 Hey man, so keep your place in Job chapter one. We're going to be referencing Job chapter one throughout the entire sermon. So we're in the science and the Bible sermon series this morning. And the title of the sermon this morning is The Science of Job. And notice I didn't say science in the book of Job. I'm going to talk about the science of Job, the science of the life of Job. You say, what does that mean? Well, let's go ahead and look at Job chapter one this morning. Job is a man who was righteous, he was upright. It doesn't mean he was perfect. In this case it means that he was right with God. He had a lot of things. He had great possessions. He was very successful in his family and all the things that he had upon this earth. And look down at verse number six. The title of the sermon is The Science of Job. Now we see an interesting conversation between Satan and God. That's a unique thing in the Bible in the book of Job here. We're going to get to see today this morning how Satan deals with God and how God deals with Satan on this earth before God kind of ends things and wraps things up in the end times. Look down at verse number six of Job chapter one. And let's look at what I'm talking about when I say The Science of Job. Verse number six says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. Here we see Satan, the sons of God, meaning we're all sons of God if you're saved. You were a lowercase son of God. We don't know if this is in heaven or somewhere on earth or whatever. But Satan comes to have a conversation with God here. Look at verse number seven. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? So the Lord says to Satan, Where did you come from? Basically is what he's saying. He answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it. So this tells us where Satan operates right here. I mean, Satan is on the earth. He's walking around up and down in the earth all over the earth. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and as sheweth evil. Meaning he puts away evil from himself. So God is basically saying, Look at this great example of a believer, this man Job. God is saying to Satan. And Satan answered the Lord and said, The Job fear God for not. Look at verse number ten. Hast thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. So God is saying here, Have you considered this man who's right with me, who's pleasing to my sight? God's kind of putting up Job as an example of the way he would want everyone to follow him. And Satan's saying, The only reason he follows you is because you've given him everything. The only reason that Job is faithful to you is because you've blessed the work of his hand. You know, you've increased his substance. He's got, I mean, everything is going great for Job. That's why he serves you is what Satan says. Look at verse number ten. That's verse number eleven. He says, Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. Satan says, If you take all that away from him, he will curse you to your face because that's the only reason that he is following you and that he is obeying you and being loyal to you is because of everything that you've given him. Look at verse number twelve. 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. God basically says to Satan, He's like, Okay, you can take all those things away from him. He is himself, but you can't kill him. God puts that caveat on Satan. So Job, in the sense of what science is, meaning observation, you have a hypothesis or a theory, and then you go and you test that theory. Job was a scientific experiment in himself. Satan had a theory. Satan had a hypothesis. Look back at verse number nine where Satan says, Doth Job fear God for naught. He's saying, Does God, does Job fear you just for nothing, for free, for no matter what? And then he says, Thou hath made a hedge about him, about his house, about all that he hath on every side. Thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substances increased in the land. And he says, Take all those things away from him and he will curse you to your face. This is Satan's hypothesis. And God says, OK, let's test it. And that's the book of Job right there. Is testing this hypothesis, this theory, that Satan put forth to God, and God says, OK, I will allow you to test this hypothesis. This is the science. Job is a scientific experiment as we know him in the Bible. Satan's saying he only follows you because it benefits him. That's it. I mean, think about this. Is this theory sound? Turn to Romans chapter eight. Keep your place in Job chapter one. We're going to be going back to Job chapter one and Job chapter two throughout the sermon. Let's just think about the hypothesis that Satan put forth. This idea that Job only served God, no matter how it turned out, that Job only served God, or people will only serve God as long as things are good. Look at Romans 8, 28. I mean, are we more likely to follow God in good times? That's the question that we should all ask ourselves. Look at Romans chapter eight and verse number 28. The Bible does say this and says, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. What Romans 8, 28 means is that for those that love God, meaning what, those that are doing what God wants them to do according to his purpose. Meaning, you know, look, just because you're saved doesn't mean that you are loving God. If you're loving God, you're following his commandments. You are serving him according to his purpose. You're doing