In God We Trust: Lessons from the Life of Job

 Good morning Rolling Hills!  For y’all that don’t know me, I am Chris Reighley and I teach the Sunday Night Bible Study.

Today, as we are getting ready to celebration the 243 years of independence of the United States, I’d like to talk to you about the story of “Trusting in God.”

Our country has a deeply rooted trust in God.  In July 1956, a law was passed and signed by President Eisenhower declaring that “In God We Trust” become our official national motto.  As part of that resolution, “In God We Trust” was required to appear on all currency.  Even as early as 1864, “In God We Trust” was on the two-cent piece and has been on most all of our coins since 1908.  And going back as far as 1862, during the Civil War – a Pennsylvania Regiment made their motto “In God We Trust” 

That phrase “In God We Trust” resounds within several verses from the Bible, including: 

 Psalms 118:8

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

Than to trust in man.

 Isaiah 26:4

“Trust in the Lord forever,

For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.

When we define this word “Trust” we see that it means to have firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something

Which leads us to our bible teaching today on the man Job.

 Introduction to Job:

The Book of Job is thought to be one of the oldest books in the Bible.  It was possibly the book first written.  Job the man is believed to have lived at the same time as Abraham and the patriarch 

The Book of Job is pretty easy to online:

Chapter 1-2 – Introduce the person and situation of Job.

Chapter 3-37 – Conversation between Job & his Friends.

Chapter 38-42 – Conversation between God and Job

Today, we are going to look at the first 2 chapters of Job’s story, and really look how deeply he trusted God.  Go ahead and turn your bible to the Book of Job.

If you are following along with the RHCC bible reading plan this year, you will start the journey in Job on Thursday.  Talking with Gary, he is planning on teaching the last 2 sections on Job later this summer.

What I am hoping you get from today’s message, is to answer for yourself, the question:”

“Who do I putting my trust in”

I think you will see by example who Job put his trusted in and how nothing kept him from God.

So, let’s look at the scripture. 

Observation & Interpretation

 Job 1:1-6 (Scene 1 – Job’s current situation)

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

• Three points to get from Job’s current situation:
• Job is a good man.  Job is described as blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.
• Job is a rich man.  Job possessions have an estimated value of $20 million dollars.   He has many servants and is stated to be the greatest of all the men of the east.  To give you an idea – Jeff Bezos from Amazon is worth $112 Billion – Job is this guy in his time.   I love the directness of the NLT which says, “Job was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.”
• Job is a caring man.  Job would offer a burnt offering just in case his kids sinned, and not sinned on the outside, but on the inside.  “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”  

 Job 1:6-12 (Scene 2 – Conversation in Heaven)

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

• What is Satan doing in Heaven?
  • I love God’s first comment to Satan: “From where do you come?”
  • Satan obviously has freedom to roam around the earth.
  • Here is the thing – Satan still has to report in to God.
• What is God doing to Job?Considered = set your heart to
  • First – why is God basically boasting about Job?
  • Second – what is Satan job today?
    • “Satan has a ministry; it is the ministry of opposition, the ministry of insisting that the genuineness of the believer be tested and proved genuine.  It is a hostile and malicious ministry, but a necessary ministry for the glory of God.” Job:  The Wisdom of the Cross, Christopher Ash.
    • What’s at Stake with this little interchange between God and Satan?
      • The Glory of God
  • What we have to recognize is that God is in control, that Satan had to seek permission from God to test Job.

 Job 1:13-22 (Scene 3 – The First Trial of Job)

Now on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

a messenger came to Job and said,

“The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said,

“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked I shall return there.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

• This is a terrifying day – similar to those “days in history” like Pearl Harbor or 9/11 – this day started out normal, but everything afterwards will never be the same.
• The Four Messengers
  • 2 human acts of crime and terrorism
  • 2 natural disasters
• The Reaction from Job
  • Arose (meaning he must have fallen down)
  • tore his robe (representing the pain that is tearing at his heart)
  • shaved his head (symbol of mourning)
  • fell to the ground (crushed by sadness)
  • worshiped (worship of the God he knows and loves. Quietly, with dignity and restraint, Job worships) saying:
    • “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked I shall return there.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 Job 2:1-6 (Scene 4 – Another Conversation in Heaven)

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.” So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.”

• If at first you don’t succeed – Try again…..
  • We learn two more things here. First, that Job has maintained his integrity as a genuine and consistent believer. But, second, we learn of Satan’s actual motive. See, Satan sets up this test with an objective of demonstrating the glory of God through Job’s trust. But what he actually wants was not to test Job, but to see Job destroyed. He wants God to destroy him, to swallow him alive, to kill him. There is no justification for this, but this is what the Satan wants. Job’s sufferings are undeserved. And yet Satan is frustrated by the limitations he was given in his first meeting with God — to take away what Job has, but not to touch his person. But Satan wanted more, so he pressed the matter further. Asking for “Skin for skin!”
• No matter what – God is in control
  • We must recognize that God is the sovereign, creator of this world, He has been in complete control of His creation, He is in control and will always be in control.  The sooner we accept that, the easier our lives will be during this journey.

