1. Have You Considered My Servant_____? 02/19/2006 AM Dr. Dane Boyles

2. Have You Considered My Servant _______?
Introduction
God’s deepest comforts are not attached to answers.
Job offers some insights gained on the anvil of experience.

3. Have You Considered My Servant _______?
That’s where we are today, with Job--having lost everything, sitting in a pile of ashes, with boils on our skin from head to toe (Job 2:7).

4. Have You Considered My Servant _______?
God is always in control.
Even if it doesn’t look like it to us.
It looks out of control, running amuck.

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1 Peter echoes Job.
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:5)

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6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. (1 Peter 1:6)

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7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:7)

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The entire book of Job is founded on the premise that Job is righteous before God.
But Job’s blamelessness doesn’t protect him from suffering and grief.

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The Heavenly Council (1:6-12)
6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

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8 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.” (Job 1:8)

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9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. (Job 1:9-10)

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11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11)

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12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. (Job 1:6-12)

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Job knows nothing.
Job is totally unaware of the cosmic drama.
Job is upright and blameless (1:8).

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Job’s blamelessness makes him an object of God’s grace.
He’s an example of what it means to trust God.
But he had to have an opportunity to know God.
Important principle: We learn the most about God when we are in need.

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It Is a Question of Trust
How much do you trust God?
Do you trust God in every situation, or just some?
Can you trust Him with your life?, with the life of someone you love?

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Trusting God Boils Down To Whether We Believe What He Says Is True Or Not.
Trusting God Does Not Always Mean that We Will Understand What He Is Doing, or Why He Is Doing it.

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Trusting God Is Not Based on Whether or Not He Gives Us Everything We Ask for.
Selfishness doesn’t produce trust.
Job deliberately chose to be close to God by,

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Taking seriously what the Lord says,
28…‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’” (Job 28:28)

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Making a covenant with his eyes,
1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1)

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Possessing an eternal perspective,
10 …Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)
4 His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? (Job 9:4)

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Controlling his language,
10 In all this, Job did not sin in what he said (Job 2:10)

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Conclusion
We won’t trust a stranger…
This was Job’s secret: He knew God.
That’s how our faith makes sense of what seems senseless.