the first works on this earth. The Bible says in Romans 8, 28, a very powerful promise for those types of people of which Job was one of those people that loved God, that was showing his obedience and his loyalty to God with the works that he did in his life, not to get himself to heaven, but to be obedient and to love God. Look, it says that all things for those people will work together for the good. You say, well, that sounds pretty good. I mean, that is pretty good, by the way. That's quite a promise right there, but you have to understand that this doesn't necessarily mean cars and houses. This means that blessings, yeah, blessings could come to those who are obedient, but to only teach this side that this good would only be material things, you know what that's called? That's called the prosperity gospel right there. That if you serve God and you love God and you do works in your life towards God, that God will bless you with material things. That's the prosperity gospel. But that is not what Romans 8.28 means. It says all things will work together for good. Look, for good mean that you're broke, but a bunch of people get saved. For good means spiritual good, meaning bad things in your life could happen, but God promises if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and you are serving God, you are loving God, that anything that happens in your life will work together for good. That doesn't mean riches and gold and silver. It means good. And the ultimate good is, you know, the prosperity of the kingdom of heaven, not the prosperity of your bank account. So the prosperity gospel is just completely false. I mean, it's this idea that you put $20 in the offering plate or you call this 800 number and God will return this 10 fold to you. That's just false. What Romans 8.28 is saying is those that serve God, God will work everything toward to the good. And he does that with Job and I'll explain that to you towards the end of the sermon. But the good can mean you lose everything, but it just means that you get right with God. That's good. If you're wealthy and you're not right with God and then you lose everything materially on this earth and that means you do get right with God, Romans 8.28 just came true for you. And I hope that that doesn't need to happen for Christians, but look, that's true for many Christians. But let me just say this. Job was someone who was righteous. He was right with God. He was right with God. He was not a perfect, sinless person. He was right with God, but he was someone that had things very good in his life at the beginning of Job chapter one. Now, I would argue with you or I would put forth this morning that this applies to us as Christians in our time. Of just this idea that, I mean, from a historical perspective, we have it pretty good in this country. We have it pretty good. I mean, look, I mean, think about, think about just the historical perspective of people on planet earth and just the types of lives that they had compared to the lives that we have today in this country. I mean, from a historical perspective, we're pretty much in the top 1%, I would say. Look, a large, look, there's a large percentage of people throughout history that didn't even get a life. Think about that. People that were murdered, think about an abortion. Think about a baby who lost his or her life before they even were even born. You think about things like wars. You think about things, I'm not even talking about the soldiers that die in wars. Think about just the millions and millions of people, tens upon tens of millions of people that have been just killed as bystanders, innocent bystanders or civilians in war. Think about some city that gets bombed in World War II by either side and a child that just dies when they're four years old. Just by being bombed in a, you know, look, from a historical perspective, a lot of people didn't even get a life to live. We have things pretty good. We're pretty comparable to Job in our lives. You know, I mean, there's been a lot of oppression, a lot of disease, a lot of starvation, a lot of shortened lives throughout history, a lot of really bad experiences of the human experience. You know, we're comparable to Job today. I mean, we have relative freedom today to go out and preach the gospel. I mean, we have prosperity today. I mean, prosperity might be one of the only last things that this country has to offer. I'm starting to wonder. But yeah, if you found someone in America today serving the Lord faithfully, upright, right with the Lord, they could be a similar case to Job. So this really applies to us this morning. So let's look at the scientific experiment of Job. Satan's hypothesis is that without all these blessings, Job will curse you. The only thing holding Job upright and in favor and just loyally serving the Lord is all of this stuff. These blessings, his family, the material things, the houses, the works of his hands being successful. So let's look at the experiment. Let's look at the experiment. The experiment is God basically says to Satan, okay, take away everything. Let's see if you're right. Let's test your theory. Let's test your hypothesis. Job loses everything in one day. It's like, talk about the hardest day. Talk about the worst day. He loses his wealth. He loses his family, his children. And then later on in chapter two, go to chapter two. Later on in chapter two, I mean, chapter two, look at verse number nine. Later on in chapter