Job 1:20-22 (NKJV) 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Faithfulness Faithfulness is our theme for 2017 We have taken several lessons so far and looked at the idea of faithfulness Remember that faithfulness is more than just a mere loyalty to God, it’s putting our trust & confidence in Him

Faithfulness When is trusting & loyalty the easiest? When things are going well What happens when things go bad? How easy is it to have faith then?

Faithfulness What happens when we… Lose a loved one Lose our job Get news from the doctor that isn’t good Our spouse leaves us Are treated wrong by someone

Faithfulness You can almost liken it to a marriage No one leaves the other when everything is going well Relationships fail when things are going wrong (ex. #1 cause for divorce)

Faithfulness When things go wrong, people can lose their faith We MUST keep our faith during the trials of life! We look to Job, a man who shows us how to keep our faith in our darkest hours

Faithfulness 1. Be the right person now If our faith is going to sustain us through the trials of life, then we must strengthen our faith now In other words, don’t wait until the trial comes to try and grow your faith in God Look who Job was in the beginning…

Faithfulness 1. Be the right person now Job 1:1, 5 Job was one who worked on his faith constantly “Thus Job did regularly” Are we working on our faith “regularly”?

Faithfulness 1. Be the right person now One of the main reasons Job showed such great faith was because it already existed in him It took an already great faith to fall down and worship God when tragedy struck (1:20-22)

Faithfulness 2. Love God for who He is Why do you love God? Do you love Him because of who He is or because He has blessed you with a good job, a family, a nice house or nice car? What’s the reason?

Faithfulness 2. Love God for who He is If you only love God because of the blessings He provides, then what happens when those blessings are gone? Obviously Job didn’t just love God for the blessings (Satan’s accusation) Job 1:21; 2:10

Faithfulness 3. Don’t blame God If there is one thing we learn from reading Job, it’s that God was not to blame We can’t always know the reasons behind the trials in our lives Some think they know (Job’s 3 friends)

Faithfulness 3. Don’t blame God “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (1:22) There are some who lose their faith during trials because they blame God for their circumstances We should always look first in the mirror

Faithfulness 4. Cling to God, don’t run from Him The worst thing we can do is to run away from the One who should be our source of strength in the midst of trials Job did not run from God, instead he stayed right there with Him Job 9:1-15

Faithfulness 4. Cling to God, don’t run from Him Job was still struggling for answers, but this did not cause him to “curse God and die”, nor to disown his God Job 19:25-26 Job 13:15