MUST WE APPEASE GOD FOR BLESSING? (3)
Scripture: Job 3:1-14
This content is part of a series.
Must We Appease God for Blessing? (3)
Series: Wisdom - Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edwards
Job 3:1-14:22
Introduction
[INTRO WITH LIBERTY MUTUAL COMMERCIAL] Don't worry, my intention is not to sell you insurance this morning. No, I just like these commercials because they very well illustrate a very common belief in world. It's an idea that is littered throughout the common culture: do good and good will come back to you. Apply this idea theologically and you conclude that God will bless you and reward you if you do good deeds. But develop it a little further and soon you come to a worldview where our motivation in doing good works becomes centered in receiving blessing from God. ''I hope God will bless me financially or with this new job or with a relationship, and so let me be sure to be a good person so God will reward me with what I want.'' Perhaps your mindset is not so worldly; instead you're more likely to say to yourself ''I hope God will bless me with heavenly rewards or even heaven itself, and so let me be sure to be a good person so God will reward me with heaven.'' Either way, we become guilty of that which Satan accused Job of: we fear and worship God for something we think we'll get out of it.
What we discover this morning in Job's first dialogues with his friends is that this is a common worldview. It is the prevailing worldview and wisdom of the world. God will bless us, but only if we appease Him. And so when there is a lack of blessing in our lives, we naturally conclude that we have failed to do what is necessary to satisfy Him. We move in our study of Job this morning to the largest portion of the book, the dialogues between Job and his friends. Essentially, what this portion of the book addresses is the failure of the wisdom of man to accurately diagnose and understand the circumstances of life.
If you've ever read closely through the book of Job before you know how repetitive chapters 4-37 can ...
Series: Wisdom - Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edwards
Job 3:1-14:22
Introduction
[INTRO WITH LIBERTY MUTUAL COMMERCIAL] Don't worry, my intention is not to sell you insurance this morning. No, I just like these commercials because they very well illustrate a very common belief in world. It's an idea that is littered throughout the common culture: do good and good will come back to you. Apply this idea theologically and you conclude that God will bless you and reward you if you do good deeds. But develop it a little further and soon you come to a worldview where our motivation in doing good works becomes centered in receiving blessing from God. ''I hope God will bless me financially or with this new job or with a relationship, and so let me be sure to be a good person so God will reward me with what I want.'' Perhaps your mindset is not so worldly; instead you're more likely to say to yourself ''I hope God will bless me with heavenly rewards or even heaven itself, and so let me be sure to be a good person so God will reward me with heaven.'' Either way, we become guilty of that which Satan accused Job of: we fear and worship God for something we think we'll get out of it.
What we discover this morning in Job's first dialogues with his friends is that this is a common worldview. It is the prevailing worldview and wisdom of the world. God will bless us, but only if we appease Him. And so when there is a lack of blessing in our lives, we naturally conclude that we have failed to do what is necessary to satisfy Him. We move in our study of Job this morning to the largest portion of the book, the dialogues between Job and his friends. Essentially, what this portion of the book addresses is the failure of the wisdom of man to accurately diagnose and understand the circumstances of life.
If you've ever read closely through the book of Job before you know how repetitive chapters 4-37 can ...
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