Disappointment.

Steve Gentry

[0:12] We’re going to have a seat. [0:13] Welcome to Village Church. [0:14] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:16] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church and I am so thankful and grateful to see [0:20] each and every one of you. [0:23] And we are in the second week of a short Christmas series this morning.

[0:28] And last week we started by talking about the issue of the joy that we need to have [0:32] and how the birth of Jesus Christ frees us to live a life of joy that is not based on [0:39] our subjective feelings but is instead rooted in the truth of who He is for us and what [0:46] He has done for us. [0:49] And this morning I kind of want to take a little bit of a turn and deal with the struggles [0:55] that so many of you are probably going to have in finding joy this season and just

[1:02] talk about Christmas disappointment. [1:04] When I first came up with the idea for this series, I wanted to deal with the different [1:14] reactions and emotions that everybody has during this season. [1:19] And we’re very used to talking about joy. [1:22] We talk about just the happier things of Christmas because this is a happy season. [1:28] You do need to find joy in every aspect of it.

[1:32] Don’t be the type of person that’s looking for something to be against all the time. [1:37] So don’t be against Santa just because you can rearrange it and spell Satan doesn’t mean [1:42] anything.

[1:44] Everybody loves jolly old fat men, at least that’s what I’m telling myself. [1:48] So Santa’s okay with me, so he should be okay with you. [1:53] But when we’re walking into this season, there’s going to be a temptation or rather there’s [1:59] going to be a reality in some of your lives that what you expect is going to be different [2:04] than the reality of what you experience. [2:07] And because of that, some of you, if not many of you, are going to deal with disappointment

[2:12] or maybe because you’re going through a season of disappointment right now or maybe you’re [2:17] going through a lifetime that feels like all of it is disappointing. [2:21] Maybe the spouse that you thought you would have by now hasn’t materialized. [2:27] Maybe you’re in a marriage that’s falling apart or maybe you’ve just walked through [2:31] a divorce and this is your first Christmas without your spouse. [2:36] Maybe you’re experiencing relational strain that you didn’t think you were going to be

[2:40] experiencing in the person that you depended on the most has rejected you or has hurt [2:45] you or has caused you some type of emotional harm that you didn’t expect for that person [2:49] to go through or maybe you were expecting a diamond ring and instead you got floor mats. [2:56] I don’t know what you’re experiencing this season, but maybe you’re experiencing disappointment [3:02] where you thought there was just going to be happiness and joy readily available for [3:07] you.

[3:08] In 1989, the truer and better Batman movie was released. [3:14] Batman will always be Michael Keaton to me. [3:17] If you haven’t seen that Batman, I feel sorry for you because you’re basing all of your [3:22] hopes and dreams on the present day just dumb Batman.

[3:29] In 1989, when it was released, one of my favorite movies of all time, they really marketed [3:35] it with toys. [3:37] This was one of the first times that I remember a movie being marketed so heavily with so [3:42] many adult themes to children.

[3:46] They released these two figures that I wanted more than I’d ever wanted anything in my [3:52] life at that point. [3:52] I’d only had nine years to want things. [3:56] My Christmas depended on the Batman action figure and the Batmobile. [4:02] My entire Christmas depended on those two things. [4:06] Unfortunately, millions and millions and millions of other children had the same want that I

[4:12] had. [4:12] They didn’t make enough of them. [4:15] I remember that Christmas morning I got up and I just knew I was going to be just the [4:21] envy of all of my friends. [4:23] I wasn’t because I didn’t get what I wanted for Christmas. [4:26] That was a disappointing Christmas for me.

[4:29] Years later, I would find out that my parents were calling Toys R Uses in Juarez, Mexico [4:34] or something to try to find this stupid toy that eBay wasn’t around in 89. [4:40] Amazon wasn’t there in 89. [4:43] You had to go to a store or you had to buy black market goods in order to get your kids [4:48] what they wanted for Christmas. [4:50] My parents did everything that they could.

[4:52] They exhausted all of their resources that they knew they could exhaust at that point. [4:56] They couldn’t find these toys anywhere. [5:00] I was disappointed. [5:02] I know that may sound silly for you. [5:04] You might say, that’s such a silly child’s toy that you wanted. [5:08] But I will tell you, when I was nine, that was real disappointment.

[5:12] And I know that for some of you, you’re going through something right now and you’re ashamed [5:17] of how disappointed you are or maybe people are making you feel foolish for how disappointed [5:22] you are. [5:22] And I’m not going to do that this morning because no matter what the level of your disappointment, [5:27] to you it’s real. [5:29] To you the pain is there.

[5:31] To you, this feels like the worst thing that you could possibly go through. [5:36] And you feel guilty because you know that there are people in the world dealing with [5:41] much worse. [5:41] But to you, it’s real. [5:45] So this morning what I want to do is, is I simply don’t want to make you feel guilty. [5:49] I don’t want to heap on more disappointment on top of you.

