God Believes in You

This week we are starting a new sermon series entitled “What About God?” We will be having the book of Job remind us, or help us learn for the first time, some of the ways that God impacts our lives.

Today we will be looking at the fact that “God Believes in You.” Our scripture comes from Job 1:1 and 2:1-10.

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 On another day the angels z came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 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.” 3 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. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Please pray with me…

The book of Job is one of the books of the Bible that can lead you to wonder, can this be a true story while at the same time have you hope that it is not. I don’t think it is any coincidence that the lectionary, which are scriptures that are given each Sunday for us to consider preaching about, skips most of chapter 1.

We begin our scripture for today with a description of Job as a man who was blameless and upright, who feared God, and stayed away from evil. This is to set the scene for the rest of our reading. The writer is letting us know that Job was considered to be a perfect example of a follower of God.

(Transition)

The rest of Chapter 1 is a look at a discussion between God and Satan and what happens due to that discussion.

We have God give Satan permission to do anything to Job that he wants except for harming his body in any way. Satan ends up taking this to heart and he had all of Job’s servants killed, his animals killed, and also all of his children killed

The last words before we get to the remainder of today’s text states that despite what had happened to him Job did not “sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” We have this man losing almost everything but still he keeps the faith.

God believed that no matter how Satan attempted to attack Job that Job would not sway away from God. He would not allow the destruction by Satan to allow for his faith in God to be impacted. God believed in him. I think God also believes in us. He believes we have the faith that we can overcome life’s obstacles.

The question that we really may be looking at for today, do we believe we can overcome? Do we have the faith to believe that the difficulties of life will not get in the way of our relationship with God. Do we believe we can overcome when life throws us a curve ball?

The fact that Satan could not move Job away from God after taking basically everything away from him leads him to coming back to God led to a second conversation between Satan and God. This time God allows Satan to attack Job’s body but not kill him.

Satan responds by placing painful sores upon Job’s whole body. It seems that Satan believes that through attacking Job personally he will be able to get him to believe that his God is not a God who is worth following.

This understanding would match what the various religious groups believed regarding their gods. It was believed that your god should be able to protect you from the troubles of life and if they didn’t than you have angered your god or there are other gods that are stronger than yours.

We have a man in Job who in every way was blessed under Judaism. He lived a life pleasing to God and was also blessed financially. Someone living during that time would believe what the scripture tells us, Job is a perfect example of a follower of God.

(Transition)

This scripture reminds us, if we needed reminded, that life as a follower of God is not always going to be perfect. We live in a world in which bad things happen to good people. All we need to do is look towards the destruction and loss of life from the recent hurricane to understand this fact.

This scripture also is attempting to tell us that there is an evil one out there that is attempting to bring turmoil into the world. Author and pastor John Mark Comer on his podcast spoke of a cosmic battle taking place above us and around us.

This battle is not for the souls of those on earth. It is a battle on who will win-good or evil. Who is greater-God or Satan. That is what Job as a book of the Bible seems to be about. We have Job living life to the fullest and being blessed. Satan believes it is only because of the blessings God has given him which keeps Job following his God.

(Transition)

God wants to show that the faith of Job is more than what he receives. It is a belief that his God will in the end win and they both will overcome the word and the desires of the one who is attempting to stop the good from taking place in the world.

The writer wants us to know that the blessed can be cursed and the cursed can be blessed. Simple theology of blessings and curses are being toppled over. How good or bad you are does not directly relate to how your life will be.

We could focus on the battle between good and evil. We could focus on how the innocent are mistreated. We can focus on why bad things happen to good people. But today what I want to focus on is that God believes in his creation.

God believes that we believe for more than superficial reasons. God believes that we believe because we believe in good and desire to do good in the world. God believes that we desire to do good even though the world doesn’t always return the good by doing good, but sometimes responds negatively to an attempt at doing good.

(Transition)

Why should this story matter to us? It should matter to us because it shows us that God has built us to overcome the bad in the world. He has created us to be able to when needed to dig deep and keep going even through the greatest struggles in life. This story shows us that “God Believes in Us.”

Speaking of troubles, we have Job’s wife challenge him. How often is it easier for us to deal with the pain in our own lives but hard for us to accept the struggles and pain we see those around us facing.

