INTRO
ƒ{ This is part 2 of our Survivor Series
ƒ{ It is my attempt to give you principles of survival.
ƒ{ Remember the children’s movie; "Over the Hedge"
ƒ{ When the characters went over the hedge they got into all kinds of trouble
ƒ{ God has a place for us to live
ƒ{ If we are going to survive, "don’t go over the hedge"
ƒ{ We know Job as one of the Bibles greatest survivors.
Survivor = Overcomer
Lickin’, keep on tickin’
ƒ{ He is like the poster boy of all life
* Challenges
* Struggles
* Trials
ƒ{ Yet he becomes celebrated for being a survivor
ƒ{ And gets blessed two times more than he ever had
ƒ{ In other words, he got double for his trouble
ƒ{ I’ve seldom preached on Job (oldest book in the Bible)
ƒ{ Too negative, depressing, don’t fully understand
ƒ{ But when you start preaching on surviving you can’t pass him up
ƒ{ I said to the Lord, "nobody wants to hear about Job’s problems, they have enough of their own."
ƒ{ Don’t preach about the problems, preach about the blessing
ƒ{ The blessing that is a result of living behind the hedge
o Or as Psalm 91 says, "under the shadow of the Almighty"
ƒ{ See we always preach about poor old Job
o And forget about how blessed he was
o Forget that God was bragging on him
o Forget that he was wealthy and healthy
o Forget that even his children were blessed
o Forget that God trusted him
ƒ{ All because there is a hedge
ƒ{ The good news for Job is that there is a hedge
ƒ{ His survival strategy was to stay behind "the hedge"
ƒ{ Some of you today feel like Job:
„X Discouraged
„X Alone
„X Abandoned
„X Sick
„X Tired
„X No friends
„X No help
„X Mad
„X Defeated
„X Wondering if God has forgotten you
ƒ{ But I want to remind you there is a hedge
ƒ{ You can’t see it
ƒ{ But the Devil knows it’s there
ƒ{ And he can’t go over the hedge
ƒ{ There may be times the hedge is lowered
„X To test you
„X To promote you
„X To purge you
„X To build your faith
„X To enlarge your vision
ƒ{ But if the hedge has been lowered
ƒ{ God gave permission
ƒ{ So that He can take you into double
ƒ{ Bring you into more
ƒ{ God had enough confidence in you to test you...
o ...after the test is the promotion
„X ’THERE IS A HEDGE’
ƒ{ You might think you’re in a trial now
ƒ{ But I am convinced it could have been worse
„X Calamities - something assigned by the enemy
„X Tragedies - your children in his sights
„X Accidents - your marriage in his target
„X Wickedness - that missed you and avoided you
„X Because there is a hedge
„X Job teaches us that even your children will be blessed because of your hedge
ƒ{ His children were blessed
ƒ{ His money was blessed
ƒ{ His business was blessed
ƒ{ His health was blessed
o All because there is a hedge
ƒ{ Because of the hedge...
o Satan can’t just do anything
o Nothing bad can happen to you without God knowing about it
o Your tragedies don’t take God by surprise
o That’s why all things work together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus
ƒ{ Remember Peter, Jesus said; "Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat."
o Desire = requisitioned
o In other words...a paper has come across my desk
o But I have prayed for you
Here are some lessons I’ve learned from Job as a Survivor
1. Trouble Without Understanding
* It’s one thing to be in trouble
o And know exactly how you got there
* Sin -- Didn’t fall in...you dove in
* It’s another thing to get blindsided
EXAMPLE: Football 8th Grade
2. Trouble Without Fault
* It’s one thing to be in trouble and you can’t find fault
* You don’t know what or how to fix, to get things back on track
* It doesn’t bother us to be blessed without reason
* We just don’t like problems without reason
3. Trouble Without Helpful Friends
* Have you ever had people try to help you and only hurt you?
* Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar -- Dodad
* These theological geniuses come to make sense of all this for Job
„X You’re a hypocrite
„X You don’t know God
„X Need to repent
„X Not holy enough
* Whenever a church goes through some stuff
* So God can promote
* I get some wonderful words from self-appointed prophets:
o We need to pray more
o I -- need -- more worship
o I -- need -- more preaching
o Etc.
* You need to be careful when you see something bad happen
* That you don’t assume you know why (negative)
* It could be that God is getting ready to bless them
* And when He does...
o ...don’t come around looking for overflow
4. Trouble Without Losing Confidence
* God had confidence in Job
* "Have you considered my servant Job?" (verse 8)
* But Job had confidence in God
Job 19:25
"I know my redeemer lives"
ƒ{ I might be stretched, but I won’t snap
ƒ{ I may bend, but I won’t break
„X Because there is a hedge
ƒ{ The hedge is in verse 1
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
EXAMPLE: The Hedge built with me
CONCLUSION
Job 42:5, 10, 12
