Job: Embracing Mystery: Thank You For Being a Friend
Job 2:11-13; Matthew 26:36-39
Eric Henderson, Green Lake Lead Pastor
When people go through suffering, their lives are often transformed, deepened, marked with beauty and holiness, in remarkable ways that could never have been anticipated before the suffering. So, instead of continuing to focus on preventing suffering— which we simply won’t be very successful at anyway— perhaps we should begin entering the suffering, participating insofar as we are able— entering the mystery and looking around for God." - Eugene Peterson
I. “Why” isn’t the answer
II. Who we need
III. How we get there
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
Begin by reading Job 2:11-13 and Matthew 26:36-39 aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
1. Do you have any questions that you find difficult to bring to God?
2. Pastor Eric asked the question, “Whose suffering might I need to enter?” How do you answer that question?
3. Do you ever find yourself trying to find the “why” in your suffering?
a. What might God be teaching you in a suffering that doesn’t have a “why”?
4. Which of Job’s friends do you find yourself relating to the most—the fundamentalist, the intellectual, or the moralist? Why?
5. Pastor Eric read from Kate Bowler’s book a number of things that would be helpful to say to someone who is suffering. Which of these most resonated for you as a way that you can better sit with those around you who are suffering?
6. Pastor Eric said that while God doesn’t cause our suffering, He can transfigure it into a good that gives life. Tell about a time when you experienced God doing this.
7. Do you need to “speak from your gut” to God, or be more honest with Him in lament?
a. How can you go about doing that this week?
8. In the midst of your own suffering, how does it feel to remember that Jesus shared in our sufferings?