Expectation Frustration | Matthew 11:1-19 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for today we're here in matthew chapter 11. i'm going to read the first 19 verses and then we'll we'll pray and dig out this text today so matthew 11 starting in verse 1 reading from new king james now it came to pass when jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples that he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities and when john had heard this is john the baptist when john had heard in prison about the works of christ he sent two of his disciples and said to him are you the coming one or do we look for another jesus answered and said to them go and tell john the things which you ha which you hear and see the blind sea in the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he who was not offended because of me as they departed jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning john what did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind but what did you go out to see a man clothed in soft garments indeed those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses but what did you go out to see a prophet yes i say to you and more than a prophet for this is he of whom it is written behold i send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you assuredly i say to you among those born of women there has not risen one greater than john the baptist but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and from the days of john the baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent taken by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until john and if you are willing to receive it he is elijah who is to come he who has ears to hear let him hear but to what shall i like in this generation it is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying we played the flute for you and you did not dance we mourned to you and you did not lament for john came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon the son of man came eating and drinking and they say look a glutton and a wine bibber a friend of tax collectors and sinners but wisdom is justified or some translations say proved right by her children the title of my sermon today is expectation frustration expectation frustration or the subtitle would be what do you do when god doesn't do what you think you should do you ever been in a situation like that if you have a pulse you have at some point you're wondering what is god up to why is he doing it this way and not doing it that way so this is what we're going to look at today from this story in matthew chapter 11. let's first pause and pray father it's good to be in your house today and as we resume this 10 o'clock service again for the first time after long many months we pray god you'd bless our time together we thank you for your grace that goes before us we thank you for your word that we have opened on our laps we thank you father that you are so good to us in so many ways and we pray that we would take to heart the things that you would want us to receive from this story today out of your word that you would bless it and we thank you that you promised that when your word goes for forth it will not return void but it will accomplish the purposes for which it is sent so do your good work accomplish your purposes in our hearts today we commit this time to you in jesus name and everybody said amen anytime in any situation when what you desire does not match what was delivered you have expectation frustration something didn't happen the way you thought it should happen something didn't turn out the way that you had hoped it would turn out it might be that what you had desired was perhaps unreasonable it might be that what was delivered was perhaps unsatisfactory or maybe a combination of both but wherever you have desire that doesn't match the thing that you had hoped would be delivered you have this kind of expectation frustration and it can include all kinds of things and wherever it exists it breeds great disappointment in one's life when you have in mind something that should happen and it doesn't happen it can be very disappointing when you're in relationships and you expect this person to do that thing and this person will do the other thing and it doesn't happen it can be very disappointing when you expect that job that you had hoped was the dream job and it doesn't happen going to be very disappointing i mean it happens on many different levels let's talk for example about marriage marriage can be an opportunity for you to grow in your faith did you know that because there are many times within a marriage where there is expectation frustration the year was 1987. it was the first year that terry and i were married and celebrated our first christmas together and you know when you're a newlywed you're thinking man what a wonderful day christmas is going to be like every holiday and like the rest of your life well the first christmas we shared together was a simple one terry had one request apparently 1987 was also the year of the turtleneck i don't know but she said you can get me whatever you want but i have one request i would like four turtlenecks okay she said i want one white one yellow one gray one red i'm like no problem no problem i mean this is an opportunity i'm thinking to myself for me to come away a christmas hero right just go to the store and buy her four turtlenecks make sure i have the right size and i have the colors down red white gray yellow this is what she wants and so our first christmas together and with anticipation you know what she's expecting is to be wowed by four turtlenecks what i'm expecting is just to be