From His Heart

Guest (Male): Can it get any worse? You know, it always seems like it can get worse. I read about a lady who wrote in her journal. She said this: "Dear life, when I asked can it get any worse, it was a rhetorical question, not a challenge." Do you ever feel like that? Can it get any worse? Well, yeah, it can get worse, unless you joke.

Larry Nobles: What do you do when life unexpectedly caves in on you and you think it can't get any worse? Well, that's what happened to a man in the Old Testament. His name was Job. Today, we'll discover how to turn those bad times into beautiful times. This is *From His Heart* with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today.

The title of the lesson is "It Can't Get Any Worse." It's from Pastor Jeff's five-message series, *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*. This is an enlightening and empowering message and series that you just don't want to miss. We've been airing these lessons the last couple of weeks, and you can listen to any that you missed when you go to fromhisheart.org. Just click the "Listen" link. Right now, open your Bible to the book of Job. Here's Pastor Jeff to help us face the answer to this question: can it get any worse?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: If you have ever read the book of Job, I think you would agree with me it couldn't get any worse for him. Job had things fall apart in his life just like that. Job, the Bible says, was the greatest of all the men in the East. He lived somewhere between 2100 BC and 1900 BC. He lived during the time of the patriarchs—Abraham and Isaac and Jacob—in that timeframe.

He was wealthy, so very wealthy. You measured wealth in that day and in that age by how many flocks and herds and things like that you had, and servants, and he had a ton of that. The Scripture says he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen (which means he had 1,000), 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. That man was the greatest of all the men of the East. He had so much, and then he had seven sons and three daughters. On top of all that, Job was a godly man.

I mean, God said of Job, "There's not anyone like Job on the face of the Earth. He's a blameless man, he's upright, he fears Me, and he turns from evil." Everything was coming up roses for Job. But then the bottom fell out on Job. It fell out without any warning to Job. One day, the Scripture says in one day, the devil came at him in waves—first wave, second wave.

In the first wave, he came and he took everything that Job had. He took all his wealth just like that. It came in a series of messengers coming to Job. As one would come with bad news: "Hey Job, we were out in the field and the Sabeans attacked and they took all the donkeys and all the oxen and killed all your servants who were watching the donkeys and the oxen, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

While that guy was still talking, another came in and said, "Hey Job, bad news. Fire came down from heaven and consumed all your sheep and all your servants who were watching the sheep, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he is still talking, another comes in and says, "Hey Job, bad news. The Chaldeans came and they attacked and they took all your camels and slew all your servants."

While he's still talking, the worst blow of all comes where the servant comes in and says, "Job, all your children had gathered for probably a birthday party, and the wind blew and blew the house down upon them, and they're all dead." Within a few minutes, Job learned that he had lost all his wealth, all his servants, and horror of horrors, all his children. That was the first wave of attack.

Then we read in chapter two, not only does Job lose his finances, not only does Job lose his family, but now he loses his physical health. He is stricken head to toe with sore boils. It says in chapter two, verse seven, "Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head."

He took a potsherd, a piece of pottery, to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes. Sitting among the ashes is a very vivid picture of sitting at the garbage dump. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." He said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Now when Job's three friends heard of all his adversity that had come upon him, they came, each one from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. Each one of them tore his robe, they threw dust on their heads toward the sky. Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

Can it get any worse than losing all your family and all your finances and your physical health all just in this short little period of time? You know, as you read through the book of Job, you'll find out that Job, whatever disease the devil hit him with, sore boils from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet would be awful. If you've ever had a boil, you know how bad those things hurt. He's got them all over.

His friends couldn't even recognize him. His face was so disfigured with these boils. Not only did he have that, he had fever and he had chills and he had tremendous weight loss and he had insomnia. When he could sleep, he said, "I have nightmares." It was awful. In one place he says, "My breath is offensive to my wife." It gave him bad breath. It gave him tremendous nausea. It was a terrible, horrible thing. Can it get any worse? Well, it couldn't for Job.

There is so much to learn from the book of Job. I challenge you this week to read the book of Job. Just to read it through. Find out how many times Job asks the question "Why? Why?" Here's our question today: what do you do when life unexpectedly caves in on you? Because that's what happened to Job. Here he is one day on top of the world walking with God, everything's going great, and then the next day, disaster. Have you noticed that about life, how life can just turn on a dime?

You get in the car and you think, "I'm just going to go to the store," and what happens on your way to the store? Maybe you get plowed in on a head-on collision. You didn't do anything wrong. You were minding your own business. The person next to you was texting. They hit you, and now you're in the hospital and your lungs are punctured and your body is broken. That can happen at any time. Life is fragile and it can change on a dime. What do you do when life unexpectedly caves in on you?

Three truths that you are to remember, that I am to remember. You got trouble, what do you do when you don't know what to do? You remember three truths. Truth number one: remember there are things happening behind the scenes, things happening behind the scenes that you don't see.

See, the story of Job, Job chapter one, Job chapter two, it takes place on two different levels. First of all, we are on the earthly level and we're finding out about Job, the greatest man in all the East, and all that he has, and his family, and how Job was such a godly man. Then it shifts to the heavenly realm. Job can't see into the heavenly realm. Job doesn't know, but there are things taking place above him in the heavenlies that he has no concept of.

Verse six of chapter one says this: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord." The sons of God is a reference to angels. They came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan, who used to be the leader of the angels—now he's a fallen angel; he was Lucifer, now he's Satan—Satan also came among them. The Lord, Yahweh, said to Satan, "From where do you come?"

Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming about on the Earth and walking around on it." The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the Earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." There are conversations going on in the heavenlies about Job, but Job doesn't know that. He doesn't know that that's going on.

Now you and I need to remember, when the bottom drops out, there are things going on above us that we don't know about. Listen, you have a real enemy you cannot see. He's not a figment of somebody's imagination. The being Satan is not just a name of something that somebody gives for the dark side of the Force, to use Star Wars language. No, Satan is a real being. He's a real enemy.

The word Satan means adversary, and you have an adversary. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter five, "Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." That fits in with what Satan said. "Where have you been, Satan?" "I've been roaming around on the Earth and walking around on the Earth." That's a picture of dominion.

Satan is walking around on the Earth. Why? Because, as Jesus called Satan, he's the ruler of this world. The Bible says in 1 John chapter five, verse nineteen, that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. He's roaming around on his land, on his turf. Now it is limited rulership and limited authority, as we're going to see in a moment, but Satan is the ruler of this earth. Adam had that dominion over the earth, but he lost it when he sinned, and now Satan is exercising dominion over the earth. He is there and he is an enemy.

You know what he wants to do as your enemy? He wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy you so that he can discredit God. Now watch this. The Lord says to Satan, "Where you been?" "Been walking around on the earth." "Hey, have you considered My servant Job?" God is so proud of Job. He says, "Satan, look at Job. In your face, Satan. There is a man on the earth, his name is Job, and he loves Me and he walks with Me and there's nobody like him on the face of the earth."

Satan responds to the Lord in verse nine: "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has, and he'll surely curse you to your face."

Larry Nobles: As we've just heard, not only does Satan desire our destruction, but he wants to use us in an attempt to discredit God. Pastor Jeff returns in just a moment to describe further the insidious plans of Satan that you'll want to be able to spot, so stay with us.

Today's message is called "Can It Get Any Worse?" It's from Pastor Jeff's life-giving series, *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*. It's available in the format of your choice online in our resource center at fromhisheart.org. Just look for *Got Trouble?* in our resource center and click the "Listen" link.

For your gift of any amount this month to *From His Heart*, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's new three-lesson series, *God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money*. So many people struggle with trying to earn as much money as they can. In Luke chapter twelve, verse fifteen, we read: "And He said to them, 'Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'" In Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse ten, it reminds us that "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity."

To help you calibrate your priorities, particularly as it relates to money, we'd like to help you by sending you Pastor Jeff's new series, *God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money*. You can receive a copy with your gift of any amount to *From His Heart* this month. Simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Know that your investment in kingdom work through *From His Heart* will impact hearts and homes for now and for eternity. God bless you for standing with us this month. Now let's get back to today's message called "Can It Get Any Worse?"

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What does the devil want to do? Destroy you in order to discredit God. Now here's how this works. God is lifting up Job to Satan. Satan didn't bring up Job, God brought him up. God says, "You see that guy? Man, he is something else. Loves Me, walks with Me, he's My poster child." Satan says, "Yeah, God, you know why he's your poster child? You know why he serves you? It's because you bless him, that's why.

"But listen, you take away the blessings, God, and you know what you'll see him do? You'll see this poster-child boy Job, you'll see him curse you to your face. You destroy him and you watch him curse you." So that's the devil's plan: to destroy Job so that he can discredit God. He can say to God, "God, you're such a pitiful God, you have to bribe people to worship you." That's his whole aim in this challenge that he lays out.

Now here's something important to remember. Does the devil hate you? Does he hate me? Not really. He couldn't really care less about you and me. The devil hates God. But the devil can't get at God. The devil can't hurt God. But the devil knows that God loves you and God loves me. The devil knows, "Hey, if I can't hurt God, then let me go after the ones whom God loves.

"If I go after the ones whom God loves and hurt them, then I can indirectly hurt God. If I destroy them, then I can hurt God, I can discredit God." That's what he is trying to do here. But he can't do anything unless God lets him do it. See, so the devil is ruler, but he's ruler under God's ultimate authority, ruler on the earth.

The devil says, "Hey, if you'll let down the hedge, I'll go get him. If you'll put forth your hand now and touch all that he has, he'll curse you to your face." It says in verse twelve, "Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.'" So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

Then when the second wave of attack comes in chapter two, the Scripture says, "So the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.'" So the first thing that the Lord gave the devil, the first leeway, was you can touch everything in Job's life, only don't touch Job. And in the second wave, the Lord said to Satan, "You can touch Job, only don't take his life."

So there are limits that God puts on the devil. Now you mark this down: the enemy can't do anything unless God allows it. When God let down the hedge on Job, the enemy came in like a flood. You see the heart of the devil in the way he came at Job. Bam, bam, bam, bam, to where it couldn't get any worse. He left Job's wife. Why did he leave her alive? So that she could be a thorn in his side, so that she could incite him hopefully to curse God and die.

Wives have a lot of influence over their husbands, and when a husband is hurting, a wife can come in and she can speak a word and she can really turn him to do terrible, horrible things if he's not careful. "Curse God and die"—that was the last thing that Job needed to do. Now this is important to remember from the book of Job: God is over it, but He's not the author of it. All the bad things that happened to Job, God was over it, but He wasn't the author of it. God didn't do those things to Job.

Whatever bad things have happened to you, God has not done that to you. He's over it because He's sovereign God, but He's not the author of evil. The devil is the author of evil. Here's the point of the truth when you go through trouble: when your life bottoms out, when you lose your job, when you lose a loved one, when you lose your health and it just hits you out of nowhere, you remember there's stuff going on above me that I don't know about.

You think how differently Job would have responded to all the things going on in his life had he been privy to the conversation that God had with Satan. See, he didn't know he was in the crosshairs of this big challenge. He just knew, "Man, I was doing good one day and now it can't get any worse." So remember there are things happening behind the scenes.

Second truth: remember the trouble you are facing is a test. It's a test. James says this: "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." All trouble is a test. Now here is the whole crux of the challenge between God and Satan. It's Job chapter one, verse nine: "Does Job fear God for nothing?"

That's the crux of the challenge. "God, you're having to buy his loyalty. You're having to buy his worship. Does he fear you for nothing? Of course not, God. God, the only reason Job fears you, the only reason Job serves you, is because you're his sugar daddy. But here's the deal, God. You take away the sugar, and he will curse you to your face."

If Job is the poster child for a worshiper of God, then Satan says, "I'm going to show you, God, just how pitiful you are in that you have to bribe people to worship you because nobody would ever worship you just for you." So that's the crux of the challenge. That's what the devil is throwing in the face of God. Remember I told you, he hates God, and he will use you and me to try and get at God, to try and hurt God, to try and dishonor God and discredit God.

So this trouble that Job faces, I think worse than any trouble that anybody has ever faced in life—I mean, you talk about just an acute situation that is just totally overwhelming—Job wanted to die. He curses the day of his birth. When he finally talks in chapter three, he curses the day of his birth and he asks God to kill him. That's how miserable he was. That's how heartbroken he was. That's how much he hurt.

I mean, when your friends sit down with you for a week and nobody says anything because they saw that his pain was very great, it's beyond belief bad for Job. It's a test. See, the trouble will test your motives—your motives. This trouble is going to show, verse nine: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Does Job follow God for nothing? Does he serve God for nothing? Does he love God for nothing, or is it the thing that he wants, the stuff that God gives?

Does he serve God for love or does he serve him for loot? Does Job have a passion for God or is it just all about the possessions that God gives him? I mean, if God is just going to rain down blessings upon you, are you going to serve Him for the blessings? If He takes the blessings all away, then what? See, the trouble, when it's difficult, big-time trouble, it'll test your motives. Why do you do what you do?

Why are you here today? Why are you here today? You know, for in many, many cities, you know why people come to First Baptist wherever? Because it's a good place to go for business. "I'm supposed to be seen, this is going to help me in the community. That's why they're there." I mean, if it didn't help me in the community, if it wasn't going to help me for business, forget it.

Some people are here and, you know, here's the question: if you get sick, do you still praise God? If you lose your job, do you still give to the Lord? If you lose a loved one, if some terrible thing happens to you, do you still follow Him and worship Him? Why do you fear God, if you fear God? Why do you serve God, if you serve God? See, the trouble is going to blow away all the other things that we try and put upon our real motive. The trouble shows you your real motive. It always does. Your response to that trouble will reveal your heart.

Larry Nobles: We're halfway through this message today called "Can It Get Any Worse?" We'll have the second half for you next time when Pastor Jeff picks up right there to describe exactly how the trouble God allows to touch our lives really does reveal the inner workings of our hearts.

If you're not going to be able to join us then, you can get a copy online at fromhisheart.org. Just click the "Listen" link. It's part of a five-message series called *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*. There you can become a friend to the ministry on Facebook, follow Pastor Jeff on some other social channels we have.

Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, hoping you'll be with us next time for part two of the lesson "Can It Get Any Worse?" from the series *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*. Here's part of what's to come.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Job, the Bible says, was the greatest of all the men in the East. Man, everything was coming up roses for Job. But then the bottom fell out on Job, and it fell out without any warning to Job. Just boom, one day. Can it get any worse than losing all your family and all your finances and your physical health? Job asked the question: "Why? What do you do when life unexpectedly caves in on you?" Because that's what happened to Job.

Larry Nobles: Be here Tuesday to learn if it can or cannot get any worse, and what God will do for you during life's storms. That's tomorrow here on *From His Heart*.