1 Corinthians 1:10-25



He remembers those who call upon Him in confident hope for He assures us, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!... so I will comfort you” (Is.49:15; 66:13).Would you mothers turn away from your children? Could you possibly forget them? I don’t think so. Even if there are those who would, the Lord Jesus is not like them. He will never turn away from you who come to Him. He didn’t turn away from the crowds of the sick and hurting that came to Him in your Gospel Lesson today, did He? (Mk.1:29f). He even worked Himself ragged at times so that He could reach them. He will be the same to you.Eventually, when the time was right and I had learned what I needed to learn, the Lord came to me in mercy, might, and forgiveness. He restored my life.Dear friend, to know Christ is to know the love of God, and to know the love of God is to be assured of redemption and eternal fellowship with Him. Trust Him in all times for through faith, no earthly burden can continue to depress.So I pray: Dear God, when life spins out of control, help me accept whatever you send for in confident hope I know that You remember me for Jesus’ sake and will help. God grant it to us in our lives of faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen. The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany February 7, 2021 Text: Job 7:1-7 ILCW – B 21:2238Theme: When Life Spins Out of Control… What do you do when life spins out of control? Let me tell you what it was like for me.I. Dear God, help me accept whatever you send me…I was once considered to be “the greatest of all the men of the East” (1:3). I had flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, camels, and donkeys that numbered in the hundreds and thousands. Everyone looked up to me because I was “blameless and upright – a man who feared God and turned away from evil.” I had so much going for me. You could say that I seemed in control of my life.Then one day the devil complained. He challenged God to bring suffering upon me. “Sure, Job is a good guy,” the devil whined. “You give him everything. But his faith is shallow. You watch; he’ll buckle at the first sign of trouble. Let me have at him, and I’ll show you that he’s not strong at all.” God consented to a point. And my testing began.The devil hit me hard. I lost just about everything, including my sanity. First my flocks and herds were wiped out; next my servants; then my sons and daughters were killed – all of them. Do you know how hard it is to lose your children? I was inflicted with painful sores all over. Lastly, one of the toughest things of all, my wife turned against me and God. My good life went out the window – just like that. My life spun out of control.So deep was my hurt that for the first time in my life I questioned God and the purpose of life. I cried out, “Doesn’t man have hard service on earth? It’s like being compelled to serve in the army, like a soldier at war, battling an enemy I can’t stop. I’m like a slave hounded by hard work and I can’t take a break to rest until it’s too dark to do anything more. I’m like a hard laborer struggling to make a go of it, frustrated at every turn with heartaches and hardships I can’t control. All I want is to get paid what little I am owed, but I am put off to wait. Life stinks!”I’m sure you have found for yourself that there are times when life can stink as Satan and sin work against you. When troubles strike, jobs are lost, sickness incapacitates, and loved ones die, things can get so discouraging. What can you do to stop it? Very little because such things are the reality and result of sin in this world! Its consequences lie outside your control. Think of what God told Adam and Eve after they disobeyed Him: “I will greatly increase your pains…. Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food, until you return to the ground…for dust you are and unto dust you will return” (Gn.3:16f). Ever since then life on earth is no eutopia. Things are not always soft and beautiful. Life can be difficult. That reality is hard to take and wears us out.It’s so hard to take that even I, who was once considered blameless and upright before God began to question Him: “Why Lord? Why have you made me your target? Your arrows are sticking out of me. Have I become a burden to you? Why don’t You leave me alone? What harm have I done to You that You do not forgive me?” (v.20f)Even a man whose patience and upright character were well-known, even such a one may carry anguished questions to the throne of heaven. I tried to comprehend the mysterious workings of God with His saints on earth. But the Lord didn’t answer me right away. At least I knew where to go as I struggled to find rhyme and reason to my life when it spun out of control.When problems of suffering, pain, disappointment, or loss wear you down, where do you go? Go to God, even if you do not get an immediate answer to your questions. When the answers didn’t come, I accepted my lot and told my wife, “If we accept the good that comes from God, shouldn’t we also accept the bad?” (2:10). God never promised you a “rose garden” in life. The fact is life in a fallen world can’t give it. There are always thorns among the roses. But you can go to the Lord in the time of your greatest anxiety and learn to accept what God sends, whether good or bad. Why? Because you know “that all things work together for the good of those who love God…for nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro.8:28,38), even though you may not see it at the moment. This is what faith is, knowing, trusting, holding to the Savior who cares for you in the distresses that sin brings upon you. You saw that in the Gospel Lesson today how Jesus tirelessly worked among the sick and suffering and proclaimed the comforting news of the eternal salvation He came to work for us. In the midst of our season of troubles, that Gospel is such good news.So, rest assured, dear friend, He will use your troubles to build Christian character within you and hold you close to Him in saving faith. Oh, it’s hard when you’re struggling; it’s hard when you’re not in control. But the fact is you’re not in control; neither is Satan; God is. Life may not be a “rose garden,” but it is a place where His promises, like the flowers of spring, bloom even in troubled times. In the end God works it all out for your blessing.To that end pray, “Dear God, When Life Spins Out of Control, help me accept whatever you send... II. …for in confident hope I know that You will remember me. You will remember me, won’t You?” That’s what I asked when I cried, “Remember, my life is just a breath.” It was an anguished cry for help. Was it a complaint? Partially. but I intended it as a cry for God’s gracious intervention in my life. “Remember me!” Years later another man used similar words. His life had spun out of control too. It was his own fault because he chose to go down a violent path in life, murder, robbery, insurrection. But it all came to an abrupt end when he was caught, tried, and sentenced to death. On the day he died, he hung on a cross with two others, one was the Lord Jesus. As he hung there by Jesus’ side, he heard the Savior’s gracious words of forgiveness. He began to see in Jesus the Messiah prophesied of old, the One to redeem fallen mankind from the curse of sin and its uncontrollable consequences. He saw Him who would soon pass through death into a heavenly kingdom. He saw God. Turning in sorrowful repentance to Jesus he prayed like I did: “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”Remember me. Just one thought, one merciful remembrance on the part of the Savior - that would be enough for time and eternity, just one thought and all would take care of itself. In such faith he received more than he asked for the Savior responded, “I tell you the truth. Today you will be with me in Paradise.”Think of that, dear friends. That man’s situation on earth did not change. His sin was the cause of his death. Yet, of the few people whom the Scriptures specifically tell us are now in heaven, one was a criminal whose life had spun out of control. That man brought adversity down on his shoulders. Yet, in his dying moment he prayed in confident hope, “Jesus, remember me.” ................
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