liked you know what i'm saying to you every husband can relate to what i just said just like me i hope you just like me after this is all over she opens the first one it's the white one she takes a look at it she goes um this is cream cream yeah it's cream it's it's really not white and and let me hold it up to your white t-shirt you see how the difference is this is cream your t-shirt okay all right all right innocent mistake cream it's not it's not white okay green then she goes for the for the yellow one she opens it up i'm like how bad can this get right it gets bad she opens it up she opens it up she takes a look at the yellow and she goes um this is kind of golden rod this is not really the kind of yellow i was thinking i was thinking more like canary yellow canary yellow you know canary yellow i'm thinking to myself i didn't know that birds were the standard for this all right try the gray one she opens up the next box how can you get gray wrong she opens it up she goes ah this is like charcoal this is charcoal it's a little bit darker than what i had in mind do you know the difference between gray and charcoal apparently not the last one was the red one how can you go wrong with red she opens it up she goes um i'm not making this up she says this is like a wine color this is more maroon i was kind of looking for like blood red bright red and i'm thinking myself like the kind that's dripping out of my ears right now that's how first christmas went now she was very gracious to me but i got nothing right there was expectation frustration on our first christmas how many of you how many of you here happen to be uh married and and you're going to experience together your very first christmas can i see all right any other any other very first christmas all right pray for this lady right here play pray for her god bless you merry christmas it's gonna be joyful oh well all she wanted to do was be wild but at the end of the day you know here i was i thought i was gonna be the christmas hero instead i i ended up being you're a mean one you know it didn't go well marriage can be full of expectation frustration you get married and you think it's going to be cinderella and prince charming it's going to turn out to be beauty and the beast my friend that's what it's going to be you can have expectation frustrations in a lot of things not just obviously in marriage there's times when what you expect doesn't end up happening but it can also be things that you buy don't turn out to work the way you had hoped it would work the job that you had hoped would be that perfect job turns out to be not what you had thought a friendship a romantic relationship people aren't always who they appear to be and there is room for expectation frustration and it's bad enough in life when you experience those things between a spouse or a friend or about a job or something you bought but it is much worse when it has to do with the lord that's what's happening in our story here john the baptist is in prison and he is second guessing the identity of jesus that he so clearly declared from the first day that he saw jesus you know when you read your bibles and you think who was the very first person who identified jesus as the son of god as the messiah a lot of times people are drawn to the story matthew chapter 16 when jesus takes his disciples up to caesarea philippi and says who do men say that i am they say well some say elijah some say jeremiah some say a prophet of old and he says well who do you say that i am and the apostle peter is the one who says you are the christ the son of the living god and many people think well peter was the first one to make that declaration but in fact that isn't true the first person to make the declaration of who jesus really is and was and remains to be was john the baptist in john chapter 1 verse 29 when jesus was coming for john to baptize him in john 1 29 john saw jesus coming toward him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world and a few verses later in john 1 34 john says i have seen and testified that this is the son of god but about a year after making those bold assertions john begins to wonder whether or not jesus really is the messiah and so he sends two of his own disciples remember back in those days jesus wasn't the only one to have followers to have disciples if you were a rabbi in the day you tended to have people who studied under you and john the baptist had his own disciples as well so he sends two of his own disciples to jesus to ask jesus this question if you have your bible still open there to matthew 11 it's verse 3. and the question is are you the coming one in other words the messiah or do we look for another the niv translates it or should we expect someone else to hear the expectancy there they're frustrated john the baptist wants to know he sends two of his disciples to ask jesus this question are you really that messiah or should we expect someone else now why would someone who's so confidently asserted that jesus is the christ the son of god suddenly question whether jesus really was the promised messiah the answer is he has expectation frustration because things haven't gone according to plan john the baptist finds himself in a situation where his circumstances have contributed to his frustration about jesus now before we talk about what his circumstance was and why it contributed to his frustration a quick background on john the baptist for those who aren't familiar with this guy he was a prophet called by god in fact god called john the baptist to be a prophet before john was even born even before he was conceived the bible tells us in luke chapter one that god