Faithfulness in Adversity

Many times in our lives it seems like everything is going wrong. We worry about our finances, our health, our family, etc. I have even heard people say that things were so bad that they had to steal, lie, cheat, etc. because of the situation they were in. Ultimately, they are saying that things are so bad that they must commit a sin. The story of Job really deflates that thought process. The following blog/sermon is designed to address the need to stay faithful in ALL situations and to learn from these situations as well. Let me know what you think.

Faithfulness in Adversity - Life Lessons from the Life of Job

Have you ever heard someone say that “it can’t get any worse than this”? Have you ever had someone continuously complain of their life and say that they do not deserve the situation that they are in. Or maybe, you yourself have asked God, why are You punishing me? This is a common occurrence in our society. Basically, we want to be blessed, but we do not want to learn things the hard way. Some may say that we want our cake and we want to eat it too. Most people might be asking, what is wrong with wanting that? After all, did not God say that he wants to bless us beyond our comprehension? I think this brings to light the importance to look at the complete message of the Bible and not just take the parts that we want to hear. So today I want to look at what the Bible says about our reaction to blessing as well as trials.

The first book that came to my mind about reactions to blessings was the book of Job. I see many puzzled faces out there. Maybe you are thinking to yourself, was it not Job that suffered greatly. Well, when you start off with the book of Job, you will see a very descriptive list of Job and his blessings. The New American Standard Version of the Bible describes it in this way:

Job 1:1-4- (NASB)-
1There 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.
2Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
3His 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.
4His 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.

Now if this is not a blessing, I do not know what is. These verses describes the wonderful possessions that he has. It describes both the possession in material status as well as a wonderful family. In our society, you might be thinking that I want Job as my friend. After all we want others around us that are doing good in case it will rub off on us. In addition, the story even talks about the celebrations that his sons would throw. Now it is easy to understand these wonderful blessings because the first verse emphasizes that Job was a good man that feared God and hated evil.

Now that I have your attention and have your mind running, lets think about how this applies to our society today. I think it would be accurate to say that today we often look at blessings the same way that they did in Job’s day. We like to look at material blessings as a reward for obeying God. We also like to look at a loss of these blessings as a punishment of sin. While this would not be completely inaccurate, we must challenge ourselves to look beyond the selfish aspect of this thought and look at the bigger picture. That is why in the next few moments I want us to dig into some detail about the story of Job and focus on how it says that we should react to blessing as well as difficult times.

Reaction to Material Things:

So, lets start by looking at the material blessings of Job. Job was obviously blessed with a lot of material things. He had what many would say was more than enough livestock. I have heard two different thoughts to having many possessions. Some people would say that these are blessing that Job earned from his hard work. Others might say that people, like Job, are selfish for having many possessions. I would personally say that both of these thoughts are wrong. There is no where in the book of Job that it says that his blessing were because of his hard work. It does not even say that Job deserved all the material things that he received. For those that would say people with a lot of material things are selfish, I would recommend that they read the first verse. The Bible states that Job “was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” I do not think Job would be described like this if he was a selfish man.

So are possessions good or bad? Well, when you look at the story of Job, I think it says that it is not the possessions, but rather the attitude toward the possessions. Job did not covet these material items. He lifted them up to the Lord and considered them God’s instead of his. That is much different than our society generally thinks. For example, a few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to have a discussion with a group of people from my work. This group had a mixture of different people. One of them was a devout atheist and the others were from different Christian backgrounds. The topic that really grabbed my attention was the discussion of tithes. Now money is very much a material thing. Basically the discussion was why would people give 10% of their hard earned money to the church. The group was basically coming to the conclusion that we are to give tithes only because we “have” to. Basically, they were saying that we give because the Bible tells us too. This frustrated the atheist and she could not comprehend why we do something because of an old document. I have to admit that I too would find it hard to give it I only thought of tithes this way. I tried to explain that it is much more than this. I explained that I view everything that I have as His. So simply speaking, I am only asked to give at least 10% of what is his back to the church. I continued to explain that I am happy to give this back and that it is important to give out of the right heart. It was interesting to see the faces of these people with this explanation. Basically, there was a silence and the atheist finally spoke up and said that makes more sence, but she would still have trouble giving it away.

So why do I share this story? Because in our society, we are obsessed with material good including money. Many people may give, but they give out of duty rather than happiness. When Satan was allowed to test Job by taking away his material possession, it showed Job’s heart toward these things and I believe it struck a sword in Satan’s side. Job responded by saying:

Job 1:21 (NASB)
21He 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."

