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Several years ago Cindy and I had the
wonderful opportunity to go to Israel. Israel is obviously in some
sense is not a safe place today but it really hasn’t been for a long
time. We had the opportunity to do one of those eight day whirl wind
tours. We got to see almost everything and particularly I like to say
another “ABC – Another Bloom’n Church” because everywhere you go there
in the holy spots they put a church. One of the highlights of the trip
for me was to walk where the Mount of Olives is. Where Jesus spent the
night and cried out to the Lord, the place where he was arrested. What
is wonderful about that place is that the olive trees last for centuries
and it is quite possible that some those trees are still around. If you
walk up to the top you can see the light shimmering off the Dead Sea
which is forty miles straight down hill. A great place to go. I found
myself thinking about that place as I was there and how Jesus must have
felt. Certainly, he was distressed but I can’t help but believe that in
the midst of all his suffering that he felt a profound disappointment.
Just a few days before this he had been welcomed into the city as a
king, the Messiah. Which he was and is. People were shouting,
“Hosanna! Hosanna!” and these same people just a few hours from this
point would be calling for his death. I can’t help but think he was
mostly disappointed. Though he knew what was going to happen he still
loved them. He had to be very disappointed in the disciples, the
disciples who had been with him three years. They ran like rabbits. It
was fight or flight and they did the flight portion. He was left alone.
Disappointment is a huge part of
life. We don’t have to live too long until we are disappointed in
something, in some cases, very profoundly disappointed. It’s always
there for us. It’s like an ad that appeared in a small town newspaper.
It read, “Will trade one white wedding gown, size sixteen for
thirty-eight caliber revolver.” I wonder what that meant. Or even,
pastors get disappointed. There is a story of a pastor who during the
first five years of his ministry had a sign on his desk, “Win the world
for Christ”. The next five years the sign read, “Win five for
Christ”. And after ten years he changed the sign to read, “Don’t lose
too many.” It’s not hard to find disappointment. If you read the Bible
you don’t have to read too many pages to find disappointments. We find
that life is hard. We find that life hurts. We also find in the
scriptures the message that disappointments are many times His
appointments. The world does not rest on our shoulders but on God’s.
As Jesus knelt in the garden in agonizing prayer and though he knew
there was no way to avoid the pain on the cross he also knew God was in
control. When we know that God is in control we can endure.
I’m going to read to you a couple of
scriptures this morning. The first is from John 16. Jesus is preparing
his disciples for disappointment but notice what he says.
17Some of his
disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a
little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you
will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" 18They kept
asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what
he is saying." 19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he
said to them, "Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, 'In
a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while
you will see me'? 20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while
the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come;
but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy
that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of
grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will
take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I
tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will
receive, and your joy will be complete. 25"Though I have been speaking
figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of
language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26In that day you
will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your
behalf. 27No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and
have believed that I came from God. 28I came from the Father and entered
the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
29Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without
figures of speech. 30Now we can see that you know all things and that
you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us
believe that you came from God." 31"You believe at last!" Jesus
answered. 32"But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be
scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am
not alone, for my Father is with me. 33"I have told you these things, so
that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But
take heart! I have overcome the world."
Galatians 6:9
9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper
time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
This is the Word
of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Would you pray with me?
Oh Father, I pray that you would enter our hearts and minds as we
listen to the words. May Your Spirit flow through us as you heal us.
May we reach out to others. May we not have disappointments in our
lives take away our faith but build them up through Your power and Your
glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Today we end our series
of sermons on faith. “Achieving through believing” we have called it.
We’ll talk about disappointments because disappointments in the end can
hurt our faith maybe most of all. How do we deal with disappointment?
They are all around us. Every day we are disappointed in something.
How do we keep on believing when all the circumstances and all the
things that happen in our lives, how do we keep believing and
achieving? I believe there are two keys to having persistent faith.
The first is to understand how God works in our lives. We have to
understand what God wants to do in our lives. If we don’t understand
that we are going to be discouraged and we are going to give up. What I
have found, though God deals with us each individually, is that God also
tends to have a kind of pattern that He uses with all of us. There are
certain things that God does and it is very common for each believer in
some portion of his or her life.
The first thing that God
does with almost everyone is that He gives us a mission or a dream or
calling. Everyone has this. It’s a starting point. God gives us this
calling, dream, idea, a goal, a challenge. When God wants to do
anything He starts with this with someone. Some of us have started a
business we began with a dream. Some of us have started all kinds of
things, gone in certain directions. We see that in the Bible over and
over again. God gives Noah this mission of building an ark. God gives
Abraham the calling of leaving his whole family and his friends and even
his country, later, a literal dream of becoming the father of a great
nation, multitudes. God gave David the dream of being a king, or the
calling. He gave Mary a mission, a calling of bearing the Messiah. And
then of course, Jesus is the Messiah and has a calling when the Holy
Spirit descends upon him to go out into the world and begin his
ministry.
