Hold On To Your Faith
(Perseverance from the Life of Job)
I.Introduction
A.Most people in this city are not worshiping God this morning. They haven’t even thought about Him today. Some don’t even believe there is a God. But others are like a man I met named Ed. I raised the subject of God with him and he was quick to let me know he had given up on God. I asked him why. He told me about how his brother died, his wife left him, and he lost his job. He went on to talk about the wars and suffering in the world. Then he basically said, “If God lets those things happen, then I don’t want to worship Him.” There are many like Ed in this world.
1.Perhaps more troubling is there are many sitting in church buildings this morning that are one crisis away from being just like Ed. They worship God when life is good, but when things go bad their faithfulness goes away.
2.The fact is, every week; we hear news, face circumstances and deal with people that make us want to give up, and many people do, but it is then that we need to hold on to our faith.
B.This act of “holding on to your faith” is what the Bible calls “patience, endurance and perseverance.” The word presupposes some obstacle, challenge or problem, which our faith in God allows us to confront and overcome.
1.However, a lot of people in this world are like the beetle in our driveway. The kids got down getting a closer look, and they put a small stick in its path. When it hits the stick it turns and goes the other direction. They put the stick back in front of the beetle and it hits the stick and it goes the other direction. They could do this all day long and the beetle would just go around and around in circles.
2.This is how many people confront the difficulties of life. They strike up hard against them and turn toward bitterness, then they turn toward anger, then toward depression, then toward unbelief, and they spend their life going around in circles.
3.There is a better way! Hold on to your faith in God. Be persistent. Endure. Persevere. When the early believers were imprisoned, lost their homes and fortunes, the Hebrew writer told them, “do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.36For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (Heb. 10:35-36). Paul says in Romans 2:7 that eternal life is for those who through “patient continuance do what is right.”
C.When you hear the bad news or face the difficult circumstance will you persevere? We want to, but how do we do it? One of the premiere examples in Scripture of perseverance is Job. When James wanted to encourage his readers to hold on their their he said, “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended bythe Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11). James says, “When you look up the word “perseverance” in the dictionary…you’ll see a picture of Job.”
1.Most of us know that, but how did Job persevere? Turn with me to the book of Job and allow me to direct your attention to a significant phrase found in Job 2. At this point Job has lost everything. He has suffered more than any of us will in our lifetime. And yet, listen to how God Himself describes Job’s faith to Satan. In the middle of Job 2:3 God says, “And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3). Do you see it there? “Still he holds fast…although you.” That’s what perseverance looks like.
2.We all want to have a faith that overcomes the trials we face, but today I want to us notice that Job’s faith endured because of who he was and what he did long before the trials ever arrived. Perseverance doesn’t just happen! Perseverance is the product of a faithful life. Perseverance cannot be summoned at the moment of crisis. It is a bridge that is built by daily acts of obedience, devotion and righteousness. The trials simply reveal whether there was a reality to the faith or not.
3.Today we will learn from Job how to build a faith that endures. But, before we look at the kind of person who endures, let’s look at the kinds of problems we must endure. On this point the life of Job is very enlightening. Sometimes when you encourage a person to live by faith through some difficulty, they will say to you, “You just don’t understand how hard things are. If you did, you’d know why I can’t go on.” But none of us can seriously look Job in the eye and say, “You don’t know how bad I have it!” He does, and he overcame it with faith. Look at what Job endured.
Read Job 1:1 – 2:13.
II.What Did Job Endure?
A.He Lost His Possessions. Notice first, Job’s faith had to endure the loss of his possessions. Within a period of five minutes Job discovered that his animals plowing the fields, and his animals feeding in the pasture, and his animals on the roads were suddenly gone. In today’s terms that would be like one person owning a major food supplier, and a major textile company, and major shipping company, and in one afternoon learn that every field is burned, every factory is destroyed, and every truck and train is blown up. You are financially ruined. You can’t trade your way out of this one. You’re broke. You’re so far in debt you’ll never see the light of day.
