Loving God all the Time
Job 1:1-22
It is an absolute and certainty that God loves us all the time regardless of the seasons in our life
But our love for God is suspect, it is often shifting based on what’s going on in our lives
Let me be clear, love is not a feeling alone; it is a choice to love even when things are not lovable
Our theme, “Growing spiritually mature through loving God and loving people”
But to love God is to obey God’s word, Jesus said in John 15:14, “If you love me keep my commandments.”
Therefore, to be in biblical fellowship with God is to love Him all the time through worshipping and praising Him!
But love has to be tested every now and then and God is the test giver. And the test is to prove to God, ourselves, Satan, and everyone else who may question our fellowship with God.
It is easy to say I love God and people, but God will sometimes call us on the carpet and say let’s see!
The apostle Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples, thought he loved Jesus more than the rest. Matthew 26:35 he said to Jesus, “I will never deny you I will die for you.”
Jesus gave him a test on loving God standing around the fire and he failed miserably.
Jesus is a good God. He tested Peter again after His resurrection. Jesus asked Peter three times, Do you love me more than these? Peter gave the wrong three, “I like you, Lord.”
The question on the floor today is do we love God or just like Him.
There is a man in the text by the name of Job, that loves God all the time.
- What do you do when God picks you out to be picked on? -vs. 6-8
- What do you do when God moves your hedge of protection? - vs. 9-12
- What do you do when you lose everything, and God does nothing- vs. 13-19
- Well, you do the same thing you’ve always done- vs. 21-22
When you know God like you need to know God, nothing can change your love for God.
Since he loves us when we are bad, we are to love Him when things are bad
This life is filled with trials, tribulations, hardship and sorrow, but God’s love for us is to be reciprocated.
Remember to love always is to worship Him always!
I. What do you do when God picks you out to be picked on? -vs. 6-8
- Conversation between God and Satan.
- Satan tells God his purpose in the earth
I Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour.”
- God points out Job to Satan
- God brags on Job, He calls him blameless which is sincere, and upright is his character
- Where your life and testimony measures up, you are a candidate for a test
- God said there is none like him in all the earth
Can you still love God when he points you out to the enemy to attack you?
II. What do you do when God moves your hedge of protection- vs. 9-12
- Satan says Job isn't all that you said.
- Satan questions Job character and his motives for loving God
- Satan, the accuser of the saints, says he worships you because of what you are doing for him.
- God, you gave him a good family, loving wife and 10 children.
- God, you gave him more money than he could ever spend.
- God, you gave him cattle and servants.
But God knew Job better than Job knew himself, God knows what we can handle
The Bible says he would put no more on you than you can bare.
Satan challenged God about Job’s love for God, and our God is a God who accepts every challenge because he has never lost.
- God moved the hedge of protection from around Job and everything he had, not to hurt Job but to make him stronger in faith
Vs. 12, “And the LORD said unto Satan behold all that he hath is in thy power only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD."
III. What do you do when you lose everything, and God does nothing? - vs. 13-19
- All of Job’s oxen and mules were taken away by the Sabeans and killed all his servants but one- vs.15
- A lightning storm burned up the sheep and the servants only one escaped- vs. 16
- The Chaldeans raided all the camels and carried them away and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and only one escaped- vs. 17
- Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house, and a storm from the wilderness struck the four corners of the house and the walls fell on your children, and they are all dead.
God allowed all this to happen to Job in one day, because Satan questioned Job’s character and motive.
God tested Job to prove to Satan that Job’s love and faith is real!
IV. Well, you do the same thing you have always done- vs. 20-22.
“Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worship, and said naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD,”
- He loves his family, so he grieved
- He honors and recognizes the ownership of God.
- The LORD gave it and has taken it away
- Job still loves God when it looks like God doesn’t love him
- Job worships and praises God
Worship in the Greek is pros-koo-neh-o meaning to kiss God
Blessed be the name of the LORD is to speak well of God, to praise God