

· He says, the righteous

· and blameless man

· is a laughing stock.

· He says, but the one who is at ease

· holds calamity and contempt

· and think it's prepared for those

· whose feet are slipping.

· Job is saying here,

· it's easy to preach to me

· from where you're sitting.

· He's like, you guys are at ease.

· You guys are comfortable.

· Your kids are alive.

· Your barns are full.

· He's like, your skin

· is not breaking out

· and boils that ooze

· past day and night.

· He says, from where you are standing,

· he says, my life,

· my ash heap

· looks like something I earned.

· But remember how these first three

· showed up in the first place.

· In chapter two,

· at the end of chapter two

· in verse 12,

· Job's friends first noticed him.

· It says, when they looked

· from a distance,

· they could barely recognize him.

· And when they saw their friend

· had been hurting,

· it says they wept aloud.

· They saw him.

· That was the best moment

· they ever had.

· But somewhere between chapter two

· and chapter 11,

· when his friends just talk,

· they stopped looking at Job

· and they started looking

· at their theology

· and they started judging his life

· in a way that was not

· biblically correct.

· You see, a friend sees

· what you lost

· before they say a word

· about why your situation

· is happening.

· What they should have saw

· over and over again

· is this man lost 10 children.

· This man lost a business.

· He lost his health,

· his reputation,

· and now he has lost

· even his friends.

· But friends who see this stuff,

· they name the losses.

· They help grieve the losses

· before they ever try

· to explain it.

· Yesterday I went to a funeral

· and one of the things

· that, you know,

· being a pastor

· that I never really understood

· or could quantify

· as I was called to ministry

· at 15 years old,

· is God never told me,

· like, you're going to go

· to a lot of funerals

· in your life.

· Like, you just don't think

· about that.

· You know it's there,

· but until you're in it,

· and I've been in ministry

· for a little over 10 years

· and in that time

· I've been a funeral

· after funeral after funeral

· and here's what I found out.

· The ones I've done,

· the ones I've sat with friends,

· the one I've sat with family

· is you don't get special words

· to say to fix the situation.

· The best thing you can do

· at a funeral

· is you can pray

· and you can be available

· and you can grieve

· with those who are hurting.

· And Joe was looking for friends

· who were seeing

· everything he had lost,

· seeing the heartache

· that he had gone through

· instead of trying to fix

· his life in their way.

· But then a friend

· does a second thing.

· As we continue on this,

· they not only see what he lost,

· but then they look at this

· and this is where

· the gospel starts to come

· in a powerful way

· is they send them to God.

· Send them to God.

· Keep going in chapter 13

· looking at verse 3 of this.

· Job continues to talk

· and he says,

· Yet I prefer to speak to the Almighty

· and argue my case before God.

· That's Job's nice way of saying,

· you guys are all morons

· and I'm arguing my case to you,

· but you're not even listening to me.

· I'm going to take it straight to God.

· In verse 4, he says,

· you use lies like plaster.

· You are like worthless healers.

· In verse 5, he says,

· if only you would shut up

· and let that be your wisdom.

· That's a coffee cup verse

· if I've ever heard one, right?

· These are crazy.

· This is all the book of Job, right?

· All right.

· The next time someone gives you advice

· that you were not looking for

· just to be like,

· Hey, can you do me a favor?

· Go look up Job chapter 13 verse 5

· and just read it out loud, all right?

· That's my answer for you from God.

· But look at verses 7 and 8, all right?

· Because this is where Job really nails it

· and starts to get to some powerful stuff in here.

· In chapter 13, verse 7, he says,

· would you testify unjustly on God's behalf

· or would you speak deceitfully for him?

· Verse 8, would you show partiality to him

· or argue the case in his defense?

· Remember last week, if you were here,

· Job needed someone to speak for him before God.

· This week, Job's friends have appointed themselves

· as Job's defense attorneys.

· And Job's like, I didn't ask you to do that.

· And church, here's what's important for us

· is God does not need you

· to defend him from somebody's pain.

· God is big enough to take the questions

· of our world when things are hard.

· People ask like, why God is this happening?

· Why God did you allow this?

· Why did you allow someone to die?

· Why did you allow this?

· Why is this happening?

· Why is that happening?

· And sometimes we feel like we need to go

· and be like, let me speak on behalf of God

· and argue that our God is really loving

· and not cruel in this situation

· and I'm gonna show you how God is so great.

· God doesn't need you to come in and bail him out.

· He is the God of the universe.

· Your job isn't to protect God's reputation

· because usually when we try to protect God's reputation,

· we hurt God's reputation by the dumb things we do.

· But your job is to walk them to him,

· the God of the universe.

· Verse 12 says that the answers they give

· are proverbs of ash.

· Job is like modern day, the whole live, laugh, love,

· sign of theology, it looks nice on the wall,

· but it crumbles when you actually need it.

