It's easy to worship God in the good times. Sure. But what about the bad times, when life is really tough? What does it mean to worship God in the middle of suffering? Because, quite frankly, when we're suffering, the very last thing we feel like doing is worshipping God. Job in the Face of Adversity Well, this is the third message in a series that I've called, "Worship as a Way of Life". Over the last couple of weeks we have been looking at exactly what this thing is that we call "worship". I mean we all worship something, whether its money or pleasure or career or recognition, you name it and people sacrifice their lives to worship it. Worship is ascribing worth to something; it's bowing down our lives to it and sacrificing other things for it. People will sacrifice their marriages for their careers. Why? Because they ascribe more worth to their career than they do to their husband or their wife. People will sacrifice their family and their home to adultery. Why? Because they ascribe more worth to their pleasure than to the fidelity of marriage. Last week we talked a little bit about what it means to worship God. Now the New Testament talks about two types of worship - there are two different Greek words used in the New Testament to talk about worship. One of them means "bowing our lives down" – it's the word "proskuneo" – it's the word we get "prostrate" – to prostrate ourselves. The second is the word "latrio" and it's the word that means "serving". Latreuo is the word that we get the word "lateral" from, so it's an outward form of worship. Inside worship; bowing down, prostrating ourselves and outside worship; doing things, lateral worship. It's about worshipping God, not just with our hearts and our mouths but with our lives – it's what we do, what we say, how we act and behave and treat others. It's great to sing songs in church on Sundays, but that's not the whole of worship. That form of worship is the "proskuneo" type of worship. But living worship out is something that's lateral; it goes out. Remember last week, if you were with us, we looked at Romans, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1, where Paul writes: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, because of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Some translations say, "this is your spiritual act of service". It's the "latreuo". Now this is easier said than done. I mean, when life is going really well; when finances and family are going well; and work and its fun and we're cruising along, it's not too hard to be a living sacrifice. You know why? Because when everything is going well, it doesn't feel like we have to sacrifice much. Man, it's easy to worship God when it's all happening like that. 'I'm honouring God; God's blessing me – halleluiah! But what happens when things turn ugly? When all of a sudden they start falling apart – family and wealth and health – some of those things start going wrong – what happens when we are put under pressure? What happens when it hurts? What happens when it aches so bad inside that we can barely life the eyes of our soul Christ-ward? What is worship as a way of life look like then? I don't think that we can talk about worship without talking about this. You see, when things go bad, the most common response is to blame God. "God, what are You doing? Why are You letting this happen to me and we let out this guttural cry?" The most common reaction is to blame God. You know, it's funny how people who worship fame or success or money or pleasure, when all that comes tumbling down, as it inevitably will, they justify their reactions. They never blame those things that they were worshipping but we, well, when we go through some suffering, the very first thing that so often happens, is that people blame God. Jesus made a promise to His disciples - you can read it in John, chapter 16, verse 33. He promised them, "In this world you will have tribulation." You will – that's one of those promises of God we don't like standing on. And when we look at worshipping God in the midst of trial and tribulation as we are today, we'll look at it in perspective of a couple of men – Job and Paul. Now these guys both went through a lot of suffering. Now I don't like sermons that say, "Well, you know, Job did it this way and Paul did it that way and you and I should be like Job and Paul." We're not – I'm not Job; I'm not Paul, nor are you. We are us! But when we look at how these men reacted under suffering, there is some insights; there's something there where God is telling us about worship under duress – worship in times of stress. Let's have a look at Job first. Now the story of Job – if you've got a Bible, open it up - the Book of Job comes just before the Book of Psalms. Job, chapter 1, verse 1, says that Job was blameless and upright, that he feared God and that he turned away from evil. I mean, this guy was mister, "I have my act together". And the devil approaches God about Job and says, "well, it's easy for Job, things are going well for him, but let's see if he sticks with You, God when things are going badly". So God gives the devil permission, one by one, to take things away from Job. First he loses his property, then his children, his reputation, his friends, his health, his marriage – one by one, God lets the devil take those things away from Job. And Job - Job ends up loathing his life, wishing he'd never been born. Here's this wealthy, well balanced, "I've got it all together" guy, who, by the way, has been honouring God and that's why he's been blessed. And he ends up sick, lost, alone, a laughing stock, his friends tell him he must have sinned – 'Job it must have all been your fault". Do you think that's tough? I mean, have a listen how he felt – chapter 3 – he said, Let the day perish in which I was born. Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire? Job wished he was dead! Life for Job was tough particularly in light of the fact that he was blameless, upright, he feared God, he turned away from evil – it wasn't his fault. Why was this happening? It hurt so much – his friends criticised him –"God what are You doing?" Ever felt like that? Well, next we are going to take look at how Job responded. What happened to worship in Job's life when it all came tumbling down? Job was Human Too We are looking at Job's response when all God's blessings were taken away from him, one by one. His health, his family, his friends, his everything was taken away. And the good news is Job was human. He lost everything and it wasn't his fault. Now if you thought that I was going to give you some "Job had a perfect response" kind of message today, you're wrong. Job lost possessions, family, marriage, health, reputation, friends, everything basically. Have a listen to what happened – Job, chapter 2, verse 7. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted Job with painful sores, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, "Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die!" And he replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said." Now, that's a very noble response – when you read what was happening to him; it was really ugly. It's hard to read and to listen to, but in the very next chapter he curses the day he was born. And Job takes the situation to God and argues with Him. He ends up loathing his life. Have a listen to Job, chapter 10, verse 1: I loath my very life, therefore I will give free reign to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. Pretty human response! "I will say to God, "Do not condemn me but tell me what charges You have against me. Does it please You to oppress me - to spurn the work of Your hands while You smile on the schemes of the wicked? Do You have eyes of flesh, do You see as mortals see? Are Your days like those of a mortal or Your years like those of a man, that You must search out my faults and probe after my sin, though You know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from Your hand? Your hands shaped me and made me, would You now turn and destroy me?" It's a pretty heartfelt response! When this stuff happens to us, we have natural reactions just like Job. It hurts – we want to hang onto God but ultimately, it hurts so much, that like Job, we can end up going to God and saying, "God, I loathe my very life – why are You doing this to me?" We want to know why and sometimes, like Job, our friends end up blaming us. What a great help they were? Job prays for relief and deliverance and God seem to withhold it. He says, "God, how come those wicked people over there are doing just fine and this stuff is happening to me?" Do you recognise any of this stuff? It's the stuff of normal human reactions. But there's something that runs through all of this – when you read the Book of Job, there's a golden thread in the midst the all the dark and the painful ones. Job will not stop hoping in God. As much as this is tearing him apart in every way, at every level, he won't stop putting his hope in God. Job, chapter 19, verse 25, he says: "I know," (he's been through a whole bunch of stuff, and yet he says,) "I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon 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." See what this is? This is Job worshipping God in his heart - it's "proskuneo" type worship - it's bowing down saying, "you know something, no matter all this stuff that God seems to have thrown my way, I know that my Redeemer
