Job 3:26 – “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

We all will at some time in our life suffer a crushing crisis, no matter who you are you can’t win them all. So what do you do about the challenges you don’t win? What about the devastating defeats, like the hopelessness that comes when your health fails. What do you do with the punishing pain, overwhelming sorrow and suffering that seems to snuff out life? When your dreams die and you sink under the heaviness of the hardship? When your ambitions are replaced with agony? Or when that fond hope you have cherished and nurtured for years, will never be realized? What happens when your smiles are stolen and life slips away? What do you do? The greatest measure of a person isn’t in how they handle things during the fair weather but when it all falls apart. Its often the decisions we make during the defeats that determine who we will be when we come out of the difficulties. Our attitude in the agony is one of life’s greatest challenges. Some look at Job as a book of answers but really it is a painful yet powerful revelation of the human experience. Job is an ordinary man facing extraordinary life circumstances, crushing ones he has no control over. Sooner or later in this life something big enough will surface and swallow you, something that you can’t control or fix, and it is Job that gives us the insight into the how not the why. Job’s reality was recorded to give us insight into how to handle the tragedies of life, both ours and others for we are not the only ones suffering. It shows us the positive as well as the negative and what not to do as we comfort and counsel. The problem is that for many of us we miss the teaching of Job because we get hung up on the why Job suffered, and missing the how he handles adversity. One of the greatest questions of life is “what will you do with defeat?” Defeat can either cause you to discover a deeper dependence on God or or drive you to despair. For many the only thing they gain from defeat is discouragement and depression. None of us like the devastation of defeat yet I have always learned more through the losses. We can glean and grow through the trials or we can give up. For the righteous rest can be found even in the relentless pain because helpless does not mean hopeless. Our challenge today is that we try to rest on our own results, we believe it is up to us, we are a society stuck, mired in self effort. A phrase that is often quoted and many even think is in the Bible is, “God helps those who help themselves.” not only is this not in the Bible but it is also not consistent with what the Bible teaches. All of us face situations in which we are powerless to help ourselves and if God only helped those who helped themselves, then we would all be in deep trouble. Helplessness is endemic to the human experience, it begins at birth and usually precedes our death. And although helplessness can come in a whole variety of ways we can have hope in our helplessness because of God’s holy hand.

When you look at the life of Job two things stand out:
First suffering is not always the result of sin. In the first two chapters we learn that Job was blessed with great fortune and family and if it were not revealed to us about what went on in heaven, we might assume that Jobs affliction was the result of him disobeyed and displeased God. Yet the very opposite was true, Job was faithful to the Father, his wealth didn’t keep him from worship. He lived a righteous life yet, attackers carried off his wealth, raiders killed many of his servants, stealing his livestock. Fire fell from Heaven and burned his sheep and many servants, a tornado took his children, his health failed being afflicted with painful sores from head to toe. Yet we read in Job 1:22, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Suffering is not always the result of sin, what if God were to punish us today for the sins we’ve committed, how many of us would be in the hospital or if you are like me the grave. Not one of us would be well enough to even walk into a service to worship. What most of us miss is God’s grace and goodness, we miss His patient kindness. The second observation is that when God doesn’t answer our questions, we already have enough for the test. Have you ever taken a test and in the middle tried to ask the teacher for the answer in some way. When we were younger we tried but as we grew older we realize that the teacher was not going to give the answer because they had already given us enough prior to the test. In chapter 3 we find Job asking God why he is going through such a hard test? Job asked, “Why did God allow me to be born? Why didn’t I die at birth? Why can’t I die to escape this anguish?” When we are in the midst of life’s test, we often ask, “Why me? Why do I have to have this illness?” “What is the purpose of this? Why can’t I learn this lesson some other way?” Often when no answer comes the response is to turn from God and stop trusting. Job did not curse God, he did not leave God he stated in Job 2:10, “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” The truth is that even though Job had questions during the test he knew enough about God’s goodness before it came to answer his own heart’s questions. What about us do we know enough of God’s ways and goodness to answer our own heart’s questions? May be you are in the middle of the test right now and you are frantically demanding an answer from the Almighty, have you looked at what God has already said in His Word, the Bible? Knowing enough for the test does not always mean that we will apply what we know to the test. Applying what we know requires recall, yet during the test, most of us draw blanks and forget what we know. Job also forgot the specific ways God was good to him because life’s tests have a way of blurring God’s blessings. Job’s lamenting and questions reflected his helplessness but not his hopelessness. Helplessness is a feeling often based in the fact of our powerlessness to help ourselves. Our wealth, our work, our support systems found in family and friends, and even our will to live can be taken from us. In these moments of helplessness only our hope in God will enable us to recover and be restored. Where we place our hope determines our help, Job placed his hope in God, he chose to rested in God’s:

