Rev. David Holwick N The Holes of Life #2
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 26, 2009
Job 1:13-22
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I. Some guy in the Bible.
A. Listening to a Public Radio program on the recession.
One woman said she had lost her job but she wasn't worried
because they could live off what her husband made.
The next week, he lost his job too.
She said it reminded her of some guy in the Bible.
She didn't know his name, but he ended up with boils or
something like that.
1) His name was Job.
a) He loses his stuff.
b) He loses his children.
c) He loses his health.
2) Job represents everything that can go wrong in life.
a) He knew it was not because of something he did.
1> But he didn't know why it was.
b) His friends had definite ideas.
1> He had to have done something.
2> Tragedies like this cannot be undeserved.
c) For forty chapters they argue back and forth.
d) And then God speaks.
B. Every one of us will experience loss someday.
1) Something you love, something you rely one, will be taken
away from you.
2) Perhaps, like Job, your losses will build into a crescendo.
3) You will think that life is meaningless and God is cruel.
4) And yet loss can be the greatest experience you have.
II. Lessons from Job's experience.
A. The loss wasn't about Job.
1) From the beginning of the book, readers realize that
larger forces were at play.
2) The episode was actually about God.
a) Satan wanted to hurt God.
b) The devil did not care one wit about Job himself.
3) Your loss may not be about you.
a) It is natural for us to take every bad event personally.
1> In reality, most of it is not personal.
b) Even the trauma of a bad upbringing does not focus on us.
1> Our parents may have been mean, but it probably
wasn't about us.
2> They had their own issues, and we were a convenient
target.
B. God does not always reveal his plans but he reveals himself.
1) God gives us a roadmap that helps us plot a course through
the storm.
2) In times of trouble, draw close to God.
3) Christians are never alone in the dark.
III. What you can do to crawl out of the loss hole.
A. Recognize the realities of loss.
1) Losses are real and can't be shrugged off.
2) Those who suffer loss should not be isolated.
a) They need opportunities to share their memories and
pain.
3) Loss does not have an "end date."
a) Time gives us an opportunity to learn new coping skills,
but the pain will never be far away.
b) The "stages" everyone talks about are only in books.
1> Healing is an uneven process, like a roller coaster.
4) Loss changes things - you don't undo it.
a) Learn to accept that life as you once knew it can't
exist again.
b) But the new life can be filled with love and fulfillment.
5) Grief is more than simply an emotional reaction.
a) It involves the entire person - physical, emotional,
spiritual, and social dimensions.
b) Healing involves addressing all these needs.
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B. Choose your attitude.
1) Hemingway's loss, our profit.
In the 1920s Ernest Hemingway was working hard to perfect
his craft as a writer.
But he lost a suitcase containing all his manuscripts --
many stories he'd laboriously polished to jewel-like
perfection.
Most of them were ready to be published in a book.
Hemingway was so devastated he couldn't conceive of
redoing his work.
He could think only of the months he'd labored at his
writing -- and for nothing, he was now convinced.
But when he moaned his loss to the poet Ezra Pound, Pound
called it a stroke of luck.
Pound assured Hemingway that when he rewrote the stories,
he would forget the weak parts;
only the best material would reappear.
Instead of framing the event in disappointment, Pound cast
it in the light of opportunity.
Hemingway did rewrite the stories -- and the rest, as they
say, is history.
He became one of the major figures in American literature.
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2) Make a commitment to persevere.
3) Chose to love. (here???)
a) In loving much you lose less.
C. Get busy living.
In the movie "Shawshank Redemption" the character Andy is
an inmate who has been sentenced to life in prison.
He is there in spite of the fact that he is innocent.
The other inmates know and believe him to be innocent.
They are very surprised by his ability to live daily with
hope in spite of the loss of his freedom.
Andy is asked how he is able to withstand this injustice
with such positiveness.
He replies, " I believe that you have to do one of two
things: you have to get busy living or you have to get
busy dying."
In reality, you are always busy doing one or the other.
In the hole you are busy dying.
Crawling out of the hole you are busy living.
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IV. Crawling out of the loss hole requires character.
A. Character is different from disposition.
An observation from a spiritual Christian.
Oswald Chambers was one of the greatest Christian devotional
writers of all time.
He died when only 43, but he left the classic book "My
Utmost for His Highest."
Chambers knew how important it is to distinguish between
disposition and character.
Most people never get beyond disposition.
You hear them say things like, "This is just the way I have
always been and this is the way I will always be."
Or, "This is just the way I am, take it or leave it."
It is natural human disposition to choose fatalism, to crawl
into the loss hole and stay there.
But we don't have to take it or leave it.
Oswald Chambers said, "Disposition is what you are born
with; character is what you make of your disposition."
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B. Your character can be developed.
If it is your disposition to look at the negative, build
a character that looks at the positive.
If it is your character to curse the darkness, build a
character that lights a candle.
If it is your disposition to imagine that the world is out
to get you, build a character that changes that world
and gets it on your side.
If it is your character to languish in the loss hole, build
the character that climbs out.
Disposition is what you have, character is where you go
with it.
You can focus on the loss and wither away, or focus on the
gain that can be attained.
There are only two possible categories: loss or gain.
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V. Not all loss is permanent.
A. Everything in this life will crumble.
1) Whatever we create, whatever we love, will turn to dust.
a) It is just a matter of time.
2) But some things are eternal.
a) The things of God, once they are ours, can never be
taken away from us.
b) That is why Job had the faith to say, "The Lord gives,
and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord
be praised."
c) At the end of the book, he gets a new family.
1> His livestock is doubled.
2> His children are as well - if you consider that
his other children are in heaven.
3> If God is on your side, you cannot lose.
B. Which list are you on?
A few years ago, a Titanic exhibit toured various museums.
They recreated the grand staircase one of the doomed ship's
cabins.
Many of the objects had been retrieved from the wreck
itself.
As you entered the exhibit, you were given a ticket with the
name of one of the ship's passengers or crewmen.
At the end of the tour there was a large wall with two lists
of names, one short list and one long list.
The name on your card appeared on one of those two lists.
One list said "Saved" and the other said "Lost".
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In this sinking world, which list are YOU on?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon series was inspired by one done by Rev. Jeffrey Stratton,
pastor of American Baptist East in Evansville, Indiana. This sermon draws
heavily on Stratton's original.
# 7367 "Top Ten Myths Some Ministers May Believe About Grief," Sermon
Fodder, July 28, 1999; Roddy Chestnut Illustration Collection.
#13496 "Hemingway's Opportunity In Disguise," by Dennis Waitley, EMPIRES
OF THE MIND (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1995),
p. 122; quoted in , Dynamic Preaching, May 13, 2003.
#19476 "Which List Is Your Name On?" by Ron Hutchcraft, "A Word With You
by Ron Hutchcraft," #3774, June 28, 2001.
#35894 "Get Busy Living Or Dying," by Rev. Jeffrey Stratton; American
Baptist East; Evansville, Indiana, Kerux Sermon #19683:
"Crawling Out Of The Loss Hole," March 3, 2002. "Shawshank
Redemption" is based on a novella by Stephen King.
#35895 "Distinguish Between Disposition And Character," by Rev. Jeffrey
Stratton; American Baptist East; Evansville, Indiana, Kerux
Sermon #19683" "Crawling Out Of The Loss Hole," March 3, 2002.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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