Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Job 1 -- we’re going to open this
morning by reading the first chapter of Job, but our message is going to come
from verses 13 through 19 -- I want you to hear the whole chapter, though, so
you have the context and background and understand what is happening to Job as
we look more closely at his story
-- so,
look with me now at Job 1:1-22
Job
1:1 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. 2 He had seven sons and
three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels,
five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of
servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
4 His
sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would
invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of
feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be
purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of
them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their
hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
6 One
day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came
with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan
answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on
it.”
8
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no
one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and
shuns evil.”
9
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “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. 11
But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely
curse you to your face.”
12
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power,
but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then
Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
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!”
20 At
this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the
ground in worship 21 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.”
22 In
all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
-- this morning, we are finishing up our series on
hearing God that we have been in for the past several weeks -- by now, you
should have a good handle on the four main ways God speaks to us today -- the
Bible -- prayer -- the church -- and circumstances
-- we’ve
already looked at how God speaks to us through the Bible, prayer, and the
church -- and this morning, we’re finishing up by looking at how God speaks to
us through the circumstances of our lives
-- I’ve
pointed out several times in this study that the four ways God speaks to us do
not hold equal weight -- in other words, when you think you are hearing God
speak to you through your circumstances, it doesn’t carry as much weight -- as
much importance -- as when you know you are hearing God speak to you through
His word or through prayer
--
that’s why I’ve told you to always go back and confirm God’s voice through the
Bible and through prayer when you think you are hearing Him speak through both
the church and circumstances -- and especially circumstances
--
because, truth be told, we may be people of faith -- but we are still people
very much guided by superstition -- for all of us, when things happen in our
lives -- when the circumstances of life occur -- we move forward based on our
interpretation and understanding of them
-- when
something happens to us -- most of the time -- we react to whatever has
happened -- for good or for bad -- without taking time to try to make sense of
it from a biblical perspective
-- and we
also take our circumstances and use them to predict the future -- especially
when we spend too much time listening to the news -- which, as Brooke points
out almost nightly, is always bad -- and so, we look at these bad circumstances
and predict the worst case scenario and let that influence our moods and our
actions going forward
-- so,
this morning, I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t do that -- and give you a
more nuanced biblical view of responding to circumstances in your lives so you
don’t get led astray
II. What are Circumstances?
-- to begin, what do I mean by circumstances? -- we’re
all familiar with that word -- the Bible uses it several times -- Paul famously
said in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content whatever the
circumstances” -- and we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all
circumstances”
-- but what are circumstances? -- circumstances are
simply the things that happen to us or the places where we find ourselves --
you’ve heard the old saying, “Life happens” -- that’s circumstances -- things
happen to us and around us -- what is important is how we react or respond to
those circumstances
-- sometimes circumstances are good -- good things happen
-- life is good -- but sometimes circumstances suck -- we live in a fallen
world, and sometimes bad things happen to both good people and bad people --
and life is learning how to deal with the circumstances that come our way
-- so, everyday we spend a lot of time observing where we
are and what is going on and trying to make sense of it so that we can know the
path forward -- so that we can choose the correct way and the right response
-- but this is something that most of us just aren’t very
good at -- let me give you an example
-- 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 were both
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
-- everything pointed in this direction -- they were
unhappy with their spouses -- things were not going good at home -- their
friends were always telling them how good they were together -- and the people
in the church kept saying they were such a great couple -- and when they would
go out for lunch after church, they would have such a good time -- they would
laugh and talk and share the deep things going on in their lives -- there was
just a great connection with each other that wasn’t there with their spouses --
so, it was obvious that God had led them to this church so that they could meet
and fall in love and now He was calling them to move forward by getting
divorced and marrying each other so they could live the abundant and full life
that He promised
-- my
friend listened to their story and their reasoning about how their
circumstances were pointing to God’s will in their lives -- and he said that he
had a biblical message from God for them -- and that message was “Hogwash! Knock those stupid thoughts down and read
your Bibles and see what God tells you about divorce and about how you are
supposed to be living with and supporting your spouse ” -- he told them they
needed to end their relationship right now, because it most definitely was not
what God wanted, despite their interpretation of the circumstances that brought
them together
-- that was very wise advise and demonstrates the two
main points about circumstances I want you to get from this message -- first, this
just shows how badly we understand and interpret circumstances and the trouble
that we can get into if we move forward based solely on our understanding of
them -- and, secondly, never, ever, make decisions based solely on
circumstances -- yes, God speaks through our circumstances, but when He does,
it will always line up with His word and you will receive confirmation through
prayer and the church -- reacting to the circumstances in your lives without
first checking with God will always lead to bigger and bigger problems
-- 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’ve all heard the saying, “If God closes a 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 God closed that door so you would find
another way to do what you want to do or whether God closed that door to keep
you from making a mistake
-- in Romans 8:28, it says, “For in all things, God works
for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purposes”
-- in all things -- in all circumstances -- God works
-- so, God does speak through the circumstances of our
lives -- He does use those circumstances -- both good and bad -- to grow us and
mature us and to lead us in sanctification
-- the problem comes when we try to get ahead of God, and
we move forward by assuming we fully understand our circumstances on our own
and then try to make them fit what we want them to say or to make them justify
our behavior and our actions -- rather than trying to find out what God is
saying and doing through them
III. Scripture Lesson (Job 1:13-19)
-- the Book of Job shows us the danger of that and the
problems that can arise if we try to ascertain the will of God from our
circumstances alone
-- 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 they may have actually been
related
-- Chapter 1 introduces us to Job -- and as we read
through that first chapter together, we learned 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 in a pagan land trying to live his life for
God when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, disaster struck and his circumstances
changed
-- look back at verse 13
Job
1:13 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!”