· And here's what happens when you stop

· getting answers from people

· and start taking your case straight to God

· instead of trying to fix their life.

· Verse 15 might be the greatest sentence of faith

· in this whole book that as he's going through

· all these trials, all this hardship,

· check out verse 15, he says this,

· even if he kills me, he's talking about God.

· I will hope in him.

· I will still defend my ways before him.

· That's not the voice of a man

· who is walking away from God,

· that's a man who is holding on with both hands.

· A friend doesn't send you to their opinion,

· a friend sends you to God.

· And here's the deal, I have lots more

· we gotta get into, but I'm moving quick, all right?

· But just this past week, there is a girl who came

· and she's like, hey, I've been inviting

· my friend at church, she works on Sundays,

· so I went to CCB on Saturday with her,

· and I was like, that's great, another great church

· in our valley, we need more churches,

· and surprise, because we're growing too quick

· and we got too many lost people

· and not enough saved people and not enough churches.

· And she actually took him, she's like,

· but I feel awkward, because it was about giving,

· which every time you invite a friend to church,

· it happens to be on the sermon

· that talks about giving.

· And she said after, she's like,

· I don't wanna go back to church,

· that was so uncomfortable, she's like,

· I don't want anything to do with God,

· that's not for me, and she's like,

· did I mess up by inviting her to church?

· I was like, no, keep praying, keep inviting,

· in there, just be like, hey, I promise,

· no church talks about giving every week,

· and I'm like, keep doing the work

· and don't apologize that maybe a message

· hit someone away that convicted them

· in something that they're like,

· I don't want anything to do with this,

· but sometimes it's a slow burn

· and seeds being planted that will come

· to harvest later, and here's the thing is,

· we're not meant to defend God,

· we don't have to do that,

· instead we just send them, we bring them,

· we walk them to God, but then a friend

· does the hardest thing of all,

· and it's the last thing we see

· from Job's speech is they stay

· until hope shows, stay until hope shows.

· Check out, go on to chapter 14,

· starting in verse one, Job continues,

· it says, anyone born of a woman,

· it's short of days and full of trouble.

· Man, isn't that so true?

· Hey, if you were born from a woman,

· which is all of us in the room

· and watching online, right?

· Your days are gonna be short

· and it's gonna be full of trouble

· when we live in a broken sinful world.

· Verse two, he blossoms like a flower,

· but then withers, he flees like a shadow

· and does not last.

· Job chapter 14 is Job's funeral song

· for the human race.

· He's like, anyone who lives on this earth,

· we are but dust, we are here today

· and gone tomorrow and is super

· and we could go a little bit deeper

· into this to the depressing nature of that,

· but we don't fully have time,

· but let's skip down a verse

· because then all of a sudden

· he changes the metaphor

· and then he looks at a tree.

· Check out verse seven of chapter 14.

· He says, but there is hope for a tree.

· Well, that's nice Job, no hope for mankind,

· but there is hope for a tree, all right?

· If it is cut down, it'll sprout again

· and its shoots will not die.

· If its roots grow old in the ground

· and its stumps start to die in the soil,

· the scent of water makes it thrive

· and produce twigs like a spalding.

· Some of you have seen this in the desert

· where a plant will come up

· and then all of a sudden

· you cut it down and you want it to die.

· You take an oleander,

· you put gasoline on an oleander

· and it will come back, all right?

· But somehow the ficuses in my backyard

· who have been there for two years,

· they did not come back.

· So Tanner and Mason,

· our pastor appreciation month,

· are putting new things in my yard.

· They already agreed to it

· because they're in my Bible group

· and I told them they're doing it.

· But there is hope for trees and bushes.

· It can be cut down and it can grow back up,

· but in mankind when it's cut down,

· it's cut down.

· But listen to as he describes these plants.

· He says the stump doesn't even need a flood.

· It's just the scent of water.

· Church, sometimes you can't be

· the rain in somebody's life.

· You can't fix all their problems.

· You can't just nourish

· everything they're looking for.

· You can't bring them back what they lost,

· but maybe you can be the scent of water

· and where to find that water.

· That scent of water could be a text.

· It could be a meal.

· It could be a chair next to theirs.

· Just enough of a gesture

· to remind a dying stump

· that life is still possible.

· Job says a stump has more hope than I do.

· Cut down a tree and it sprouts.

· Cut down a man.

· In verse 12,

· he lies down to never rise again,

· but then in the middle of the darkness,

· Job asks the biggest question

· in this entire book.

· Job, chapter 14, verse 14,

· he says this.

· When a person dies,

· will he come back to life?

· He asked this over 4,000 years ago

· and we're still asking

· this same question today.

· If so, I would wait

· all the days of my struggle

· until my relief comes.

· If a person dies,

· will he come back?

