SERMON: HEARING GOD THROUGH CIRCUMSTANCES

20 February 2011

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Job 1:13-19

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 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 has escaped to tell you!”

-- this morning we are finishing up our series on hearing God -- we started out by looking at hearing God through His Word -- then we looked at hearing God through prayer -- and then last week we looked at hearing God through the church
-- this morning, we are going to look at the last way God normally speaks to us -- our circumstances

-- as we said, these four ways are not equal and they are not mutually exclusive -- when God speaks to you, He does so primarily through the Bible -- then He confirms what He has told you in the Bible through prayer, the church, and circumstances
-- one thing to keep in mind is that God will never ever tell us to do something that contradicts the Bible -- He will never ever tell us to do something that goes against His Word
-- that’s why I pointed out last week that we have to be careful when we think we have heard something from God, but we are only hearing it from one source like the church or our circumstances
-- the problem here is that sometimes people get it wrong -- even if they mean well, people sometimes give bad advice -- and if what they are telling you does not line up with what you are reading in God’s word, it is not from God

-- a pastor friend of mine had a couple come to him a couple of years ago for advice -- they both went to his church and they both were married -- just not to each other -- and they came to him and said that God was telling them that they should divorce their spouses and then marry each other
-- that was what their friends were telling them -- that’s what people in the church were telling them -- but this obviously went against what the Bible says -- yes, there are biblical grounds for divorce -- yes, I believe that divorce may be justified in the cases of abuse -- but these are extreme cases, and the Bible tells us that God’s plan for the family is for husbands and wives to stay together -- in 1 Corinthians 7, He tells us that a wife must not separate from her husband and a husband should not divorce his wife
-- my friend told these people that what they were hearing was not from God -- and he wisely counseled this couple to break off their relationship and to go back to their spouses and repair their marriages
-- so, we have to be careful that what we think we are from hearing from God lines up with what the Bible says -- this is especially true for our topic today

II. The Problem with Circumstances
-- more people are led astray by their circumstances than any other thing -- and they think that if their circumstances are pointing them to a certain area, then it must be from God
-- we’ll all heard that saying -- we’ve probably all said that saying -- “If God closes one door, He opens another one” -- or, sometimes we hear it as, “If God closes a door, He opens a window”
-- and that may be true, but you can’t rely on circumstances alone to determine if the door that is closed was closed by God or if the window that was just opened was opened by God

-- I heard a story a few years ago about this woman who was having problems in her marriage -- she decided to take some time just for herself and she went out west to the mountains -- she rented a little cabin out in the middle of nowhere and was going to spend the time reading and thinking and trying to figure out what to do in her marriage
-- well, as luck would have it, while she was there she happened to meet this guy who was everything her husband wasn’t -- and he swept her off her feet -- and she ended up having an adulterous affair
-- when it came time to go back home, she was torn and didn’t know what to do -- she got on the plane and started really missing the man back in the cabin -- so, she said, “God, give me a sign -- if I am not supposed to go back to my husband but am supposed to be with this other man -- close that door and open another one”
-- all of a sudden, the plane hit a pocket of turbulence -- the flight attendant came on the intercom and said, “The pilot has turned on the ‘Fasten Seat Belt’ sign -- everyone needs to return to the cabin and buckle their seat belts”
-- well, this woman heard that message -- “Return to the cabin” -- and she took that as a sign from God -- as soon as the plane landed, she booked a flight back to the cabin and the man she had had an affair with and divorced her husband
-- looking at circumstances alone led her to do something that clearly was not God’s will and that was contrary to God’s message in His Bible
-- one of the big problems with circumstances is that we try to make them fit what we want to do -- we use them to justify our behavior and our actions -- rather than trying to find out what God is saying to us through them

III. Scripture Lesson (Job 1:13-19)
-- here in this passage in Job, we see the problem that can arise if we try to ascertain the will of God from our circumstances alone
-- this book -- the Book of Job -- is the oldest book in the Bible -- most scholars agree that Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham -- they lived in the same time and same area and there are indications in the Book of Genesis that they may have known each other and may have actually been related
-- in verse 1 of this chapter we learn that Job was a very Godly man -- the Bible tells us that he was blameless and upright -- he feared God and shunned evil -- Job was a good guy trying to live his life for God when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, disaster struck

-- look back at verse 13

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 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 has escaped to tell you!”

-- one minute, Job is going through life -- following God -- doing what’s right -- not harming his neighbor or anyone else -- he’s an upright, outstanding citizen in his community -- a leader who is well-respected
-- and, then, Job has a bad day -- a really, really bad day -- it starts out when a servant rushes up and tells him that raiders have come and stolen his oxen and his donkeys and killed all of his servants
-- and then, while he’s still talking, another servant comes up and tells him that all of Job’s sheep and all of his shepherds have been killed -- and while Job is hearing this news, yet another servant comes up and says that a different band of raiders has swept down and stolen all of his camels
-- and then the worst of all -- he gets news that all of his sons and daughters have been killed in an accident
-- keep in mind -- this has happened in the span of moments -- Job has gotten all of this bad news within just minutes of each other -- can you imagine the shock that he is feeling -- the pain that he is suffering
-- here is a Godly man -- trying to do his best and not cheat anyone or do anyone any harm -- and all of a sudden, he has lost his wealth and his family forever
-- but, things just get worse -- over in Job Chapter 2 we read that Job loses his health -- he gets afflicted with painful sores that cover his whole body from the soles of his feet all the way to the top of his head