[5:53] I just want to talk about what do you do with disappointment when it’s there, when it’s [5:58] real and it’s not going away. [6:01] I think Luke 1 and 2 paint this interesting picture between expectation and reality. [6:09] And here’s what I mean. [6:10] I want you to read Luke 1, 46 towards 55 with me. [6:15] And Mary said, now she’s saying this in response to the fact that God sent an angel to her,

[6:21] told her that the baby that she was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit, it was the [6:26] Son of God, and then she goes to her cousin’s house and her cousin is pregnant with John [6:32] the Baptist. [6:33] And when she walks in, John the Baptist, the text describes in the original language, [6:37] he kind of did a somersault in the womb. [6:39] And apparently you can feel that.

[6:40] I wouldn’t know. [6:41] It’s biologically impossible. [6:43] But Elizabeth shared with Mary what had happened and this was Mary’s response.

[7:01] I keep hoping that’s true of me, but I don’t think it will be.

[7:38] It’s an amazing song of praise. [7:42] Number one this morning, disappointment can reveal misplaced joy. [7:47] Disappointment can reveal misplaced joy. [7:50] And you may think, how did I get that phrase from what I just read? [7:55] Let me explain.

[7:57] That text may represent for you a moment in your life when your faith, you thought it [8:06] couldn’t feel realer than it felt in that moment. [8:09] When I was growing up, we would call them mountaintop moments. [8:12] Maybe you did, maybe you had different vernacular. [8:15] But we would call this a mountaintop moment where it’s just God is, you feel that he’s [8:22] doing you favor that’s unparalleled.

[8:24] You feel hashtag blessed in that moment in a way that you’ve never felt before. [8:30] You feel closer to God. [8:32] You read the scripture and it comes alive to you. [8:34] You spend time in prayer and it feels like you are really communing with God in that [8:41] moment. [8:41] And you can just empathize with what Mary is talking about there.

[8:45] He brings the lowly to high esteem and he has brought down the nations of the wicked. [8:51] And you’re wanting to charge hell with a water pistol in that moment. [8:55] It just feels like faith is powerful.

[9:01] But then you immediately experience a challenge to that faith that takes you down in maybe [9:08] the deepest valley you thought you had ever experienced.

[9:12] I’m not trying to read too much into this story. [9:15] I don’t know if Mary felt disappointment. [9:18] I’m just going to be honest about that. [9:20] I don’t know if she felt disappointment with the way that Jesus was born. [9:24] But I do know that for many of us, we have a way of so hyper spiritualizing the characters [9:29] in the narratives of scripture that we treat them almost like superheroes.

[9:33] We treat them like super humans that are nothing like us. [9:37] And I want you to understand that the Bible doesn’t present them that way. [9:40] It presents all these people as if they’re real people with real emotions, with real [9:44] doubts, with real struggles, with real pains and with real disappointments. [9:49] Now I want to read Luke 2 starting in verse 1 of the way in which this actually turns out.

[10:31] What I’m talking about this morning is our temptation to expect ease and leisure and [10:39] then be devastated by the reality of how God works his will into our lives. [10:44] I’ve never been pregnant. [10:45] Again, biologically impossible. [10:48] But I had a front row seat to my wife experiencing pregnancy a few times. [10:52] I have three children.

[10:54] And I will tell you that once you get to seven into eight months, it’s a life of discomfort [11:02] until that child is born. [11:04] No matter how they sit, they’re uncomfortable. [11:07] No matter how they lay, they’re uncomfortable. [11:10] And it makes sense. [11:11] There’s a human in there.

[11:12] All right. [11:12] That’s not easy. [11:14] All right. [11:14] I’m not pretending it is. [11:15] If you take a trip, you’re going to stop at every rest area because pregnant women [11:22] always inexplicably to me need to be near a bathroom.

[11:26] All right. [11:27] Again, there’s a human in there. [11:29] All right. [11:29] A lot of weird stuff’s going to happen. [11:32] All right. [11:32] You expect it to come out like aliens.

[11:34] I’m just saying.

[11:37] But the pains and discomforts of pregnancy do not lend themselves to, hey, honey, let’s [11:46] go on a trip. [11:47] You’re going to be riding a donkey for a few days. [11:50] We need to go pay our taxes. [11:52] I can tell you from experience, my wife would not have been jumping at that opportunity. [11:57] Neither would her hips have been wanting to experience that opportunity when she was eight

[12:02] months pregnant. [12:03] But that was Mary’s reality.

[12:06] Not only that, but I have never been so foolish as to go on a trip with no reservations ahead [12:15] of time. [12:17] And I’m not saying Joseph could have made reservations, but if we had taken that type [12:21] of journey and my eight month to nine month pregnant wife had ridden a donkey for a few [12:26] days and then to the contemporary version of this is they tell us we either have to [12:32] janitor’s closet or be sleep in the parking garage across the street.