· For the first time in this book,

· Job starts to wonder about life after death

· and he gives a question.

· He does not give an answer.

· Chapter 14 ends in the dark.

· Hope hasn't shown up yet

· and that's exactly where a friend stays.

· A friend doesn't need you

· to be done hurting by chapter 14.

· A friend doesn't need your hope

· on their schedule.

· A friend waits with you

· all the days of your struggle

· until your relief comes.

· That's why the church exists.

· That's why things like Bible groups exist,

· is it's not people

· who are gonna fix your issues.

· If you go to Bible group

· and want people to fix your life,

· they will make your life worse probably

· because they will give you their opinions

· more than they give you the gospel at times.

· But it's there where we can have a community

· and we can be with each other

· through the struggles of life

· bringing each other back

· to the God of the universe

· who can truly fix our issues.

· It's a group of people

· who stay together until hope shows up

· but put in as we look at

· all this passage we've covered

· and four chapters, man, again,

· Job is no joke here, all right?

· You wonder why I've been preaching

· 45 minutes every Sunday.

· I've been trying, all right?

· But you put Zophar's sermon

· next to Job's question.

· Zophar ends in chapter 11 verse 20

· and says that their only hope

· is their last breath.

· Super encouraging.

· But Job's question

· is when a person dies,

· will he come back to life?

· One man hands down a sentence

· while the other man is reaching

· for a resurrection.

· But here's what's so cool is

· Job doesn't fully answer his question

· in the book of Job

· but we do get an answer to his question

· in the New Testament.

· In Paul writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,

· starting in verse 20, I love, last week,

· we answer Job's question in the book of Job

· that came out through the New Testament

· and through Paul's words

· and it happens again as it is

· when Job asks, can someone come back to life?

· 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20 says this,

· but as it is, Christ has been raised

· from the dead.

· That's the hope and the glory we have

· but listen to this,

· as the firstfruits of those

· who have fallen asleep.

· For since death came through a man,

· the resurrection of the dead

· also comes through a man,

· the God-man in Jesus Christ.

· Verse 22, for just as in Adam,

· all die, so also in Christ,

· all will be made alive.

· But each in his own order,

· Christ the firstfruits afterward

· at his coming,

· those who belong to Christ.

· What Paul tells us

· is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ

· was the firstfruits,

· meaning the first sprout of the harvest.

· When the farmer sees the fruit,

· the firstfruit breakthrough

· come from the ground,

· he knows the rest are coming too.

· And Job said that a tree

· has more hope than a man,

· so God sent a man

· who would come out of a stump.

· Isaiah said it,

· a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse.

· Jesus was cut down on the cross.

· He was killed in his flesh.

· He was laid in the ground,

· but on the third day,

· the stump sprouted.

· And when a person dies,

· the question of will he come back to life?

· The answer is yes,

· but here's why the answer is yes.

· And church, this is what is important,

· because Jesus did come back to life.

· Yes, in Christ,

· it tells us that all will be made alive.

· And listen to what Job longed for

· right after the big question.

· In chapter 14 of Job,

· in verse 17, I love this,

· he cries for this.

· He doesn't even know

· the answer to his question

· is, is there life after death?

· But he says, my rebellion

· would be sealed up in a bag,

· and you would cover my iniquity.

· Job's like, I know all of us are sinners.

· I know I didn't cause this situation,

· but I've caused other ones.

· And Job never claimed to be sinless.

· He was longing for the sins

· of his life to be covered.

· And at the cross,

· that's exactly what the death of Jesus did.

· Jesus tied off the bag.

· He carried it away.

· And here's the difference

· between Zophar's gospel

· and the real one,

· is Zophar said,

· hey, you want to know God?

· Clean yourself up.

· Get your stuff together.

· Just say you're sorry.

· Apologize for stuff,

· even if you don't know

· if you really did it or not.

· Just say you're sorry to God

· and he'll figure it out.

· But that's not what the gospel says.

· When Zophar says, clean yourself up,

· then God will come.

· The gospel says, God came first.

· In Romans chapter five, eight,

· it says that while we were still sinners,

· Christ died for us.

· Not once we got our act together.

· We'd still be waiting for that.

· Jesus would be chilling up in heaven,

· be like, you guys any closer

· to getting it together

· so I can come down?

· But while we were still sinners,

· he came down.

· Repentance isn't the price you pay,

· church, to get God's attention.

· It's turning around

· to find that he's been running

· towards you the whole time.

· And the beauty of this

· is that as he's hanging on a cross,

· Jesus was surrounded by people

· who were sure about his sin,

· the sin he did not have.

· They were smug about God

· and their theology,

· claiming him to be a heretic

· when he was the fulfillment

· of what God had said.

· And they were stingy with the grace of God.

· And what did Jesus do?

· He prayed,

· Father, forgive them

· because they do not know

· what they are doing.

