Sunday 27 July 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 27 July 2025

Speaker: Kyle Wicker

Sermon Title: The End Of Me.

Scripture Reading: Job 1:13-21

 Servants and I'm the only one who's escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said the C Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword and I am the only one who was escaped to tell you while he was still speaking yet another messenger came and said.

Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house. When suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house, it collapsed on them and they are dead, and I'm the only one who was escaped to tell you at this job. Got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.

Then he fell to the ground in worship and said. Naked. I come from my mother's womb and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

All right, let's pray. Sovereign father,

but we echoed job's simple dare. Speak and I will listen today under the banner of the end of me, we slide ourselves off center stage. Father, our winds, our wounds, our never ending notifications that think they're VIPs. Solace, the scrolling headlines or the exam countdowns or the retirement math, the memory that still stings turn down every voice, father, but your voice and like job, we confess.

Confess I'd heard rumors of you, but now. I want to see you with fresh eyes, so remove the noise of gain or grief. Empty our hands. Father of self-defense and self-importance. Father, make room for wonder. Trade our restless questions for holy curiosity. Trade our frantic pace for footsteps that match yours.

Father, breathe your spirit across this gathering. Father, every pew, every living room. Every heart that limped in here, father,

less of me, more of you. We listen for your whisper father, and we trust your thunder in the strong saving name of Jesus. Amen.

Then job arose, tore his robe and shaved his head. Mm. He fell to the ground and worshiped instead, naked. I came from my mother's womb. And naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. In all, in all, this job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

So job loses livestock servants. And children in a single afternoon. One headline after another gone yet, his first reflex is worship.

Ecclesiastes five verse 15, echoes Job's confession. Everyone comes naked. From the, from their mother's womb. And as everyone comes, so they depart, they take nothing from their toil

that they carry, that they can carry in, in their hands. They take none of it with them. Translation to 2025, your dream house will. Someday it will be re-listed. Your promotions. It's that shiny new Title one email mix up and it's back to square one or that flawless phone, the new phone that you brought this obsolete by Next Autumn.

Everything we grip has an an exploration date stamped in invisible ink. Now, here's a question for you. If it vanished today, would my identity collapse? If the market's tanked, do I tank with it? If the applause stop, do I go silent too? If my health shifts, does my hope shift with it? God's kindness invites us to face that question while the lights are are still on, not after the power goes out.

Everything is on loan. We're not owners. We're renters on a very short lease.

Life's first hard truth. I own nothing. I steward everything now. That's not bad news. It's. Freeing news actually. If it's all God's property, then success becomes a gift, not a badge. Less a, a loss becomes a transfer, not theft. Generosity becomes simple because we're giving what was never ours to hode.

But you see, job's journey doesn't stop at having nothing. It's about asking honest questions and growing in trust, right? But before we move forward, we face today's test. Can I still worship when the cupboards are empty? Believing that God alone is enough.

Now let's look at the wager behind the curtain. Satan shows up in job one verse nine to 11 and and in two verse four to five with a snare. Does job serve God for nothing? Strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your faith. It's an audit of emotion, of motive. Sorry. It's an audit of motive.

Remove the perks, right? And the worship stops. Heaven allows the test. Hell supplies the heat and job's wife. Oh, poor job's. Wife shaken to her core and overwhelmed by sorrow. She blots The thought some of us have had in our darkest moments. Curse God and die. It's Satan talking through griefs, megaphone job's, reply slices through the fog.

Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? This isn't stoic denial. It's covenant loyalty under fire.

Paul warns us about this in two Corinthians two, verse 11. We aren't clueless about his tricks. Here's how the enemy usually plays it. Maybe it's isolation. Your struggles are unique. Suffer in silence or accusation. If God really cared, this wouldn't be happening to you. Or how about distraction? Feel the pain.

Here's your phone. Scroll binge, ignore, classic playbook. Cut you off, shame you then keep you busy so you forget to stand firm name the scheme and it loses surprise power. And here's an insight. Fire reveals whether faith is contractual or covenantal. So you have contract faith. Contract, faith. I obey. You bless deal.

But it breaks when blessings pause. And then there's covenant faith, though You slay me yet will I trust you? Job 13 verse 15. Bakes in the same fire. That melts the contract. And here's a phrase for you. Contract faith breaks in the fire covenant. Faith bakes in the fire

quietly. Let's do a quick little exercise. Quietly ask yourself, what's my unspoken deal with God?

If he changes the fine print, will I still worship?

Place a hand over your heart. Place a hand over your heart, everyone. And now whisper. I'm yours. No fine print.

See Job's, covenant stance doesn't end the pain. It opens the door to be to honest wrestling and eventual a face-to-face encounter with God.

That's where that's where we're headed. From sifting to seeing, so stay with me. The whirlwind is about to speak. Now let's look into Job's. Cry for clarity in Job three, verse 23, right? He says, why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in Job 23, verse three to four? If only I knew where to find him.

