Do You Ever Think About Giving Up?

-+Did You Ever Think About Giving Up?

Job 1:1-1:3

ILL.- In November 1988, Marie Balter began work as an administrator of Danvers State

Hospital in Boston. It is a mental hospital. AND IT IS THE SAME HOSPITAL WHERE

SHE SPENT 17 YEARS.

At age 17, Marie went through some very difficult personal ordeals and became clinically

depressed. She was misdiagnosed, labeled schizophrenic and sent to Danvers Hospital.

She stayed there for the next 17 years of her life.

After persistent friends worked to get her out, she was finally released from the hospital in

1964. She went back to school. she lectured across the nation. She worked with

psychiatric patients. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard. Now she is at work as

community affairs director at the hospital which was once her prison.

A. It would have been very easy for Marie Balter to …..have given on life as a result of her …..hospitalization.

B. We must admit that sometimes life is tough. And ….for some people, life just plain sinks.

C. Life is not easy. We all experience problems Family …..problems

1. children problems,

2. work problems,

3. financial problems,

4. health problems,

5. loss of loved ones, and so on.

ILL.- A man by the name of Joseph Bayly and his wife lost three of their children: one at the age of 18 days after surgery. Another at 5 years with Leukemia. And a third at the age of 18 years from a sledding accident.

D. It’s hard to imagine the depth of their loss.

Job 1:1-31 In the land of Uz there lived a man name Job. blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned 7,000sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

E. Job had the respect of everyone.

1. Job was upright, God-fearing, and clean-living.

2. He had 10 children, fields of livestock, an abundance of land, a house full of servants and

a big bank account.

F. Job was “the greatest man of the East.”

1. He had earned that title through years of hard work and ………honest dealings with others. BUT THEN, SUDDENLY, ………WITHOUT ANY WARNING, DISASTER HIT HIM LIKE A TON ……..OF BRICKS!

G. It’s hard to understand how anyone in their …..right mind could handle such a tremendous …..amount of suffering and grief! Bankruptcy, …..pain, 10 graves and the loneliness of those …..empty rooms! AND YET WE READ SOMETHING …..ABOUT JOB THAT ALMOST BORDERS ON THE …..MIRACULOUS!

Job 1:20-22 Job worshipped God! He didn’t blame God! And he didn’t sin in his sorrow!

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. [c] The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." 22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

H. It would have been so easy for Job to have given …..up on life at this point and time.

I. WOULD WE HAVE GIVEN UP?

1. Job did not give up!!

J. And then JOB LOST HIS HEALTH! His trials didn’t …..end with the loss of his children and

all his …..wealth!

Job 2:5-7

5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your

face."

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from

the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

J. Job’s body was covered with itchy, irritating, …..ulcerated sores.

1. He became so sickly that unrecognizable.

2. His body was filled with sharp agonizing pain. His sleep was destroyed.

3. His cancerous type boils burst open and were filled with maggots.

Job 2:11-12, ,

11 When Job's three friends heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.

3:26 26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil."

7:5 5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.

How was it possible for Job to be able to survive such extreme suffering? How was he able to ward off all bitterness and thoughts of suicide?

PROP.- I believe that three answers are given in this book as to how Job kept from giving up.

1- Job looked up

2- Job looked ahead

3- Job looked within