dispatched the angel gabriel to go to what would be the soon father of john the baptist zechariah and the angel gabriel announced to zechariah that he and his wife elizabeth were going to give birth and that this boy should be called john johannan and that gabriel says to zacharias that john will turn many of the children of israel to the lord and that he would go before jesus to make ready a people prepared for the lord and so there's this great commission there's this great calling on john the baptist's life even before he was conceived now zacharias hears this from gabriel and he's stunned because he and his wife elizabeth had never been able to have children up to this point and in addition they are as the bible describes them well zacharias even says out of his own mouth we are advanced in age they're they're elderly they've never been able to have children and so this angel appears and suddenly says you're going to have a son and god's hand is going to be upon him and we are commissioning he is going to be commissioned to be the voice of god in this generation to prepare the way of the lord he's going to go before the messiah and be the herald be the one to proclaim that messiah is here zacharias receives this information with some doubt and disbelief for which he is made mute he can't speak until after john is born and then when he finally declares in some scribbled message that this is my son to be named john then his mouth is open and the bible says that zacharias prophesies at that point but this is that john the baptist and john the baptist grows up and he fulfills all the things that gabriel had told his father in advance now john the baptist was a rather outdoorsy man he loved the great outdoors this is the guy who you know the bible describes in matthew chapter 3 verse 4 as wearing an outfit made of camel's hair strapped with a leather belt uh so he he's he's a very you know rough outdoorsy kind of hunter fisherman kind of a dude that you know would only shop i'm sure at bass pro shop and never at h m he's just that kind of a guy would never tie a sweater around his neck this is just that guy would not watch the food network channel he would never be found at panera bread he just is this kind of a guy who's kind of wild and wooly and lives in the outdoors proclaiming the message of repentance that the kingdom of god is near and announcing that jesus has come onto the world scene he never married never had kids never wrote a book never had a hit song never had money in the bank and never traveled more than a mile or so in a few days journey but he was raised up by god as a voice for his generation to prepare people for the messiah and here we are now nearly two thousand years ago still talking about him he was bold and unafraid he was truthful and unapologetic john the baptist preached a message of repentance and he confronted sin wherever he saw it all as preparation for the arrival and the announcement of jesus is on the world scene which brings us to our story because whenever you go around very boldly declaring the truth as a prophet of god as john the baptist was confronting sin the unvarnished truth that often people don't want to hear you will inevitably offend people and john the baptist offended people in his bold declaration of the truth and among those that he offended was herod antipas also known as herod the tetrarch who was the roman appointed ruler over the province of the galilee territory at this particular time in israel and john the baptist offended herod antipas because john the baptist boldly confronted herod about the fact that herod had stolen his brother's wife and taken her to be his own wife and john the baptist calls him out on it he was unafraid and unapologetic in luke chapter 3 verses 18 to 20 it says and with many other words john exhorted the people and preached the good news to them but when john rebuked herod the tetrarch because of herodias his brother's wife and all the other evil things he had done herod added this to them all he locked john up in prison so that's why in matthew chapter 11 when we read our story that it says that john dispatched two of his disciples to ask jesus this question about whether or not he really was the messiah because john was in prison he was placed there by herod antipas because of his bold proclamation of truth and so john couldn't go himself to ask jesus this question so he sends a couple of his disciples to ask that question now the first century historian named josephus a jewish historian recorded that john the baptist was kept in a prison in a fortress called makairus that is located on the jordanian side of the dead sea and that he was kept there for about a year before unfortunately meeting his death herod antipas would behead him as a gift to herodius's daughter that's another story for another day but you can imagine that john the baptist now being in prison locked in prison because he simply was declaring the truth boldly and unafraid he ends up in prison for doing what god called him to do and no doubt when you're in prison you have extra time in your hands and when you have extra time on your hands his mind probably goes where most of our minds go when we have time on our hands to dark places your mind starts to think about things when you have too much time on your hands that are not pleasant and he started to think about his unpleasant circumstances and he started to think no doubt because he's just as human as you and i no doubt he started to think to himself you know i'm just trying to obey god i was just trying to serve the lord i was just trying to be a prophet of god in this generation and i got thrown in prison for