======================================================================== THE ANSWER TO ALL MY WHY GOD QUESTIONS by Sandeep Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the profound lessons from the story of Job, emphasizing Job's unwavering faith and refusal to blame God despite immense suffering. It explores the concept of ascribing unseemliness to God in times of trials and the need to trust in God's compassion and mercy. The sermon also draws parallels to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, highlighting the endurance and triumph through faith despite relentless attacks. Topics: "Faith in Suffering", "Trusting God's Mercy" Scripture References: Job 1:22, Job 31:40, James 5:11, Romans 8:36, Romans 8:37, Luke 4:1, James 5:8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the profound lessons from the story of Job, emphasizing Job's unwavering faith and refusal to blame God despite immense suffering. It explores the concept of ascribing unseemliness to God in times of trials and the need to trust in God's compassion and mercy. The sermon also draws parallels to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, highlighting the endurance and triumph through faith despite relentless attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I wanted to share from Job chapter one. I want to share a very important lesson that, um, I think the Lord wants to speak to us, especially through trials. And this is something that I, um, have learned myself through the story of Job, Job chapter one, we know the story of Job. I just want to point out a couple of verses here, but in Job chapter one, we see what Job lost. He lost his sheep. He lost his oxen. He lost his camels along with the servants that were taking care of them. And I'm sure that was nothing compared to what he lost after that, which were all his children. Can you imagine losing one of your children? Let's not blow by Job chapter one, as if it's just nothing. Our whole lives will be marked if we lose one of our children out of turn or out of turn. But before we think, if we have to bury our children, one of them, what grief upon grief must have been on Job when he had to bury all of his children. And it says there in verse 22, through all of this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God. And that word blame, it says in my margin literally to ascribe unseemliness to God. Job did not ascribe to God something that was not seemingly or not correct. And that's one of those words, one of those things that I want to explore in the context of undeniable and massive struggles and suffering. Job did not sin because he did not ascribe unseemliness to God. He did not draw a line from his trials and make the wrong inference about God in any way to where he ascribed unseemliness. But that's not the end of the story. Job's story is not Job chapter one. I wrote in a very short book, Job chapter two, verse seven, he gets boils. And the friends came and sat with him for seven days. And you know, he said, naked I come to my moon, verse 21, blessed be the name of the Lord. This is what I have found in the context of grief on the context of struggles. It's easy, easier to say a magnificent spiritual saying in the moment shortly after, but what is much harder is as time goes on to keep saying that as much harder. And that's what we find with Job. Because Job then got some more, but she got boils and that was not going away. It was sticking with him. And at least seven days, it may have been much longer that at least we see seven days, the friends were just sitting there. It's not saying a word, but may have been weeks. And very slowly, a root of complaint starts coming up in his heart. And if we turn now to Job chapter 31, it wasn't the boils alone. It was the pile up. It was the pile up of the oxen and the sheep and the camel and losing all the children gone forever. And now the boils that were not going, and it was suffering upon suffering upon suffering that you go to job, Job chapter 31 and Job 31 is one of the most amazing descriptions, autobiographies of a person's spirituality. If we read Job chapter 31 is a massive, immense description of a person's spirituality. And it says at the end of Job chapter 31 verse 40, the words of Job are ended. After that, this person called Ellie, who was another friend of Job speaks and then God speaks, but pretty much the, that's Job 31 is it. And it's almost like his magnum opus. This is his massive defense of why, who he is and what he is. And I'd like to believe he's speaking the truth. But in verse 35 through 37, very near the end, you'll see Job's little bit of a complaint come out. I, at the very end, God allows us to see a little bit of that heart. Oh, that I, oh, that I had one to hear me behold. Here's my signature. Let the almighty answer me. I'm ready. I got my, I'm, I've got my defense all prepared to talk to the almighty and the indictment which my adversary has written. Surely I will carry it on my shoulder. I'll bind it on myself or like a crown. What is he