PICTURES OF PROCESS
TEXT: JOB 17:9
INTRODUCTION: Life. Life is full of turns and twists. Life is full of some great times. Life is full of some bad times. We rejoice over the birth of a baby. We mourn over the death of a loved one. We laugh at a good joke or funny story. We cry at the sight of someone that is in dire need.
Life has always meant to be a school. A school that offers us a chance to learn from day to day what true success is. There are several definitions of the word ¡§life¡¨.
I like the one that goes like this; Life ¡V physical and mental experiences of an individual.
Another one is like this - Life ¡V a biography
Or ¡V life ¡V a period of existence
Or ¡V life ¡V a way of living
With all of these different definitions I have come up with one that goes something like this:
Life ¡V A biography of some ones way of living during their period of existence.
In our text we have the main character Job that has had what all of us would consider a tested life. The question is what was the end result.
This morning we are going to talk about the four process of life and see what the end result should be.
The first part of the process is:
I. THE PROCESS OF PLENTY (1:1-5)
1. The Scripture records Job as blameless and upright.
2. For Job to have such a reputation he was most likely a man of integrity.
3. Job feared God (reverent fear) and shunned evil (turned away from sin)
4. Job was a family man that was blessed with 7 boys.
5. To help keep those rowdy boys in line God blessed Job with three daughters.
6. Job had plenty of live stock, he owned:
„h seven thousand sheep
„h three thousand camels
„h five hundred yoke of oxen
„h Five hundred donkeys
„h He also had a large number of servants
7. Verse 3 records him as ¡§the greatest man among all the people of the east.
8. In verses 4 and 5 we see a genuine concern of job for his family.
9. These verses depict him as a priest to his family.
10. Needless to say job lived in plenty1
11. This area in our life is a process of testing as well as the hard times.
12. God allows us to abound in blessing because He loves us and puts us through that process of life.
13. I believe at times they are moments to test ones integrity.
14. What about you? What are you doing when everything is comfortable?
15. Do we see ALL of the benefits of having plenty?
16. What is your reaction in the process of life called plenty?
17. Remember the definition of the word life? ( a period of time)
18. There are ¡§periods of time¡¨ in which we have more than enough.
19. Those times are from God alone!
20. God gives us to them for several reasons
1.) Because He loves us
2.) Because He putting us through a process
3.) Because it is a test of integrity
The second process of life is called:
II. THE PROCESS OF PRESSURE (1:6 ¡V 2:13)
1. Do you remember the old tea kettles/ when the tea was done the pressure tab would sound off because it was releasing pressure?
2. Or take a two-liter bottle of coke. When it is shook up the pressure is built up and if you open it up it will go every where.
3. That is what God was doing to Job, He was putting the pressure on him.
4. The pressure came from three areas:
1.) His wife
2.) His friends
3.) Himself
5. Keep in mind it was not God ¡§inflicting¡¨ the pressure it was God ¡§allowing¡¨ the pressure.
6. Life will shake us up at times and cause us to be under heavy pressure.
7. In those times we can act or react.
After we have had the life of plenty and begin to feel the pressure of life there is another process that we will go through that will refine us called:
III. THE PROCESS OF PAIN (CH. 3 -31)
1. The story records that Job did not speak for about a week.
2. His grief was very deep.
3. This is the process of life that no one in here wants to go through ¡V but will.
4. There are many types of pain that Job was feeling.
„h The loss of his farm
„h The loss of his family
„h The pain of his wife¡¦s actions
„h The loss of his friends
5. When job finally opened his mouth and cursed the day that he was born.
READ V. 3
6. The Scripture would record for the next 28 chapters what Job was feeling
The good news is God never left him and never stopped loving him
Which would bring Job to the purpose of his life and our purpose of life process¡¦
IV. THE PROCESS OF PRINCIPLE¡¦S (42:10-17)
1. What was God trying to teach Job in all of the loss that He allowed him to go through?
2. Is there an ultimate purpose behind it all; is there a bigger picture that we can not see when we are going through it all?
3. When EVERY thing is going right we can not and usually don/t learn any thing. But when we are stripped to see nothing but our true self and God then we can look and find out what are the principles that God wanted us to process and learn.
4. Job humbled himself and prayed for his friends, which set off a double blessing in his life.
5. The principle was HE had to make the move and forgive.
CONCLUSION: Life is a process. What are you learning?
CONCLUSION:
What are you currently in process of?
Plenty - Are you living in the knowledge that you are there by God¡¦s hand ONLY!
Pressure
Pain
Principals