Sovereignty. In Job 42:2 we hear Jobs heart when he says “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” God’s sovereignty reflects who is in charge, it is our submission to this sovereignty that reflects to the world who is really in control. When we say that God is in charge this does not mean that we are like puppets pulled and played on a sovereign string, rather God’s sovereignty assures us that even when the earth quakes, when the doctors can’t help, when life’s dreams become nightmares, and everything seems out of control, God is still in charge. God’s sovereignty has been my security through the storms, His sovereignty has allowed me to be steadfast when everything else seemed to shift. For me there is no attribute more comforting than God’s sovereignty. Knowing that He is in control in the midst of the chaos brings me reassuring rest. Regardless of the adverse circumstances, in spite of the severe trials, God is still in control. Sovereignty has ordained our afflictions, sovereignty overrules them, and sovereignty will sanctify them. Job was helpless, but he was not hopeless, he didn’t know he was the subject of a test between God and satan, but he knew God was in charge.

Second, Job chose to rest in God’s righteousness. In Job 4:17 he says: “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?” God’s righteousness means that He will always do what is right, He fully understanding the situation, His motives are pure, His evaluation is accurate, and His knowledge is complete. We do not know the future and may not see our situation in light of the complete picture, for our moment of helplessness may turn out to be the foundation for our triumph. Regardless of the unknown we can rest in the truth that God will always do what is right in our lives.

Third, Job chose to rest in God’s redemption, in Job 19:25-27 Job states: “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” God is the One who will justify or pay back what we’ve lost in life, no matter how we have been treated, wether abused, persecuted or served an unfair hand, those who hope in God’s redemption will see His power revealed. It may not be in this life, but for sure in eternity. Unfortunately, many turn from God during the test because we demand instant gratification. We want our situation to improve immediately, but hope shouldn’t be hurried. In a materialistic and instant society, it is hard to hope in the unseen and to believe in what is yet to become. Yet if we are to have courage, strength and perseverance to move through helpless times, we must have hope in God’s future redemption. Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” Romans 8:18, 24-25. What is your hope resting on? Are you resting on the character of God, His sovereignty, righteousness, and redemption.? Let me encourage you to remember and recite aloud today the words of Isaiah 40:28-31, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Hebrews 4:9-11
“So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.”