this you know where where is god in the midst of all this and why is it that jesus by the way the bible says they were cousins my own cousin whom i thought was the messiah but now i'm kind of wondering because he hasn't done anything about my situation now not a show of hands but have you ever been in a situation yourself where you have wondered why is it that jesus seems to rescue other people but not me why is it that god seems to be taking care of all the other people in the world but my situation seems to go unnoticed what can happen when you start to think that way you get discouraged you get depressed this is no doubt what is happening with john the baptist it was not on his list to end up in prison as part of doing god's work but nevertheless this is where he is and his circumstances of course contributed to him questioning now you know why has god allowed me to be in here and why hasn't jesus rescued me at this point and now he's feeling discouraged and so when life doesn't turn out the way that you would hoped it would turn out you have the tendency to either blame god or question god one or the other or both this is john a prophet of god who's at a place so low in his life that he begins to wander and question the very person who made the first declaration that jesus is the son of god is now questioning whether he really is and why was he questioning whether jesus really was and is the messiah because of expectation frustrations i expected god to do this i expected god to do that i thought jesus would do this other jews would do that and it has not turned out the way i thought and this is what happens this is what happens with any of us and so when we get in this situation where what we desire does not match what is delivered and i'm talking primarily about our walk with the lord but this could this could apply to you know any relationship or anything in general what are we to do well when you look at this story with me i think there are three things that are important points to remember about how to overcome expectation frustration if you're taking notes the first thing i see in this story number one is that we need to look for what god is doing rather than for what he is not doing when john's disciples ask jesus this question are you the one to come or should we look for somebody else because we're not really sure anymore jesus does not defend himself he doesn't stand there and say yes yes yes i am the messiah i am the son of god john already declared this remember the time when he baptized me and he said the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world he didn't go on on that kind of a rant he didn't try to defend himself and he didn't try to explain himself this is what he said in your bibles look at verse four he just instructs those disciples to go back and tell john the things which you hear and see and then he runs a list in verse 5. it's a short list but he says in verse 5 the blind sea and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the death here the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them go back and tell john all of that see because the fact of the matter is that too often we get focused on what we think god isn't doing and we lose sight of the many wonderful things that he is doing this is why jesus wants to remind john listen these are still the things that i'm doing here you know i'm still lord despite the fact that you're in the situation you're in that does not define me we need to get this everybody our situation whatever it might be the good of it or the bad of it does not define who god is it's not a commentary on god's faithfulness or lack of it he is faithful he is just he is true he is loving he is merciful in all his ways and just because we don't sense that in whatever our circumstance is doesn't change that immutable immutable character of god he's still god whether in my moment it feels like it or not he's still god and he's up to things that i may not always understand this is the case with john the baptist and so we have to be very careful that when we get in that kind of a slump that we stop and say okay wait a minute but what are the many wonderful things god is doing and get our eyes off the one or two things that we think why didn't god do this and why didn't god do that yeah but look at what he is doing you know it's human nature for us to focus on in life on what is missing instead of what is present to focus on what is negative instead of what is positive to to look at things that you know as a loss instead of well what did we gain in the process because even when god is not doing everything that we think he should do he's still doing something that we need him to do always and it pains me to think in my own life ask yourself how many times in a day do we tend to harp on our kids or on our spouse or on an employee for the one thing they aren't doing instead of seeing all the wonderful things they are doing because we do the same thing with god we need to ask ourselves what is god doing that we might miss because we're too focused on what we think he's not doing and so jesus says to john the baptist disciples there in verse 4 go back and tell the things which you hear you hear and you see in other words tell him to open his eyes and ears to the miraculous work of god because i'm not done even though jesus may not be doing exactly what we expect him to do he's still god and sometimes we just have to cling to that cling to the truth that god is at work and seen in unseen ways even when it doesn't add up to what we expect so that's number one the second thing i think that jesus adds in in his advice uh to us and to john the baptist