Don't Through In The Towel

(I preached this message with a towel over my shouder)

Prayer: Father,

Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.

Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.

Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.

And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.

EXPL:Job justifies his complaints.

Job returns to the complaints of chapter 3 in job 6:8-13. Though he will not curse God and die, he asks God to curse him so he could die. If God would only strike him dead Job knows that he could die in the confidence that he had not sinned.

Verse 10 is a powerful testimony to Job’ confidence that he has not fallen short of God’s expectations for him. He specifically declares that he has not denied God’s words. The KJV most literally translates the Hebrew word as "concealed" but the modern versions correctly interpret Job’s meaning with the word "denied." He meant that he had not hidden God’s words by making them a private matter of relationship between himself and God. Rather Job had lived out the instructions and word of God publicly in his life. Put another way, Job was affirming that his life had not contradicted God’s words, but had exemplified them.

This is a moving and important testimony for several reasons. First, it is spiritually uplifting to see a person whose life embodies the will of God. All of us need to see human beings living out the will of God so that his will is not abstract theory but realistic and understandable life. Job’s testimony calls us to a life of integrity in which we can be an example of the way God intends life to be lived. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly for us, Job shows us here that right relationship with God cannot be kept in the private dimensions of our lives. There is such an over emphasis on personal and individual relationship with God that faith is made a private matter. While it is personal, faith is not private if it is biblical faith. Biblical faith is persistently public. What one believes privately is of no interest to Biblical people unless it is demonstrated by the way one lives publicly.

In verses 11-13 Job again attempts to justify his complaint against God. He knows that he is not strong enough to bear such pain forever. There is nothing to be gained by suffering in silence from Job’s perspective. The end of his life is near; he must cry out to God.

Intro: Have you ever felt like throwing in the towel? Do you know what it means to throw in the towel? It means to quit or to give up.

Have you ever felt like your situation was so hopeless that the only thing you could possibly do was quit and never look back?

Lately, I have been hearing how the enemy has been picking on people in our church. When the enemy attacks you or your family or some aspect of your life, it might be easy to give up and let him have the victory but that is not what we are supposed to do.

Most counselors will agree that the one thing that causes people to want to give up is a loss of hope.

Sadly, people every day and from every walk of life go through this. They get to a point in their lives when they feel like they have lost all hope.

If there was ever anyone in the Bible who had a good reason to lose hope it would have been Bro. Job.

Job lost everything. Satan took it all from him.

He lost all his children, all his servants, all his animals, all his crops, and all his possessions.

If that was not enough, he was then afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Who was responsible for all of his losses and is painful affliction? Satan. The enemy.

Job was an outstanding man of God and Satan did not like it.

So if anyone knew what it was like to feel despair, Job did. He was so down that he even thought his life would be better if he was dead.

Job had lost hope and he was ready to give up.

Job’s story and how he felt and how he reacted relates to us today because the temptation to throw in the towel and give up and lose hope and be in despair is universal and it is timeless.

You can see it over and over again.

Every day people go through the toughest of situations and every day people have to decide if they are going to throw in the towel and give up or if they are going to stand up and take the victory.