SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: January 20, 2007
Date Preached: January 21, 2007
Church: OZHBC (AM)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series Title: Living a Life of Obedience
Sermon Title: Obedience in Adversity
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."
Job 1:12-19 (NASB)
INTRODUCTION:
In our passage this morning we find Job sitting at his house and doing what he had been doing for years. He was living in reverence to God, he was sacrificing to God on behalf of himself and his family, he proclaimed God to those around him and God noticed the obedience and devotion of Job.
But we find that Satan had a plan to destroy Job. Satan said that it was only because he was blessed that Job was devoted to God- that if God would allow him to take away the blessings of Job then he would curse God and turn his back on his faith.
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.
Have you ever been where these people have been? Things seem to be going good, but then bad times begin to crash in around you! How do you react? How do you serve God when things like this happen?
Today we are going to look at obedience in adversity and how we can be obedient when difficult times come… and you know they will! In looking at our passage today we can see that Job had to endure.
1. 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 is it? 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.
For the most part when these things happen, many of us look to the sky and say, Why me Lord? What did I do? Haven’t I served you? Our 1st reaction is to strike out at God and demand an answer from Him.
However, when Job seemingly had everything taken away from him when Satan attacked him; when his children were all killed and his livestock (which was his wealth) were all killed or taken away… notice that Job did not strike out at God!
We know that he was in pain, we know that he was grieving the loss of his children, and we also know that he probably wondered how he was going to make now that he was penniless. But the one thing we do not see in Scripture is Job shaking an angry fist in God’s face and blaming God!
Instead we see Job doing something that may sound really absurd to most of us today. Let’s look at what he said and did…
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of the Lord. 22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job 1:20-22 (HCSB)
In these 3 verses we can gather a lot of information about Job. First of all we can see why God was bragging on him earlier in the chapter… we can see that Job is dedicated to God. We can also see that Job understands that it is God who provides the blessings of life and it is God who can take them away.
But Job not only understood God’s sovereignty over him and this world, Job recognized God for WHO He is and he falls on the ground and worships Him… he said, “Praise the name of the Lord!” And the Bible shares that thru this tragedy Job did not sin against God OR blame God for what had happened.
When difficulties come into our lives are we willing or even able to act and live as Job did? You may be sitting there this morning saying to yourself… “Nobody can act like that, it isn’t possible!” Well, we CAN act like that if we have the right focus in life… if our focus is on God and not our ‘things’
Job was focused on serving God and the material things of this life were nice to have, but he understood that they were expendable, but his relationship with God was NOT!
When we cling to God with that kind of passion, we can deal with tragedy when it comes our way. We can deal with a flat tire, we can deal with our car breaking down… we can deal with any life situation that is out there.
But we see that it was not just good times going bad for Job, but we can see that Satan was not thru with him, he wanted to destroy Job and we can see that Job then experienced…
2. WHEN BAD TIMES TURN AWFUL (2:3-8):
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.’ 4 Skin for skin!’ Satan answered the Lord. ‘A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. 5 But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.’ 6 ‘Very well,’ the Lord told Satan, ‘he is in your power; only spare his life.’ 7 So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with incurable boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
Job 2:3-8 (HCSB)
Job thought he had hit bottom… Job thought his life was as bad as it could get, but NOW he was covered in boils… from head to foot… the Bible says they were incurable boils… recurring boils… boils that you would scrape away and they would come right back!
Have you ever had even ONE boil? I can remember having 5 on the back of my neck when I was in the 5th grade… the pain was terrible and the treatment was worse and I still carry the scars of that time on my neck.
Here Job was covered from head to foot with these painful sores. He was still in morning and still sitting in sackcloth and ashes, so this could NOT have been good for the sores! I can only imagine what pain he had to endure! But let’s look at what Job does!
In v.9 Job’s wife appears on the scene, she has been strangely silent in this entire matter… but she comes and tells Job that if he had any integrity about him… that he would just curse God and die…
She was more worried about how things LOOKED than what was happening to Job. She had been living the good life and now her husband was down and out… festering with sores all over his body… JUST DIE so I won’t have to be so embarrassed to look at your or try to explain what is happening to our friends! Curse God and die!
In v.10 Job answers his wife with a very wise and unexpected answer, “…You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said…”
Job 2:10 (HCSB)
Job had the belief that he was going to take the testing and the trials with the good and the blessing! He had been blessed and now God was obviously testing him for some reason. He may not have understood why, but Job did understand that obedience to God was still the most important thing he could do…
His wife cared about the relationship she had with those around her and her social standing, but Job cared more about his relationship with God and his eternal standing.
Let me ask you a question this morning. What if it is NOT your car that breaks, but it’s your family that is affected? What if one of your family has made a bad choice in life and now their lives have been changed.
What if your teenage daughter is pregnant? What if your teenage son has gotten his girlfriend pregnant? What do you do then?
So often we react like Job’s wife! We go on and on about what it is going to look like to those around us! We worry about how it is going to affect our social standing. We fret over what others are going to say about us!
We don’t turn to God, either out of shame or anger… we turn our backs on Him and push Him out of our decision making processes!
I want to go on record as your pastor this morning by saying… pre-marital sex and sex outside of marriage is WRONG- it is a sin, and God does NOT approve or look the other way… it is a sin that carries deep and lasting consequences with it!