 Job 2:2-10 (Scene 5 – The Second Trial of Job)

Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

 Job 2:11-13 – The beginning of the rest of the story

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky. Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

Application

1. Find your vision and follow it (Who are you going to Trust?)
2. I am Statements of Jesus
   1. Bread of Life – John 6:35
   1. The Light of The World – John 8:12
   1. The Gate – John 10:9
   1. The Good Shepherd – John 10:11
   1. The Resurrection and The Life – John 11:25-26
   1. The Way, The Truth, And the Life – John 14:6
   1. The Vine – John 15:5
3. C.S. Lewis Quote 

  “There are only two kinds of people in the end:

those who say to God,
“Thy will be done,
“and those to whom God says, in the end,
“Thy will be done.

 “All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.

No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.

Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

This is not our home

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

•  Ignore the naysayers (Keep your Integrity)
• Job’s wife

“Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”

• Cost of following Jesus

Romans 8:16-18

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

• Cost of Discipleship

Job 13:15 (KJV)

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:

•  Don’t just take, give back (Be Doer’s of the Word by fulfilling the Great Commission)
• Great Commission

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

• Doers, not hearers

James 1:22-25

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

 Conclusion

• Job was able to say:

Job 19:23-27

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

• What are you going to do, which one of the 2 people from C.S. Lewis are you going to be?

The one that says to God: “Thy will be done,
or

The one who God says to them: “Thy will be done.

Where do you put your trust?  Will we be able to sing with the great angelic host:

Revelation 4:8

…“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

            (10:30 only)

In his book on Heaven, DL Moody tells about a father that he met in New York.  That father had a son who had periodic spells of illness. No one ever thought the illness was serious till the child took a turn for the worst.  And when he was visited by the doctor, the doctor informed the mother that the child had a very serious terminal illness and would not would not live for more then a few days.  

When the father came home from his business trip, and was confronted with that news, he saw his wife weeping and he asked her what was wrong. And she said there has been a great change in our boy honey since you left.  The doctor tells me that he is very ill, and he may not live, perhaps not even through the night.

The father went in to see his boy and it was apparent that the boy knew what was going on.  He looked up to his dad and said “dad, I’m going to be with Jesus tonight, is that right”.  And as his grieving father answered him he said, “Yes son, it is very likely that you will be with Jesus tonight” and as he said it, the tears began to stream down his head face, and he turned his head away, so his son won’t see him crying.  But the boy saw the tears before his dad turned his face away, and he said “Father, don’t you cry for me.  “When I get to heaven, I’m going to go straight to Jesus, and tell him ever since I can remember, you’ve been telling me all about Him, and trying to lead me to Him.”

What keeping you from it – what is keeping you from trusting in God, and His plan for your redemption through His Son Jesus Christ.  What is keeping you for saying to God – Thy Will Be Done?

9:30 Now as we stand to sing the Hymn Amazing Grace – are you prepared to put your trust in Jesus, are you prepared to trust in the amazing grace that saves us from our sin.   Look we were once lost, but we are certainly found in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We were so blind to His righteousness, but when we put our trust in God, we will most certainly see! 

10:30 As we lead into an invitation and then into communion  à “Who are you putting your trust in”?   I ask you today – Who are you going to trust for your eternal future?

God’s Word tells us that we are all sinners, that we have fallen short of the Glory of God.  No matter what we do, no matter what good things that we think we have accomplished, that there is none that is righteous in the eyes of God.  Our works are like filthy rags to God.  Look, sin entered this world through the disobedience of Adam, and it has been handed down to us, it’s in the very fiber of our being.  And because of that sin that is in all of us, God tells us that we deserve death.  But God does not want that for you – God wants all to be reconciled to Him.   God loved you so much, that He sent His son to live as you, live as a human. Jesus was fully God, yet fully man.  Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the Cross as a substitution for yours and my sins, so that we could be viewed as righteous before God.   But He didn’t stop there – He rose from the dead so that we could not only be righteous before God but could become Children of God and have the inheritance of eternal life with Him.  Jesus is the first fruit of the new covenant.

We will celebrate that new covenant thought the body and blood of Jesus Christ as demonstrated by the Lords Supper.  Be part of that family, put your trust in God.   Walk by Faith for the Glory of God.

Let us pray as **** comes up to offer communion…..