number number two here is to fall forward not away and you will be blessed what do i mean by that when you look at verse six jesus says and blessed is he who is not offended because of me offended because of me now ask yourself why would someone be offended at jesus answer when he doesn't do what you expect him to do that's when we get offended at each other too by the way in the niv translation it says blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me and the greek word there for offend or fall away is scandilidzo we get our english word scandalize from that greek word and by the way it is the same word used in the gospel that describes when jesus's disciples abandoned him and fled away at the time of jesus's arrest and crucifixion they scandalidzo they fell away they ran away they abandoned him and there's this warning here that jesus gives to the multitudes and and in essence to john the baptist as well about listen there's a blessing for those who aren't offended by me who don't fall away on account of me and so the challenge for us is kind of a play on words that i'm coming up with here but but it's fall forward instead of fall away press into the lord lean into the lord when he doesn't make sense don't run from him we have this tendency in human nature when there's an uncomfortable situation or a disappointing situation let's say someone in particular has disappointed you what's typically what happens we retreat from that person we don't want to be around them if they disappoint us if they cause us pain if if there's if there's some kind of disappointment we tend to run away from them and this is what we end up doing with god too it's not right i'm just saying this is human nature we tend when we think that god has not done something we want him to do or should have done or think that he should have done we get disappointed and then people tragically fall away from the lord well god disappointed me he let me down he didn't intervene in this situation he didn't help me in that situation and so the tendency is in our human nature is to is to run away is is to scan the lead so it's to fall away it's to leave him unmet expectations in life whether with god or people tend to cause us to run away from the source of our disappointment but the problem is that when we do that with god we actually are denying ourselves the very help that we need that can only come from him what i mean is if we are in a situation where we think well that's disappointing because god didn't show up when i thought that he should and then we retreat from god then we just end up becoming more miserable perhaps angry even bitter and the only one that can help us and heal us and our anger and in our bitterness is the very one we're running from because we're not going to just find that healing on our own on our own or in ourselves we have to turn to the very one that we've actually abandoned because we're disappointed in what didn't happen but what we need to do in those moments is do the uncomfortable thing you know i i really have grown to appreciate our first responders after my daughter lindsay married one uh andrew is a firefighter in prince william county and um we went to his graduation and you know and i i learned so much they showed this video of all that firefighters have to go through to graduate from the academy and you know i know this is like standard information that i'm about to tell you but it's the kind of thing that we don't really think of until it's really required but the one thing that distinguishes firefighters from the rest of us is that when there's a fire they run toward it all of us run away from it and and that's because it's it's obviously uncomfortable and perhaps even you know deadly in the situation of a fire but we tend to run away from that kind of a thing and and this is this is similar to to the way it is with the lord something gets uncomfortable the heat gets turned out we don't understand what is going on here god's disappointed us so we tend to run what we need to be is like firefighters we need to run toward the fire we need to run towards the disappointment towards the pain because he is the only one in the long run that can help us anyway so even though in our minds we feel like god hasn't done something we think he should have done we need to defer to the lord as being the one who is all wise all knowing all loving and run to him even when it's uncomfortable because he's the one that can really help our hurting hearts fall forward not away and he says and you'll be blessed for it somebody that comes to my mind when i think about falling forward instead of falling away because of life's disappointments i've mentioned this lady many times in sermons over the course of my years here but corey ten boom stands out to me as a real example a model example of someone who fell forward she she ran to the lord instead of running away from him or falling away from him if you don't know her story get the book the hiding place they even made a movie out of it it's so it's a wonderful retelling of her story she and her family were arrested by the nazis because they had given shelter to jews they were hiding jews during world war ii and when they were discovered her she and her whole family they lived in the netherlands they were arrested and they were put in a concentration camp and um corey ten boom managed to survive and at the end of the war got out of the prison camp but her sister and her father died there and you know when when you're thrust into a situation like that it's easy to get angry it's easy to get bitter um and and yet corey ten boom determined i'm gonna fall forward instead of fall away and she pressed into the lord and found her strength in the lord and no doubt there were times i'm sure that they might have asked themselves you know god we were just trying to serve you we were giving shelter to the jewish people and then we get arrested we were thrown in these prison camps and this doesn't seem fair why are we suffering we were just trying to you know how we play that game in our heads we just well lord i was just trying to do this and i don't know why you didn't do that and and all these kind of questions you know it wouldn't surprise me if the ten boom family had those kind of thoughts you know it's not sin to wonder those kind of thoughts in fact i love the way in this story that even after these disciples of john the baptist say to jesus what they said are you really the messiah or not that after they leave to go back with the message that jesus told them to tell john the baptist jesus turns to the multitude and he defends the ministry of john the baptist and and the man of integrity and character that john the baptist is he just goes on for many verses they're talking about you know what did you expect when you when you came out to the wilderness would you expect to see a reed just you know blowing about what do you expect the guy in fine clothes no that's what kings wear this this guy came to prepare my way and so he he even he even commends john the baptist he doesn't want people to stand around in the crowd and think well that was not a very spiritual question to be asking jesus are you the one to come or should we expect someone shouldn't john the baptist i mean the baptist read their bible don't they know better than that they weren't asking that kind of question because jesus was defending the character and integrity of john the baptist it's okay if you have times in your life you're like you know lord i don't really get this i don't understand this you know what happened here god's a big god he can take our questions he can take our doubts he can take our disappointments but we need him to help us in those times of doubts and disappointments so don't fall away fall forward and you'll be blessed for it cory 10 boom ended up having a wonderful ministry around the world sharing her story of love and forgiveness god used her in miraculous and amazing ways and that's what we must do whenever our expectations don't match god's plans we have to fall forward and jesus says you'll be blessed if you do the third thing and the final thing here to help us overcome expectation frustration is taken from verses 16 to 18. so if you glance quickly at your bibles again in verse 16 jesus says but what shall i like in this generation now he's about to rebuke this generation so listen up because he's he's got a word for this generation and i think it applies for us too he says but to what shall i like in this generation it is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying we played the flute for you and you did not dance we mourned to you and you did not lament for john came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon the son of man came eating and drinking and they say look a glutton and a wine bibber a friend of tax collectors and sinners but wisdom is justified by your children now jesus is rebuking his generation i think we need to heed his words too the idea here about playing a flute is something done at a wedding a time when it's supposed to be joyful the idea here about we mourned it to you that's playing a mournful tune that's something done at a funeral so he's talking about these two situations where sometimes you play a flute it's joyful it's like a wedding sometimes you have a a mournful song that's what you do at funerals and he's basically saying here that you know everybody's expected to act a certain way when you go to a wedding you act one way when you go to a funeral you act a different way you know a funeral is usually more somber you know people are crying when you go to a wedding well sometimes people are crying there too but for different reasons it's joyful time people are happy it's very celebratory and so you're expected to act a certain way depending on the setting and jesus is saying here in this text basically that sometimes adults are like little children playing a game expecting god to act one way in this situation and another way in that situation and they even went so far in this day to accuse john of having a demon and to accuse jesus of being a drunk why well because they weren't doing things the way that they thought it should be done jesus is hanging out with tax collectors and sinners and he must be a drunk and john the baptist man that guy is wild and wooly and when he preaches i mean he's on fire i think he's got a demon and they're all reacting in this way like you know we played a flute for you why didn't you dance you know we did this why didn't you do that it's all a statement here between verses 16 and 18 of how jesus and john the baptist for that matter but jesus in particular is not performing for them the way that they expect him to perform and what we have to remember is the last point here the third thing is to remember that god's ways are not our ways he's not obligated to perform for us because we play the flute we can't put these expectations on god and then if he doesn't do what we expect him to do what's the end result we just get disappointed how about we just defer to god trust him realize that his ways are not our ways isaiah the prophet in chapter 55 verses 8 and 9 says it this way and this has brought me great comfort over the years i pray it brings you great comfort isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9. god