[12:37] I don’t think my wife would have been jumping for that opportunity. [12:41] I think she would have looked at me with a disappointed glare. [12:45] All right. [12:46] Oh, you weren’t prepared, honey. [12:47] OK.

[12:50] Not only that, I remember when my oldest was born, this was the time when I think it was [12:56] called the bird flu was the greatest fear of every pregnancy’s reality. [13:02] And because of it, I still I didn’t understand this back then. [13:05] I don’t understand it now. [13:06] No one under the age of 12 was allowed to visit my wife. [13:10] And only two people at a time could come in and visit my wife because three people caused

[13:15] the bird flu when they’re gathered in one space. [13:18] I still don’t understand what those rules were all about. [13:21] I just know it was a pain in my neck. [13:23] All right. [13:24] Everybody’s like, can we come visit? [13:25] I don’t know.

[13:26] There’s a lot of rules. [13:27] We’re trapped.

[13:30] So the hygiene restrictions were so big. [13:33] But Mary gave birth to the son of God behind beside a couple of donkeys, hens and roosters. [13:40] That was her reality. [13:42] And some, you know, we don’t know exactly what it was like, but it was some stable like [13:46] structure that Jesus was born in.

[13:49] And I’m not trying to read anything into the text, but I can’t imagine that Mary went from [13:53] Luke 1, 46 through 55 to Luke 2, 1 through 7, and didn’t at some level experience some [14:01] type of disappointment between her expectations and her reality. [14:05] And I want you to understand the same thing is true of us. [14:09] Oftentimes when God calls us to exhibit faith in our life or to have faith in our lives, [14:15] we think it’s going to be like Amazon Prime.

[14:18] We think we’re going to click on the yes button, order a little faith, sit there for two days [14:22] and have faith magically show up on our doorstep for us to use with little or no effort on [14:28] our part. [14:30] And that’s never the case, but that’s probably why you are perpetually disappointed.

[14:36] Because your expectation of how God is going to work out so often does not measure up to [14:41] the design that you had in mind. [14:45] So many times our expectations are misplaced because we don’t expect to be tested. [14:50] We don’t expect to be stretched. [14:54] We don’t expect to be challenged. [14:56] Again, we expect to sit there and God just magically grows our faith like magic pixie

[15:04] dust sprinkled by Tinkerbell. [15:08] Friends, I want you to understand that when God calls you to live a life of faith, it [15:12] is a rejection of a life of ease. [15:16] When God calls you to live a life of faith, it is the rejection of a life of ease. [15:23] Your expectations will rarely be the way that God works in your actual life. [15:31] But friend, I tell you, when you are constantly disappointed by what God is doing in your

[15:35] life, it may be time to evaluate what you are worshiping and what you are expecting [15:40] versus what God has promised and how God wants you to grow.

[15:49] When we decided to do this specific series and I came up with the different titles and [15:56] the different structures of how we were going to preach this and then I knew I shouldn’t [15:59] preach every sermon in the world so I said, all right, I’m going to take a week off and [16:04] I’m like, okay, what do you guys want to preach? [16:06] No one picked disappointment. [16:07] It was weird.

[16:09] Everyone picked the other things that are just a little bit happier.

[16:14] And I sat down a few weeks ago and I said to myself, all right, how’s this sermon going [16:19] to look? [16:20] And I had nothing. [16:22] Because we’re not used to talking about this, we’re more used to denying this. [16:28] And so I just started surveying the scripture to say, how does God, number one, show us [16:33] disappointment in the scriptures?

[16:35] And then number two, how does God deal with disappointment in the lives of his followers [16:38] in the scriptures? [16:39] And I think you might be a little surprised because the Bible is filled with disappointment. [16:45] I didn’t say the Bible is disappointing. [16:47] I said the Bible is filled with disappointment that every time in the scriptures, every [16:54] narrative I saw, when God called someone to faith, when God called someone to believe

[17:00] it was almost instantaneously every time followed by tragedy, followed by challenge. [17:09] Never in scripture do I find that God called someone to exhibit faith and then everything [17:14] went the way that they thought it was going to go and everything was easy. [17:17] No, faith doesn’t grow that way. [17:21] And so I want to share a few examples of what I’m talking about because sometimes the scripture [17:25] reads like a Disney movie.

[17:27] The mom always dies at the beginning. [17:30] And so go watch one. [17:32] You’ll see.

[17:34] But I want to talk about a few characters in the narratives of scripture that just exhibit [17:39] this. [17:40] Let’s start with Abraham. [17:41] Let’s start really early. [17:43] Abraham was called by God to trust him because God said, I’m going to make you a great nation [17:47] and I’m going to make your descendants outnumbers the stars in the heavens.

[17:50] And that would make a lot of sense if you promised it to a 20 year old. [17:53] But Abraham and his wife were heading into nursing home years at this point. [17:57] And Abraham even looks to God and he says, how can this be true? [18:00] Because I’m so old. [18:01] But not only that, God waited a couple of years for them to have any children of their [18:06] own.

