Heaven's Wager

Preached by Larry Brincefield on June 27, 2004

Title: Heaven’s Wager

Text: Job 1:6-22

Introduction

1. I don’t have much time for “pleasure” reading.

• I do so much reading of Bibles, commentaries, and other materials in sermon preparation,

• I just don’t have the time to read much beyond scanning the newspaper or a magazine.

• But, when I go on vacation, I try to catch up!

• During my most recent vacation, I read 3 books by Ted Dekker (www.teddekker.com)

• He writes Christian fiction that is very entertaining and exciting…

• Yet it also speaks to me on a deeply spiritual level.

• The Lord really blesses me through his writings.

• One of those books was entitled, “Heaven’s Wager”…

• And it is what inspired me to write this sermon,

• Which I’ve entitled “Heaven’s Wager” after the book.

2. I won’t go into great detail about the book…

• It is basically the story of a man who seems to have it all…

• But then, through a bizarre set of seemingly unrelated circumstances…

• This man’s entire world crashed down around him.

• This man wasn’t a Christian…

• But his wife, son, and mother-in-law were…

• And they met every week to pray for this man.

• But then the crash occurs…

• And he seems to slip even farther from the Lord…

• But ultimately, he finds redemption…

• After the death of 2 loved ones…

• After his job falls apart because of 2 conspiring co-workers…

• After he commits a crime…

• And is sentenced to prison…

• He finally comes to his senses and finds the Lord.

• The gist of the story is that unbeknownst to the man…

• Everything that is happening to him is the result of spiritual warfare between God and Satan.

• This short summary hasn’t really done the story justice…

• Get the book and read it for yourself (or you can borrow mine if you don’t forget to return it!)

Read Text: Job 1:6-22

Body

1. The Story

A. Job seemed to have a perfect life…

• A wonderful family…wife, 10 kids

• A good job with a solid income…

• Material possessions…

• He was very wealthy.

B. But then, he loses it all…

• As far as he is concerned…

• These events just happened to him…

• He doesn’t know the cause…

• But his world just fell apart.

C. Behind the scenes, there is God and satan…

• They have made a deal whereby satan can test Job…

• And as a result of satan’s efforts, Job is severely tested…

• To the breaking point.

• And you know the story…Job remains faithful…

• And in the end, the Lord richly blesses him…

• Ted Dekker’s book is an contemporary parallel to the story of Job.

2. But, there’s more to it…

A. The book of Job isn’t just a story about something that happened thousands of years ago…

• And “Heaven’s Wager” by Ted Dekker isn’t just fictional entertainment…

• The story of Job is going on in the world today…

• From OUR perspective, the world is what we see…

• The circumstances that happen to us are just that…

• Circumstances…

• Random events…

• On the surface, we see no reason to think otherwise…

B. But there is more to this world than meets the eye…

• There is more going on than what we can see…

• There is another side…

• A deeper side…

• Beneath the surface…

• A place where, truth be told, there’s much more going on than there is here…

• In our visible world…

• Christians often talk about spiritual battle…

• But I wonder if we really have any idea of the extent…

C. satan’s work hasn’t ended…

• We read about his end in the book of Revelation…

• And those events haven’t happened yet…

• satan is STILL “roaming the earth”…

• Scripture says, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

• I don’t know if you have ever watched one of those nature shows…

• Where the lions are hunting the wildebeest…

• But if you have, then you have gotten a picture of 1 Peter 5:8…

• satan is like that lion…hungry…looking to devour us…

• We are like the wildebeest…poor…defenseless…

• Do you know how the lion picks out which wildebeest to go after?

• He looks for the ones that are

o sick…

o diseased…

o struggling…

• And just like that lion, satan will look for Christians who are hurt, struggling, and weak.

• I don’t know about the lion, I’m not a zoologist…

• But satan doesn’t stop there…