"Lessons from the Life of Job"

I've been searching for a long long time trying to find a little peace of mind till the day Jesus came my way and he touched me I thought I had but there still something missing in my life but till the day Jesus came my way I'll eat touch me now I'm gonna tell it yeah where are the string the road then I have been touched I never knew so much July words turns by the head by the head Oh I I don't know man if they see I've been doing Oh harbortouch I never lose yeah yeah amen let us let us pray we thank you for the touch this morning and you allowed us to get up from our beds and to begin the new day a new first Sunday in a brand new month would not have happened if you had not touched us we're so grateful for your divine touch mercy and grace and truth we need to be touched every day it helps us to free ourselves from ourselves makes us open and available to be guided by your spirit so thank you for touching us this morning we pray for persons that are sick this morning and certainly they need to touch family members who are caring for them need to touch those who are incarcerated need to touch those who are homeless those seeking job opportunities need to touch those who have lost loved ones and yet grieving need to touch that only you can give we can say like that woman shackled by a heavy burden they need for a load of guilt and shamed in the hand of Jesus touched us and we're no longer the same thank God for the touch this morning we pray as we look into your word that you are strengthen us comfort us and challenge us convict us as we become more like you before it does not yet up here what we shall be but when you shall appear we shall be as you are so bless us now and give us hope in Jesus name we pray and for his sake we ask it all in all of God's people said amen let me thank the choir for I you know you you can tell when the choirs on one accord can't you and you can tell when they aren't also and I sensed that they connected this morning so I I praise the Lord I don't take it for granted I praise the Lord for word amen I want to I want to call your attention to the book of Job verses 1 through 12 and then we're dropped down to verses 20 through 22 and this is what it says from the NIV in the Land of Oz there lived a man whose name was Joe the man was blameless and upright he feared God and shunned evil and he owned seven thousand sheep three thousand camels five hundred yoke of oxen five hundred donkeys and had a large number of servants he was the greatest man among all the people of the East 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 heart this was job's regular custom and 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 does Joe fear God for nothing Satan reply but now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has but he will surely curse you and he will surely curse you to your face at this job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head and then he fell to the ground and worship in all this job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing amen you may be seated I want to just simply say this morning blessed be the name of the Lord story of Joe from which today's text has taken is one of the world's greatest dramas it is a story of a faithful person who endures grievous suffering and emerges from that or a day or scathed but with his faith intact Joe may have been bruised and his head may have been bowed but his faith is unbroken it's a story that is intended to extend the debate about the nature of righteousness and the nature of sin and suffering the name Joe in Hebrew really means to be hostile to Wars it means to be the enemy of God Jobe becomes the object of demonic demonic hostility his name implies one who is persecuted but God can change a persecution and the prosperity jobs name is descriptive of his character there are certain names you never hear a mother naming their child like Jay bass first Chronicles four and six because it says that his mother bore him in sorrow therefore the name of the child would be representative of his character you never hear of a mother naming a child Ichabod first samuel 4 and 21 says that the glory of God is departed and that's what that means and occasionally you'll hear name like Jacob which means trickster and swindler and deceiver Genesis 25 26 Jacob but his name his name was changed to Israel and this is why a mother should not take lightly the name that they give to their child because it is indicative of the destiny of their child Jove is described as blameless and upright and and what that means is this he's a man of integrity he is someone who behaves according to God's expectation job is one who fears God and turns away from evil he stays out of the way of wickedness he avoids what he knows will result in negative consequences plus Jove is penitent job ends up being treated by the divine accuse of divine accuser is no stranger to us he is the one that goes to and fro the earth walking up and down looking for someone he can destroy he's on patrol this morning and he profiles those who are in relationship and those who are committed to the ways of God in this divine accuses proposition he suggests to God that job is really not who job says he is he believes that Joe's faith is phony and his trust in God will crumble if he is personally afflicted with pain and affliction he believes that if things don't go job's way as they have in the past Joe will turn away from God he predicts that Joe will stop thinking there is a God who is good if job encounters some hardship and some disappointment Satan doesn't believe that a man a woman can remain true to God he thinks that Joe will deny the God that He has proclaimed and that God really exists and that Joe will stop believing that God really loves him and job will stop believing that God cares for him job is penitent but Satan has a proposal here's what he says if you take away his material gain and earthly enjoyment he will then engage and evil and curse you to your face so God takes the divine accuser up on his challenge Joe becomes afflicted from head to his toes with sores he loses everything he has worked hard for and accumulated over the years Joe's wife suggests to him why don't you just curse God and die and Joe responds to her woman you talk like a