binding on his crown? His defense of why he's a good man. Why he's justified in feeling this way. Why all of his arguments, here's all the things that I've done. This is why I have a right to feel this way. I would, verse 37, I would declare to him the number of my steps. Let's look at all of my steps. He's, who's he talking to? The almighty. He's not trying to talk to any man. So this is something he says, look, look, I've been blameless. Like a Prince, I would approach him. And as we kind of sit here, we could easily say, okay, I can see something. There's a little bit of corruption there. That Job came out of him that says he was a very blameless, righteous man in many ways, but he thought he could approach God and say, I demand justice. I think you're not treating me fairly through some unbelievably hard circumstances, which none of us have gone through. If anybody quote unquote deserved to feel that way, maybe Job, not any of us, but even in Job, that thing came out. I'm ready to stand for God and say, God, why? And now if we turn to, but we know the end of the story, how God dealt with Job, but the summary of the story of Job is in Job chapter five. And that's kind of where I, the Lord was speaking to me through as well. Verse 11, we count those blessed who endured Job, sorry, James, James chapter five, verse 11. We count those blessed who endured, who have heard of the, you have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings. This is the outcome of the Lord's dealings. Here's the outcome that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. One note about that word, full of compassion. It doesn't appear anywhere else in the Bible, full of compassion. It's almost like God introducing himself to Moses in Exodus 34. I'm compassionate on compassion, full of compassion and like more and more completely overflowing. And, um, it's a feeling from what I looked it up, feeling in your inward parts, all the way from your gut, from your innermost being, almost God was saying, here's the outcome of my dealings with Job. I wanted Job to know that from my innermost being, from my inmost gut, I'm full of compassion. And the question I had was, is that the inference you got from the book of Job? That God was full of compassion. We see the endurance of Job, but we think Job should be venerated and respected. Look how he dealt with it. But how much almost I could see if Job was really listening to James, write this out or dictate this out. He'd be like, Job would be saying, Hey, don't just wash over all the stuff I went through. Can you add a sentence that I lost multiple children? Can you just add one sentence that just to the story that isn't the outcome also include that though Job lost all these things. Yeah. Then add it. No, there's nothing in there about that. Here's the summary. Here's the summary of the whole story of Job in one sentence. Nothing about Job. God is full of compassion and merciful. The Holy Spirit seems to almost bypass all the faithfulness of Job. And he inspires James. And to me, that's the point of it. God was sovereign. He can do whatever he wanted, but the outcome is not that God is sovereign. This is the other point I want to make. Dear brothers and sisters, when we go through very difficult trials, we may come to the conclusion that God is sovereign and he's all powerful, but I'm learning from the old, from the new covenant inference of the book of Job. James is telling me, and the Holy Spirit is telling me very clearly, don't stop at God is sovereign. Yes, an almighty God, all powerful God, like some other religions believe, believe that God is all powerful, but this is not the God of the Bible. The God, the message I should get is God is compassionate, full of compassion, all the way down to his innermost being. He's compassionate and merciful. Now let us apply it to a really hard trial that has happened in our lives. I'm talking about the hardest of all the hardest trials that you've gone through. I can connect it into a really, really hard situations in my life. What is the outcome of that trial in my life, in the past, on the present? Some really hard, maybe nobody knows it except you. Very difficult in your upbringing or lately at work or whatever it may be really difficult. What is the outcome of that trial? I know you have a lot of feelings and tears and I know I have a lot of opinions and thoughts and summaries, but it has it been narrowed down to this one sentence. All of that, what I went through, I cannot understand it. I don't understand why it all went through, but if you want me to summarize it in one sentence, this will be the one sentence summary of it. God is full of compassion and merciful. I'm not trying to insert myself into any of your positions. I'm just applying it to the own difficult situations that I'm thinking about in my life. And I'm telling you, it's very hard. I know it has, I have not come to that conclusion as yet. And the Lord is saying, I'm still dealing with you, but this is the outcome I want out of all of my dealings