Sunday Sermon: A Perfect Man with an Imperfect Life | Rev. Juan Lopez

moment we'll be reading from Job chapter 1 in verse 1 so I'll give you some time to get there have a little bit healthier of an introduction trying to deal with the few things contextually here before we let you be seated and we dive in most of us remember Job because of what he went through We remember the losses.

We remember the suffering.

We remember a life that seemed to fall apart in just that fast.

His name has become so closely connected with tragedy that when somebody experiences deep sorrow after deep sorrow, you may hear them say something like, I feel like Joe.

But if suffering is all we associate with Job, we will miss one very important part of his story.

See, the book of Job does not open with his sufferings.

Before scripture tells us about the tragedy that Job endured, it first introduces us to the man who would have to endure it.

before we see the storm around him, scripture shows us the foundation within him.

So now turning your attention to verse one, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job.

And that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil.

And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.

His substance also was 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she donkeys, and a very great household.

So that this man was the greatest of all men of the east.

We don't want to overlook the order in which scripture introduces him to us.

Before it tells us about what Job had, it tells us about who Job was.

He was a perfect and an upright man, Not perfect in the sense that Job never sinned or didn't have the ability to sin, but perfect in the sense that his heart was directed towards God.

It was his sincere, true desire to walk in right relationship with God and to live in a way that pleased him.

Only after understanding who he was a man of God.

Does scripture describe Job's family, his possessions, his wealth, and his influence? But we're talking about him today not because of those things, but because while he was a perfect man, he did not live a perfect life.

His integrity would not prevent him from tragedy.

His faithfulness would not exempt him from suffering.

And his close relationship to God did not guarantee that everything happening in his life would be understood or make sense.

All these things happen to Job.

He loses so much so quickly because And then in chapter 1, verse 20, we get to read how this man responds to such tragedy.

Verse 20 says, Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither.