Fair Weather Christians
Job 2
(Series: Serving God in Difficult Times)
Has anyone heard the phrase “Fair Weather Friend”? Can you tell me what it means? OK lets apply it to Christians walk with the Lord. What do you think a fair weather Christian would be? Lets examine the second chapter in Job to find out a little more about it.
Synopsis: Fair weather Christians serve God only while it benefits them. They are mercenaries who hire to the highest blesser.
Review: Let’s take a minute to set the stage for this chapter. What happened in Job’s life in chapter 1? We preached on this a month or so ago? So this is a test to see who has the onset on alezstimers. He lost all of his possessions, livestock, and children all died in tornado. Remember the Devil caused it all trying to prove to God that all Christians are fair weather Christians. Serving only for what they can get. At the end of the test he still has his faith, home, and wife, and health. “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Then we enter the second chapter.
1 One day the angels came again to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan the Accuser came with them. 2 "Where have you come from?" the LORD asked Satan. And Satan answered the LORD, "I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that’s going on." 3 Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth – a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you persuaded me to harm him without cause." 4 Satan replied to the LORD, "Skin for skin – he blesses you only because you bless him. A man will give up everything he has to save his life. 5 But take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!" 6 "All right, do with him as you please," the LORD said to Satan. "But spare his life."
7 So Satan left the LORD’s presence, and he struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. 8 Then Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die." 10 But Job replied, "You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
11 Three of Job’s friends were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. When they heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. 12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to demonstrate their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. And no one said a word, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.
I An Encounter in Heaven 1-6
A. God questions Satan about his activity 1-2
B. God reminds Satan of his defeat with Job 3 “Not a fair weather Christian”
C. Satan’s Counter Argument - “He is fair weather Christian” 4-5
-Just haven’t used the right situation yet to show it.
-Everyone will be a fair weather Christian if the situation is right.
-“Everyone has a price” is Satan’s claim
(Man asked girl will you have sex with me for a million dollars, probably . How about for $20.? No! I’m no prostitute. He says, "We’ve already established that, now we are just haggling over the price.")
-Humans Will serve anyone for health in their bodies
Charles Darwin -The Question he couldn’t answer p16,
It was the death of his daughter that Charles Darwin couldn’t make sence of with a loving God. This seemed to put him on his path to finding a way to take God out of the creation story. 32,33 Jan-March Answers
D. God gives Permission with limits v6
-Satan still has to gain permission from God
-God never gives him free reign.
II An Encounter on Earth v7-8
A. Satan struck Job with Boils
B. Job suffered in Silence
III An Encounter in the Family 9-10
A. Job’s Wife speaks
-Whose side is she on ? Satan’s
-She encourages him to do what Satan wanted (Give up on God)
-She proved to be a Fair weather Christian - Serving only while blessing continued
-Walked out on God and Job
-Jesus says sometimes your enemies come from your own family
B. Job Response
a. He REBUKES HIS WIFE
-“You talk like a godless woman” -implying she wasn’t in the past (Backslidding)
b. HE REMINDS HIS WIFE OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY
1. We don’t judge God’s actions -Whether He is right or wrong in what he does.
2. He is God and we are not. We are dust. We have no right to set in judgement of God’s actions.
JON and KATE Plus 8 Charisma Article p20 December 2008
The are known from TLC’s show about their lives “Jon and Kate Plus 8. Kate couldn’t have children so they went to a fertility clinic and had twins. They wanted another one so they went again. This time she had 7 fertilized eggs. She was told to selectively get rid of some. Fair Weather Christians could have rationalized it, but they refused because of their faith in God. It was dangerous and difficult, and one didn’t fully form. But they delivered sextuplets. Can you say difficult. Then they allowed the show to film their family up to 12 hrs a day. Although TLC cuts out much christian content, some still comes through. God has used the show to have a spiritual impact on viewers ....p20
She is unmoved and leaves him in his misery. Like many who are around only for what they can get. There are givers and takers.
IV An Encounter with Friends 11-13
A. He hear of his tragedy and come to comfort him.
-Sadly when wife walks out his friends walk in.
B. His Friends Grieved for his Situation
C. His Stood by him in his pain.
On Dateline NBC Friday December 26, 2008 ‘A Twist of Fate’
From Publishers Weekly
In a widely reported incident in 2006, Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak, students at an evangelical college in Indiana, and their families were victims of a ghastly mistake: the wrong girl was identified as the survivor of a car crash that claimed multiple lives. Only after five weeks, when the girl emerged from a coma, was the error discovered. The families and the survivor, Whitney, record their experiences in this heavily Christian account. Those seeking a tale of extraordinary emotions to match the extraordinary circumstances will be disappointed: both families are devoutly religious, and their faith is of the sort that does not admit a great range of feelings. Anger and anguish are quickly recast as professions of faith and celebrations of life in Christ. The Van Ryns immediately embrace Whitney and dismiss a reporter’s suggestion of lawsuits. Nor are the Ceraks bitter, not even Whitney, who suffers brain damage. As they describe it, the story inspires others to adopt their beliefs. (Because of such conversions, Whitney writes that the five people killed in the crash have given their lives for Christ.)
Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family. This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt? Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found. And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings. Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.
Conclusion: God gives us many blessing for following him, but no where does he promise that life would always be rosey and pain free if we followed him. In fact he often said just the opposite. In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. But he promised us it would always be worth it in the end. And that is what matters most.
