Element Christian Church

Last week it may have felt like we came to the end of the book of Job as we rounded out the last chapter and saw the change in Job. We saw all that God was doing, at least as far as we could understand it. It led to asking how we would begin to live if we truly understood who God is in His person. How would our suffering change when we trusted God more than our circumstances? In the end we get to see a type of resurrection in Job’s view of not just God, but of life itself. Job starts to honor what his culture would have seen as unworthy and not strategic in regard to family and life. Job starts to live and see the world around him differently once he understood better who God is! The same could be true for us as well, if we become silent before God and start to listen! More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - What desires has God given you that makes you come alive? More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

If you are following along in time with Element in this journey, the message today comes on what we call Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of the week, in order to reveal Himself. Some think it was to claim the title of Messiah at this time. Others think that as Passover sacrifices were usually chosen the Sunday before, Jesus was here presenting Himself as the sacrifice that would later take place during the week. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - Kelly shares about her struggles of miscarriages and how she wants God to show up in difficult times. - Aaron shares about their similar struggles. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

At the beginning of the book of Job, God points to Job as a godly man, instead of Job’s three friends; it is something that is supposed to stay in our minds as the story unfolds. Job’s three friends are not a picture of our enemies’, they are a picture of believers who misunderstand God and criticize others without relying on God’s guidance. Elihu does not sugar-coat his understanding of God and he will say that God himself can bring and allow nightmares, pain, suffering, and even death, but he will point to the larger purpose for these things. He also reminds them that ultimately God’s ways are beyond our powers of perception. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - Sabin shares his story of call to repentance and coming to faith in his life. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

As we have gone through each week looking at Job’s life and the responses of his wife and friends, we have seen the idea that suffering does not simply lead to negativity in our lives, but that suffering can lead us into a deeper relationship with God. We can grow in our faith and our trust of who God is by walking through hardship. We must be willing to look at our responses to the things we don’t like that happen in our lives and allow the truth of the Gospel to have its way in us. So far, in these weeks, we have looked at the very negative ways that Job’s friends and his wife have misunderstood who God is in His person. The same thing will be true today of Job’s “friend” Zophar…but there is also a bit of truth in what his friends say as well. That part of the problem in our world today, and in Job’s day, is we tend to think that truth is either “all in” or “all out,” but it is more complex than that. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Questions Discussed: - Marianne’s favorite Element Memory - How has pain and tragedy caused you wonder about God and made you more dependent on Him? - Where do you find silence in your life? - What bad advice have you given? - What do you say when someone feels they deserve the pain and calamity in their life? More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

In speaking of our goals during this Lent journey, the ideas of prayer, self-denial, repentance, and giving to the poor and needy can become legalistic extremes if we don’t understand the Gospel. Many Americans love the ideals of hard work and self-determination. While hard work and taking responsibility are not bad things, if they become all we focus on, we start to sound like Job’s friend Bildad. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - In what ways has culture influenced our Theology? - Christie shares trials and calamity in her life and what God has shown her about His nature. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

Today, Job’s three friends show up. The do an amazing thing as they silently mourn with Job for 7 days. But then they speak. Today we look at Eliphaz and the empty platitudes he delivers. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - Job…Blameless and upright? - I know there are many times throughout the Bible when we clearly see God's wrath like in Sodom and Gomorrah or on the whole Earth when He flooded the earth. In those instances, the Bible says there were no righteous people. It was just. But, most of the time, it seems like God plays more of a passive role in our lives meaning that He allows bad things to happen in our lives rather than making or causing these things to happen. With Job, it feels like bad things were happening and God actively plays a part in Satan's actions against Job. "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" God even acknowledges to Satan that Job was a "blameless and upright man". How is this just? Are we possibly missing a piece of the story that would offer more context or is it simply a cultural difference? - When you said God is in complete control and Satan can only do

This week Doug shares about times of calamity in his life, and how he and his wife have responded and grown. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

Week one of our Lent. Life. Job. series. Where we look at the Accuser, who says, "He only worships you because he has the perfect life.” More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - What has God done and or is doing in your life? - What questions have you had for God over the past year? - What in your life have you lost, and how did you respond? - What has strengthened your faith in who God is? More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

Has God ever done something that doesn’t make sense to you? The truth is that God rarely takes His people on the most direct route. More important than many of our destinations, is who we become along the way. A true relationship with God must start in a place of trust that God knows what He is doing. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

This week, both Joy and Michael share about the ways God has brought them the long way around in life, and what they have learned and how God has grown them. More info about our Lent Journey through Job: www.ourelement.org/lent WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

We are called to be a people who entrust not only ourselves, but others into God’s care. When we cease to trust God to take care of us (what we eat, drink and wear), we will naturally not trust others to His care and fall very easily into judging. We must trust that God holds all things and then be willing to speak His pearls when it is appropriate. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Questions Discussed: - How do you discern when to be silent vs speaking truth? - Is there a time to define your role in conversation? - When have others given you their pearls and you have ignored them? - Have you had someone you’ve loved but needed to stop pushing truth and trust God, instead? - Jenna’s Tony Dungey story personal examples. - How can we be better as a church to have more of a multigenerational people invest in our youth? WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

Sometimes one of the greatest prayers we can pray is not, “Lord, change them,” it is, “Lord, change me and my attitude.” The focus on God’s rescue of us should lead us to the place where we cease thinking how great we are and start to live as if Jesus is great. The Gospel is the only way we will ever take responsibility for our own life and not walk away dejected. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE