Sermon Tone Analysis

Open: It’s good to be with you this morning.

I am excited to begin this new series from the Book of Job, and I am glad you are here for this first message.

As you turn to the first chapter of the Book of Job (it is in the Old Testament and is located immediately in front of the Book of Psalms) I want you to consider the following question: “WHY do you serve God?”

Motives are important, even when we don’t consciously consider them.

The truth is, none of us do things for absolutely no reason.

And most of the time the motive has to do with self-interest

Just last week we celebrated our graduates, and most of our high school graduates are planning on furthering their education.

WHY? Are they continuing to take classes just because they love school?

No, they are going to pursue to a degree that will allow them to begin a career in a particular field that has certain educational requirements.

Their motive is to gain credentials to better themselves so they don’t have to flip burgers for the rest of their lives.

And our recent college graduates are searching for, or have already secured a position.

As they consider the offers, the choice of a particular job will be based on pay, location, job quality, or work hours.

They will agree to take a specific job based on motives of self-interest.

Transition: With that being said, many people skate through life with mixed-motives that are fuzzy, undefined, and sometimes even contradictory.

However, when it comes to serving God, fuzzy and undefined will not measure up.

If a person has mixed, or worse, improper motives for serving God, it will not end well.

As we turn to God’s Word this morning, we will see why it is important to know the WHY or our motivations, and we will see the WHAT of a proper motive.

If you have you bibles open to , invite you to stand for the reading of the Word of God.

I will begin with v. 6 and read to the end of the chapter.

Read the Text; ask God’s blessing upon His Word

In these next few moments before we begin the Observance of the Lord’s Table, we are going to look at two reasons that require our motives to be established, and then we will look at the only proper motivation for serving God.

First of all,

Your motives for SERVING God need to be established because the Accuser will Question them.

()

Explanation: The book of Job is wisdom literature, which is a different type of writing than that of the Law (Exodus, Leviticus), or history (Joshua, 1 & 2 Kings) or the Prophetical books (Isaiah, Jeremiah).

The book of Job is a poetical book that focuses on wisdom, much like Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

This simply means that the reader should read and interact with the text according to how it was originally written.

The book contains many fascinating insights about the wisdom and nature of God, and it sets forth many questions that man has been asking for millennia.

We will be attempting to unpack the complexities and the structure of the Book of Job over the next 10 weeks, but for this morning we are just going to look at the prologue of the book and attempt to discover some principles for faithful service to God.

The book opens with a brief description of Job, and it is of utmost importance to note how he is described by the narrator: Job was blameless and upright.

This does not mean that Job was perfect or sinless.

For mortal man, this is not a condition that he can achieve (cf ).

It does mean that Job was walking with God and that there was no known or unconfessed sin in his life.

He was a man with a reverence for his God, and a man who avoided the evils of life

The lifestyle of Job was commendable, and he served as a model for many.

His strong faith also made him a target for the Accuser.

In v. 6 the reader is introduced to a scene in heaven, that of the workings of the inner council of God.

Important Note: Don’t miss this!

While the reader has knowledge of this council, Job never did.

The book that bears his name was written by an Israelite many years after these events, and it is evident that Job never knew the reason for his misfortunes

Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit to the Narrator, we gain insight into the first reason for having an established faith: The Accuser arrives and begins to question Job’s motives for serving God.

The LORD God is well aware of the Accuser’s mission, and so God is the One who first mentions Job.

God is the One who asks, “Have you considered My servant Job? (v.

8).

As we will find out in our survey, the real focus of the book is on God’s policies for ruling the world, and not really about Job.

But for now our attention will remain on how the Accuser twists and cast doubts on Job’s motive for serving God.

He challenges God by declaring that the only reason Job serves God is because God has blessed Job.

The Accuser believes that if God removes the blessings, then Job would lose his faith and curse God.

(vv.

9-11).

The LORD God is well aware of the Accuser’s mission, and so God is the One who first mentions Job.

God is the One who asks, “Have you considered My servant Job? (v.

8).

As we will find out in our survey, the real focus of the book is on God’s policies for ruling the world, and not really about Job.

But for now our attention will remain on how the Accuser twists and cast doubts on Job’s motive for serving God.

He challenges God by declaring that the only reason Job serves God is because God has blessed Job.

The Accuser believes that if God removes the blessings, then Job would lose his faith and curse God.

(vv.

9-11).

God accepts the challenge, and allows the Accuser access to Job’s possessions.

The LORD God is well aware of the Accuser’s mission, and so God is the One who first mentions Job.

God is the One who asks, “Have you considered My servant Job? (v.

8).

As we will find out in our survey, the real focus of the book is on God’s policies for ruling the world, and not really about Job.

But for now our attention will remain on how the Accuser twists and cast doubts on Job’s motive for serving God.

He challenges God by declaring that the only reason Job serves God is because God has blessed Job.

The Accuser believes that if God removes the blessings, then Job would lose his faith and curse God.

(vv.

9-11).

God accepts the challenge, and allows the Accuser access to Job’s possessions.

The LORD God is well aware of the Accuser’s mission, and so God is the One who first mentions Job.

God is the One who asks, “Have you considered My servant Job? (v.

8).

As we will find out in our survey, the real focus of the book is on God’s policies for ruling the world, and not really about Job.

But for now our attention will remain on how the Accuser twists and cast doubts on Job’s motive for serving God.

He challenges God by declaring that the only reason Job serves God is because God has blessed Job.

The Accuser believes that if God removes the blessings, then Job would lose his faith and curse God.

(vv.

9-11).

God accepts the challenge, and allows the Accuser access to Job’s possessions.

Illustrate: Samantha is really smart and good at calculus.

You are friends with her one-on-one when she helps tutor you, but you ignore her in front of your cool friends at school.

Karl has open access to his family’s 500 acres.

You don’t really like his politics or his way of doing life, but you maintain minimal relations so you can go deer hunting a couple of times a year for free.

Argument: All of us have motives for whatever we do, and some of them are flat out wrong.

The Accuser looks at Job’s life and questions his motives.

He accuses Job of serving God out of self-interest.

He tells God that the only reason Job serves is because of all the goodies.

Many modern day believers are guilty of the Accuser’s challenge because they acknowledge God based on what they can personally gain.

Some people join a FBC to network business contacts; some attend services because they think it is the path to financial well-being; and some attend long enough to get baptized so they can “go to heaven when they die”

Transition: If our motivation is shallow and based off self-interest, the truth will eventually be discovered.

If we have questionable motives, we generally try to keep them hidden from others.

Hiding doesn’t generally work, especially when God is involved, and this leads us to our second point:

Prior to his arrival at the heavenly council, the Accuser had been up to mischief in the world as he was “going to and fro on the earth.”

While this text doesn’t detail the Accuser’s activities, we discover in the epistle of 1 Peter that he is our adversary and he prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour () and in the Gospel of John we find his mission is to kill, steal, and destroy ()

Transition: If our motivation is shallow and based off self-interest, the truth will eventually be discovered.

If we have questionable motives, we generally try to keep them hidden from others.

Hiding doesn’t generally work, especially when God is involved, and this leads us to our second point:

Your motives for SERVING God need to be established because God will allow life circumstances to test them ()

Explanation: The Accuser is actually taking his shot at God, not Job.

He is taking issue with God’s blessing of Job, and he is accusing God of bribing Job with health and prosperity.

The Accuser challenges God to remove His “hedge of protection” from Job’s life and see if things aren’t different.

God accepts the challenge and gives the Accuser permission to wreak havoc in the life of Job.

We discover in vv.

13-19 that Job loses everything he has in the space of just a few minutes.

Job receives reports that all 1,500 of his oxen and donkeys were stolen and their keepers killed; his 7,000 sheep and their shepherds were destroyed in a lightning fire; his 3,000 camels were stolen and the servants killed, and finally, he discovers that all 10 of his children have been killed by a windstorm that smashed the house they were in.

The only thing left to Job was his wife and his health.

In the blink of an eye, everything that is seemingly worth living for was gone beyond recovery.

Before going any farther, it is important for us to see the Sovereign Hand of God in this passage.