Job’s wife asks him the question, “Are you still maintaining your integrity?” Followed by a statement “Curse God and die!” She is attempting to get Job to believe that God is not worth following. He is a God that has lost.

Many of us if not all of us have been there. Life has caused us to doubt. Life has led us to wonder if we should be following God. Job believes that “God Believes in Us.” That God is worth following.

He responds to her with these words “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” I believe he is saying “we have to take the good with the bad.” We have to find a way to keep the faith even when the world seems to be working against us.

What does Paul tell us in Romans chapter 5. He says that “suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” We can become closer to God and have our faith strengthened through the troubles of life that we face and not allow to crush us. We can overcome.

(Transition)

I want to pause for a moment and make sure something is understood. I do not believe that all the bad in the world comes from Satan. People get to make choices and sometimes those choices lead to bad things happening.

Also, God believing in us does not mean we shouldn’t struggle. It does not mean that doubt will not rise up within us. It does not mean that we won’t need counseling or some other form of help to overcome what we are facing.

Doubting and seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are willing to struggle and that you are attempting to overcome. I believe that God has called people to become counselors to help those that need additional help in overcoming the troubles they are facing.

(Transition)

I walked in darkness for over 30 years. I had events occur in my life that I allowed to have me really going through life in a daze. I played sports, Finished high school and college. Got a job. Got married. Had a son born. All while really, I was in this dark place.

But I have come to realize that through it all God believed in me. God believed that I was better than the person I had become. God had filled me with potential and was waiting for me to overcome the pain I had felt as a child.

I believe that God gave me a wonderful wife to support me at my lowest and be my conscience when I was willing to step on and over people because life wasn’t fair. All throughout those years of struggle God believed in me.

When I speak of these events these were really nothing compared to what many people have overcome. But in my white, middle class, ten-year-old mind life couldn’t be worse. Life was unfair.

Each of us have either had struggles or are going through something right now that seems to be as bad as it can get. We have faced the bad and are either still struggling or have overcome that struggle.

We have been affected by the outcome of what we have faced. We are not the same person that we were before trouble showed up and we had to face life. We have been changed by what has happened to us.

We are able to face life’s situations with God by our side if we are willing to let him walk these times of pain with us. We are able to have God help us if we are willing to ask him and allow him to lead us.

This does not mean that life is going to be easy. It does not mean that we will not face times of turmoil and struggle. What it does mean is that when we get to a place in which we feel alone-let us remember that God is with us and cry out to him.

It took having to draw up a timeline of my life in Seminary that was the turning point for me. It was this exercise that opened my eyes that in my whole life I really only had four bad years, and I had allowed those four years to cause me to walk in a haze for the next 30 plus years.

God woke me up from my pain and brought my pain to the light. He led me towards an understanding that this pain can become a blessing. I can use my pain to help others know that God is walking with them through their struggles.

It was at this point that I felt called to not only be a Bible study leader but to become a pastor. I could be someone that could tell others about how God shows us in scriptures over and over again what we could overcome.

While at the same time allow for my story. My perseverance. My path away from and eventually back towards God to make sure those around me know that God doesn’t move. It is us who move away from God. God is waiting for us to either come to him the first time or return back to him.

(Transition)

God believe in you. He believes in you enough to know that your actions can be better than the rest of the world. This is where we receive our election update. Our first reading reminds us of what God desires from us.

We are to choose to love others as God has shown his love to us. This means we don’t let the differences of the world to get in the way of are relationships with those around us. We don’t allow the world to separate us from others.

God believes in us enough to call us to bear fruit. This means that he wants us to let others know about the love he has for them. He wants us to help those that are hurting. Help those that feel helpless know that they can find hope in the Lord.

Our mission statement says that we desire to connect to those around us in love. We don’t care who they are, what they have done, or who they are going to vote for. We are to decide we are going to love others because God first loved us.

God believes in you. Let him help you through the troubles of life. Let him help you overcome what may still be causing you pain that happened in your past. This may mean being vulnerable and letting others help you.

Be willing to take the steps necessary for you to allow God to work in you and through you as someone who has a story to tell. A story of the love of a Savior who died for you and died for those around you and who believes in you.

Please pray with me…