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HOW TO DEAL WITH LIFE’S WORST-CASE SCENARIOS

Introduction:

I have in my hand a very interesting book that is a part of my library. The title of this book is “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook.” It might be something that you would want to look into for yourself. Here are just a few of the chapters contained in this book. (Read some)

Now, it is possible that you and I will never face any of the scenarios I have mentioned. But, it is possible that you could find yourself in the same place that Job found himself.

In his mind, the worst thing that could happen had happened. He lets us know that even when life was good and when things were going his way, he was always afraid that this very thing would take place.

What Job faced in his life was his worst-case scenario. What Job endured was horrible, but what he learned was priceless. I want us to join Job this morning for a look at some of the lessons that can be learned from his experience. What he learned will help us when we face the difficult days of life.

Let’s face it, we all have had a worst-case scenario rush through our minds at times. That thing that we think would be worse than anything else in life.

Sometimes, those very things happen to people. At the very least, there will be times when the bottom will fall out of your life and you will enter the valley of affliction. When this happens, you need to know what to expect and how to react.

The book of Job teaches us how to deal with life’s worst-case scenarios. You see, there will be scenarios that we will face that will not be covered in this one book I have, but they are covered exhaustively in this other Book I hold in my hand this morning. I want to share some of that information with you this morning.

So, let’s take a brief journey through the book of Job this morning as we think together about this thought “How To Deal With Life’s Worst-Case Scenarios”.

I.         THE CHARACTER OF JOB’S LIFE.

            A.        Job Lived A Good Life. (1:2-3)

                        We ought to praise God and thank God for the good lives that most all of us have!

                        We are blessed with a good life in these United States of America!

The poorest of us here today would be considered rich in many parts of this world.

            B.        Job Lived A Godly Life - (1:1; 1:5; 1:8; 1:20-22; 2:3, 10)

A life lived for the Lord is thing of beauty! When a person dedicates their life to the Lord, it brings them into a position to experience His grace and blessings in a profound and wonderful way. There is nothing in this world that can compare to a life lived in and for the will of God!

A life lived for the Lord is not a wasted life, but it is a life of value. It is a life that God can take and use to demonstrate His grace to a dying world.

Ephesians 2:10–“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Matthew 5:16–“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

A life lived for the Lord is one that God can hold up before Satan, as He did with Job, and say, “Look what I can do through grace!”

The Godly life is a precious thing! It points the way to Heaven. It show the world that there is a better path upon which to walk. It sets the example for the young. It is a life well lived!

The great preacher Dr. M. R. DeHaan used a helpful illustration to communicate the value of holiness. A bar of steel worth $5 can yield any of the following:

                        If made into horseshoes it will be worth $10.

                        If made into manufacture needles, the value becomes $350.

Use it to create delicate springs for expensive watches and it will yield $250,000.

We are like that $5 bar of steel. Our commitment to holiness will determine whether we become Christians of minimal, moderate, or significant spiritual influence. Imagine the value of a Godly life in our world today!

                        Job Lived A Good Life.

                        Job Lived A Godly Life.        

             C.        Job Lived A Graced Life - (1:9-11; 2:4-5)

Whatever we have, we must realize we have by the grace of God!

                        Our place of birth. . .Our family. . .Our abilities–all are by God’s good grace!.

How would you say your life stacks up against Job’s? It is possible for us to live Godly lives with God’s help. Not only that, but it is the will of God, for every person in this room to live a Godly, good and graced life! Are you doing that?

            THE CHARACTER OF JOB’S LIFE.

 II.       THE CALAMITIES OF JOB’S LIFE.

             A.        Job’s Calamities Touched His Fortune. (1:14-17)

             B.        Job’s Calamities Touched His Family. (1:18-19; 2:9)

             C.        Job’s Calamities Touched His Fitness. (2:1-8)

            D.        Job’s Calamities Touched His Friends. (2:11-12; 4:2)

Job lived a good and Godly life, still calamity came. His life had been one that had been blessed and graced by God, but still trouble entered his life.

Our text suggests that even during the good times of life, Job lived in anticipation of his worst-case scenario becoming a reality. Evidently, our friend Job was a worry wart!

Thank God, most of the times our worries are ill-founded! However, there are times when life will bring with it a worst-case scenario.

It would be good for us to remember this morning that a good life in not a hedge against trouble! Being Godly does not guarantee that we will be free from calamity! We seem to have the idea that when we live right, we are entitled to have only good things in our lives. This is just not the case!

            Some of God’s most precious saints have endured the greatest of afflictions!

                        The Apostle Paul– 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

                        Many saints over the years– Hebrews 11:35-39

                        Even the Lord Jesus was called “a man of sorrows.” in Isaiah 53:3.

Why should we feel that we are to be exempted from the difficulties of life? Remember what the Bible says about the matter.

            Job 14:1–“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”

            Job 5:7–“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

John 16:33–“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Regardless of what we expect life to bring, there is never a place in our lives for worry! Worry and needless care shows a profound lack of faith in the ability of God.

In fact, worry is a colossal waste of time!

Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

            THE CHARACTER OF JOB’S LIFE.

            THE CALAMITIES OF JOB’S LIFE.

III.      THE CLASSROOM OF JOB’S LIFE.

             A.        Job Learned Lessons About The Person Of God. (Job 38-41)

            B.        Job Learned Lessons About The Purposes Of God. (Job 3-37; 42:1-5)

             C.        Job Learned Lessons About The Power Of God - (Job 38-41; 42:10-12)

While God Himself testified about the Godly, good and graced life of Job, God knew there were areas of Job’s life that still needed attention. Therefore, to work on these areas, God sent Job to the classroom of affliction. There, this man learned lessons that are not easily forgotten! He learned lessons that most of us need to learn as well. Allow me to share a few of them with you.