But, it is not an unforgivable sin! It is not a sin that will banish you from His presence! Girls and boys this morning I want to share with you that being pregnant is NOT the end of the world.
Yes you have sinned, but God’s grace is sufficient to forgive you and this body… this fellowship is going to love you and help you thru this time in your life.
And I want to tell you that abortion is NOT the answer! It only leads to more problems. The world will tell you that you are too young, that a baby would ruin your life! It is the advice of the world to sweep it under the rug, to get an abortion and no-one will have to know about it!
And you may think it is the wise thing to do, but it is NOT, abortion is simply another sin on top of your first sin… abortion is the sin of murder! Abortion kills a baby!
When we face adversity, when the bad times seem to be mounting and we cannot seem to understand why… we need to do what Job did! Job placed his faith in God! Job understood that God was the provider of blessing but that he was also the provider of testing!
God can and will take a bad situation and use it as a test of our faith and trust in Him. Rom 8:28 shares with us that ALL things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His grace. God can use any situation to bring Him glory and to grow us spiritually!
We are called by God to be obedient and when we sin and fall we cannot abandon our walk with Him. He is NOT going to abandon us. We cannot compound our sin by doing more sin to try and cover our first sin… that just doesn’t make any sense!
We need to realize that God will try and test us in this life and we must lean on Him and trust in Him as Job did…
When we move to chapter 3 we finally begin to see a chink in Job’s armor. Here we begin to see that his faith is wavering just a bit. Here we find Job wishing he was never born… so that he would never have to face this difficulty.
But yet we do not find him blaming God or shaking his fist at God, Job is now having a pity party and is asking what so many of us ask when difficulty comes our way… WHY?
But just when we thought all was lost and it couldn’t get any worse, we can see that Job experienced…
3. WHEN AWFUL TIMES TURN DREADFUL:
Humanity is cruel and judgmental and the 3 ‘friends’ of Job play this out in a big way. Beginning in chapter 4 we find Job’s friends basically attacking Job’s character and telling him that he has done something terribly wrong and that he simply needs to confess what he has done and then God will either forgive him or destroy him…
It is so typical that when someone is down, that others don’t reach over to help them up, but reach back to kick them when they are down.
Job experienced the abandonment of his family and friends here and all he felt he had left in this world was finally taken away from him! He was now ALL alone, and he was beginning to show signs of breaking.
When the world deals us a crushing blow… when God allows difficult and terrible things to happen in our lives, how do WE react?
Well typically we react like Job did in chapter 3, why me Lord… we react kinda like Jimmy Stewart did in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life - we wish we were never born! But we find out quickly as Jimmy Stewart did that is NOT the answer!
How often do we find ourselves or others attacking the character of a young woman who has gotten pregnant or the young man who is responsible for that pregnancy? It seems that we cannot help ourselves… that we have to kick them when they are down!
We make ourselves believe that we are merely pointing out to them what they need to change and get right with God, but I can guarantee you that they already know that they made the mistake… they need our love at this point!
That baby needs our love at this point as well. The world will tell us that the baby is the culprit and that if we just remove the baby from the picture… all will be well! But that doesn’t make sense!
Let me ask you a question, if you had a dog that you loved and someone said, I will give you a brand new car if you will kill your dog with your bare hands! What would you do?
Now I am not talking about that raggedy ole’ stray that keeps coming up in our yard… although… ask yourself the question, would I be willing to kill anything to make me happy… to bring ME happiness?
That is basically what abortion is… it is killing an innocent baby who is only there because of your decision making… and you are killing that baby so that you can get on with your life… so that you can be happy… so that you won’t have to feel the shame of others knowing you were pregnant!
Is that what being obedient to God is about? I think NOT! Obedience to God is not contingent upon our circumstances or what bad choices we have made. We are called to be obedient even when Satan is breaking down our door to destroy us!
CONCLUSION:
We can see that Job questioned why he had been born, but Job never forgot that God was in control! In the end we find that Job ultimately realized that there were certain things he could NOT question… God’s sovereignty was one of them!
God is in control… we may not understand WHY God chooses the things He does or allows to happen… but we must understand that nothing takes God by surprise! And when adversity comes our way… God is ready to be there for us!
God wants us to lean on Him during adversity, but so often we try to run off and do things our way… or we run off to hide or try to fix the situation by making even worse decisions!
This morning God wants you to know that obedience to Him is an everyday, in every situation type of obedience! It is easy to obey and submit to God when the going is good.
But when tough times come, what is it you turn to? Do you turn to the world for comfort and advice OR do you turn to God and rely on His sovereignty and grace?
Wherever you are in life today God wants to be there with you!
If you are on the mountaintop, God desires to be there with you!
If you are dealing with difficulties at your job or at school or even at home… God wants to be there with you!
If you are dealing with life changing situations such as pregnancy… God wants to be there with you!
God is calling you this morning and I urge you to answer Him. If you are a believer and you have been disobedient to His call today… I urge you to come and make things right with God… you must get back in obedience to Him!
If you are here today and you DON’T have Christ in your heart I urge you to give Him your life this morning! He wants to be there for you, but He is not going to force Himself on you, He is drawing you, will you submit to Him today? Come as Jerry comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation!