foolish woman Psalms 14:1 says The Fool said in his heart that there is no God Jove responds nouns through a series of theological puzzles he says the Lord gives and the Lord takes away but blessed be the name of the Lord job says listen I know I'm going through but I know my redeemer lives and though he slay me yet will I trust him he says I know it's difficult I'm in a difficult season but he says after I've been tried in the fire I will come forth like pure gold joe says listen all the days of my appointed time will I wait on the Lord I will wait until my change comes here is a man in the midst of the most painful predicament ever and yet he continues to profess and proclaim his commitment to God and it puzzles his accuser that devil can't figure out why we will steal honor and respect and give due diligence to God when we have pain in our lives but he does not know what we know because the Bible says that he knows just how much we can bear now there are some lessons in this text to be learned on the ancient story of Joe and one of the lessons that we should learn is simply this not all human suffering is deserved undeserved suffering often comes to righteous men and women and godly people sometimes suffer unexplainable losses because the psalmist did say that many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord will deliver them out of all of them and see we have here Jobe who is going through these difficult times we could understand it if Joe was full of greed we we wouldn't have any problem reasoning and understanding the message if Joe mistreated other people if Joe had a series of extramarital affairs if Joe was a drunkard or if Joe was a liar if Joe was a thief or a joke straddled the fence or if Joe was a hypocrite of his light was dominated in doubt but that's not the case Jobe is a righteous man and God describes him as being blameless as one who turns away from evil and yet job still loses all his property his children died and if that's not enough he comes down with boils sores all over his body and the bottom line is job's life is a mess he looks like a mess he smells like a mess and at this point he is a mess but God sees his mess it's because of what is going on in John's life that onlookers are left wondering what the job do to deserve this and the answer simply is nothing this is because of no fault of his own in fact Joel loves God he fears God and the reason why he prospers is because he is protected and pardoned by God the Bible teaches us that God sends the rain on the just as well as the unjust and we should never be so quick to conclude that anyone deserves the suffering they experience a man lost his wife and child to a drunk driver he suffered deadly and the suffering he experienced was only compounded eight months later when he went to court and the drunken driver was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter the defense attorney was able to cast reasonable doubt on the testimony of several witnesses and he was able to get his client off the hook so the father was enraged but then began to be bothered by the assumption listen to this that he had the right to complete fairness in life nobody has the right to complete fairness in life who is entitled to complete fairness amongst us the man thought about it and said you know my wife was a woman I love I loved it very dearly and we had some very difficult times my daughter sparkled and was filled with enthusiasm and helped to fill the hole with excitement but he said I really didn't deserve their death but the truth of the matter is I didn't deserve their presence in my life either so he learned how to just be thankful for each day of grace because grace is what we don't deserve and that's why you should never be quick to conclude that people deserve their suffering and at the same time never jump to conclusion that people deserve their blessings either you may not deserve your suffering but the truth of the matter is you haven't been that right that you deserve any blessings either and that's why we ought to leave it up to God that's God's business it's the blessings that come from God that sometimes is the basis upon which Satan challenges and gives us a test come here can I tell you this every blessing that you have has a bull's-eye on it it's something that Satan comes after it's something that he comes after to take it away from you to see whether your loyalty will remain and your commitment to God now this is what really takes Satan off God says have you considered my servant job and that's why I take Satan off God's personal claim on job's life yeah that's that's Joel but he's my servant he's my son I noticed God didn't say have you considered my bishop he said have you considered my servant he didn't say have you considered my apostle have you considered my servant he didn't say have you considered my Reverend doctor we crave recognition and when we don't get recognition we somehow feel like we're not validated but a deep child of God who's born of the Spirit and been washed in the blood don't need no title don't need nobody calling you this and call you that the best title that you can receive and I can receive is to hear God said that's one of my servants and I know he'll be faithful I know she'll be faithful we need an ecclesiastical nomenclature so we can feel important but God says have you considered my servant you can have a title and not be a servant you can have a caller turn around backwards and still not be a servant you can have a piece of paper which serves as a certificate of ordination and still not be a servant you can wear a robe and still not be a servant have a Bible under your arm and still not be a servant quote two or three scriptures and still not be a servant but when you are committed to God come hell or high water God will say that's my servant when God started talking about the servant Satan started talking about suffering I'm gonna say that again when God started talking about the servant Satan started talking about suffering so if you're blessed I'm just trying to I'm just trying to tune you in if you're blessed you need to be aware of the fact that Satan is checking you out and Satan is coming after your stuff and if your stuff is more important than your God every one of your blessings comes with a bull's-eye on