1.Financial problems are always listed as one of the major reasons for divorce in this country. I might suggest it is also one of the reasons for unfaithfulness to God.
a.When we lose our things we doubt God can take care of us, so we are consumed with worry.
b.We doubt that God can take care of us so we lie, and steal, and make ungodly decisions.
b.We look around and see how the wicked prosper and doubt God cares for the righteous (Psalm 73:3).
2.When we strike against a financial loss do we turn more faithful or more worldly?
B.He Lost His Family. More tragically, in the same afternoon, Job lost his family. He first learned about the death of servants—the people who would have lived with him and worked with him—dead! Not in some peaceful moment of sleep, but by the violent, fearful swipe of a sword. Then he learns that every one of his children is crushed to death under the force of a category 5 tornado. I’ve known people who lost a child, but can you imagine the grief of losing ten children at one time? Then to add insult to injury Job loses the support of his own wife who tells him to “curse God and die.” The grief, the loneliness, the isolation, must have been stifling.
1. One of the main reasons people give up on God, is the death of a loved one. Yet, if we continue to live it is certain that those we love the most in this world will die. Some will face untimely and tortuous deaths. At those moments will we turn more faithful, or more worldly?
C.He Lost His Health. At this point Satan basically accuses Job’s faith of being totally self-centered. He says, “Job doesn’t care about stuff. He doesn’t care about his family. But, as soon as he gets sick and you afflict his body, he’ll give up on his faith.” So, God allows Satan to strike Job with boils from head to toe. Only the numbness that followed scrapping his skin with a broken shard of pottery provided a momentary relief. Satan’s belief, “If Job gets sick he will give up on God.”
1.I can’t begin to count the number of times that a diagnosis, a painful disease, a prolonged pain has caused to grow weak in their faith, doubt the goodness of God, and fall away. Sickness can shake your faith.
2.When the diagnosis is given and the pain arrives, do you turn more toward God or toward this world?
D.He Lost His Friends. At the end of chapter 2 there seems to be a ray of hope. His friends arrive to comfort him. But the only comfort they provide is when they are silent. When they begin to talk they give him bad advice, they blame him, and they offer a distorted view of the world. The friends, who should have helped him, betrayed him.
1.Many people leave the Lord because of how some fellow believer treated them. “It’s wrong how they acted, what they said, I’m not going back there,” they say.
2.I know some people whose faith is damaged by a friend who was supposed to be a comfort became a betrayer.
3.When your friends don’t measure up do you turn act godly, or do you respond in the flesh?
E.He Lost His God. Finally, and perhaps most troublesome is that Job felt like He lost his relationship with God. We learn later that while the other losses were real, this one was imagined, but it was difficult nonetheless. For example he says in Job 16:11,
11God has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, but He has shattered me;
He also has takenmeby my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
He has set me up for His target,
13His archers surround me.
He pierces my heartand does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.
14He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a warrior. (Job 16:11-14)
Oh yes, trials can distort your view of God. They can cause you to think that God doesn’t know or God doesn’t care about you. They can cause you to doubt God’s goodness, power and knowledge. …Even for some, His existence.
F.My hunch is that nearly everyone here today has faced one or more of these trials. Perhaps you are facing one right now. The question is, “Has our faith endured? Have we persevered? Or, did our faith grow stagnate, stale or die as a result?”
1.Job’s faith endured these trials and was even greater as a result. Job persevered because of who he was and what he did before the trials arrived. His perseverance was a product of a life of faith. This is where perseverance begins. This is where perseverance is built.
2.Let’s look back at Job 1 and 2 and discover why Job successfully endured his trials with faith.
III.How Do You Endure?
A.LiveRighteously. Job lived righteously. The book begins with this description of Job, “Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). Twice the Lord said of Job, “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3). God calls him a man of “integrity,” and his own wife is stunned by his “integrity” in light of all he suffered (Job 2:3,9). In other words, Job was a man who valued God’s truth. He was committed to living by God’s Law. He turned off, push away and closed his mouth about anything that was evil. His commitment to righteousness wasn’t just lip service at church, it was who he was. Job was through and through, God’s man.