with you, especially the most difficult ones, because compare yourself to Job. The really hard trials in your life, especially if other people are to blame, or you can think of a lot of fault that other people did. And we were the quote unquote innocent parties at work, family, whatever it may be. This is the outcome of God's dealings with his children, with his favored ones. I'm full of compassion. I wrote this down. God has not accomplished the outcome of his dealings with me, especially in the hardest of trials. If my simple but clear response to that trial is this, God allowed me to go through this trial because he is overflowing with compassion down to his innermost parts, down to his core. And because of his great mercy, he allowed me to go through what I claim was this unbearable trial. This is the lesson that I feel like the Lord has been telling me through the trials of the past and the present. This is the outcome that I'm trying to get you to. Go past all of your feelings and opinions and justifications and rights about this issue. It has to boil down to this one issue. Not that God is sovereign. Yes, he can do whatever he wants. We know that and we may have to submit to that too. It's a wonderful conclusion to submit ourselves to that God is sovereign, fully powerful, all powerful, like a sovereign king. But it goes a little deeper to the heart to admit that in that thing, God is full of compassion. That was because Job had a sin in him. I want to see how it gets even harder for somebody else. And that's Jesus. Turn with me to Luke chapter four. It gets harder for Jesus. In Luke chapter four, we're talking about God's dealings with us. God was fully, Jesus was fully God and fully man. And in Luke chapter four verse one and two, take in the words that are in this context of what is just in verse one to Luke chapter four. Jesus, we know who Jesus is, full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes sure he knows that this is who Jesus was, full of the Holy Spirit, having just been baptized with water and the dove descending upon him and the voice of God speaking in the few, you know, right before that. Was led around by whom? By the spirit. Where? In the wilderness. For how long? For 40 days. Doing what? Being tempted by the devil. He wasn't tempted three times. He was tempted for 40 days and he ate nothing during those days. And when they had ended, he became hungry. Led around by the spirit. Don't blame anybody else. You can't blame anybody else for this. This is square lossing blame, but the responsibility of where Jesus went in the wilderness and that he was in the 40 days was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's in control of this. The Holy Spirit's not tempting Jesus, but the Holy Spirit is in control being led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, extended period of desert times, maybe silence, whatever that desert wilderness means in our own lives, whatever it was for Jesus. It's a picture of what may be going through in our lives, being tempted by the devil for 40 days, a picture of God allowing Satan to attack us nonstop like waves of the ocean. One after the other feelings of unforgiveness, bitterness, a difficult boss that just doesn't go away. He gets promoted and gets more control over us. Whatever may happen. The mother-in-law was sick, but then she got healthy and has great more vigor now to make it difficult for us, whatever it may be. And then what happened? Ate nothing during those days, ate nothing. That's just food. And God's saying, Nope, I'm not even going to let you have food properly. In our case, it may be, you don't get what you want. Justice. What do you feel you deserve? Justice, health. These may be things we'd be like, I'm not asking for much. I'm going to even take that away for a while. And we know what this context was. Jesus was raring to go spiritually full of the Holy Spirit. And where did the Holy Spirit lead him? For 40 days, the Holy Spirit leads him away all within the wilderness, taking him from one area to the other, leading him exactly where the devil was. And so I'm sure Jesus was fully God, fully human. He felt hungry. He felt, I want to get something to eat. So he would probably want to go. Nothing wrong with going towards the falafel shack on Judah street. But the Holy Spirit said, No, no, no, no, go that direction. Go back into the wilderness. And look who's there, David. No, sorry, the devil. Waiting to tempt him. And he probably wants to go to children will understand this Hebrews cafe. No, no, no. Go the other way. Don't get anything to eat and drink. Constantly moved, being moved away from what he wants to do. To being tempted by the devil for 40 days, nonstop, relentless. And to me, that's a picture of. How it can be in our lives. It just goes on and on. It doesn't stop. Paul got stoned, it stopped. But you know what didn't stop? The thorn in the flesh. And Paul said, the thorn in the flesh is much harder for me because it doesn't stop. And it could be not this massive big trial