God, what are You saying to me? That is the question underneath almost every hard season. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip continued The Struggle is Real by covering Job 3 through 41 in one message, and the answer God finally gives is not the one anybody expects.
He Is Not Holding You Down. He Is Holding You.
Pastor Chip opened with something from his own house. His daughter Brooklyn has to get treatments that hurt, and when it happens he holds her. From where she sits, it probably feels like Dad is part of the pain. He is not. He is holding her because he loves her and because he knows this is what she needs.
In your suffering it can feel the same way, like God is holding you down and keeping you from the life you wanted. He is holding you. He has permitted something meant not to make you bitter but better, and to grow you into the image of His Son.
Be Honest About How You Really Feel
Last week ended with Job worshiping after losing everything. Job 3 is what comes next, and it is raw. He curses the day he was born. He says he has no ease, no quiet, no rest, only trouble.
Pastor Chip made a point of not rushing past that. We are a joyful church, but there are seasons that are not funny, and Scripture does not pretend otherwise.
Notice what Job is actually doing, though. He is not walking away from God. He is talking to God. You can question God, or you can ask God questions. You can complain about God, or you can bring your complaints to God.
Psalm 142:1-5 is David doing the same thing. He pours out his complaint, tells God his trouble, then names why. You are my refuge.
Your refuge is the one you run to. God is not meant to be your last resort. He is meant to be your first response. Too often we pour everything out to people, to social media, to a search bar, and end up talking about God without ever talking to God.
He can handle your questions, your doubt, and your fear. He just wants you to be honest.
What People Say That Does Not Help
Pastor Chip asked on Facebook what cliches people have heard in their suffering that were untrue or badly timed. He got 89 responses and corrected the most common ones.
God will not give you more than you can handle. He will not give you more than He can handle through you.
If you had more faith you would not be suffering. More faith does not mean less suffering.
Everything happens for a reason. Closer to it: everything happens by the permission and for the purposes of God.
You are suffering because God is punishing you. Not every hardship is punishment. Sometimes it is simply God making you more like Jesus.
Follow your heart, because God wants you happy. God’s ultimate desire for your life is not your happiness but your holiness.
The hardest one on the list was this. You should be over this by now. Pastor Chip called it one of the cruelest things a person can say. It is okay to not be okay.
Job’s Friends Got One Thing Right
Three friends traveled to Job, wept, and sat with him on the ground for seven days saying nothing, because they saw how great his suffering was.
That part they got right. They should have stopped there.
Eliphaz argued that suffering proves sin. Bildad argued that tradition is truth. Zophar told Job that God was going easy on him. Elihu showed up burning with anger, convinced that anger produces change. What makes these chapters worth reading is how close to true they sound. These men were biblically adjacent and spiritually far off.
Read them and you notice three things. The conversations escalate fast. Nobody says anything positive about Job. And they lecture him constantly while never once praying with him. They talk about God without ever talking to God.
Job’s answer cut through it. Not all suffering comes from sinfulness. Some of it comes from God’s purposefulness.
Then comes the verse Pastor Chip called the most important in the book. In Job 19:25-27, thousands of years before Jesus, Job says he knows his Redeemer lives, that He will stand upon the earth at the last, and that after Job’s own skin is destroyed, in his flesh he will see God. That is resurrection faith, spoken from an ash heap.
Be Careful Who Counsels You
Pastor Chip got direct here. Be careful about the counsel you take from the internet, from social media, from AI, even from friends and family. You do not just need counseling. You need the Word of God, because only God heals a soul.
His filter was simple. Go to someone who loves this Book, loves the Lord Jesus, loves His Church, and loves His Gospel. The goal is not that you end up happy. It is that you end up like Jesus.
If someone brings you their suffering, listen before you advise. Show them the hope if they stay faithful and the honest warning if they do not. Then open the Bible together and pray with them. When a person falls into a pit, the job is not to throw a rope down. It is to climb in and sit there. Your presence matters more than your platitudes.
How God Finally Answers
After 35 chapters of human opinion, God speaks out of a whirlwind in Job 38. He does not explain Himself. He asks questions. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Can you command the sea, call up the morning, hang the stars?
The point lands without being stated. I have a universe and I have a way. You may think you have both. You do not.
Job never gets his answer, and neither will most of us. So what is God saying to you? Pastor Chip put the whole message in one line.
You do not need to know why. You just need to know Me.
Knowing the Redeemer behind it matters more than knowing the reason. And nobody has suffered more than Jesus. Not Job, not you. The crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, none of it deserved, all of it for our sin. Jesus suffered for your salvation so you can suffer for His glory. He was honest about it too, asking the Father to let the cup pass and crying out from the cross.
Pastor Chip closed with Horatio Spafford, who lost his fortune in the Chicago fire, then his son, then all four daughters when their ship went down. His wife’s telegram read “saved alone.” Sailing out to meet her, the captain pointed out the spot in the ocean. Spafford went back to his quarters and wrote “It Is Well With My Soul.” The church sang it together.
Live It Out
This week, stop talking about God and talk to God. Bring Him the real version of what you are carrying, with the questions and the anger still attached. Job did. David did. Jesus did. You have the same access.
Then take an honest look at who is speaking into your life. If the loudest voices are a group chat, a comment section, or a chatbot, you are getting Job’s friends. Find someone who loves the Word and ask them to pray with you, not just advise you.
And if someone near you is hurting, climb into the pit. Do not fix it. Say less than you want to and pray more than you planned to.
If what you are carrying feels heavier than you can hold alone, please tell someone. Reach out to our staff. We would consider it an honor to pray with you and help you find real support.
There’s a Seat for You
You do not have to have your questions answered to belong here. This is a church full of people who have asked God why, never got the reason, and found Him anyway.
Plan Your Visit and come as you are. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to walk alongside you.