· Here's the deal is Jesus was not a jerk.

· We can all agree on that.

· But Jesus was our friend

· and he is our savior.

· So church, how do we practice

· this today?

· Well, here is the enduring truth

· that we see throughout this passage.

· When we see the speech of Zophar,

· when we see the reply of Job

· is we can be the Christians

· who come off like a jerk

· or we can be the Christians

· who come off like a friend.

· And here's the big difference

· between all of that

· is a jerk says

· that you are going to hell.

· And guess what?

· In your sin,

· that is where you are destined.

· That is where you belong.

· But a friend,

· someone who loves you,

· who stays with you,

· who brings you and walks you to God,

· who stays until the hope shows a friend

· says you can go to heaven.

· And you can go to heaven

· because Jesus paid the price

· on the cross for your sins.

· You don't have to clean up your act.

· Instead, what the Bible says

· is we confess with our mouth

· and we believe in our heart

· that Jesus is Lord,

· that he took our sins upon the cross,

· that he raised to defeat those sins

· and by that confession of faith,

· by that following of Jesus Christ,

· no longer are we destined for hell,

· but we are destined for heaven.

· And we can be like the people

· in our world

· who yell from the rooftops

· the truce of scripture

· that hell is a real place.

· Do not hear me wrong.

· But before we condemn people to hell,

· what if we just shared the gospel,

· we loved them,

· we were their friends

· before we were their judge in life.

· You know, here's the irony

· about my rebellious teenage face

· is as I went to dive bars

· watching shows

· and went to Warped Tour

· and almost passed out

· and died as a 14-year-old,

· I got to watch these bands

· who lived out their faith

· in the most pagan of places,

· who as people are punching each other

· in the face, they'll be like,

· hey, the only reason we do this

· is that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

· I'm like, yeah.

· And the dude next to me is like,

· after I'm like,

· I don't think you know

· what he just said, all right?

· But good for you.

· Hope Jesus saves you.

· But in there,

· I got to see the bold proclamation

· and I've said this before to my friends,

· there's no way I'd be in ministry

· if I didn't have a rebellious face

· going through music

· where I saw Jesus in those scenes

· and in that he called me to be a pastor

· in the craziest of ways

· and I got to see it on display

· in the darkness

· where we still got to love people through it.

· So church, which one are we gonna be?

· Are we gonna be the jerks

· or are we gonna be the friends?

· And maybe you're like, well,

· I wanna be the friend

· and I hope you do too.

· Like, what is a way

· that we can practically do that today?

· There's a card on your chair

· and in two weeks,

· we are just on the cove

· of maybe the darkest,

· most crazy holiday in the world, right?

· Halloween, oh,

· that's a dirty word to say in church

· because some people take it too far.

· Some people are crazy.

· Some people do things that are evil and demonic,

· but it's also a day

· where strangers show up to your house,

· knock on your door and ask for candy.

· Are we gonna be a jerk in this season?

· Are we gonna be a friend

· pointing people to Christ?

· And one of the ways we're actually doing this

· in a way, maybe you're like,

· I'm in a community

· that people don't come to my house.

· If 65-year-olds are knocking on your door,

· that's a little weird on Halloween,

· asking for candy, all right?

· But here's an opportunity,

· we have two weeks right here on our service,

· is we're doing a Costumes and Candy Sunday

· here at church

· where we're inviting our community,

· we're inviting the kids.

· Just, I was sitting in my office

· right next to one of the doors in the school

· where we have a sign for this

· on our school door

· where a lot of those people

· don't go to church anywhere

· and I heard a dad dropping off a kid

· and he said, costumes and candy,

· bud, we gotta go to that.

· If we can be relevant,

· we can hand out,

· and this is what I'm gonna,

· I'm gonna email out our Bible group leaders,

· we're gonna set up tables around our campus

· and you're gonna get communication this week

· and I want our Bible groups

· to man those tables,

· to hand out candy

· to the kids that come on our campus

· on Sunday mornings

· and love them

· like Christ loves us.

· Invite people to be a part of it.

· If you don't know kids and families in your life,

· invite an old person to come

· hand out candy to kids with you.

· But in this,

· let us in the season,

· let us in every season,

· not be the people holding up signs

· saying repent or go to hell,

· but the people who say,

· walk with me and let me show you

· the savior of this world

· who knows you,

· who loves you,

· who is your friend

· and can show you

· a whole new life now

· and for all of eternity.

· Church, who will we be?

· The Christians who come off like a jerk

· or the ones who come off like a friend?

Part of Series

Job

Job

View all episodes
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Nobody to Speak For Me

Nobody to Speak For Me

36:45

 You Must Have Done Something

You Must Have Done Something

44:13

 Permission to Fall Apart

Permission to Fall Apart

39:12

 God, Satan, and Life

God, Satan, and Life

39:46

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