of somebody dying compared to just the boils. But it doesn't stop. And that's what Jesus was dealing with for 30 days. And I don't know if we have any idea what that must have been for like Jesus to the continued nonstop assault for 40 days. And remember, this is Jesus fully favored by God for all of those 40 days. He didn't lose any of the anointing. This was not a punishment from God. This was not God trying to tell Jesus, you got some sin in you. This was nothing to do with the Job situation. This was just God's way with Jesus. So it could be sometimes in response to sin. In Jesus's case, it has nothing to do with sin. But relentless nonstop attack from the devils, God led the spirit leading him constantly away to the next temptation, to the next temptation. And all along, I believe the devil was lining up this master question. And he starts by saying that, if you are the son of God in verse three, if you are the son of God, he's saying, I know what I heard 40 days ago. I know what you heard 40 days ago. You think you are a son of God. So you're saying that God is your loving heavenly father. What kind of loving heavenly father would let his beloved and faithful child suffer like this? Nonstop and with no end in sight. What kind of father do you have? You claim God is your father? Is that how you would? What kind of father is this? And what I have seen about the fatherhood of God I cannot compute the fatherhood of God with the trials that he takes his children through. I can't connect it. Would you, would any human father ever allow their children to go through some of the unbelievable tragedies that God's children go through? And that's what the devil was trying to say. You're the son of God, that means God's your father. What kind of father is this? And this was a different assault than just God's full of compassion and merciful. I believe the devil was saying, I'm questioning whether you're the son of God. I'm questioning whether God is your father. He may have deserted you. He may have, this is not the compassionate God that I had in mind. Romans 8, what's our heritage as Christians? You know, I don't think I ever knew Romans 8 I knew many verses in Romans 8, but until I memorized the chapter Romans 8, I never knew Romans 8.36. I don't know if I've ever heard a sermon that referenced as a key point Romans 8.36. I know Romans 8.35, and I know Romans 8.37, but Romans 8.36 is not very well quoted. But this is the Christian heritage. You cannot eliminate Romans 8.36 from the Christian heritage. And it may take us a lot of meditation and willingness to accept that this is scripture, to recognize that this may be what we have to deal with. Romans 8.36, just as it is written in the Old Testament and now, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Have I ever had an affirming message from the pulpit saying, I wanna explain to you what the Christian life is like? You're being put to death all day long, and you're gonna be considered as sheep to be slaughtered. You still wanna be a Christian? Jesus, you're the Son of God, God is your Father. Guess what? Look what the Holy Spirit's gonna do to you. Lead you around from desert to desert, 40 days nonstop. And every kind of relief you want, even if it's something that basic, like food, Father says, nope, not for you, not today. And I don't know if God told him, you're gonna have 40 days, and that's gonna stop. It may have been just endless in his mind. Every day waking up with the hunger pangs, and nope, gonna continue. Another day without food, can I go to the falafel shop today? Nope, opposite direction again. All day long, you're gonna be considered, you're gonna be put to death as sheep to be slaughtered. And if you look at this, it's a reference to Psalm 44, and in that, you see the difference between the sons of Korah, who wrote this Psalm, and Paul. Because Paul, sorry, the sons of Korah, Korah, it's a quote from there. And just see the response. And I can tell you this, when I saw the response in Psalm 44, I could relate to it more than the response of Paul. That's why I'm pointing this out. You just read the response of sons of Korah, Psalm 44, verse 22 and 23, and then we'll go and read the response of Paul in Romans 8. The beginning is the same, Psalm 44, verse 22, written by the sons of Korah, I believe, yep. Psalm 44, 22, for your sake, we are being killed all day long. We were considered a sheep to be slaughtered. What's the response of the old covenant, Christian? Arouse yourself, why do you sleep, oh Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever. Sounds like my response to a tea. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction on our oppression? Sounds like my response. It's in the contrast to that that I can understand the massive difference of what Paul was saying in Romans 8, verse 37, and Romans 8, verse 35. Knowing, just comparing those two responses and asking myself a very simple question. Child of God with the Holy Spirit in you, which one are you closer to in your trial right now or in the trial that happened? Do you have a why question? Or do you have a triumphant, Romans 8, 37. No, no, no, no, no, no. Yes, the situation is the same, but 8, 37 is my answer. In all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer. Why? Because I'm convinced, because I'm convinced that God is my father. Even though I'm faced with death, even though I'm faced with demonic attacks, even though I'm dealt with uncertain futures, that's what Romans 8, 38 and 39 are saying. For I'm convinced that nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God, which is God as a father, nothing. Persecutions, misunderstandings, difficult bosses, whatever may happen, evil done by other people, nothing. And knowing that Psalm 44, 23 is the typical response, even by most Christians, including me who claims to be in the new government. Lord, wake up, solve my problem. Jesus, the board is shaking. Do you not care about us? And Jesus rebuked them, you little faith. Don't you, you don't have any courage. The fuel for us to have this Romans 8, 37 life is what I wanna talk about as I close three small things. The way do I get, how do I understand the heart of God as a father? As I see these mysterious, impossible to explain trials, this is something that came to me very strongly. It's okay if I didn't know the answer, but I believe God gave me a very clear answer to how to fathom these, comprehend God as a father who does these things that we cannot understand. I felt like the Lord was telling me, Sandeep, I have many questions you ask of me. And I'll give you an answer. I will answer all of your questions. I will answer all of your why questions especially. But first, like Jesus did, he says, you answer one why question that I have for you, and then I will answer all of your why questions. Let me repeat that. This is the deal I believe God is saying to all of us. I'll answer all of your mysterious, unexplainable why questions. But God says, you first answer this one why question. And this is the question. Why did Jesus die for you? Why? You answer that question, I'll answer all of your other questions. That's what the Lord made it very clear to me. I'm gonna boil it down to one simple thing that you believe. You believe that Jesus died for you. Who is Jesus? Reckon with who Jesus is. Son of God. Why did he die for you? Well, that means he came to earth. Why did he first of all come to earth for you? Why did he live the life he lived? Why did he die for you? It's not a difficult question to understand. But try answering that question. Not, the question is not, did Jesus die for me? That's not the question. The question is not, how did Jesus die for me? Those are all Sunday school questions that we'll all teach our Sunday school children to answer. But there's a personal question that we have to answer. And if we answer that, all of our other why questions will be answered. Why did Jesus die for me? That's what the Lord was asking me. Sunday, why did Jesus die for you? Why? Who am I, who are you? This is more than the question that God asked Job. You know how tough, you know how big I am? Can you explain how the earth hangs by itself? And many things, you understand, this animal and that animal, this is way different. That's why the new covenant is very different from the old covenant. This is why God is a father, is how God interacts with us, not God is a sovereign. And he's asking me, who's Jesus, the son of God? That means I'm the father. Why did I send my son to die for you? We can just unpack that. Jesus felt an anguish at Gethsemane on the cross. Do we feel the father was exempt from that anguish? Why did he do all of that for me? And the more I ask that question, and the purpose of my life is to try to solve that why question. Not to solve it, not to resolve it, but to live in the mystery of that question. Because there is no proper answer for that. And I have found that when I look up in the dictionary for injustice, there is only one injustice, and it's why did Jesus die for somebody? That's injustice. Everything else, and please hear me, I mean it in the right spirit, in a spiritual sense, not in a logical sense, that everything else is justice compared to that. Everything that has happened in my life. And I don't know what has happened in your life, and I dare say that things that have happened in your life are much worse than the things that have happened in my life. Because I've had a pretty good life. But I'd still say, and with all the humility I can muster, that all of the things that I've gone through should not be called injustice compared to the injustice of the answer to this question, why did Jesus die for you? Why did Jesus die for me? That's where I take all of my why questions. That's where I take Job's problems. That's where I take Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus had supernatural Holy Spirit strength. We have that supernatural Holy Spirit strength, and this is what the Holy Spirit is trying to say. I'm gonna tell you that your heritage is that you're gonna be