-- so, here’s the question -- if you were looking only at Job’s circumstances, what conclusion would you come to about what is going on in his life?
-- if this happened in your life, what would you think? -- what would you think God was trying to tell you?
-- well, Job has three friends who come by who have all the answers -- they look at what has happened to Job and they tell him they know exactly what is going on -- “You have sin in your life -- you have done things that are wrong and God is punishing you for them -- repent of your sins and turn back to God and maybe He will quit punishing you”
-- we kind of think that way, too, don’t we? -- we may not say this exactly that way, but that’s kind of what we believe? -- “if you do good things, good things will happen to you -- if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you” -- Christian Karma
-- Job’s friends were convinced -- the only reason bad things like this happened to a person was because they were bad and had done bad things themselves
-- but that doesn’t jibe with what we know about Job -- the Bible tells us that he was holy and blameless -- he feared God and shunned evil -- Job wasn’t bad -- he didn’t do bad things -- but bad things happened anyway -- so, what’s going on?

-- Job’s story continues for 42 chapters, and eventually, God Himself comes and speaks truth into the situation and lets Job and his friends know that everything that has happened to Job -- all the bad things that have come his way -- were not Job’s fault
-- they were not the result of sin in Job’s life -- there not because Job was bad or because he had done bad things -- these circumstances were a plan of Satan to get Job to turn away from God
-- but here at the start of this book -- at the start of this story -- Job didn’t know that -- he just knew that his circumstances were bad -- and if he had just looked at them alone and not sought God’s word on the situation, Job might have gotten the wrong idea and gone off and done something that would not have been what God would have wanted

IV. God’s Perspective
-- so, how can we use our circumstances to help us know what God wants us to do? -- or, in another way, how do we look at our circumstances from a Godly and Biblical perspective rather than a worldly perspective?

-- to start with, we need to keep in mind the two ways that God uses circumstances to speak to us
1. first, He uses circumstances to confirm what He has previously told us in His Word -- as we’ve talked about before, God primarily speaks to us through the Bible -- but then He confirms this in other ways -- and as we seek to know and understand what He is telling us, then we will see all four ways -- the Bible, Prayer, Church, and Circumstances -- start to line up and we’ll be hearing the same message through each of them
-- in other words, what you see in your circumstances and what you hear through prayer and the church will line up with what God is telling you in the Bible

2. the second way God uses circumstances in our lives is to get our attention -- this is especially true for people who are not reading God’s word on a regular basis or who are avoiding God in their lives -- He will use circumstances -- people, places, things, events -- in our lives to get our attention and to clue us in that God is talking to us
-- I had a friend who was running from God as hard as she could -- caught up in drugs and other vices -- and God kept calling her and calling her and she kept putting her hands over her ears -- finally, she had a bad car accident that got her attention -- she survived without a scratch and decided it had to be a message from God -- she started to read the Bible -- she started to listen for His voice -- and she realized that God was using the circumstance of that car crash to correct her and get her back on path -- that He had greater plans for her than to burn out her life on drugs and alcohol -- today, she is a pastor who is making a difference in the lives of many people
-- now, that’s not to say that God only sends bad things our way to get our attention -- sometimes, He sends good things -- but He does use circumstances to let us know that He is talking -- we just have to be careful to not assume that the circumstances are the message alone

-- so, when all of a sudden your circumstances change -- whether for good or bad -- the first thing we should do is go to God and ask Him to show us His perspective on our circumstances -- what is He doing in our lives? -- Why has our situation suddenly changed?
-- Job wisely did not accept the counsel of his friends and their perspective on what they thought was going on to cause such bad things to happen to Job -- instead, he appealed to God and asked God what was going on
-- we should do the same -- ask God what is going on -- and then seek His voice in the Bible and in prayer and through the church to see where God is leading you

-- and, then, when we’re sure God is speaking to us -- when all four ways are starting to line up and what we are seeing in our circumstances agrees with what God is telling us in the Bible and in prayer and through the church -- we need to adjust our life to God and do what He is telling us to do
-- sometimes, God leads us to go off in new directions in our lives or in our careers or in our spiritual life
-- sometimes, God just wants us to correct things in our lives that are wrong or to get us back on track when we’ve strayed off His path -- sometimes, He uses circumstances to grow our faith or to develop our character

-- the key to correctly understanding the circumstances of your lives is to have a Godly perspective -- to focus on God and not on what you are going through
-- don’t let your circumstances or situations dictate what you think God can or can’t do in your life -- it’s easy for us to get wrapped up in our own little lives -- to think that if things are going good, then we must be doing all right with God -- or if things are going bad, that we must be doing bad with God
-- but, when you’re doing that -- when you’re going through life looking at your circumstances and situations like that -- you are actually self-focused -- your emphasis is on you and your happiness -- rather than on God and what His plans are
-- we have to always put God first -- we have to always seek His perspective and His understanding to make sense of our situations and circumstances -- otherwise, we will end up making wrong assumptions just like Job’s friends did or just like that woman on the plane
-- Job remained faithful and righteous in God’s eyes because he trusted God throughout all the circumstances of his life and because he looked for God’s perspective rather than man’s
-- that is the example we should follow, as we seek to hear and understand God in our own lives
-- so, as we close this series on hearing God’s voice in our lives, let me leave you with a promise from God on His plan for us -- Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
-- don’t fear what God is doing in your life, but trust Him and listen for His voice to lead you down the path that He has chosen for you

-- let’s pray