I would state my case before him. And fill my mouth with argument. Job said, see, job isn't. He's not whispering, polite church prayers. Here he is, shouting into the night, wanting a court date with God.

Notice, 35 chapters of back and forth questions, complaints, even sarcasm. And it's kept in the Bible. God could have trimmed that transcript. He didn't. He left it in there. That means your late night wise is is not a faith failure. It's a part of the conversation Heaven already expects.

Here's some modern echoes for you. Maybe you've been in the ICU waiting room. Lord, just tell me why this, or maybe it's a job market silence. You've handed out 20 resumes, zero calls. Are you seeing this? We've all stood with job at the podium of confusion. Wouldn't it be nice if, uh, God offered package tracking on prayers?

Your answer is out for delivery. He doesn't because he's aiming deeper than quick fixes.

Take hours before the cross. Jesus tells confused disciples in John 13 verse seven, what I am doing. You do not understand yet. You do not understand now, but afterwards you will even perfect faith. Jesus lived with temporary mystery. The promise isn't instant clarity. It's eventual understanding. Now, here's a key insight.

God welcomes hard questions, right, but he refuses small answers. He trades our How long for a vision so big it won't fit into the bullet points, questions allowed. Shortcuts denied. Now let's do a quick 32nd exercise. Open your palm and face it upwards like you're holding a question. Silently, tell God the hardest why you carry right now.

Think about it, the hardest wire that you have right now and have it in your hand.

And now whisper. I'm listening.

Shape the answer in your time.

Why this matters When Faith, that's the grieve out. When faith lets to grieve out loud, three good things happen when you grieve out loud, pressure valve opens, right?

You stop pretending, you ladder it out, you be honest with God. You just, you just ladder it out. Pride bounce. So you own your limits. You're not relying on pride. But here's the beauty of it. Trust grows. See real talk with God deepens the relationship

and job's. Questions will soon meet God's whirlwind. Not to shrink the mystery, but to widen job's view. Hold onto your honest questions. God is big enough to feel everyone. And loving enough to answer on his schedule.

Now, that's, this is the fun part, the interesting part, when the world, when the whirlwind speaks, so after 35 chapters of human debate, right? God arrives in a storm. God arrives in the storm now and he asks 77 questions. Zero of which answer Job's Why? Just for a few samples here. Job 38 verse four. Where were you when I laid Earth's foundation?

Or Job 38 verse 12. Have you ever commanded the mourning to appear or job? 39 Verse one. Do you watch when the mountain goats give birth and 74 more like that job came with a pocket calculator and God rolled out a cosmic supercomputer. Hm. Job's verdict after the whirlwind. Job. 42 verse five. He says, my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you translation.

I went from believing gossip to shaking hands with the real deal and his reflex response. Or Job 42 verse six says, therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Not self-loathing. Self resizing job realizes he's a character. He's not the author,

and there's a few. Or moments throughout the Bible. Take Isaiah. Isaiah in the temple. Woe to me I am ruined. Isaiah six five or Peter at the Miracle Catch when the Lord told him, show that I'm net back in. He chucked it in and he he got that catch that that miracle catch. Wow. His reply was, go away. Lord.

I'm a sinful man. And then we have job in the whirlwind. I withdraw my case different centuries, same knee buckling, gasp, holy God, tiny me. And yet we are still loved. Amen.

So here's the key inside. The presence of God may not explain pain, but it eclipses it.

Imagine standing under a sky full of stars. Beautiful. Your questions shrink. Wonder swells. Now multiply that by infinity. That's Job 42.

And here's a phrase for you. Presence doesn't explain pain. It eclipses it.

Let's try something. Let's try this. Close your eyes. Now, close your eyes and picture the most jaw dropping moment. Maybe it's a blazing sunrise. Or maybe it's your baby's first giggle or a sky so full of stars. It feels unreal. Now let that wonder swell until it drowned out every why me for a moment.

If that brief memory shifted your mood, imagine full volume presence.

So let's talk about a practical, a rhythm. Before your feet hit the floor. Tomorrow, take a 62nd or pause and whisper. Good morning Majesty. You run galaxies and you are right here. Watch how that eclipses the to-do list.

Seeing God didn't end job's story, it redirected it. The man who once argued now prays for friends, speaks with humility. Lives with open hands. That's where we're headed next. Living changed how all turned into action. The story isn't over. Not yet.

Confidence in God's goodness.

A declaration in the dark. You see Job hasn't received uh, restoration yet. The skin is still raw. Children's still gone. Friends are still lecturing over here and right there he utters a Thunderbolt of Hope. Job 19 verse 25 to 27. Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives. And that in the end he will stand on the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes I, and not another, how my heart yearns within me. No comfort in sight, but confidence. Settled centuries Later, another man writes from a prison cell, two Timothy one, verse 12. I know whom I have believed and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until this day.

Until that day. Same word. Same still. I know you see Paul, he wrestles with mystery of God's plan. Then bursts in Romans 11, verse 33, owe the depth of the riches of the wisdom of knowledge of God and knowledge of God. He uns search how unsearchable his judgments and his past beyond tracing out translation.

I can't map him right, but I can trust him. And here's another insight. When I reach the end of me, when I reach the end of me, I fall into the arms of the one who has no end.

So remember this end of me beginning of majesty.

Picture a rookie skydiver, right? A skydiver at the door of the plane, knees knocking, stomach flipping

the jump. Feels like death.

He jumps and the instructor. Well, the, the instructor's strapped to his back, right? And the instructor pulls the chute. Free Falling free falling terror turns into floating wonder. Confidence isn't in you. It's in the one strapped to you. Job, Paul. And every believer free falls into an endless God and finds to shoot.

It holds.

Let's do this. Let's try this. Let's make our own declaration. I'll say, I'll say a line and you echo the second one. All right.

I know

my redeemer lives.

I know he holds my life.

I know his wisdom is deep. I know his love. He is wired. He's wide. Mm.

You see job's settled. Confidence pushes him outward.

He'll soon pray for the friends who wounded him. Confidence that God is good frees us to be. Good to others. That's where we land. That's where we'll land serving changed how the end of me becomes the beginning of ministry. Hold that skydiver image, right? You are safe now. You can help others land.

Job 42, verse 10 to 12, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as before. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former. He had more 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels. That's a lot of camel.

Yes. Plus seven sons and three daughters whose beauty turned heads across the land,

but the bigger upgrade influence people who once avoided job now pulled up chairs to hear his story.

Now we're talking about mercy, not merit. See, James five verse 11 reminds us that you've heard of job's endurance, and seen what the Lord finally did. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy

because Job got 100% on the faith test. No, it doesn't say that last bit, but you notice restoration isn't a reward for perfect performance. It's pure mercy on display.

See, Paul puts it this way. Paul says in second Corinthians one verse four, God comforts us in all our troubles. So that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received. So your scars, whether surgically or emotionally, can be a front door key into someone's else's locked away pain.

Maybe you've been there in the hospital,

maybe conversations erupt, maybe not. But the more you talk about your scars, the hope circulates. It's recycled pain

and God wastes no wounds. If you're wounded, he recycles pain

scars. Preach your scars. Preach

now, for a moment, I want you to take a look at your hands. Look at your hands. Maybe there's a scar.

If not, picture one. Picture one on your heart. Right. And whisper. Lord, don't let this wound go to waste. Turn it into someone's someone else's hope.

And we remember the ultimate exhibit. The cross,

the resurrected Christ kept his scars. Thomas touched them. Faith ignited glory wears wounds so doubters can touch grace.

Friends, family, your hope carries. Your, your hope carries with bandaid badges. So somewhere this week, maybe a coworker or, or a classmate or neighbor. Maybe your neighbor needs the comfort you unboxed in your own valley. Carry your story. Someone needs it.

All right, here's another exercise for you guys. I'll read you an echo. Uh, I'll read you echo in a whisper. You don't have to say it.

Search me God and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there. Is any offensive way in me

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Open your hands, uncurl those knuckles and lower them to your lap. As if setting a package down and silently breathe, it's yours. It's yours,

Philippians three, eight.

I count everything as loss. Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Commit to an open hand check each morning this week, Lord, is anything prying my fingers closed. Let it go. Let it go. Live in that freedom. The freedom of the cross.

In closing. In closing, let's do a summary arrival. We entered the world empty handed, right? Then there's the journey. Earth tested our grip, blessings, burdens, battles.

The encounter eyes opened. Majesty eclipsed the mystery, and then there's the exit we walk into tomorrow. Settled in God's goodness. Now say it with me once for your mind and once for your heart at the end of me.

The goodness of God remains. Let's do it again. At the end of me, the goodness of God remains.

All right. Pastors and elders I'm thinking will be upfront if you need prayer or even just conversation and go in peace. And keep those hands open. And I'm just gonna close with prayer. Bow your heads, close your eyes. Father,

like job. We confess that much of our faith has been secondhand. Stories we've heard, songs we've sung. Yet today we long to see you with clear eyes. Pry our fingers.

Pry our fingers open, and that goes around fragile treasures, so you can place lasting hope in our open palms. Father, thank you for welcoming our honest wise, and for answering with your steady presence. Instead of small explanations, keep us faithful. When blessings fade. And when storms rage, remind us that at the end of us, your goodness still stands.

Fix our vision on Christ. Our living redeemer, he's still interceding. Soon returning until the day, faith finally becomes sight and questions become praise in his strong saving name. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys.

And we gonna have another song.