            1.         Job learned that no area of this life is safe from difficulty or disruption.

                        Job’s life was touched in almost every area you could imagine!                   

            2.         Job learned that God alone should be the object of our love and affection. Matthew 6:19-21.

                        Our affections should be set a little higher than this world.

                        What has your attention and affection this morning?

            3.         Job learned that God’s purpose in trial is not to break us, but to grow us.

                        God’s primary objective is not to punish us, but to perfect us!

                        Often, the best lessons in life are learned in the furnace of affliction.

                        Do you think that the disciples in the storm in Mark 6 learned any lessons?

                        How about the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3?

                        How about Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel 6.

None of these would have ever learned what God could do until they were put in a place where they needed Him to do it!

            4.         Job learned that God’s purposes and plans for our lives are often beyond our comprehension.

Isaiah 55:8-9--“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

                        What God does and why He does it are things better left with Him!

Seeking to understand the reasons and motives of the Lord for what He does and allows in our lives is like me trying to understand how electricity works.

Our minds have a hard time grasping it, but still we can enjoy it, if we just accept it by faith!

            5.         Job learned that God is absolutely sovereign in all of life.

                        Nothing happens to you or me without God’s permission.

                        Remember, God’s goal in every situation in life is His glory and our good.

                        a.         He wants the lost to be saved!

Remember the Philippian jailor where Paul and Silas were locked up?

He was a lost man with a worst case scenario that led him to Jesus Christ and salvation.

                        b.        He wants the saved to be like Christ!

Romans 8:28-29– “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. . .”

2 Corinthians 4:17–“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”

                                    God is in control of every turn of life’s road.

Psalms 37:23–“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”

             5.         Job learned that in the end, all things work out OK if you have God in your life.

The Bible is clear when it tells us that “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”, Romans 8:18.

In the end, all of life’s up and downs will be perfectly blended into just what God intended for us in the first place.

My dad was a painter by trade. People would have a certain color that they wanted to match and would give it to him. I often watched him as he would take all kinds of different colors that the person wouldn’t want and blend them together to give them exactly what they needed. God does the same for us!

            THE CHARACTER OF JOB’S LIFE.

            THE CALAMITIES OF JOB’S LIFE.

            THE CLASSROOM OF JOB’S LIFE.

IV.      THE CONSUMMATION OF JOB’S LIFE.

            A.        It Was A Time Of Personal Repentance. (42:6)

Job had finally come to realize that he hadn’t been perfectly right, because God hadn’t been in absolute first place.

            B.        It Was A Time Of Particular Revival. (42:7-10a)

Notice that Job repented and was placed in a right relationship with the Lord before the Lord blessed his life again.

He didn’t wait on fairer weather to get right with the Lord! He had a revival in his heart while he was still in the valley! God even used him to pray for his four friends! They had done their best to protect God and His holiness from Job’s complaints, but God told them that they had fallen short too! Only Job could intercede for them!

            C.        It Was A Time Of Powerful Restoration. (42:10b-17)

                        God gave Job back double all he has lost. God blessed him in a mighty way!

            D.        It Was A Time Of Profound Reflection. (42:14)

We are told that Job and his wife had 10 more children and that Job lived a hundred and forty years after God restored him.

There are lessons we can learn from Job’s restoration. In fact, it is these lessons which make the valley’s bearable. Let me share them with you briefly this morning.

                        1.         We should not wait until we are out of the valley and on the mountain before we deal with the sins and problems that are in our lives.

                                    After all, their removal might be the object of the valley.

                        2.         We must remember that the valleys of life are merely God’s classroom.

He is training saints for greater service. He is preparing us to be used by Him in a greater fashion. This always takes place in the valley.

                         3.         When restoration has been achieved, we need to look for a way to praise God for the time we spent in the valley.

We need to thank Him and praise Him for not forsaking us. Regardless of how dismal and dark the valley, He was always there with us as we traveled through, Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20.

                        4.         No matter how bad things become, they will not last forever. Therefore, as we travel through our valley, we need to remember that the exit is always just right ahead! Remember, this did not come to stay, but it merely came to pass.

Conclusion:

Job’s worst-case scenario became a reality! When it did, he had the normal run of human emotions just like we do, but God patiently worked in Job’s heart to bring him to the place of restoration and usefulness.

Friend, I do not know what you might be facing this morning, but I know that you are in one of three places. You are either in a valley, coming out of a valley or going into a valley. That sentence is true of every person here today.

But, something else is true as well. If you have the Lord in your life, He is carefully working out His will in you. He doesn’t allow your pain with joy, but He does it to grow you.

Lamentations 3:31-33, “For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”

Therefore, in your most difficult of days, you can cast you cares onto Him, 1 Peter 5:7.

If you know Jesus, you can run to Him for shelter in the time of storm.

If you do not know Him, the worst possible scenario imaginable is still yet to come and it will come to pass in your life unless you come to Christ!

If you are lost, and you stay that way, you will spend your eternity in Hell. Is that what you want? Come to Jesus and He will save your soul today!

What is the worst-case scenario you can imagine? Jesus has a plan to take care of it. Why not bring it to Him this morning and let Him have it? He is far better able to handle it than you will ever be.

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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!