1.I remember seeing my granddad Jennings verbally abused by a man who was renting a home my granddad was sent to repair. My granddad listened patiently and then went ahead and did what he was supposed to do. I was just a little child, so I asked him, “Granddad, why didn’t you fight him back?” And he said, “I don’t know, it never came to mind.” He was so unaccustomed to hatred, foul language, and pride, it never came to mind.
2.Trials have a way of stripping away the veneer of our religion to reveal the reality of what we really love the most. When our secret fantasies and inner dialogs are full of selfishness, materialism, lusts, doubt, bitterness, anger and pride the trials we encounter simply release them.
3.If we are going to endure our trials by faith we need a reality to our faith today. We need to have a real love for God’s ways, God’s truth, and God’s righteousness. We need to “hate every wicked way,” turn it off, and find no delight in it.
4.That’s why Joseph could suffer the betrayal of his brothers and the injustice of slavery, and yet when he is faced with the immorality—of sleeping with a powerful and willing woman—he said, “It doesn’t even come to mind! How could I do this wicked thing and sin against my God” (Gen. 39:9).
5.Perseverance is the fruit of a person who loves the ways of God and rejects every form of evil. There is a reason why each section of trial in Job 1 and 2 ends with the statement, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22, 2:10). It didn’t come to mind, because that’s not how Job lived. How prepared are you to persevere the next trial?
B.Care About The Souls Of Others. In a related point, Job endured his problems because he cared about the souls of others? You see, Job was so concerned about sin he didn’t want it to hurt those around him. So, when his children got together for a feast, he would make an offering and say a prayer for God to forgive them just in case they said something wrong, or even thought something wrong.
“5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” (Job 1:5)
Job felt a responsibility for the spiritual well-being of the people around him.
1.It’s amazing to me, how selfish we become when problems arrive. We don’t care who gets hurt as long as we get some relief.
a.So, a husband or wife gets unhappy in their marriage and they start an affair, or they walk out, and they don’t think about what it will do to the soul of their mate and children.
b.Or, in a local church a person can be standing for the truth, or standing for their rights, but they are not thinking of the effect this is having on the young and weak, and they cause great damage.
3.Can I remind us that Jesus willingness suffered injustice because He loved our souls? He calls us to put the souls of others ahead of our own selfish desires.
2.In Psalm 73 Asaph wrote about how his sickness caused him to doubt the goodness of God and the value of righteous living. He was on the verge of going out and spreading his doubt and bitterness with everyone else. Then he catches himself and says, “If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed Your people” (Psalm 73:15). It was love for souls that kept Asaph from sinning with his mouth, and allowed him to go on and discover God was faithful even when he was sick.
3.You see, our trials reveal how we really feel about others. If we love their souls, then we mind our example and we treat them right. But, if we are selfish, trials cause us to hurt the people around us. How do your problems affect the people around you?
C.Have A Humble View Of Yourself. In a related note, we will be prepared to endure our trials when we have a humble view of ourselves. You see, one reason we get so angry about our problems is because we think, “I deserve better than this! I deserve to feel better than this. I deserve to be treated better than this.” On and on, “I deserve.”
1.But listen to Job. If anyone could say, “I deserve good things because I am good,” it was Job. But listen to how he responds to misfortune in his life, Job 1:20,
“Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.21And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
TheLordgave, and theLordhas taken away;
Blessed be the name of theLord.”” (Job 1:20-21)
Hear the humility in that man. He was a titan of industry; one of the most wealthy, powerful men in the world. Yet, he falls to the ground admits he is as helpless and needy as the moment he was born and will remain that way until the day he dies, and he is totally dependent upon God’s gifts to survive. Solomon put it like this,
“In the day of prosperity be joyful,
But in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,
So that man can find out nothingthat will comeafter him.” (Eccl. 7:14)
Trials give us an opportunity to remember that God is in charge. If that is the case should we not be thankful for trials so that we might remember how weak we are and how much we need God?
2.Later in Job 2:10 he tells his wife,
“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10)