What a great day honoring our Pastor for 10 years of faithful service at Oak Ridge Baptist Church! http://t.co/bYXG0k6e
 Job - Sunday AMThe book of Job is sometimes avoided as if it contains some sort of unlucky aura. Sometimes we overlook the book of Job because we feel it is “just a little on the dark side for me.” Yet, if you do study the book, there is a compelling intrigue to it. Any time a book of the Bible starts with a conversation in heaven between Satan and the Lord, is that intriguing? What about if that conversation involves an individual saint on earth? If the topic contains help in dealing with the most troubling questions about suffering as a Christian, is that compelling? Is there drama in watching a man suffer so devastatingly and then watch as he works out his faith in his God? Would you wonder how God would respond to a group of armchair theologians who speak inaccurately about His ways or who articulate suspicions against God? There is much in the book of Job that grabs our common assump- tions by the collar. |
Sermons in this series
Sun, Apr 22, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - Perhaps the best account in all of the Bible of how a child of God should respond to the words of God is found in the story of Job. Job is the hearers of a sermon delivered directly by the voice of His Creator and Redeemer. This sermon is delivered in the midst of a lightning storm and totals over 120 verses. Job's response is as pertinent to you and I as the delivery and content of the sermon itself. How do you respond when God speaks? Once again we find ourselves being instructed tremendously from the life of Job.
Sun, Apr 15, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Worship - Greek historian Herodotus tells of sumptuous Egyptian feasts where, after much eating, merriment, lude behavior occurs. The servants would parade a wooden coffin through the banquet room, containing a carved wooden and painted image of a corpse. The servants would carry this to each guest and encourage them to continue to party by showing them the coffin and say, “Eat, drink and be merry, for someday this will be you.” The philosophy has followed to this day. Is this really how it is? Is this life all there is? Is there really a resurrection to follow? And if there is a blissful or hellish afterlife, what affect does that have on me today? Today, we meet one person who will tell us that his belief in an afterlife greatly affected his present life.
Sun, Mar 25, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - “Does my God really care? Perhaps, He has too much to do and cannot really manage every Christian’s suffering and questions? Perhaps He does not choose to involve Himself with all the details of all of our needs?”…Have you ever posed these kind of questions? Well, if you have, God has an answer for them. Today in our passage God answers these and more in a most dramatic presentation to His choice servant Job.
Sun, Apr 01, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship
Sun, Mar 18, 2012
Sunday Morning Worship - Pastor Tom Craig - Throughout Job’s unreasonable suffering he has yearned for an audience with his God. God is intentionally sometimes silent, but He is never absent. The anticipation has been building: will God ever speak? Will Job get his wish, his audience with his God? In Job 38 God makes a dramatic and startling entrance. We wonder with Job, will God show up? And, what will He say to His servant?
Sun, Mar 11, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - In Job 31, we have 13 statements from Job concerning his personal commitment to his God. They are strong statements: “I don’t do this, I haven’t ever done this, I will not do this, I will always do this…” When we read these, we may either think: “this sounds like the musings man who is inappropriately proud of his spiritual life,” or “this sounds like a moving testimony of a man who loves his God.” If we love our God, is it indeed appropriate to speak of our love for God like Job does? Should we go around saying, “I will always…I will never”?
Sun, Mar 04, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - "I will confess my sin" - Job. We can learn much from a man like Job. Just when you think his life has challenged you and inspired you to attain a walk with your Lord just as he experienced, the Bible reveals a little more of his life testimony. In today's text, Job vows an oath, not to ever sin, but rather never to cover his sin. Job traces this sin tendency to cover his sin all the way back to Adam. Man always struggled with the tendency to cover our sin and save face. Adam struggled, Job struggled, and you and I struggle. Today we will learn from Job, NOT "how to be perfect", but "what to do with ourselves when we have sinned"
Sun, Feb 19, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - A barometer is a weather instrument used to measure the pressure in the air around you. Barometers respond to changes in atmospheric conditions. The change in atmospheric pressure around you can be used to predict the weather. Perhaps best barometer of biblical living you and I can read may be how you and I react to the hatred of another person. A barometer that reads love while under the pressure of hatred or antagonism indicates a Christlike person. A barometer that reads hatred while under the pressure of hatred indicates a Christless response. Job testifies that He does not return hatred for hatred in his life. What does your barometer read?
Sun, Feb 05, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Evening - Randy Alcorn challenges you and I concerning our approach to living immaterially in a material world, in his book, Money, Possessions and Eternity: Financial planners tell us, "When it comes to you money, don't think just three months or three years ahead. Think thirty years ahead." Christ, the ultimate investment counselor, takes it further. He says, "Don't ask how your investment will be paying off in just thirty years. Ask how it will be paying off in thirty million years." He goes on also to say this in a quote from Richard Halverson: "Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man's real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index to a man's true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man's character and how he handles his money." Just how do we live in the responsibilities of the moment with our money, while actively giving to the eternal? Job shares his approach in his list of own personal resolutions in the middle of Job 31.
Sun, Feb 05, 2012
Pastor Tom Craig - Sunday Morning Worship - Do you keep a working network of poor, lonely, widowed, fatherless, sick, home-bound, people with whom you weekly serve and give portions of your life and income to? John Wesley was a well known preacher in the 18th century. He is appreciated for his opposition to slavery, his open air preaching, his work in inspiring and training preachers. He is also appreciated for the way he gave much of his income to help the less fortunate. He served in many charities, gave himself to work in orphanages, ministered to the sick. His own personal driving theme toward the less fortunate was this: "Put yourself in the place of every poor man and deal with him as you would have God deal with you." Job felt much the same way, and his feeling was turned into action. What is your feeling and what are your actions toward the poor, widowed, fatherless, sick, home-bound?