Last Sunday’s sermon on Job impacted me, and I wanted to share and reflect upon the impact the sermon had on my perception of God, the world, and my own life. This was a humbling sermon, and it lifted a veil of darkness from my eyes and helped me to see more clearly what has been happening to me.
When I went to college, I had a strong faith in God that I thought could never be shaken. I learned to depend upon God early on in life. I experienced the closeness of his presence regularly during my quiet times. During those times, I would close the door to my bedroom, lay down on the floor or kneel by my bed, close my eyes, and let God talk to me through his word and through journaling.
To go along with the limited time I’m spending on Job right now – just one sermon. Let me add a few things that can help you look a little deeper. First, John Piper did a book that is essentially a poll on telling the life story of Job. Desiring God ministries turned it into an animated art film that is on iTunes and you can rent or buy here. Piper’s biblical poetry is amazingly good. His hour and 20 minute sermon is here. Oh – that’s just part one. The second part is here. Connected to missions and suffering is this talk “Purpose driven death.” Piper has thought a lot about how suffering relates to the sovereignty of God – and how all suffering has a relation to God’s good purposes. He’s neither flippant with human suffering nor the doctrine of God’s rule over all things.
Keller’s first sermon in their series on Job can be found here. You can listen to it directly here.
On Sunday I said a bunch about the Sabbath commands, but I didn’t explicitly talk about how we should be obeying them these days. Below is a talk I did for Badger Cru that is meant to give some framework for how to think about them now.
For those of you who would like to hear my talks on the church that I did at Bryan College last week, here they are.
Talk 1: My story and the main challenge Talk 2: What is the identity of the church? Talk 3: What is the mission of the church? Talk 4: Why do you need the church more than you think? Talk 5: How should you engage with the church as a young adult?
If you’re wondering why you would want to be part of the church, or if someone has asked you that question – this might be a helpful resource.
Engage & Equip 