We live in a fast paced society with little time to rest and relax, where there are many demands placed upon us that are often overwhelming. There never seems to be enough hours in a day or enough days in the week to accomplish all that we must accomplish, let alone space on our calendars. We have resorted to working for the weekend, waiting with great anticipation for that moment when we can stop and get a little rest. Yet even here our weekends are scheduled with lists that must be accomplished, so even the little time off that we have is consumed by our many responsibilities. Before we know it, Monday has come again and we start the same process over in a never ending cycle called the rat race! I have to question “is this really the life that God intended for His children?” Somehow I don’t believe that this is what God had in mind when He created the first man and woman. I think God intended for us to enjoy life and not just endure it, to thrive and not just survive. Life was meant to be a wonderful, an eternal existence walking with the Lord in the cool of the evening. Our work in His garden was intended to bring satisfaction as we toiled in things that had real significance. Yet through the fall we went from the blissful and blessed life to the miserable and more life. Today we need more than just physical rest we need a spiritual one. Hebrews 4:9-11reminds us that “there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.” When you look around it becomes obvious that God’s people are not always resting in The Lord. It seems that there are many who are always laboring in an attempt to prove their own self-worthiness to be called a Child of God. Hebrews 1:3 says that “when he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.” We need to be reminded that Jesus completed His work of Redemption and Salvation and entered into a place of rest. Because Jesus has completed the work of our salvation, we too can enter into that rest following Him. Hebrews 8:1 puts it this way: “Here is the main point we have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.” Why are so many today missing the main point, why do we feel that we must try so hard to be a Christian? The ironic thing is that trying to do something to be a Christian does not give me or anyone any indication that we are “at rest” in Jesus. The problem is that we are still “trying” to do something that we can’t finish. We are back on the crazy cycle that never ends only this time we have traded races and now we are running the religious rat race. So I what to ask you a few personal, probing questions that I hope you will take time to reflect on:
When will you ever be good enough?
At what point in your life will you feel that you have done enough to be called holy?
How many prayers must you pray and for how many hours?
How many sacrifices must you make before you will feel that you have paid enough?
How many things must be removed from your life before you will consider yourself perfect in the sight of God?
The truth is this kind of perfection cannot be purchased or earned through self-sacrifice. When we realize that Jesus has done it all and that there is nothing we can do to earn anymore than what Jesus has already given us then we will start to learn to “rest” in His salvation. No one can remove the responsibilities of your job, home and family or remove the amount of work and effort that must be done in order to provide for these things. We all have toil in this life for we are living under the effects of sin yet even with the worlds demands there is hope. There is rest found in the results of the resurrection, Jesus not only bore our sin but He promised never to give us more than we can bear. We can run to our Heavenly Father in our moments of frustration and feelings of depression and He will hear our cry and make a way where there is no way. Jesus’ presence in our lives brings both peace and power. We can rest because He has got this. When we proclaim that Jesus has done it all it means there is nothing left over for us to do but rest in His power and provision. We sing that Jesus paid it but strive like we are, so instead of resting we are rushing. If you are saved then sin does not need to have power over you and you can live a sanctified life. Sure sin abounds and it is easy to become a victim of our own desires, to be drawn away, but we have an advocate with the Father and we can be forgiven. Repentance leads to rest, turning from sin and back to the Savior always brings sweet rest. Yet for many there is no resting in Jesus, we are constantly attempting to do the work, wearing ourselves out physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually because we can never find the place of rest. Its not about your results its about the Redeemer, it’s time to stop running and start resting. Jeremiah 50:6-7 says “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their verdant pasture, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.” Today many Christians are living as though they were lost sheep. They are sheep, part of God’s family, but they don’t know that they are safe in the arms of the Great Shepherd and they are constantly looking for a place to rest but never finding one. Why is it that so many never learn to rest in the salvation that Jesus has given to us? Why are we always under condemnation and never feel that we are good enough? Is this the product of our modern day ministry, where people feel pressurized to perform? Yes there is work that needs to be done in my life for me to be more like Jesus, but that “work” is not what saves me or condemns me. The truth is that if we really want to reflect our Redeemer more then we need to start resting in the Savior not striving. There can be no rest for those sheep who are always working in an attempt to earn the love of their shepherd. The shepherd has already shown us His unconditional love through His sacrifice on the cross. Just as the shepherd provides a place of safety and rest inside the sheepfold, Jesus has provided a place of safety and rest for his people. Our rest is secured, God isn’t going to kick us out of the fold every time we make a mistake or do something wrong. Our Great Shepherd loves us, we are bought with His own blood and that was no cheap price for Him to pay. Yet how quickly we forget that Jesus paid it all and that there is nothing we can pay to make our salvation any surer or to make the Lord love us more. “Whoever found them devoured them” Those who have run from God are fair game and instead of rest they experience ruin. Satan will do everything he can to try and stop God’s lost sheep from ever find their way back home into His rest. He brings accusations of unfaithfulness, telling us how unfit we are to be called a Christian, and in so doing, justifying why we should never come back to God. Don’t allow the Devil to lie to you and convince you that you can never be “good enough” Mistakes or not, we are still God’s people and God desires for us to come back and rest in His place of safety. If you have lost that place of rest then come back to the Redeemer, today its time to get back to the resting place.