The Bible tells us that God has a plan for using every experience in our lives. This makes understanding and reacting to good times a little easier—we can be grateful for them as a foretaste of the better times to come. But it makes it harder to react to difficulties the way we want to. Joseph understood that the story he was part of was bigger than the scenes he could see.

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We all think we have a decent handle on what the story of our lives are up until now, and we have some decent ideas about how it might progress. Christianity, however, often invites us to read our story very differently: It tells us the ending, and encourages us to re-read everything that comes before in light of what we know about the ending. After the death of his father, Joseph demonstrates this backwards reading to his brothers.

Jesus laid out a stringent demand for anyone who would become one of his followers: Deny yourself. But he didn’t just demand a tribute of their lives as they knew them. No, Jesus assured his listeners that the cost of their lives would purchase them the benefit of…their lives. Join us as we examine the trade proposed by the gospel, audit its resources and find the guarantee of payment.

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God wants a relationship with us marked by love and forgiveness, but how can we learn to abide in the love that he offers? In our continuing series on Knowing God, David Noble helps us start to understand what it looks like to trust in God’s generous love more than we trust in our own merit or accomplishments.

You can now download the bulletin for the worship service that goes with this sermon.

Note that there is no discussion guide this week. Instead, please learn more about Winter Term and sign up for a class.

Jesus’ instruction for us to call God, “Father” can be incredibly challenging, especially when the Bible’s description of God is so at odds with our own experiences with our earthly fathers. In this first sermon on Sonship (a sub-series in our ongoing series on Knowing God), David Noble helps us grasp what it means to have a relationship with our heavenly Father marked by forgiveness and acceptance.

You can now download the bulletin for the worship service that goes with this sermon.

Note that there is no discussion guide this week. Instead, please learn more about Winter Term and sign up for a class.

When God finally addresses Job’s lamentation, he has harsh words for Job’s friends. They had come to mourn with him and to chastise him, but the Lord charges them to ask Job to make sacrifices on their behalf. Job plays this role of mediator after great suffering, and in so doing points us toward Christ, who suffered for the sake of becoming our mediator.

We will be taking a break from Sermon Discussion for the remainder of the summer. While there will be a generic study guide posted each week, we encourage you to use this opportunity to rest as a group. What that rest looks like is up to you—feel free to do social events, find service projects around your neighborhood or even take the entire month off.

To some degree, everyone you care about will suffer. When that happens, you’ll be left you to wonder how to best be a comfort to them. When Job lost everything, his friends left their homes and their lives to travel to him and sit with him in his grief. However, their example can teach us as much about what not to do to comfort a grieving heart as about what’s best to do.

We will be taking a break from Sermon Discussion for the remainder of the summer. While there will be a generic study guide posted each week, we encourage you to use this opportunity to rest as a group. What that rest looks like is up to you—feel free to do social events, find service projects around your neighborhood or even take the entire month off.

Suffering is both universal and specific: While there has probably never been a human being who hasn’t suffered to some degree, the actual experience of suffering is both deeply personal and personally indelible. In the idea of lamentation, the Bible gives us a way to suffer honestly and constructively, and in Job it gives us a window into what that might look like. And in the cross, God has given us a tool for suffering that not even Job had.

We will be taking a break from Sermon Discussion for the remainder of the summer. While there will be a generic study guide posted each week, we encourage you to use this opportunity to rest as a group. What that rest looks like is up to you—feel free to do social events, find service projects around your neighborhood or even take the entire month off.

There appeared to be no justice in Job’s suffering—he didn’t “get what he deserved.” Instead, his suffering came after a lifetime of generosity that affirmed the essential humanity of not just his friends, but his subordinates, as well. In fact, looking at the way Job treated those of lower social classes and professional standings gives us cause to assess the way our own hearts treat money and power. Once we do, the cross gives us the strength to be honest about what we find.

We will be taking a break from Sermon Discussion for the remainder of the summer. While there will be a generic study guide posted each week, we encourage you to use this opportunity to rest as
a group. What that rest looks like is up to you—feel free to do social events, find service projects around your neighborhood or even take the entire month off.

The book of Job, most typically known for its story of a man’s great suffering, is also regarded as a piece of wisdom literature from the ancient near east.  In the 28th chapter, we find a beautiful poem revealing the nature of both man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom.  Man’s wisdom is good, but limited and often tries to be a substitute for God’s wisdom.  Divine wisdom is created by God and revealed through Jesus (see Luke 6); it is beautiful (and beautifying) and it draws us into community.  We are invited to carefully meditate on this beautiful wisdom through Jesus, the poetic Word.