it that's there's a bull's-eye on your very life and job makes the same point when he asked the question shall we receive good at the hand of God and not received it bad that's why you should know you should learn that not all humans suffering is deserved and yet there's another lesson in this text to be learned and it's simply this faithfulness to God is of critical importance faithfulness is what God loves and what Satan hates in bad times we need to be faithful in good times we need to be faithful notice and all that Joel went through he never turned his back on God he remained faithful Joel didn't avoid God he didn't abandon God he did not give up on God now this doesn't mean you won't scream it don't mean you won't cry but let's be honest it doesn't mean you won't get angry but you can do all of that and still remain faithful because faithful servants of God never retire you can retire from your career but you never retire from serving God too many Christians have commitment of convenience they will stay faithful as long as it's safe as long as it doesn't involve risk as long as there's no rejection or criticism instead of standing along to face the challenge they have to check to see which direction they're friends of going in but God has been good to you you don't have to check nobody because God has promised that he would be with you in good times and in bad sea and all of this job holds on to God and he won't let go until God responds to him what makes the difference in the story is that Joel remains faithful to God always demanding that God hear him and take him seriously and respond to his concerns and that's how real challenge it is being able to accept the good and accept the bad to remain close to God with every twist and turn of life and if you live long enough you'll find out that life has mountains and life life has valleys life has good days and life has some not-so-good days life has times when you're happy and life has times when you're sad life has times when you're up and life has times when you're down but ultimately and all that you go through you have to raise your head up towards the heavens and say blessed be the name of the Lord because faithfulness honors God God look what somebody that's gonna be faithful God looks for someone that's gonna be faithful and the Spirit of God will say to you this don't be weary and you're well doing because you shall reap if you think not when the Spirit will save you well done good and faithful servant let it never be said that you've given God the cold shoulder and what you will discover is that in the midst of your struggle God will give you a word and lead you to a place of peace because at the end of the day God really doesn't owe us anything that Leah that leads to my final lesson and that is this make sure that your response to God is appropriate with regardless of what you're going through make sure that your response to God is appropriate job ends up praising God instead of throwing up his hands and accusing God because it isn't God that's causing it although job doesn't know it at the time what's going on behind the see see the story really isn't as much about job and his stuff and it's really not that much about Satan and his brand of suffering but it really is about God and his spirit yeah Satan is behind job's trial but remember God is also behind Satan checking him out behind everything that Satan does it tries to do that was a guard standing watching Sam mmm-hmm God looks to see your proper response and see if it's appropriate let's be clear not all responses are commendable there is a fundamental difference between a responsive description and a responsive prescription you off the weak it stuck at the place of description we get way down talking about it over and over and describing what has happened to us over and over and it's interesting because if you look at the text and look at Joel Joel does not bring up what has happened to him it's only the commentator who lets us know what job is going through you must not only learn to describe something in your life but you need to know what is appropriate and sometimes you don't need to describe it you need to despise it you learn to despise some things because you're a child of God and there are certain things that will come your way and you have to understand it's just unnatural for you it comes a time when it's unnatural for you to always be crying over stuff lord help me it's a natural for you to always be sad or natural for you to always be depressed I'm not saying that you don't have those moments and those times but every day you should not be crying every day you should not be depressed this is a day that the Lord has made the Bible at some time you should learn how to read us the Bible says weeping in doors but there is more than coming more than coming it comes it comes a time when it's unnatural listen to this it ought to come a time in your life is unnatural for you to be broke as the Christian amen you should not spend your life always begging here going there and promising I'm gonna pay you back there comes a time when you said this it's unnatural for you to head and you ain't the tail you ought to be the Linda and not the borrower it comes a time when it's unnatural for you to always be upset over nothing that doesn't mount to anything always unhappy every time you see it you got a frown instead of a smile on your face it ought to be a natural for you to always be feeling down but there ought to be a time when you say yes I'm going through but I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from which cometh my help God has a prescription for that unnatural feeling and unnatural experience you seem to be stuck in your personal trials relate to God's purpose for your life trials are designed to draw us nearer to God and job in the verses 20 to 22 gives us the prescription the Bible says Joel fell to the ground and Jove worship that's the prescription job blesses God to his face he never blames God but he blesses God and when an act of worship is in place you look for something significant that happened from God's hand worship dismantles the enemy's design worship destroys the weapons of the enemy and the greatest weapon that the enemy has in his arsenal is to get us the former habit that's contrary to God