two, he even loses his health. He even loses his health. Notice, I mean, only his wife was left, but she wasn't really much of a blessing to him if you look at verse number nine of Job chapter two. Look at verse number nine of Job chapter two. So in verse number, in chapter two, God finally says, you know, Satan basically says, well, yeah, but he has his health. He still has his health. And God's like, take that away too. Just only not his life. So God, you know, he gets afflicted with boils and he loses his health after he's lost everything else in his family. Look at what his wife says to him. His wife says to him in verse number nine of Job chapter two, then said his wife unto him, does thou still retain nine integrity? Curse God and die. So you understand why God left the wife because basically why Satan left the wife because she wasn't something that was a blessing to him. She was something that, you know, was not helping him in his spiritual life. But verse number 10 we'll look at in just a minute. But what's the result of this experiment? He loses everything. All his family, his material wealth, all his cattle, all his houses, everything is gone. And then in verse number 21 of Job chapter one, the result is this. It says naked, and he said, Job said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job's sin not nor charged God foolishly. And then in verse number 10 of chapter two, he says, but he said unto her, even after he lost his health, look what he says to his wife that's trying to, you know, break him down. She's like, just curse God and die. Why are you still following the Lord? Why are you still keeping your integrity? By the way, following the Lord through all tough times, that's integrity. The Bible kind of defines what integrity is for us. It's loyalty, especially loyalty to the Lord. Look at verse 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Notice how Job said exactly the opposite of what Satan was saying that he was all about. He's, Job literally said to his wife who was trying to discourage him and trying to break him down. He said, shall we receive good and not evil? Shall we be these types of people that just only want the good things? And when the bad things come, we just turn, we just turn on this. Look, he's saying he's a person of integrity. He's saying, look, I'm glad to take the good, but when the evil comes, I'll take that too. Look, that's a great lesson in itself and that could be just a sermon in itself right there. I mean, you could apply this to anything. You could apply this to anything. You could apply this to preaching. People that love to hear preaching on other people or other people's problems, but then when the preaching hits themselves, they're like, no, I don't want that. It's like, no, you take the good and the evil. Job is just saying, like, God is God no matter what and whatever he does is right. I mean, you think about it, even his own health, even his own health, he just thought, I mean, that's a powerful thing. I mean, when people, people's, here's the thing that's interesting about the health part of it too. People think about, you know, their health and like, well, at least we have our health, but guess what? This idea in Job chapter two of Job losing his health, you know what? That's gonna happen to every single one of us. You ever think about that? We are all going to lose our health one day, but yet people go and they say, oh, you know, they lose their health when they're 50 or 60 or 70 and they're like, I shouldn't lose my health right now, God. Who are you? Look, I hope I have my health for many, many more years. I hope you all have your health for many, many more years, but if God takes away my health, who am I? Who am I to say that like, that's wrong? And this is how Job is such a powerful man of faith here because he's just like, God takes it all away. I mean, whatever, it wasn't mine to begin with. You know, all my material possessions, he's like, whatever. He's like, I'm glad I had them while I had them, but I'm not taking any of this with me. So what does it matter? So look, the result is Job never turned on God. The result was Satan's hypothesis was wrong. Satan was completely wrong about Job. He said, why did God allow this? It seems kind of like a cruel experiment. I mean, this poor man, this poor man who was faithful to God, this poor man who was upright, he was right with the Lord, why would God allow this to happen? It seems like a cruel thing for God to say, okay, Satan, go ahead and do this. Well, first of all, it's documented for us to read about. It's documented in the pages of the Bible. So it seems like it's something that's important that God wants us to see. Why? Because God, here's why. God wants to demonstrate to us what temptation is. That's why he put this story of Job in the Bible. So we will understand temptation in our lives. Look, this experiment happens all the time. This experiment with Job. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 24. It's all over the Bible to lesser degrees. Job is an extreme example of understanding temptation in the Bible. It's an extreme example that God gives for us so we can understand how temptation works. And I'm gonna show that to you in just a minute. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel chapter 24. We see another temptation point in the Bible. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 24. And then we're also gonna, I'm gonna read for you 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse number one. And you're keeping your place in Job chapter one. God in Job, he's allowing this experiment to be run so we understand how temptation works and how Satan works in our lives. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24 and look at verse number one. A lot of people point out 2 Samuel chapter 24 and they say, oh, contradiction in the Bible. But they just don't understand how temptation works. I'm gonna explain that to you this morning. Look at the first verse of 2 Samuel 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. So this is when, of course, David sins and goes and takes a census of the people and then later on he is punished for doing that. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse number one though, it is worded this way. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. You say, well, who did it? Who did it? It's the same thing as Job. Who did it? Who did the bad things to Job? Who took away Job's family? Who took away Job's wealth? Who took away Job's health? Look at Job chapter one. I'm sorry, go to James chapter one. In Job chapter one, Satan did it. God allowed it. That's the same thing as 2 Samuel chapter 24 and 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Both of those verses are explaining this same concept where Satan tempts and God just allowed David to be tempted and the reason that God's anger was kindled in 2 Samuel chapter 24 was because David allowed himself to give in to the temptation. He'd allowed himself to do it. So it's actually necessary to have 1 Chronicles chapter 21 in order to understand the complete context of 1 Samuel chapter 24. God allowed the temptation, but Satan's the one that did it and then David caved to it. And thus God was angry with David for doing what he did. God doesn't tempt us with sin. Look at James chapter one in verse number 12. The Bible says, blessed is the man that endure temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. More on that later. Let no man say, this is super important to understand this, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. God does not tempt people with sin. God does not tempt people with sin. If something is happening, it is Satan that is doing it and God that is allowing it. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. So that'll give you a clue by the way and we're gonna talk about that in great detail here in a few minutes. That'll give you a clue where you are going to be tempted. You can know by the way. You can know after this morning, you should be able to self reflect and know where Satan is going to try to tempt you. And the Bible kind of gives it away right here. He says he's drawn away of his own lust. So where your lusts are, that's where you're going to be tempted and that when that lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So David was tempted by Satan to number the people. He had a, and he also, why was he tempted by Satan? Because he had a desire. He had a desire, he had a lust within him to know how powerful he was. He had a desire inside of him to know how great his kingdom was. To know how powerful his army would be. And by the way, this is the sin. Because God didn't want him doing that because God just wanted him to have faith that God would take care of his kingdom. Instead, he was, he's lusting for this information. Satan tempted him and that sin conceived. Which means he actually did it. And God was angry at that point. First Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse number 13. Now God tells us there's a limit. God tells us there's a limit to what he will allow Satan to tempt us at. God promises us in first Corinthians chapter 10 that yes, we have lusts and, you know, different people may have different things that they struggle with, but God promises that he will only allow Satan to tempt them to a point and then he will stop Satan. God promises every believer this. Look at first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. He says, there had no temptation taking you as such as common to man, meaning nothing new is gonna come to you that hasn't come to other people, but God is faithful who will not suffer you, meaning not allow you to be tempted above that you're able. It's not God tempting you, but he's saying he will hold Satan back so you will not be tempted, you will not be pushed beyond the limit that you can handle successfully. But with the temptation also, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that he may be able to bear it. So this is the concept of temptation. This is the concept of temptation. Satan does it. He does it according to your lusts and God throttles it back to the point where you should be able to handle it successfully. You should be able to bear it. Now, is everyone successful in this? No, David was an example of someone that was not successful in that. But look, he could have been successful. It was possible for him. He just gave into his lust. He gave into his flesh. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. So look, the scientific experiment in 2 Samuel chapter 24 with David, it worked for Satan. It worked. His hypothesis was correct. With Job it was not. Here's another person that was tempted. This is why Jesus went through the temptation in the wilderness to show us that it is possible. You say, well, Jesus is God. Yes, but Job's not God. Job was just a man and he withstood it. Look at Matthew chapter four, verse number one. Matthew chapter four, verse number one. The Bible says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Jesus had to go through this experiment too. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungry. And when the tempter came to him, who's that? The tempter, the person doing the tempting again, this proves is always Satan. He said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, as written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil take him up into a holy city and set of him up on the pinnacle of the temple. And sayeth unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning me. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. He's basically trying to get him to listen to him. He's trying to give Jesus a command and have Jesus just listen to the smallest thing. He said, would it be a big deal if Jesus turned one of those stones into bread? Would it be a big deal if Jesus called angels to come and rescue him? Yeah, it'd be a big deal because he'd be listening to Satan. He'd be listening to a command of Satan. And that would be a sin. Again, the devil taketh him up to an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and sayeth unto them, all these things will I give thee if that will fall down and worship me. Then sayeth Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. Jesus himself was tempted by Satan. He was put through this experiment and he passed. So the point is all of us and the reason Job is such an important story in the Bible and the reason God allowed this scientific experiment to take place is because all of us will also go through this experiment. All of us will be tempted of Satan in which you have to ask yourself this morning and through all the days of your life is will my circumstances change my loyalty? How will I do in this experiment in my life? I mean, think about this. How about, you know, you just gotta think about changing circumstances. I mean, many people when times get good, maybe they're down and then times get good, they abandon God. You know, I mean, many people do that. Times get good, they forget about God. This was Solomon in the Bible. They get just showered with blessings and then they just forget about their spiritual life. You know, Job was someone where times got bad. He was at the top and then times got bad and then he didn't blame or charge God but many people do this. Many people have the blessings taken away in their life, things go bad for them and they just say, well, this Christian life is getting me nowhere and they walk away because that was the hedge around them. I'll serve God as long as things are good in my life. Look, this is the scientific experiment of all of our lives is when I'm trying to get you to understand this morning. And you say, why would God do this? Why? Because the tempter is here, that's why. The tempter is here with us on this earth now. So God not only wanted us to have the story of Job, he needed us to have the story of Job. Such an extreme story of someone who went to such extremes and did it correctly that it'll be way more extreme. Job was the extreme story of someone who literally lost everything up to an inch of his life and still did not charge God foolishly. Still did not curse God, was still loyal to God. We should be thankful to Job. We should be thankful to Job. Job was that he was from the top. Look, Job went from the top to the bottom, turned to Job chapter 42, turned to Job chapter 42. He went from the top to the bottom and back up to the top again and was right with God the whole way. Yeah, they got a little prideful in the book of Job, talking back and forth with his friends and God kind of sets everybody straight there. But the point is, Job went from top to bottom to top and never lost his loyalty to the Lord. It's a complete example for us and this is why God did it, so we can have this example. Look at verse number 10 of Job chapter 42. At the end of the story, look at what the Bible says. It says in the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. I mean, God's sitting here and he's saying like, you know what, here's a guy that can handle some blessings and he gives Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him all over the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. So notice how the Bible says there, the Lord brought it upon him. The reason that God did not do that to him, God allowed it to happen to him. So the Lord brought it upon him in the sense that God took away, you know, the restraints from Satan on Job's life and allowed the tempter to do those things to him. Every man also gave him a piece of money and everyone an earing of gold. So, verse 12, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she-asses. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. He even replaced all of his children. Look, he survived the most extreme temptation in the Bible. He went from the top to the bottom and back to the top again and he was faithful all the way. This is why God allowed it. So it would be such a great example for us. So look, for us, you say, how do we do this? How do we do this? I mean, basically what it comes down to is this. You just have to make a decision in your life. You just have to make a decision in your life. You take the blessings and serve and you take the curses and serve. That's the decision that you make in your life. I mean, you take the evil. You take the hurt along with the good in your life and the service stays the same. But the thing that you have to understand is just as in Job chapter one, you will be tempted in your weak points. So you have to ask yourself this morning, you have to ask yourself throughout your life, what is my hedge? Do I have a hedge? You know, the Satan said about Job is like, you've placed a hedge all about him. He's like, you've just made it easy for him. Do you have a hedge? What is your hedge? Is your hedge your substance? You know, is your hedge the things that you have in your life? People, look, do you know that people have thrown away their faith because of wealth? Only when the money and the Lord line up. Well, I pursue my Christian life. You know that many people do this, meaning their Christian life will last, I don't know, not long. It won't line up for long if that's the case. Why? Because the tempter will hit you there, that's why. You know, people have thrown away their faith for their family, for their kids. You're like, what? Kids? People have thrown away their faith, their Christian life for their kids. The scary thing is, if that's your hedge, if that's what would stop you from serving the Lord, that's where the tempter will hit you in that area. I mean, your marriage. Think about this, the wife, the wife and the husband. Look at, Job didn't have a wonderful wife here. When you think about a marriage, if there's cracks in your marriage, Satan will use this. Satan will go after this. Wives, wives should be, wives should look at this story of Job's wife and be like, my goodness, you know, I need to be a help meat. I need to be a help meat, a help that is worthy to my husband. I need to help my husband. Help hold him up, help hold up, you know, the family that he is trying to lead. Not be this weak pointer, or God forbid, like this woman in anchor, trying to drag him down. She was not able to drag him down. But this is a reflection that wives should make. Wives should be a strength to their family, a, you know, strength to their husband. You know, not someone that's casting doubt. Not something that's trying to pull down. You know, not someone that's constantly trying to just cast doubt on the Christian life. Why are we doing this? Or why do we, you know, do all these different things that are so different than everybody else does? And look, don't be a Job's wife. She was trying to drag him down. Husbands, husbands, look, a strong leader will not be able to be dragged down. That's another thing about Job that we see here. We had a wife that was like the opposite of the virtuous woman here, and she was not able to pull Job down because he was a strong leader. He was a strong Christian. But let me tell you something. The husband as the leader of the family, this is the life and death of the Christian life right here. It is a life and death situation. Job, he survived a faithless wife. And like, I don't know if she's saved or not, or whatever, we don't know much about her. Probably was. Probably just had very weak faith. But Job survived it. Job was a strong leader. And he would not be, look, the husband that leads his family successful, successfully will be successful in the Christian life along with his family. This is how important this is. So the marriage works both ways. Any rifts in the marriage, Satan will exploit it. He'll come after those cracks. How about the work of your hands? That's another thing Satan said was a hedge. The work of your hands, people that are just like in love with their career. Just in love with this, my career comes first and all of these types of things. And look, if that's your hedge, as long as my career is going well and as long as I have this success in this area, I will serve the Lord, that's what Satan's coming after. That's where he's coming. You have to ask yourself, what is it? What's the hedge that's protecting your Christian life? What's the hedge that would weaken you if it was taken away that would weaken you to the point of quitting your Christian life? With Job, there wasn't one. Satan was completely wrong. He wasn't even 10% right. He was completely wrong. But you have to understand, you find those hedges. You think about these things. You find those hedges that you have and you get rid of those hedges. You burn them down. Because those are the things that Satan is gonna come after. The tempter is real, he's here and he's gonna hit you in those places. So what's the trick? How did Job do it? You say, I wanna be like Job. Turn to Matthew chapter six. What's the trick? How did Job do it? Turn to Matthew chapter six. Turn to Matthew chapter six. The first thing is to just do those thought experiments. Find those hedges in your life. Run through those things in your mind. Look, I like to plan. I like to plan scenarios. I like to go through what could happen. What could go wrong? What's possible there? But here's the thing, you gotta be a decisive person. That's what it takes. That's what it's gonna take to be successful in the Christian life is to be a decisive person. Look at Matthew chapter six in verse number 31. The Bible tells us this. Look what the Bible says in Matthew 6.31. It says, therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Notice these words, no thought. After these things, do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father, Noah, that you shall need of all these things. You say, what is it talking about? Am I supposed to just like, not care about how I'm gonna pay my bills or that's not what it's saying? Look at the very next verse. It says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. So it's saying, take no thought on all these material things, but it's saying, just listen, but instead, listen to what God is telling you to do. It says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. And again, it says in verse 34, therefore, take no thought for the tomorrow. For the tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day of evil is, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's saying, just make a decision. Just make a decision that the kingdom of God comes first. That's what it's saying. But the problem is, you gotta make the decision, I'm just gonna serve you, Lord. I'm just gonna serve the Lord with my life. Let me explain something to you. My Christian life is not a decision. That decision's been made. Coming to church is not a decision. Going soul-winning is not a decision for me. That decision's already been made. Serving the Lord with my entire life and leading my family spiritually is not a decision for me. It's already been made. I'm like, hey, thanks for the blessings that I have. Hope they continue, but I plan everything around my Christian life, around it, because that decision's been made. That decision is a rock in my life. That decision was a rock in Job's life. That's how he did it, because the decision was made. I mean, it was already made. My Christian life doesn't move, no matter what. Good times, bad times, the decision's the same. It's easy, it's easy. You know what's hard? You know what's hard? Look, people make these decisions all the time in their life. Like, you won't find a guy in this church, I bet, that is like, you know, they're gonna decide at, you know, seven o'clock Monday morning, whether or not to go to work. But people have made these decisions. That's the type of decision that we need to make. See, what's difficult is when you make the decision that my Christian life will come first, no matter what. Curses, good, bad, riches, poor, health, unhealth. It's easy. What gets in front of that? Nothing. You know what gets hard? You know what gets hard is when you're like, oh, should I put this in front of it? This seems pretty important. Should I put this in front of it, this in front of it, this in front of it? That's where things get complicated. Whereas it's just like, the decision's already made. It's just easy. It's easy. You plant everything around it. Satan's looking for your cracks and he's gonna find him. That's what he does. He's considering them. As he says, have you considered, as God said, have you considered my servant Job? Satan is considering where your lusts are, where your cracks are, so seal them up. We're all participating in this experiment with our lives. Turn to Joshua chapter 24. You see, in Joshua chapter 24, turn to Joshua chapter 24. We could read a bunch of verses like this. We'll just read two. But, say, why is all this necessary? Because, I mean, God didn't create a bunch of robots. We have free will. So we have free will. Satan has free will. And God just promises us that he will restrain Satan to the point where we will be able to escape what he's bringing at us. But God wants us to freely serve him. We have the freedom to be obedient or the freedom to rebel in our lives. Look at Joshua chapter 24. The tempter's running around encouraging the rebellion. It's the science of your life, folks. And it's really just a matter of being decisive. Look at Joshua chapter 24 and verse number 15. And it's seen evil unto you to serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land he dwell, but as far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua's just saying, make a decision now. Decide now. In 1 Kings chapter 18, right before Elijah goes to, you know, goes to war against the prophets of Bailee, just says, you know, if the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal follow him, he's just saying, make a decision once. And it's so easy once you make that decision. And look, I'm gonna give you three benefits to making that decision this morning, just from what we've already read. The first one is in James chapter one, you're gonna get a crown of life. You say, what does the crown of life look like? I have no idea, but when we get to heaven, we just find Job and that's what it looks like. Because he's gonna be wearing one. That's what the crown of life will look like. Job will have one for sure. So the first one is you get a crown of life. The second one is, you know what? Whether it be good or bad, if you make this decision to serve the Lord, no matter what, through the curses, through the blessings, whether it be good or bad, you know what? You'll have a life of purpose. You'll have a life of purpose. Jacob and I were out fishing last couple days. And I mean, we like really did a lot of work. It was really a lot of work. And we went out in the morning. We came back in, we got some crabs. We brought them in, we cooked them. And then we went back out again and we went and dropped more gear and all this. We were just working, working, working. And when we would come back in, there's these guys sitting in these chairs by their motor homes or whatever. And we went back out and we did all this work and came back in several hours again. Guys are still sitting in their chairs. And Jacob's like, how can those guys just sit there all day long? And I'm like, hey, at least we got a purpose