Obedience In The Hard Times Of Lfe Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 16, 2009

Date Preached: May 03, 2009

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: Life is Hard

Sermon Title: Obedience in the Hard Times of Life

Sermon Text: Job 1:12-19 [NASB]

12 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.

13 Now on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

14 a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

15 and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

19 and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

Introduction:

In our passage this morning we find Job sitting at his house and doing what he had been doing for years. Living in reverence to God, sacrificing to God on behalf of himself and his family, and proclaiming God to those around him and Scripture tells us that God noticed Job’s obedience and devotion to Him.

But we find that Satan had a plan to destroy Job. Satan tells God that Job was only faithful because God had blessed Job with so much. Satan said that if God would allow him to take away the blessings Job had then Job would curse God and turn his back on his faith. God agreed to the challenge and allowed Satan to remove Job’s blessed lifestyle, but God told Satan not to harm Job.

We see that Satan wasted NO time in attacking the prosperity of Job, and by the end of the day Job was childless and had lost all his material possessions. Job was overcome by grief and he tore his clothes in agony and sat in sackcloth and ashes because of his despair.

In this Bible story we see Job dealing with the HARD times of life… and life had become VERY hard VERY fast! For many of us that is what happens to us as well. We are tootlin’ along in life, going to church, paying our tithes, going to Sunday school, and living a good life… and then WHAM! Out of the blue something terrible hits…

We begin to experience the same feelings that Job did… we begin to feel the anguish and suffering of Job. What about you, have you ever suffered, even though you knew you had been living according to God’s commands?

It seems as if now that life is crashing in around you! Let me ask you a question this morning? When life gets hard… when life seems UNFAIR… when life begins to beat you down… How do you react? How do YOU serve God when LIFE gets hard all of a sudden?

Today we are going to look at how Job dealt with the horrible circumstances that seemed to overwhelm him and his life and we can see how Job lived when Life God Hard for him… we are going to take a look at Job’s obedience even through his adversity and then I want us to look at how we can be obedient during the hard times of life… when it seems as if we cannot!

Let’s look at our passage today we can see the HARD things life threw at Job:

WHEN GOOD TIMES GO BAD (1:20-22):

When things are going good for you and suddenly there is something bad that happens what is the 1st thing you do?

Here we find that Job lost almost EVERYTHING he had but usually when we think of “good times going bad” what do we picture? Usually it is something like a flat tire on the way to work? An unexpected cold where we have to go to the doctor? Maybe our water pump on the car goes bad or the battery or the alternator…