Now how many of us would think this way if we lost everything that we had? Better yet, the next verse in Job states that Job did not sin or blame God. In this case, there was a larger purpose to this suffering even though Job did not understand or know about it. Job’s story and reaction still talks to us today and because of his faithfulness and example, hopefully we to can learn to deal with adversity and remain faithful. So next time you are hurting because you have lost something or maybe your health is bad, remember Job and his obedience. Will you reactions glorify God or cause others to stumble?

Stumbling Rock of Selfishness

Life Lessons from the Life of Jonah – Stumbling Rock of Selfishness

Doesn’t it feel good when you get your way. It is nice to get a new car or a new gadget that we have wanted for a long time. The feeling that we get is a sence of accomplishment and fulfillment. Why is it though we do not always have that same feeling for others. Sometime I even see people that get upset because one of their friends got something that they did not. This is very common in the business world when a colleague gets a promotion over someone else. This is unfortunately one of the common feelings in our society. Our jealousy, or selfishness, makes us stumble and focuses our thoughts on negatives versus positives for others. This is even more severe when someone that we do not like is blessed. I have even heard people get mad at God because He blessed someone that they did not like. I think most people would agree that this does not seem like the right thing to do, but where can we find guidance in the Bible? One clear area we get guidance is in the Book of Jonah.

We learned about the story of Jonah even as little kids. Most everyone knows the story of Jonah who tried to run away from God. He was trying to run away because God instructed him to go to Nineveh and minister to people that he did not like. Even Veggie Tales has a whole movie dedicated to telling the story of Jonah. I would challenge you though to even look deeper into the story of Jonah. We know that Jonah did not obey God. We know that he ran from God (Which is sort of humorous when you really think about it). We know that he spent days in the belly of a fish or whale. And we know that Jonah finally appealed to God and did as he was commanded. I often use this part of the story to teach my kids about timely obedience. I will say, wouldn’t it have been much better if Jonah would have obeyed the first time? Well, what happened after Jonah finally obeyed? We know that Nineveh was miraculously saved because of Jonah’s teaching. Would it not be amazing if God used one of us to turn around sin in a community like New Orleans or Las Vegas? Well, if we will continue on in the book of Jonah, we will realize his response is much more like our internal sinful nature. Below is Jonah’s response to this miraculous change.

Jonah 4:1-3 (NASB)
1But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.
2He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3"Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."

When I read this chapter, it really takes me back a step to think of how selfish Jonah must have been to hate someone like this so much that he did not even want to see these people go to heaven. As I try to relate to his thoughts, the main thing that comes to mind is the past and sometimes present hatred I read about with racism. Our history shows that there were people that hated individuals so much, all they wanted to do is enslave them or even kill them. Whether you think about Hitler or slavery in the United States, this must be the type of feelings that Jonah felt toward the people of Nineveh.

When I think of the hatred that someone must have toward people to feel this way, it just seems that they would immediately be embarrassed and feel guilty of these feelings. Well, as we know through history, most people do not react so lovingly. There have been huge wars because of people’s prejudices and their hatred. Well, just as you see in world history, you see a similar response of Jonah. We read that God tried to teach Jonah that he should be happy that these people were saved. If verse Jonah 4:4, God replies. "Do you have good reason to be angry?" Similar like I see in our society today, Jonah still did not turn and love people as God instructs us. God even caused a plant to grow and give Jonah shade, but his heart was so hard that he could not get over his stumbling block of selfishness. To make things worse, Jonah let his anger for the people of Nineveh transfer to anger toward the plant for wilting. He was so angry and he requested God kill him versus asking for forgiveness and seeking shelter. God in all his glory shares His word with us in the remaining chapters. I think that this response should be a sign that we all wear every day. It is written:

Jonah 4:9-11
9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."
10Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
11"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

I challenge you to now think about how this relates to your life today. Where are the areas in your life that you have prejudices that need to be recognize and removed? Where have you found times that you have transferred anger from one situation and let it effect another part of your life that was a blessing? These selfish thought, actions, etc are stumbling blocks. While we do not know if Jonah ever turned his heart around and once again found the joy that only comes from God, it is not too late for us. We must remove these stumbling blocks of selfishness where we can grow closer to God and be a living testimony of His love. In closing, while we are in the world, nothing makes us be of the world.

What If . . .

Tonight I was wondering about what if . . . I mean what if something was different. For example, what if Noah kept debating with God about the design of the Ark? If he would have debated with God maybe all man kind would have died in the flood. Or what if Joseph debated with God about caring for Mary and Jesus. Would have Jesus been killed as a baby and we would all be be doomed? Thank God these people obeyed God and did not debate with Him. On the same idea though, what if we quit debating with God and His will for our lives. What would happen if people stopped focusing on themselves and focused on loving others as God commands us to. This "what if" is still in our grasps and it excites me just to think how much God could use us. All we have to do is to be as obedient as others in the bible. What are we waiting on?