Lessons from Job Series # 1
Why bad things happen to good people
Job chapter one
Introduction-
We begin a new sermon series today and I am excited to see what God will do in our lives.
When I put together this series, I was praying and hoping that we would learn life lessons that can be applied to our lives. If we have right information and we do nothing with it, it becomes worthless to us because it is just knowledge. Most of us have read the book of Job and know of his sufferings.
What about life questions -
Why do bad things happen to good people?
What about when you are doing everything you know to do, you are serving God as faithful as you can and sufferings still happen?
I pray you will have an open heart, a teachable spirit, that you will not let preconceived knowledge keep you from learning something new from Gods word.
I pray that by the end of this series that you have questions answered and lessons learned from other people’s mistakes and you yourself avoid some of them. Amen.
Prayer-
Turn to the book of Job- We are going to stay within the first chapter this morning without taking the time to read the whole chapter all at once.
Read Job 1:1-5 Read as the introduction to the person of Job.
What do we know about Job?
Lives in Uz (rymnes with boots…outz!
God fearing man who stays away from doing evil
He was well liked
He was a man of worth/ greatest in the land
He had 10 kids- 7 Sons, 3 daughters
He went to prayer for his kids-
What is a God fearing man or women?
Certainly does not mean that he feared God as a dictator, but that he had deep reverence for God.
He has a respect for who He was and an awe in the worship of his God.
He kept God’s commandments and stayed away from evil.
He shunned evil and abstained from every form of evil.
What is the definition of righteous? Blameless?
Blameless does not mean absolutely sinless because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In a crooked and perverse world, he was going to be one who does the right thing according to God’s standard not men’s. For us our righteous is in Jesus Christ. For those before the cross, righteousness was found in blood sacrifices and keeping of the Ten Commandments of God. Isaiah says that our righteousness in itself is as filthy rags to God. We cannot present ourselves to God as righteous in ourselves. So being better than the next guy is not righteousness.
How does his wealth play into the things that happened to him?
There is nothing wrong with wealth, we are told it is okay to have stuff but stuff cannot have us. He did not let his wealth keep him from raising his children in the fear and reverence of the Lord. He was a man who tried to being his children up in the ways of the Lord and was mindful that as a parent, he would be spiritual sensitive that they were serving God.
He believed he would pray for his family
He would break the chains of society having an influence on his family.
He would teach them the ways of God.
Then one day all Hell broke loose- Anyone had one of those days? Weeks? Year?
There become’s more players in Job’s life, some that were uninvited by him but invited by his God.
There is God having a discussion with thrown down and defeated Satan and Job just happens to be an unaware participate.
God asked Satan what he was up too and his reply was that he was roaming the earth tormenting the people of God- God answers him by saying- Have you considered my servant Job?
I don’t know about you but I don’t need God to do that for me! He offers up Job to the accuser and gives a brag report of his faithfulness to God. Telling Satan that he is faithful, upright, fears God, and shuns evil.
This man of God has Satan’s attention and not in a good way! God bragging him up and Job being the very opposite of Satan nature as evil.
Satan’s reply
(9) “Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied. Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
Satan attempts to throw down with God- I do not recommend that!
We ask God everyday for a hedge of protection from the enemy- least I do, I want a barrier between me and someone who could destroy my life.
When you pray- you are asking God for protection. For you, your family, those who mean a lot to you.
You think about this! Job had no idea what hit him. He was serving God and wham. (Repeat) he was serving God and wham!
The bottom fell out of his life!
There are stressed out servants of Job that come to him and have to be bearers of bad news.
There is an attack- He loses some of his cattle and he lost some of his servants.
Another attack follows immediately- Fire from heaven came down (which he thought was from God) and burned up all of his sheep and more servants.
Third attack- (18) wham! “ while we were yet speaking, yet another messenger came and said, Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brothers house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”
I cannot begin to understand the pain that Job must have felt as his life came crashing down on him.
I do not want to know the pain of burying my children.
To lose everything in a moment, thinking that the one person you followed and obeyed was the one behind your pain.
To watch people who have suffered like this ought to drop you to your knees and be praying for them or at least thanking God that it has not happened to you.
4 things concerning Job here
Jobs character
Jobs attack
Jobs testing
Jobs response
You know tragedy does not usually give us a warning so we can get prepared.
Every tragedy that has ever hit my life, and first we really need to take a look at what we are calling tragedies, but everyone has come without warning and been a sucker punch. The left hook I never saw coming.
Because the advisory of your soul (Satan) does not play fair.
What happens on this side of heaven is not fair. There are no gloves for this boxing match. It gets dirty and messy right away.
God has a right to take anything he wants from us because he was the one who gave it to us in the first place. (Repeat)
We at accepting Christ as savior gave him that permission in our lives.
Corrie Ten Boom who was no stranger to suffering. A person who helped many Jews escape the Holocaust of WWII said these things-
“Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.”
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
“You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have.”
Can the Lord say of us- Have you considered my servant -----------?
Satan believed that the more he brought accusations against Job, the more he would discredit God for choosing him.
He believed if the hedge of protection was removed that Job would curse God and walk away from him.
He does his best with lies and deception to get as many people mad at God for things that he has done in the hopes that they will walk away from him.
“At this, job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
Instead of cursing God, which Satan said he would do, he adored him, and gave him glory.
Job humbled himself under the hand of God.
He reasons that he brought nothing of this world's goods into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
There will be no uhaul behind your casket when you die.
Affliction must not cause us to lose our focus on God.
The same who gave has a right to take back.
How do we deal with tragedy in our life?
Those sudden illnesses, sudden problems, things out of our control?
Something that happens unexpectedly, without warning, unawares
God always operates in a realm above what we can think or imagine
Ephesians 3:20-
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.”
Isaiah 55:8-9-
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord.”
To be broken when something traumatic happens is not a lack of faith- it is the time that we go first to the Lord and not away.
We are at a loss, we need God to intervene. In His divine way! No one likes sudden tragedies, but God works through them and will give you peace and assurance that He is working on your behalf. Be praying, be alone with God and ask Him to suddenly intervene.
Acts 2:2-
“And suddenly there came a sound of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the house.”
As you pray, you wait for the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to come.
Acts 16:26-
“And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's hands were loosed.”
When God shows up, He will change circumstance or he will change you, but something will change.
Closing,
How is your relationship with the lord?
Are you spending time with Him so that when we go through the trials of this life that we will run toward him and not away?
Are you able to understand that bad things happen to good people because we live in a sinful world desperate to know God.
Our response is the key to our heart. Next week we will see that trials don’t quickly go away- they sometimes drain every bit of strength and faith we have- that is why we need the Lord so badly.
My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways- sometimes we don’t need to try to figure it out! We need to stay focused!
We need to know even though we don t always see it that God is moving and it will be for our best interest.
He was not doing anything wrong- We was bringing glory and honor to God.
Satan argued with God that Job only served God because God blessed him and protected him.
Prayer-