-- at the beginning of the story of Job, everything is
going good for him -- he is the richest and most respected man in his community
-- he is known for his godliness -- his righteous character -- his holiness
-- but
in a flash, Job’s life takes a drastic turn -- one minute, Job is going through
life -- following God -- doing what’s right -- not harming his neighbor or
anyone else -- and in the next, he finds himself having 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
-- in just one moment, Job’s financial life has crashed
-- he went from being the richest man in the community to being flat broke --
with all of his wealth and goods taken from him, along with his way of life and
making a living
-- and then, just when you think the worst has happened,
things get even darker as a servant comes up and tells him that his whole
family -- 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 that’s just the beginning -- the circumstances in
Job’s life continue to go from bad to 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
-- out of nowhere, Job has lost his family, his wealth,
and his health
-- so, here’s the question -- if you were only looking 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 think they
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 it exactly this way, but that’s kind of what we believe, isn’t it?
-- how
many of you have heard, “if you do good things, good things will happen to you
-- if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you?” -- how many of you
live that way? -- how many of you believe that way? -- it’s a form of Christian
Karma, which is not biblical at all
-- but, like most of us, Job’s friends thought this way
-- they were convinced that the only reason bad things like this happened to a
person was because they had done bad things -- if they were good people, then
good things would happen
-- I had a friend who was injured in an industrial
accident -- he got crushed by some machinery and was in very bad shape -- I
went to the hospital to see him, and his mother-in-law was there
-- and she told me, “Tell him that the only reason this
happened is because he is not living his life the way he should -- if he was
faithful, this would not have happened”
-- I was speechless -- I couldn’t believe that she was
making such a statement in front of her son-in-law, who I knew to be a good and
godly man
-- but that’s exactly what Job’s friends were telling him
-- in fact, most of the rest of the Book of Job is each of his three friends
explaining just how bad Job is and why Job’s badness is the reason he is
suffering
-- but that doesn’t jibe with what we know about Job from
the rest of Chapter 1 -- 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 -- and
Job is left here trying to make sense of the circumstances in his life and
trying to figure out what God is doing -- and we’ve all been there in our own
lives, too
-- but let me explain why this was particularly hard for
Job -- several years ago, I was working in the forest early one morning right
at daybreak -- and a fog rolled in that was so thick, you could barely see your
hand before your face -- it was thick -- and the sound got muffled -- you
couldn’t see the sun -- and I got turned around -- I didn’t know where I was or
how to get out of the woods and get back to my truck
-- that’s a good picture of what’s going on with Job here
-- he’s in a fog -- he’s sitting there in ashes and trying to figure out what
had gone wrong -- all his landmarks were lost -- he had no point of orientation
-- to his credit, he cried out to God but he was getting no answer from God at
all
-- and we know, because we have the whole story, that the
whole point of this wager between God and Satan was to keep Job in the dark to
see how Job would react -- would he continue to follow God, in spite of his
circumstances that were going so bad -- or would he curse God because of how
bad things were?
-- Job’s story continues for 42 chapters, and eventually,
God Himself comes and speaks truth into the situation -- God 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 -- they were 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 -- and his friends didn’t know that -- they just
knew that his circumstances were bad -- and if Job had just looked at them
alone and not sought God’s word on the situation, he might have gotten the
wrong idea and gone off and done something that would not have been what God
would have wanted -- he could even have let his circumstances keep him from
following God in the future
-- the take-home message is that we cannot make decisions
or let our circumstances direct our actions until we first seek the truth and
guidance from God’s word and prayer
IV. Closing
-- let’s wrap this up -- 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 -- he was just
what she was looking for -- 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, but her heart wasn’t in it --
she longed to be with her new love back in the cabin in the mountains -- 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”
-- suddenly, 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
-- so, how can we use our circumstances to help us know
what God wants us to do? -- or, to put it 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
-- First, God 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 start
to hear the same message from God in all the four ways He speaks to us today --
through the Bible, Prayer, the Church, and Circumstances -- and we’ll get the
same message and everything will start to line up
-- so, when God speaks to you, what you see in your
circumstances and what you hear through prayer and the church will always line
up with what God is telling you in the Bible
-- Second, God uses circumstances in our lives 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 -- to get our attention and
remind us 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 -- she refused to
listen -- she wouldn’t go to church -- she wouldn’t read her Bible -- she never
prayed
-- one
day, she had a bad car accident that got her attention -- her vehicle was
totaled -- she should not have come out of that crash alive -- but she survived
without a scratch and decided it had to be a message from God -- she realized
that God had saved her for a reason
-- 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
-- so, when your circumstances change suddenly -- whether
for good or bad -- the first thing we should do is go to God and ask Him to
show us His perspective on what is going on -- ask Him what He doing in your life
-- ask Him why your situation suddenly changed -- turn to His word -- seek Him
in prayer -- seek godly counsel -- and try to find out what God is doing
through this change of circumstances in your life
-- and when you’re in that place, be careful, though, of
who you turn to for advice, because the world will never lead you in the right
direction -- 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 that God speaks to us 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
-- 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 must 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
No comments:
Post a Comment