Greetings
Intro: A little bit about the book of Job
3 lessons we can learn from Job, just in chapter 1
1st: Job is happy or content
2nd: Job has an amazing faith
3rd: Job has a loving God
1st point: Job’s happiness or contentment
Now you could say it was for the reasons explained in the first 6 verses of the book. You could say he was content because he had 10 children, or 7 thousand sheep or 3 thousand camels or a lot of servants, but if you did, you’d be wrong. Back in verse 1 you find the real reason. It tells us that Job is blameless and upright, that He feared God and shunned evil. That is why he is content. I can prove it to you. First, with Job, he goes on to lose everything he has, even his own family. And this is what he says in verse 21 after all of his children are killed, “may the name of the Lord be praised.” And later, after his body is covered with sores, he has nothing left, he says these words, “Blessed is the man whom God corrects.”
Now we all know some rich people, or at least know of rich people. Does anyone know a rich person that is content with what they have and they don’t want more? Not usually
Give story about Dallas Cowboys football player Michael Irvin in a hotel (about 15 years ago)
He realized it wasn’t having everything that made him happy, he was still missing something.
The other reason he was happy or content, was that he knew how to shun evil. That is, walk away from it whenever it was close, not tempt himself, not go places or do things that led to evil. (Expand on that)
Examples, a person who knows that he or she has a problem with gambling, shouldn’t walk by a casino every day. They should find another route. A person who has a problem with stealing money, shouldn’t get a job as a cashier, they should find something else. Along that same line, a woman who constantly dates the wrong type of man, especially the ones she finds in a bar, should stop looking for men in bars, for that matter, what good did a bar ever get anyone? We can keep going with that chain of thought, for men too, where do we find the women we date? If it isn’t a place godly women hang out, we will probably fail at that relationship too, over and over. Abusive relationships are the same way, we continue down a road that we don’t want to go. But its everything we do. Our job, can be the same, our education can be the same, our behavior, our financial skills, where and how we spend our time and money, all the same. Albert Einstein did a lot for the human race with his intelligence, and understanding, but one of the best things he ever did for humanity, was give us this quote, “The definition of insanity, is a person who does the same thing over and over, and expects different results.”
The point is, no matter what it is we do, we say, where we go, what we spend our money on or even what we think, If we want to be the blameless and upright man or woman in God’s eyes, we need to change. We need to do as Job did, fear God, and shun evil.
Our 2nd lesson from the first chapter of Job: Job’s amazing faith.
Now this isn’t the kind of faith where you tempt God to save you. Even the devil tried to get Jesus to save him by telling him to throw himself off the highest point in the city, because He knew God would save Him. That’s not real faith. Faith is believing in something you cannot see, smell, taste or hear. We all do it, whether we know it or not. I bet you all believe in the element, oxygen. Yet I bet none of us have ever seen oxygen. We know it is there, we each take a breath every few seconds and it keeps us alive. Without it fire cannot burn, fish, animals and humans cannot breathe. Yet we cannot see it, feel it or taste it. God is no different. Let’s assume you decide to not believe in oxygen. Does that mean it isn’t real? Does it mean that now you don’t need oxygen anymore? Of course not! Well God is exactly the same. When we say we don’t believe, or even if we say we do believe but then we don’t show it with our actions, does that mean that God isn’t there? Or that He doesn’t keep us alive every minute of every day? No way! Faith is more than just saying you believe. Faith is showing you believe. In the 2nd chapter of James, James goes on and on proving that faith without deeds is dead. He goes on and on how even the demons believe in God. Having faith means showing it, in your life. Doing what God asks you to do, saying what God asks you to say. Job did that. As we pointed out, he was blameless and upright in God’s eyes. He feared God, and stayed away from anything evil. Now that is a faith we can learn from. When Job’s wife tells him, “Just curse God and die already!” Or when his 3 best friends come ask him what He did wrong, or just accept you messed up really bad, and take your punishment, he didn’t accept that either. Because while Job didn’t know about the conversation between God and the devil, he knew what God wanted from him and he knew he had been faithful in everything he said and did. He knew his faith was grounded and strong and he knew what God wanted of him. He was a Godly man. He was a faithful man. He was our example. It didn’t matter what he lost, it didn’t matter which of his children died or how many cows, donkeys and camels he lost. That doesn’t mean he didn’t cry, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t heartbroken, he surely was. He mourned for his children. But his faith did not waver. God was still in charge, and while he didn’t know why it happened, He knew God was the most powerful thing in the universe, and that God cared about him, and that is all that mattered, when it came to his faith. He still had a loving God. And that is our 3rd lesson from chapter 1 of Job.
3rd lesson: Job’s loving God
If you remember, back in verse 8, as the Lord was speaking with Satan, He himself brought up Job’s name. The devil didn’t. God knew Job had an amazing faith, and he knew where Job’s happiness and contentment came from. And God knew it wasn’t from the things he had. He knew Job loved Him above everything else. More than his children, even more than his wife, He loved his Father in heaven.
How did he know? Because he was alive. Because he was born. Because he lived on an earth that had air and water, and warmth. Because he knew God loved Him, and cared for him. As we look closer and closer at the book of Job, it almost seems as if it could be about any one of us, although I doubt it would end the same way. Because Job would never give up on his God, His creator. His faith carried him through worse times than any of us could imagine. He didn’t lose a child, or even 2, he lost them all! All 10 were killed at the same time! He didn’t lose his job, his car, every dollar he ever made, he lost it all, the same day! No job, no money, no servants, no sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, nothing was left! Except he knew that God loved him, and created him, and took care of his most basic needs. And because of those things, He loved his Father in heaven.
Are we any different? I am sure many of us have lost loved ones, maybe even children, a spouse, or a parent. I am sure many of have lost our jobs, some may have been really good jobs. Maybe we have lost our house, our car, even everything we owned. Are we any different? Job isn’t some superhuman hero. He isn’t just some Bible story that somebody made up. He was as real as you or I. He was a man, a man that got tired, got angry, got annoyed, got hungry, he wasn’t part God, he wasn’t even a prophet, he was an ordinary guy. And yet, he chose to live his life, and strengthen his faith, just as God would like him to do. Are we any different? I don’t think we are. We have the same choices he did, yet most of us have a lot less to lose.
As we look back on the first chapter of Job. We can see these three lessons. Job was content with what he had. He was happy. It could have been a little, or a lot, Job learned to be content with what God had given him.
Job also had an amazing faith. He grew that faith through prayer, through spending time with his God. Through being obedient to what God asked of him. And that faith is what carried him through the worst times he had ever experienced in his life.
And Job had a loving God. He knew it. He talked with Him. He relied on Him, and thanked Him for the many blessings. He loved his God so much he even praised Him after he lost everything, because He was still the Creator, He was still the Father of all humanity.
Are we any different? We too are called to be blameless and upright. We too are asked to fear God and stay away from evil. We too have a lot to lose, but just like our friend Job, we too can have an amazing faith. And we too have a loving God, who does not forget us. He grieves with us when we grieve. He is happy for us when we are happy. And He wants to talk with us, just like He did with Job. We too have a loving God.
Would you pray with me?