here. You know, we may not be catching a lot of fish right now, but at least we got a purpose. At least we're out here, we're doing stuff. You know, we're actually going for, I think this is like an analogy of life. No matter how my life is going, no matter if I'm blessed or I'm cursed, if I'm at a high point or I'm at a valley. Because look, life for everybody's gonna have high points and valleys. No matter where I'm at, my purpose is the same. That's the beauty of the Christian life. I'm out here, oh look, I'm going soul winning whether I'm in good times or bad times. The purpose is the same. I'll have a life of purpose, whether my life is 45 years or whether my life is 85 years. My life is, I had a life of purpose. As long as I made that decision to just serve the Lord. No matter how many years I had. Look, the real curse is somebody who every day their Christian life is a decision. And they're in the Christian life for two years and then they're not in the Christian life. And look, from what I've seen, like the peaks, if they just fall out of it, they never reach the peak again. I don't know why that is. But the point is, you throw away that life of purpose. At least no matter good times or bad times and blessings or curses, high or low, rich or poor, we have a life of purpose that has guaranteed us for however many years that God gives us. That's your scientific experiment. Right there, you have a life of purpose. And what's the purpose? To grow the kingdom of heaven on earth. That's our purpose. Number three, turn to Job chapter 42. Now this is a really good one. You say, crown of life, man, I'm not really into hats anyway. And you're like, a life of purpose, okay, that sounds pretty good, but here's a really good one. Look at Job chapter 42. Here's the third thing. Here's the third reason that you should just make a decision to have your Christian life. Just make that decision. My Christian life is just locked in. My Christian life has no hedges. My Christian life, there's not a single hedge that is holding up my Christian life that is guarding my Christian life. My Christian life is a decision I've already made. It's hedge free, and no matter what happens, it stays the same. Look at Job 42. The third reason is this, and heritage. And heritage, so you can leave and heritage. Look at verse number 42 and verse number 16. After this lived Job 140 years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days. You say, four generations, that's weird. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, we see another kind of odd statement in the Bible, but this is the other side of the spectrum. So if you're in Job chapter 42 and verse number 16, you should write Exodus chapter 20 and verse number five because these are the opposite ends of the spectrum right here. In Exodus chapter 20 and verse number five, the Bible uses these words. It says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Isn't that interesting? God says that he will visit the iniquity of the what? The fathers upon the third and fourth generations. Meaning the iniquity of the fathers will be felt, it will be in heritage to the third and fourth generations. That's your kids, kids, kids, kids. But on Job's side, we see the blessing of that. That he saw up to fourth generations. He was an in heritage. Look, he was personally there, first of all. But he was a blessing and he passed that heritage of the Lord to the fourth generation personally. It was felt by him. So we see this opposite side of the spectrum. You say, what, is my great grandchildren gonna be punished for my sins? No, they will receive that heritage and they will end up in those sins themselves. They'll be punished for their own sins, just like the sins of Jeroboam. Just like the sins of Jeroboam were passed to multiple generations. But it's an interesting little, both sides of the spectrum, you see the extreme blessing to four generations and the extreme curse to four generations. So yeah, serve the Lord with your life. Have no hedges on your Christian life. Make the decision, you'll serve God no matter what. I mean literally no matter what. And four generations out will feel that heritage. That's why David says in Psalm 166, he says, the lines are falling to me into pleasant places. Yay, I have a goodly heritage. He's saying, look, I have a goodly heritage. We don't know much about Jesse. His dad, we know enough. We know that David received a goodly heritage from his father, his grandfather. We know enough. So I mean the question this morning is, how is your experiment going? Find your hedges. Where are your hedges at? Is Satan's hypothesis gonna be correct with you? Or do you not have hedges just like Job? You know, I mean, is Satan right? Is really the question because he was not right with Job, but that scientific experiment is happening with every single Christian and Satan will be right and he will be wrong on some. It's up to the individual. It's up to you. So I'm thankful for the story of Job. I'm thankful for the man, Job. I'm thankful that God allowed Job to go through this as an example for us. And I'm thankful that Job was able to endure it because it's a proof of the Bible. It's a proof of the promises that God gave us in the Bible and it's a proof of what we're up against here as this same tempter that was, you know, back in the land of us thousands of years ago is this still the same one that's with us today. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.