[18:07] But then after years of struggle, after years of testing by God, after years of Abraham [18:11] trusting God and God attributing it to him as righteousness, they have Isaac, this promised [18:18] son. [18:19] And in that moment, it was almost like the birth of Jesus where it was almost a miraculous [18:24] birth based on the age of the mother and father. [18:29] Very soon after that, in Genesis 22, God looks to Abraham and it says, after these things,

[18:35] God tested Abraham. [18:37] No one expects the test when it comes. [18:40] And God said to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, here I am. [18:43] And God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. [18:49] Those are piercing words. [18:50] He says, this is your son, your only son, whom you love.

[18:55] And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burned offering on one of the [19:00] mountains which I shall tell you. [19:03] This child of promise, God looks to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to kill him. [19:11] Imagine the disappointment in that moment.

[19:15] Then further towards the end of the book of Genesis, there was this character, Joseph. [19:20] Joseph was his father, Jacob’s favorite son. [19:23] Jacob doted and he spoiled Joseph. [19:27] Joseph even experienced a special, unique relationship with God where God gave him revelation [19:32] in his dreams. [19:33] Then in Genesis 37, 18 through 20, his brothers conspired to kill him in jealousy, which

[19:39] not just two weeks or months of pain, it led to decades of pain and struggle for Joseph. [19:46] Imagine the disappointment to go from treasured child to losing your family, to slavery, [19:52] to imprisonment for crimes you didn’t commit in a foreign land. [19:57] That was Joseph’s narrative. [20:00] Over three decades of pain and turmoil.

[20:05] Then in the beginning of Exodus, we read about Jochebed, who was Moses’ mother. [20:08] Now, many of you have experienced the joy of motherhood. [20:11] I have not. [20:13] That moment when you find out that you are pregnant, I remember when my wife found out [20:18] that she was pregnant with all of her children, the joy that she experienced, the passion [20:24] that she had for this child she hasn’t even met and the happiness that was just exuding

[20:29] from her because of our children whom we love even to this day. [20:34] But she found out she was pregnant in a season that was very hard for Israel because they [20:40] were multiplying so fast in the land of Egypt where they were enslaved that Pharaoh put [20:45] an edict out that if the child came out and it was a boy, the midwife was to immediately [20:50] kill the boy.

[20:56] The midwives conspired to defy Pharaoh and Moses was born to Jochebed and they didn’t [21:02] kill Moses, but for three months she cared and then she realized, I can’t hide my child [21:11] any longer. [21:12] And imagine the disappointment that Jochebed experienced when she had to according to [21:17] Genesis 37, Exodus 2, 1 through 3, where she had to form a makeshift raft, put her infant [21:26] son in that raft, push him downstream.

[21:30] And then imagine the disappointment that happened when Moses was found by the very [21:36] family that had put a death sentence on him and they adopted her son. [21:42] I don’t care who you are, that’s not the design you have in mind for your child. [21:46] Imagine the real disappointment.

[21:50] Imagine the disappointment from the book of Ruth which begins with a tragedy. [21:54] A husband and father seeks to provide for his family by moving away from a famine stricken [22:00] land which leads to his death, but also his son’s death, leading to a widow of his wife [22:09] and a widow of his two daughters-in-law as they struggle to cope and survive. [22:15] How much disappointment must they have been filled with that his efforts to save his [22:20] family had the opposite effect.

[22:25] But then in the life of Jesus, the God that created all that is came on a mission to [22:31] redeem his creation. [22:32] He sets out on the perfect mission to show perfect love and perfect faith to everyone. [22:37] Yet in Matthew 17, 17, with the God of the universe beside them, his followers exhibit [22:42] a profound lack of faith.

[22:46] Jesus looks at them and he says, you faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be [22:52] with you? [22:52] How long am I to bear with you? [22:55] Think about that. [22:56] Imagine Jesus saying that about you. [22:57] Jesus is disappointed in you.

[23:00] Then in John 14, his chosen 12, one of them says to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and [23:06] it is enough for us. [23:07] And Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? [23:12] Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. [23:14] How can you say, show us the Father?

[23:18] Jesus dealt with disappointment.

[23:23] But then in the gospel accounts, we also have these two sisters, Martha and Mary. [23:29] And they were loved by Jesus and they loved Jesus and they had a brother named Lazarus. [23:35] And all we know about Lazarus is the text says that Jesus loved him. [23:39] So he was a very good friend of Jesus’s. [23:41] Well, Lazarus became very sick. [23:44] And of course, Martha said, OK, you know what?

[23:48] He’s really sick. [23:48] Things aren’t looking good, but we’re friends with Jesus. [23:52] That’s how I what I say about myself. [23:54] It’s all good. [23:55] I’m friends with Jesus. [23:55] He listens to me.

[23:58] But so they call for Jesus and surely he’ll come. [24:01] Lazarus is a close friend. [24:02] He’ll heal Lazarus. [24:04] But Jesus is late.

[24:07] Lazarus dies. [24:08] And then when he finally shows up, verse 28, when she had said this, she went and called [24:13] her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher, Jesus is here and is calling for you. [24:19] And when she heard it, Mary rose quickly and went to him. [24:22] Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had [24:25] met him.

[24:26] When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go [24:32] out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there since [24:36] Lazarus had died. [24:38] Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to [24:43] him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [24:49] Have you ever had a moment in your life where circumstances went the way that you didn’t

[24:53] want them to go, where you were praying for something and God didn’t want do what you [24:58] wanted him to do? [24:59] And your response was, God, if you had just done what I had asked, things would be better.

[25:06] She said it to his face.

[25:10] Verse 33, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, [25:16] he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. [25:20] And he said, where have you laid him? [25:23] They said to him, Lord, come and see. [25:24] Verse 35, Jesus wept.

[25:29] Now I’ll be honest, I think for most of us, those two words, Jesus wept, lose meaning. [25:35] I know for me it loses meaning because I went to a Christian school growing up and [25:39] in Bible class not a week went by where we did not say, hey, can that be the memory [25:43] verse for the week? [25:44] All right, it’s two words. [25:45] It’s pretty easy.

[25:46] No studying. [25:47] All right. [25:47] So if you’re starting with Bible memorization, that’s a good place to start. [25:50] All right. [25:52] But those two words have profound meaning and they show us first thing, Martha and [25:59] Mary were disappointed with Jesus and the Bible tells us about it.

[26:05] And I think that’s a vital thing for you to understand for your life. [26:08] The Bible does not hide the fact that his closest friends questioned him. [26:13] His closest friends were disappointed with him and he was there in the moment of their [26:19] disappointment and Jesus knew what he was going to do. [26:24] Jesus knew why he didn’t show up on time to heal Lazarus. [26:28] Jesus knew that his plan was to give Martha and Mary and everyone there with them a front

[26:36] row seat to what is humanly speaking, the greatest miracle that you can imagine happen, [26:43] a dead person rising and living again. [26:47] No one goes into a funeral and looks in the coffin and says, get up out of that coffin. [26:52] If they did, it would offend you and you’d probably call the cops to get them out of [26:55] there. [26:56] Jesus goes to a funeral, says, Lazarus, come forth.

[26:59] And you know what the problem with this is? [27:01] Lazarus does.

[27:05] What’s fascinating to me is Jesus doesn’t look at Martha and Mary and say, you dumb [27:12] I didn’t show up on time on purpose. [27:18] I’m not late. [27:19] I’m on my timetable. [27:22] How dare you question me? [27:24] I’m the God that spoke the world into existence.

[27:27] I am your creator. [27:29] Who do you think you are to be disappointed with me? [27:33] And we learn a profound truth about Jesus Christ in this moment that in our seasons, [27:40] in our lives, in our moments of disappointment, God didn’t rebuke Martha and Mary. [27:46] God cried with Martha and Mary. [27:49] He empathized with Martha and Mary.

[27:51] The text tells us that he felt what they felt and he was greatly troubled because of the [27:58] mourning to the extent where he didn’t correct them. [28:02] He just loved them, comforted them and helped them.

[28:08] If you’re dealing with disappointment, I want you to understand that you don’t have [28:13] a creator who doesn’t empathize with your tears. [28:18] God exhibits through Jesus Christ that he is a God who cries with your tears, who feels [28:25] your disappointment with you. [28:26] Jesus was with her in her disappointment. [28:29] Jesus cared about her disappointment.

[28:31] Jesus fulfilled the attribute of God that we see in Psalm 34, 18 when it says, [28:37] The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

[28:45] Do not deny your disappointment.

[28:49] Root into your disappointment. [28:52] Deal with your disappointment. [28:53] But always be looking for what God is doing in your disappointment. [28:58] See, you shouldn’t do either polar end. [29:02] You shouldn’t deny your disappointment because I know some of you are going to try to. [29:06] Some of you are going to have people try to convince you that you need to.

[29:10] Don’t do that. [29:12] But also, don’t define your life by disappointment. [29:15] That’s just as foolish.

[29:18] Don’t sink into your disappointment to the extent where you don’t believe God even loves [29:22] you. [29:23] You don’t believe God cares for you. [29:25] You may not understand why you’re going through what you’re going through, but it’s not because [29:29] God has abandoned you. [29:31] It’s not because God isn’t with you.

[29:34] There’s so much temptation for so many people that when they have a disappointing state [29:37] of affairs, they believe that the answer is to resent God, to blame God, to walk away [29:42] from God, to spend a season apart from God. [29:45] But when you are dealing with disappointment is when you need God the most. [29:50] We are so just trained to love God when life is easy, to thank God when we feel favored, [30:00] to bless God when He’s giving us everything that we want, and to question Him, to doubt

[30:06] Him, to hate Him, to resent Him, and to blame Him when things aren’t going according to [30:11] our design. [30:13] The Scripture tells us that we have a God who when things aren’t going to our design [30:18] and we hate it, and we struggle with it, and we’re mad about it, and we’re angry, and [30:23] we’re sad, God says, I’ll be right there with you. [30:28] I’ll walk with you through the season.

