Job 2:11-3:26
SERIES: The Book of Job How to Comfort a Broken Heart SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Most people are not known for their compassion and caring these days. In Stockholm Sweden last year a woman sat for two months on her balcony from about the first of January until the first of March before a neighbor discovered she was dead. The woman was sitting in a chair, dressed in a coat and hat. Her forehead was leaning against the railing. Margaretha Marsellas, a neighbor, realized something…
Job 4:1-14
SERIES: The Book of Job Round One of the Garbage Dump Debate SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: A Junior High School teacher was showing her class through an art museum. As they passed from gallery to gallery, she enthusiastically extolled the abilities of the men and women whose paintings graced the walls. “A truly great artist,” she was heard to say, “can turn a smiling face into a frowning one with a single stroke of his brush.” In response one of the boys remarked in…
Job 15-21
SERIES: The Book of Job Round Two of the Garbage Dump Debate: What About the Prosperity of the Wicked? SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note to David: Check to see how the two parallel lists halfway through this sermon come out with the formatting. Introduction: Two of the major philosophical questions believers of all ages have had to wrestle with are, “Why do the righteous suffer?” and “Why do the wicked prosper?” As we look around we see apparent evidence of both. Most of us could name…
Job 22-31
SERIES: The Book of Job Round 3 of the Garbage Dumb Debate: The Pursuit of Personal Holiness SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Some 4,000 years ago a debate was held on an ash heap outside a town named Uz, somewhere in the Fertile Crescent. The detailed substance of that debate has been preserved over the centuries in the Book of Job. On one side was a good man who, for all intents and purposes, was dying an agonizing death, while on the other side…
Job 28
SERIES: The Book of Job The Quest for Wisdom SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction to Scripture reading: I am a spelunker at heart. Nothing causes the adrenalin in my body to flow like a cave. I guess it all began when I was about 9. We were visiting the Mark Andrews family, who lived way out in the country in western Kirkwood on N. Signal Hills Dr. off Marshall Rd., and their two boys took my brother and me to an old abandoned quarry near…
Job 32, 33
SERIES: The Book of Job Pain is God’s Megaphone SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: The Great Debate between the Patriarch Job and his three counselors is over. They have argued fiercely over the cause of the terrible suffering of this man of God. We, the readers, know that Job was suffering through no fault of his own; on the contrary, his suffering was due specifically to the fact that he was so righteous. But Job’s three friends didn’t know that, nor did Job. In…
Job 34, 35
SERIES: The Book of Job When Theology Goes to Seed SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: What is God like? An ancient legend tells us that the richest man in the world, Croesus, once asked the wisest man in the world, Thales, “What is God?” The philosopher asked for a day in which to deliberate, and then for another, and then another, and another, and another. At length confessed that he was not able to answer and that the longer he deliberated, the more difficult…
Job 36, 37
SERIES: The Book of Job Weather Report SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: This morning we conclude the speeches of the principal human characters in the book of Job. From chapter 3 through chapter 37 we have seen the largest single portion of “uninspired,” but occasionally “inspiring,” human wisdom in the Bible. But lest I be misunderstood when I call these speeches uninspired, I hasten to explain. The record of these speeches is an inspired record, but the speeches themselves are not. You see, neither Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, or…
Job 38, 39
SERIES: The Book of Job Finally, A Word from God SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction to Scripture reading: Please turn in your Bibles to Job, chapter 38. Our Scripture text today is rather lengthy, but I want to appeal to you to listen carefully. The reading of God’s Word is not a ritual we endure, nor a transition between hymns, nor a time to read the bulletin inserts. It is a time for God Himself to speak to us, unencumbered even by the sometimes faulty…
Job 40, 41
SERIES: The Book of Job God, Behemoth, Leviathan, and Job SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction to Scripture reading: One of the finest books ever produced for children was published in 1978 by the Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts. It is entitled Character Sketches: From the Pages of Scripture, Illustrated from the World of Nature. It is published in two beautiful, large volumes. Like many children’s stories, songs, or plays, adults can enjoy them as much as the children, though, of course, they don’t like to admit…
Job 42
SERIES: The Book of Job Epilogue to the Book of Job SPEAKER: Brad Harper Note: Brad Harper preached this sermon on September 26, which was the Sunday after my serious car accident with a horse. We do not have the manuscript of this sermon, but the audio is available. Below is the outline. Introduction: We come this morning to the close of our four-month study of the Book of Job. The Epilogue is a welcome conclusion to the troubling ordeal God has put Job through, but…
Job 42
SERIES: The Book of Job Epilogue to the Book of Job SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note: This sermon was never finished and never preached, and thus there is no audio. I had been working ahead, planning to preach this passage on September 26, but the previous Monday I was involved in a very serious car accident with a horse. I didn’t preach again until October 17, when I returned to the Book of Job for a final message. Pastor Brad Harper preached on chapter…