says through isaiah the prophet for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways but just as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways and my thoughts higher than yours and we we need to get that in our soul where we realize god's ways and his thoughts are immeasurably higher and better than ours we don't understand everything we have to recognize that we have to just humble ourselves and realize god understands it all god sees the big picture we only see a tiny little part and and and we can't you know bring discouragement upon ourselves because we evaluate god and think that he should perform the way that we expect god's ways are bigger god's thoughts are bigger he he has that perspective from a vantage point that we just simply don't have and i close with a story i actually uh read this story a couple of years ago but it's it's worth repeating if you didn't hear it then i wonder say it again because there's a short little story that max lucado wrote in one of his um books called in the eye of the storm that i think just really illustrates this again i apologize if you've heard this before but whenever i think about how we are so limited in understanding the big picture it would it would be better for us to to recognize our limitations and that we just can't always see the big picture and then trust god and so here's the story for max lucado in the eye of the storm there was a poor man who lived in a tiny european village his only means of income was chopping wood and dragging it out of the forest to sell it to people of the village and he had a beautiful white horse and the townspeople came to the man and said sell us your beautiful horse and then you won't be poor but the man said no it's like a member of my family i could never sell my horse well one day the horse was gone from the stall and the people of the village went up to the man and said your horse must have been stolen you were cursed and the man said say not that the horse was stolen or that i am cursed but only that the horse is missing from the stall for all we see is a little fragment of the story well the horse came back a little while later leading 12 wild horses with it and came back to the man and all the people of the village came to the man and said you were right and we were wrong you are blessed you now have 13 horses and the man said say not that i am blessed or right but only that the horse has returned and a dozen with him for all we see is a little fragment of the story well the poor man's son was trying to break the wild horses and he fell off and broke both his legs and the people of the village came back to the man and said you were wrong we were right these horses were not a blessing but a curse your son has broken both his legs the man said say not that i am cursed state only that my son has broken both his legs for all we see is a little fragment of the story soon thereafter their country went to war with the neighboring country and all the young men of the village were recruited into war except the poor man of the village whose son had broken both his legs the people of the village came to him and said you were right we were wrong you are blessed for your son has been spared the ravages of war and he said say not that i am blessed but only that my son did not go off to war for all we see is a tiny fragment of the story and that's life we only have this tiny little picture gang so we have to trust the lord defer to him his ways and his thoughts are higher than ours but he still loves us he still cares about us and he's still god amen father we thank you for your word we thank you that you've included it in your word to remind us that even a prophet like john the baptist who declared that jesus is the lamb of god jesus is the son of god even in his own situation had his doubts the trials and the difficulties that he was going through contributed to his own personal frustration you were not acting the way that he thought you should lord so thank you for including it in your word because it's our story many times we're disappointed we get frustrated because we have these expectations that don't turn out to happen the way we had hoped and lord i just pray right now in jesus name that you would bring comfort to those who are in a place of frustration life is not maybe turned out the way that they had hoped and they're wondering why god where were you in this situation or in that situation thank you that you're a big god lord you can take our questions you can take our doubts but i pray lord instead of falling away from you that we would fall forward press into you lean on you lord to trust you in the midst of life that often doesn't make sense but we can rest in jesus knowing that your ways and your thoughts are higher than ours we only see a tiny little picture of what's going on a fragment of the story but you see the big picture you know all things lord may we rest in you that you are loving that you care about us you will never leave us nor forsake us you're still god even when things this side of heaven don't always make sense to us you are still god and we press into you in jesus matchless name we pray and all god's people said amen and amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 39,158

Rating: 4.9162011 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers, Expectation, frustration, John the Baptist, expectation frustration, when god doesnt do what you want, what do you do when God lets you down, is god really in control, what to do when life is frustrating, God didnt do what i wanted

Id: zpLUKLK15bo

Length: 43min 45sec (2625 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020