[30:31] I’ll talk with you through the season, and I’ll promise you through the season that [30:36] everything I promise will come true.

[30:40] Number three, this morning, every disappointment is an opportunity to build faith. [30:45] Every disappointment is an opportunity to build faith. [30:49] Friends, that sounds so difficult, and it is, but it’s true.

[30:59] None of us want to hear when life is hard. [31:01] None of us want to hear when the Hallmark movies aren’t working. [31:06] Have you ever not felt like it was Christmas? [31:09] I’m not like that. [31:11] I depend on the calendar to tell me how to feel, and if it’s Christmas, I feel like it’s [31:16] Christmas.

[31:16] All right? [31:17] But maybe you’re different, and you’ve watched 32 Hallmark movies. [31:20] They’re just the one all the time. [31:22] I don’t understand how they do it. [31:24] They’re all awful. [31:27] Different actors, same weird story.

[31:30] She’s a big city lawyer. [31:31] He’s a down-home farmer. [31:33] She’s home for Christmas. [31:34] Will she find love in the pig slop? [31:37] Something like that. [31:38] You know, it’s like, and Dean Cain’s in it, and somebody from Full House is there too.

[31:44] I’m confused as to what’s happening all around. [31:47] I don’t know.

[31:52] Maybe you’re watching Christmas Vacation this year, and it’s the one that always works [31:56] for you, and it’s not working, and you just expect that Jelly of the Month Club certificate [32:01] to show up in your mailbox, and you don’t want it to be the gift that keeps on giving, [32:05] because you’re disappointed as to what’s going on in your life, and it’s real, and it’s hard, [32:12] and you don’t know what to do, but the last thing you want to hear is, have faith. [32:18] Keep trusting.

[32:20] Have faith. [32:20] But here’s the deal, friends. [32:21] That is the answer.

[32:24] Joseph, I mentioned him earlier. [32:27] He spent decades in the most disappointing of circumstances. [32:34] But through his circumstances, he’s in slavery, falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit, [32:39] goes to prison for over 10 years for a crime he didn’t commit, and then God uses extraordinary, [32:46] miraculous relationship that they have with his ability to receive dreams from God, but [32:50] also his ability to from God tell people what their dreams mean.

[32:53] He is ascended to second in command over all of Egypt, which at that point was the most [32:58] powerful nation in the world. [33:01] And God told him a famine was coming, and that for seven years he needed to stock up [33:06] on food, because for seven years there wouldn’t be any, and so Joseph does that, and then [33:10] just amazingly, God turned the circumstances to where when the famine happened, his brothers [33:17] got hungry, and the only people that had food was Egypt, and Joseph controlled every bit

[33:26] of the food. [33:27] I would love to be in that situation. [33:30] Payback time, suckas. [33:32] I’m going to watch you starve to death. [33:35] For real.

[33:38] But they come to Egypt, and Joseph knows it’s them, they don’t know it’s Joseph. [33:45] But then Joseph reveals himself, the family is reunited, the family is reconciled, and [33:50] he gives them food, moves the family in, but the entire time his brothers are literally [33:55] thinking, he’s going to pay us back at some point, and so they elect one of the brothers [34:00] to go to Joseph and beg for mercy, and he goes and he says, Joseph, are you going to [34:05] kill us because of what we did?

[34:07] And in Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph says, as for you, you meant evil against me. [34:14] Joseph doesn’t deny the pain. [34:17] Joseph doesn’t deny the disappointment. [34:20] Joseph doesn’t deny the harm. [34:22] Joseph says, it is what it is. [34:26] You caused me harm, and it was real.

[34:31] And also, if you’re the brother and you don’t know the second half of that sentence, that’s [34:35] when you need a new pair of pants.

[34:38] When Joseph starts, you meant evil against me, you think the other half is, and say hello [34:43] to my little friend, all right? [34:44] You’re dead, all right? [34:47] But Joseph continues. [34:49] He says, you meant evil against me. [34:51] This perspective should blow you away, the faith that he had in this moment.

[34:58] But God meant it for good.

[35:04] So many times you have no idea how the circumstances that you are facing that are so disappointed [35:11] could possibly be meant for good. [35:14] Here’s slavery, imprisonment, separation from his family in a totally unfair reason. [35:24] And Joseph has the perspective, God’s working. [35:28] God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they [35:32] are today.

[35:33] He says, if God uses my pain to save other people, the pain was worth enduring. [35:39] That’s faith. [35:41] That’s faith. [35:43] Friends, faith is always the answer because you do not have God’s perspective on your [35:50] life. [35:52] I want to give you two observations for just immediate in the Christmas season application

[35:58] for your life if you’re struggling this season with what many people are struggling with. [36:02] The first one is that faith allows you to love when you don’t feel loved. [36:08] Faith allows you to love when you don’t feel loved. [36:10] And I think that’s probably the most difficult struggle many will go through during the holiday [36:16] season because they feel lonely.

[36:19] Maybe it’s because you don’t think God has provided the love of your life yet and so [36:25] you don’t feel loved. [36:26] Or maybe it’s because someone that you do love has rejected you or caused you harm or [36:33] turned their back on you or made you feel terrible about yourself. [36:36] And maybe you just don’t want to go to grandma’s house for Christmas dinner because the family [36:41] is going to be there and you don’t want to be around them because they don’t love you

[36:45] the way that you want to be loved.

[36:49] Look at verse 21 in Genesis 50. [36:53] He tells his brother, do not fear. [36:57] He’s loving when he wasn’t loved. [37:01] He goes further. [37:03] I will provide for you and your little ones. [37:06] Thus he comforted them.

[37:08] And here’s the kicker. [37:10] And spoke kindly to them. [37:13] I don’t have anything kind to say to people I don’t like. [37:18] Can I just be real with you?

[37:21] But faith, when you are disappointed because you are unloved, you feel unloved or you’re [37:26] not getting the love that you think you deserve, faith gives you the opportunity to define [37:32] your love by the love that God has obviously given you through his son Jesus Christ. [37:39] Because he’s redeemed you through the gospel. [37:41] He died for your sin. [37:42] He’s given you a new life through the resurrection.

[37:45] And God says the entire world can turn its back on you. [37:47] But Jesus loves you. [37:49] You know that. [37:50] Therefore you have the power of love and you can wield it even when someone doesn’t love [37:55] you back.

[37:58] Who do you need to speak kindly to this season?

[38:03] Who do you need to love this season even though they don’t love you the way you want to be [38:08] loved? [38:09] But secondly, faith allows you to have joy when you aren’t happy. [38:15] Faith allows you to have joy when you aren’t happy. [38:18] People still get it twisted and they think these two things are the same. [38:21] They’re not the same.

[38:23] I’ll be honest with you. [38:26] Some of you, I believe, have every right not to be happy.

[38:31] You have every right based on the circumstances that you are facing, based on what you have [38:36] endured this season, based on self-doubt, based on real harm that people have done [38:41] to you, based on your marriage has fallen apart, a loved one has passed away, you don’t [38:46] know what to do with your life. [38:48] You just know that you’re not where you want to be. [38:50] And this does not feel like a very Merry Christmas to you and you’re unhappy.

[38:54] And I’m not going to pour more unhappiness on you by making you feel guilty for that. [39:01] I think that’s unhelpful. [39:03] But it will tell you. [39:05] It’s don’t allow your unhappiness to rob you of your joy.

[39:12] Do not define your life by your subjective feelings from one moment to the next. [39:17] Do not define your life by the fact that you are unhappy right now and you don’t believe [39:23] that you will ever be happy again. [39:25] Because if you allow that to rob you of your joy, you are proclaiming a false narrative [39:31] about God’s love for you. [39:34] You are proclaiming a false narrative about God’s promises to you.

[39:38] If you trust in Jesus Christ, all of God’s promises are yours.

[39:45] All of your sin has been forgiven. [39:48] All of your eternity has been guaranteed. [39:51] Therefore, you can have joy because that is unshakable. [39:56] That is objective. [39:58] That is true and no one can ever take that from you.

[40:06] Happiness is shallow where joy is deeper than any ocean you know of. [40:11] And your momentary happiness is not worth giving your joy away.

[40:20] How do I show that? [40:23] In Luke 2 19-20, we see this amazing thing about Mary. [40:29] Again, I told you the story. [40:31] I told you how it went down. [40:32] And I don’t care who you are. [40:34] That’s not a situation that you would be like, this is the best.

[40:37] All right? [40:39] I mean, she’s just gone through labor, no epidural. [40:44] All right? [40:46] She didn’t even have doula, whatever that is. [40:51] It’s bad marketing. [40:52] All right?

[40:53] That’s just different word would change everything. [40:55] All right? [40:56] That’s all I’m saying. [40:57] All right? [40:58] I make no statement of whether I like it or not, just the word. [41:00] All right?

[41:01] Bad.

[41:03] No doctors, no nurses. [41:06] Joseph had to do all the work. [41:08] I’ve never felt sorry for a man than I feel for Joseph. [41:11] I was present when my wife gave birth.

[41:16] That’s it. [41:18] I was a silent investor. [41:20] All right?

[41:23] She had a child of the most unhygienic of circumstances. [41:27] She has to lay him in a manger, which I can only assume how dirty that was. [41:33] There’s donkeys. [41:34] There’s some types of animals all around her. [41:36] But then the icing on the cake is that the only people that visited her were scumbag [41:42] shepherds that nobody wanted in their presence because they were afraid they were going

[41:46] to steal everything.

[41:48] But then verse 19 says, but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her [41:54] heart. [41:55] There’s two important things to take note of right there. [41:59] The first thing is that Mary is still treasuring the promise. [42:03] No matter how disappointing your circumstances are, always root your joy in the promises [42:08] that God has specifically given because that’s what Mary did.

[42:12] But the second thing that Mary shows us when it says that she pondered them in her heart, [42:18] the only explanation I have for the verbiage that she’s using the original language there [42:22] is there was a bit of mystery to Mary as to why everything had gone the way that it did. [42:28] Mary looks at it and she’s treasuring all these things in her heart because she knows [42:32] everything that has happened has fulfilled hundreds and thousands of years of Biblical [42:37] prophecy in this moment.

[42:38] And it’s like, man, but it still wasn’t easy. [42:41] It was still painful. [42:42] But I treasure that God has deigned to grace me by choosing me to have this child. [42:48] Mary, here’s the deal about Mary. [42:50] Did you know she didn’t know a lot of stuff about Jesus? [42:53] She didn’t have an omniscient perspective as to what Jesus was going to do with his

[42:58] life. [42:58] All she knew is God made a promise. [43:01] Here’s the Messiah. [43:02] How’s it all going to go? [43:03] I don’t know. [43:04] I’m in a stable.

[43:06] I’ve got these dirty, filthy, stinky shepherds coming to visit me. [43:10] Now they’re running all over town proclaiming the glory of God. [43:15] This is wild. [43:16] I got to ponder these things in my heart for a minute.

[43:22] Friend, I don’t know what all of you are going through. [43:24] I do know what some of you are going through in this situation. [43:27] That’s where a lot of the sermon has come from, quite frankly. [43:31] I can’t make any promise as to how the disappointing situations that you’re enduring are going [43:35] to turn out. [43:35] I don’t know.

[43:37] I don’t know if all of a sudden everything’s going to turn around and be the best Christmas [43:40] ever. [43:41] I can’t make that promise. [43:42] So here’s what I can tell you. [43:44] Every narrative that I read in scripture that begins or midway or towards the end has [43:50] the most disappointing, unremarkable, strange circumstances.

[43:56] In every single case, at some point in that person’s life, by pondering it in their hearts, [44:04] they looked back and they said, I get it. [44:09] I get it. [44:11] I understand why I endured what I endured. [44:15] I understand why I went through what I went through. [44:19] And it’s all of grace because it’s all for the glory of God.

[44:23] Moses led Israel out of Egypt, but he never entered the promised land. [44:30] Joseph never went home again, but he saved his family, thus saving the entire nation [44:36] of Israel. [44:37] Abraham had a ram provided and he got to walk down that mountain with his son. [44:45] Lazarus rose from the dead. [44:47] The disciples went from people that frustrated Jesus to no end, to courageous proclaimers

[44:54] of the gospel, and they suffered and died for the testimony of salvation through Jesus [45:00] Christ. [45:01] Jesus grew up and gave his mother pain because she had to watch as her son, her miracle [45:09] boy, was executed on a Roman cross for her sin. [45:15] But then three days later, she saw as her son rose from the dead to save you.

[45:28] Disappointment can be given to God because he will always use it for his glory and your [45:37] good.

[45:39] That’s all I know.

[45:42] I don’t know the where, I don’t always know the how, but I know that God has shown we [45:50] can trust him because Jesus rose for you. [45:55] Every Sunday we reflect on the Lord’s Supper.

[46:01] Friend, I know that some of you may be here and you don’t want to be here. [46:07] I know that some of you may be here and you’re saying, I’m disappointed with my life and [46:12] I don’t know what to do because you’re not a follower of Jesus. [46:15] And I can tell you, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, you don’t have any answer that’s [46:21] ultimately going to satisfy. [46:24] But if you’re in here this morning and through this you want that God who’s with you in your

[46:30] disappointment, you need to know that Jesus did come for you. [46:36] You have sinned against him, but he died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, [46:42] for your pain.

[46:46] And if you will trust in him, he will save you from your sin and give you an eternity [46:53] in relationship with him. [46:55] You just need to trust him. [46:58] So at some point while I’m talking, while we’re singing, while everyone else is reflecting [47:03] in communion, if you believe that this morning, just simply pray a simple prayer. [47:09] The prayer won’t save you, it’s the faith that will.

[47:11] Jesus, I need you. [47:15] Please save me. [47:17] Jesus, I need you. [47:20] Please save me. [47:22] And he will. [47:23] But if you’re in here and you are a follower of Jesus, I know many of you might be struggling

[47:29] with disappointment right now, but the answer is always faith.

[47:34] The cup on these tables represents the shed blood of Christ and the bread on the plate [47:40] represents his broken body. [47:42] And when we eat and when we drink, we proclaim a faith that we believe we will someday have [47:47] answers. [47:48] And if you are a follower of Jesus, come, eat, drink, then go, trust him.

[48:17] Amen.