considered like sheep to be slaughtered. And you're gonna be led around like sheep to be slaughtered, like Jesus was led in the Holy Spirit from temptation to temptation, and you were considered, for my sake, you're gonna be considered worthy of death all day long. That's your heritage. Don't try to escape it. Don't try to numb it. Don't try to avoid it. But if I can spend my time answering Romans 8.32, Romans 8.33, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all. When I meditated on Romans 8.31 through 37, I understood that's where God was saying the why question. The secret is in Romans 8.31 and 32 and 33 and 34. The verses before Romans 8.35 is the answer to that question because Paul is saying he did not spare his own son, Sandeep. He did not spare his own son. What are you thinking? Are you absolutely mad to say that God is unjust? How can that even come onto your lips? Do you not know what he did for you? He did not spare his own son for you. How will he not freely along with him, freely give you all things? What's wrong with you? That's what Paul was telling me through these verses. Who's the one who condemns? God is the one who's justifying. Who's the one who will bring a charge? Jesus is the one who died, was raised and is sitting interceding for you. What are you talking about? Yes, your heritage is like sheep to be led to the slaughter. Yes, that's true. You've been put to death all day long. But do you not know what happened that Job didn't know? But Paul knows. Hence, he says, we can overwhelmingly conquer because there's no such thing as injustice compared to this. Two other practical things as I close. James chapter five, real quickly. I wanna make a pointy edge with these two points. James chapter five, very practical. James chapter five, verse 11, James says, you've heard about the endurance of Job. And here's what I'm trying to tell you through Job, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. But I just wanna point out the two previous verses before Job, before that in Job chapter, sorry, James chapter five, verse nine and 10. Verse eight and nine, sorry. Eight and nine, two things. And this is in the context of, let me read it first. James is saying, you to be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. Verse nine, do not complain brothers against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. In both those cases, God is saying through James, I'm coming, I'm right at the door. I am right at the door. Dear brothers and sisters, I hope the weight of that will sink in. I'm right at the door. Consider all of your struggles where you feel you're absolutely right in the context of Job. Learn that massive lesson. But two other things is what he says here. Be patient and strengthen your heart. Be patient and strengthen your heart. Don't give up on patience. Job is an example. Be patient and grow strong in the promises of God like Abraham. Grow strong even when faced with the fact that your body is as good as dead as Abraham did. Grow strong in faith. And the other thing in verse nine, do not complain. Dear brothers and sisters, do not groan against one another. And this is a specific word I feel for the marriages in our church. Dear brother, dear sister, do not groan against your spouse. The Lord is at the door. Don't complain. We're all broken. We all have our challenges. We're all weak. But let us guard against one another. This is brethren. Let's not groan against the enemy out there in the world. Dear brothers and sisters, do not groan against one another. Do not complain against one another. We may be very right in many ways. But believe me, as I read those verses, I don't think any of us will want the spotlight shone on us by the judge. And he says you think you're the problem. You think your spouse is the problem. Let's just take a couple of minutes to investigate your life. Let's look at how sloppy you are. I don't want that. So that you yourselves may not be judged. Dear brothers and sisters, we have to grow strong. We have to be patient. We have to grow strong. But we also have to guard against all complaining. We can't groan against our brothers and sisters in the church. Of course, and let's start that in the home. Feel our churches generally happy. We're not sure there's a lot of groaning among brothers and sisters in the church. But what about in the home? Let's make sure there's no groaning. Let's make sure there's no complaining. God is our loving father. Jesus was killed and crucified because he called God father. And he endured unspeakable temptations. But he would not relent. God is my father. The devil himself tested Jesus for 40 days. Is God really your father? And Jesus would not budge. And he's proved he is our father by sending his son to die for us. Why did Jesus die for me? May God help us. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Apbzbh67cHE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/the-answer-to-all-my-why-god-questions/ ========================================================================