hell's greatest weapon is our habit habits are what Satan uses to destroy our lives but John's habit is worship Lord help me right here job says I'm gonna wash up the Lord you can take everything but you can't take my worship look at your neighbor and tell them that's why I'm here this morning because God bought me through another one you can't take my worshiper I've come to get God's thanks because God's been awful good to me you can't take my water and I may not worship like you but in my own way I'm gonna wash up my god the Bible says worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness because washer prevents what Satan has minute to go on in our lives because evil doesn't know how to stop that's why evil keeps coming back again and again so the prescription is worship worship prepares us to face what the enemy throws after us worship purifies us as we go through what the enemy uses to persecute us worship Rogers purges us from what the enemy uses to profane us you ought to try what Joubert use the description and it's a good old dose of worship every now and then you ought to make up your mind I'm just gonna wash your god I don't care what I have to go through I'm gonna wash you're gonna I'm not feeling that well but here's my worship anyhow I ain't got no money but here's my wife Sabina folk don't like me to hell with him here's my worship anyhow every now and then you gotta come up with the mindset that I'm gonna worship God because if I don't worship God then Satan will manipulate my life and with what I worship I just swept away in restlessness I'll spin my life and wear it and no sense of direction of purpose so we worship and we live on purpose worship is an act of attention to the Living God who rules there is a God who rules ok what you're going through there was a God who speaks there's a God who reveals there's a God who creates that's a God who orders and God knows as a God who blesses worship is a meeting call to order by God and outsiders don't understand it they see us singing they see us reading they see us turn into this old book they call it they see us eating bread and drinking wine the blood of Jesus and they don't realize it nourishes our eternal soul it's our prescription worship helps us see the whole picture worship help us understand what God is doing in our lives worship helps us to know that it ain't over until God says it's over so much in life we're like little ants on a Rembrandt in the sight of God little ants and we call a long life way to the colors we see brown we think that all of life is brown and then we hit some green and it says better we think that all of life is green and then we hit some dark blue and then we say life is blue and then we hit some black and we think that all of life is black with like little ants crawling over a rim brand and what we don't realize is that what we're crawling over is God's masterpiece and every color has its place and every color has its season and nothing is wasted or out of place just as there is a season for everything there's a color for every stage of our lives and while we're going through it how only objective ought to be to give God praise and say blessed be the name of the Lord in good times and bad times when the sun is shining when it's raining whether it's hot or whether it's cold whether i'm up or whether i'm down when i'm employed or unemployed when i'm feeling well or not blessed be the name of the lord because my god is able my god is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that i could ask or think according to the power that is in us so brother job thank you for the lesson and thank you for the blessing because all things work together for the good of them that love God and are called according to his purpose can we stand you ever have a job moment a job day Joe week a job mother a job season there were those who argued with Dakotas listen seminary that job is a poetic description that job is really a myth and I'm like ok I gotta say that in order to get my grade but the truth of the matter Joe vane don't live to me when you when you when you've been to a place and all you can do is just wait on God you know job is real the actual experience but then that amazing how God will give you the strength to go through what you thought you could not get through only by his grace his mercy his power and his love and so we keep coming like Joe we keep coming like jobs saying God restores give us more strength give us more energy help us to make it help us to make it down here until we're called to eternity only one door the church for someone this morning that's in the midst of a struggle someone this morning that's in a dark place someone this morning that things are not going as well as you'd like them to go but here's what I want to offer you is hope there's hope be consistent and your faithfulness to God keep thanking him even though you can't understand it you can't you can't see it you don't have an answer you don't have an explanation and maybe you're doing everything that you can and still things aren't going right hold on cuz at the end of the day God will give you double for your trouble is that one this morning that will come without a church on one this morning who's not committed to the Lord Jesus Christ you don't have Jesus as your personal Savior can I encourage you to come this morning can I encourage you to come you may have a chapter one of Joan but there's a chapter 40 where God gives Joe back everything everything that he lost that gives him double for being faithful God has to reward faithfulness is there one that will come don't the church is open though if the church is open for you brother open for you sister would you come that's call last call last call is there one is that one is that one god bless you you may be seated we're gonna prepare for Holi chameleon this is brother James Mintz and his coming for special prayer unless you served your father sister Loretta will pray for you pray with you

Channel: Reid Temple AME

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Keywords: reid temple, ame, Pastor Lee P. Washington, Rev. Matthew Watley, Church, ame church, gospel music, Worship, Reid Temple, AME, Sermon

Id: LK8dNkF2r7E

Length: 37min 44sec (2264 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2016