If you’re like me, you’re
wondering well okay God gives me a dream but how do I know its from
God? How do I know this mission is from God, I’m confused enough? I
agree its not always easy. I’m not so sure its always the problem with
God’s communication ability. I think a lot of times God gives us a
mission or a calling and we just don’t want to go there. We have other
things to do. I remember in my own life several years ago I was
struggling with something. I kept saying to God, “Just show me what to
do! Write it in the sky! Do something!” I never have heard a real
voice but it was a voice that appears in your head. And it said this to
me, “I’ve already shown you what you should do. Go do it. I’ve already
made it clear. Just go do it. The problem is you just don’t want to.”
He was right, which leads us to the second thing.
We have to make a
decision about whether we are going to follow the call or not. In our
lives the opportunities are a multitude. Not only one calling but there
are many kinds of things that God wants us to do. It always involves a
dream or a vision or a calling or a mission and then we need to make a
decision. Am I going to do this or not? A dream or a mission is
worthless until we choose to do it. This decision phase is the process
of faith that involves letting go of some kind of security. Noah had to
let go. Could you imagine being told to build an ark in the middle of
nowhere? A huge boat, what’s that? It took decades. Having to go to
the equivalent of an ancient hardware store and say, “I’d like some
stuff.” “What are you building?” “I’m building this ark.” “What’s
that?” “It’s suppose to float.” “Where’s the water?” Can you imagine
having to give up your self respect, for that long? Or Abraham had to
let go of his home land, his family, his friends, his gods, he wasn’t a
believer initially. Mary had to decide that it would be okay to be
considered a slut by the local people. She had the magnificent decision
of saying, “Let it to be to me as you have said.” Jesus had to decide
several times. In this Garden of Gethsemane he suffered but he did so
in submission. He let go of his own will in this garden and responded
to the situation in total faith and trust.
I’m reminded of a story
about a Brigadier General named Dick Abel that was part of the
contingent that went to Vietnam when they freed all the prisoners from
the prison camps many of them for many, many years. On the flight home
the General sat next to man that spent eight years in prison and he
wanted to know how he could survive that long, long ordeal. He replied,
“If it weren’t for Jesus Christ I would have never made it.” He claims
that on one brutal, exhausting march between camps he looked up and saw
a vision of Christ and he said to him, “Larry you’ll make it. When I
climbed the hill I had a cross on my back.” When we are young we
believe we will live forever. We’re convinced that anything is possible
but as the years go by we face life’s many disappointments. If we come
in faith we come to see that anything is possible as long as God is in
it. Jesus suffered in submission and he made the decision to do so.
The third phase is
usually a delay of some kind. God always makes you wait. And it is
often where we get bogged down. Especially in modern times, we are so
impatient. I know I am. I want it now or I want it yesterday. I have
seen again and again, I have to be reminded again and again that God
knows what He is doing. Even when I want to get something done in
church and a delay happens, God always has something better than I had
in mind. I always forget it. We have to wait on God. Noah waited a
hundred and twenty years for it to rain. Abraham waited ninety-nine for
a son. Moses waited forty years in the desert. Joseph waited in prison
falsely accused. David was anointed king when he was a teenager but it
was a long time being chased around the desert with Saul trying to kill
him before he became king. Jesus waited thirty years for three years of
ministry and he waited for his disciples to get it and they never did
while he was alive. Why does God take us through this delay? It goes
back to that question, what does God want to do in your life? What does
He want to do in my life? God wants us to trust Him. Typical reaction,
“What’s wrong? Did I miss the dream?” Delay will never destroy God’s
purpose in your life. God uses that delay to do something better. He
is more about trying to teach us faith. God is much more concerned
about teaching you amd me faith than He really is about doing stuff.
The next stage is
difficulties. It is amazing to me that God says, “Go do it. Go to the
Promised Land. Build an ark. Be king. Be the Messiah.” There are
always difficulties. It’s never easy. Wouldn’t it be nice if it would
be easy sometimes? But its not. You get two kinds of problems, critics
and circumstances. Somebody’s trying to kill you in one way or another.
Somebody’s trying to ridicule you. Someone oppose you or circumstances,
“Where’s the money going to come from for that?” We see Joseph’s whole
life go downhill. His brothers are selling him into slavery, he gets
falsely accused, and he gets put into prison (not just for a few days –
for years). We have David anointed by Samuel to be king and chased all
over the desert trying to get away from Saul. And of course, Jesus had
difficulties.
Sometimes we get to the
place with a dead end but that seems to be the place where God does the
miracle of some kind. God does something to make something happen.
Someone told me of the building of this church, the activity center. It
got delayed for a couple of years and then in the end someone sold us
another piece of property. The delay seemed like it killed the project
but if it hadn’t have happened we wouldn’t have gotten the other
property. You wouldn’t be where you are today. Delays, difficulties,
deliverance. The biggest miracle that God is trying to accomplish is
not simply the task. God is trying to produce faith. We take credit
for the faith we have. The Bible says that faith only comes by the
activity of God in your life, the Holy Spirit working in your life. Our
hearts are dark. Our hearts are sinful. Without the God acting in our
lives to produce faith we don’t believe. God works in our lives and
produces faith. When I see someone come to Christ, I think that is the
biggest miracle of all. Even when we grow, when our faith expands, God
is at work.
What are we to do? We are
to WAIT. The W stands for “withstand”. It’s an old English word used
in the King James Version. It means to endure successfully. Ephesians 6
says to put on the full armor of God so that you can withstand against
the devil’s schemes. Stand firm take up th shield of faith so you can
extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one, the flaming darts of
depression, discouragement. Withstand.
Second thing we do is
Anticipate. Yes, there is some positive thinking going on here. We
need to anticipate that God is going to act. David says over and over
again, “Lord I expect you to rescue me. I eagerly wait for your help.”
My question for all of us today is what are we expecting God to do in
our lives? What are we expecting Him to do today? Next week? In this
church? We need to anticipate as we wait. Anticipation is all about
hope. The bible says that hope is the anchor of the soul. Without hope
we have nothing. We talk about how Jesus suffered. Jesus suffered with
the knowledge that his hurting would be used by God. His suffering was
not meaningless.
A mother was telling her
young daughter of the passion and death of Christ. She explained how
people were upset with him. How people wanted to punish him. How they
crowned him with thorns. How they whipped him. How they forced him to
carry a cross. And how finally, they nailed him to the cross and killed
him. The little girl thought for a moment and asked, “Mommy, why were
they so hard on him, couldn’t they have just sent him to his room?” It
would be nice, but that’s not the way it worked out. God used his
suffering, his disappointments just as God uses our disappointments. I
believe there is meaningless suffering its part of an evil world. The
big picture is that God will win in the end. He wins in the end but he
also wins in our life now. God never misuses a hurt.
There was a story many
years ago about a woman named Helen Roseveare who was running a medical
mission in Zaire. She was kidnapped by a team of guerilla soldiers.
They beat and raped her and locked her in a dirty cell. She considered
giving up her ministry. She gave it to God. Ten years later she was
speaking at a university. In the course of her talk she mentioned her
rape. Although she still did not understand why it happened she told
the students, “By the wonderful enabling of the Holy Spirit I was able
to thank God for trusting me with that experience.” Afterwards, two
teenage girls approached her. One girl explained that her sister had
been raped. Since the rape the girl had not spoken a word but that
night she had found healing in this story. Through tears she said,
“nobody ever told me I could thank God for trusting me with such an
experience, even if he chooses never to tell me why.” Jesus suffered in
submission. He suffered with the knowledge that hurting is used by
God.
We also Intercede, W-A-I,
another word for praying. The bible tells us to keep on praying and
never give up. Remember the story of the woman who went to the unjust
judge and wouldn’t let the judge alone until he gave her justice. Jesus
uses that parable to say to us, “Always pray and don’t give up.”
Morning by morning, day by day, year by year pray without ceasing. One
of the things we will continue into heaven is prayer. Almost everything
else goes away but we will pray because prayer is simply conversation
with God and we will continue to do that. Continue to pray.
T - trust. As I have
quoted Proverbs 3 to you again and again, “Trust in the Lord with all
your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Trust in the Lord.”
Jesus himself suffered with conviction that God was in control and that
God is good and loving. That is true. One the biggest challenge to our
faith is we go through life and we suffer disappointment and suffer is
that we are tempted as Oswald Chambers once said, “to believe that God
is not good.” In the Garden of Eden theologians talk about Adam and Eve
wanted to have authority so they rebelled against God’s authority. They
really doubted God’s goodness. The temptation was, “Did God really say
that?” He was really tempting them to believe that God was not good by
this command. We are tempted as well to believe that God is not good
especially when we suffer greatly. Especially unto death, or we watch a
child die, or we go through all kinds of problems. For some people it’s
like the little black cloud that follows them around again and again and
again. When it rains it pours for some folks and we go through that.
It’s tempting to believe that God is not good. Jesus could have given
into that but Jesus trusted that his Father loved him and knew what he
was doing.
Evil is a real thing in
the world. I find it very amazing that in the political discussions of
our day often evil is not even talked about. But evil is real.
Sometimes we have to deal with it and fight it. Sometimes we have to
endure it. But God is in control.
So how do we deal with
disappointment? Just understand what God is doing in your life. God
has a process for you. He is trying to help you grow in faith to Him.
We also need to wait. We need to withstand. We need to anticipate. We
need to prayer or intercede. We need to trust. You are His people, He
loves you. Go forth in His Name.
In the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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