Looking Beyond Our Disappointments | Timeless Truths – Dr. Charles Stanley

[Music] [Music] timeless truths a collection of classic sermons from dr charles stanley today's selection recorded in 2000 looking beyond our disappointments when you experience disappointments in your life how do you respond do you respond by suddenly immediately blaming yourself what did you do wrong if out of this or if out of that or do you look around to see somebody else you can blame something that some somehow you can put the blame on someone else well oftentimes we face disappointments in our life and we don't know exactly how to respond what to say what to do how to how to react to them because often times we can't quite identify what the real cause is what the purpose is and so sometimes we get we we get stalled right where we are and we get stalled right on dead center and we can't reach our goals we can't reach our desires and oftentimes instead of moving on in life and progressing in life and using each of those times of disappointment as times to learn and to move on and use them as stepping stones in life we just get stalled right there and so one of the two things will happen we will either find ourselves stalled and derailed out of god's will in our life or we'll find ourselves beginning to understand what god was up to moving on in life and learning from those disappointments and beginning to experience the joy of the lord and progress in our life in areas that we never even experienced before but the issue is how do we respond to them now let me make it clear right up front first of all you can't disappoint god so we're not talking about disappointing god we disappoint ourselves we discipline others we can't disappoint god for the simple reason god knows everything past present future so he has no false expectations of what we can do or we may not do or can't accomplish or may not accomplish and since he knows all about us and knows everything there is to know about our future as well as our past there are no disappointments for them you have to have expectations to have disappointments so a disappointment really is an emotional response to our failure to achieve or to fulfill our desires our hopes our dreams our goals it's an emotional response that is a result of our failure to fulfill those desires dreams or our goals we have set for our life the question is how do you respond so i want you to turn if you will to the 11th chapter of john and this is a chapter that is known primarily for something far other than i want to talk about but this chapter is full of truth about many different subjects and the one i want to talk about here is simply this looking beyond our disappointments because if you don't learn to look beyond them and find out what god is up to they will stall you dead in your track they will derail you they will they will absolutely cause you to give up and surrender god-given goals in your life simply because you get disappointed so beginning in verse 1 of this 11th chapter of john the scripture says now a certain man was sick lazarus of bethany the village of mary and her sister martha it was the mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was sick so the sisters sent word to him saying lord behold he whom you love is sick but when jesus heard this he said this sickness is not to the end of death he says but for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified by it now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus so when he heard that he was sick he then stayed two days longer in the place where he was now let's move up if you will to the 17th verse so finally of course we know he does come and so when jesus came he found that he'd already been in the tomb four days now bethany was near jerusalem about two miles off and many of the jews had come to martha and mary to console them concerning their brother martha therefore when she heard that jesus was coming went to meet him but mary stayed at the house martha then said to jesus listen to this lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died even now i know that whatever you ask of god god will give you jesus said to her your brother will rise again martha said to him i know that he will rise again in the resurrection on that last day jesus said to her i am the resurrection of the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die do you believe this she said to him yes lord i have believed that you are the christ the son of god even he who comes into the world well let me just give you a little idea what's happening in this passage because this passage deals with disappointment for example here's what happened lazarus the brother of mary and martha whom jesus loved dearly the bible says and they loved him uh he he's sick and so mary and martha send this messenger to jesus probably took him a couple of days to get there maybe somewhere thereabouts and they found jesus and told him lazarus is sick and what i want you to notice is the message that they sent here's what they didn't say they didn't say please tell jesus lazarus is sick come quickly they didn't even say tell jesus lazarus is sick please speak a word of healing they didn't say to that here's what they said they said look at this in verse 3 now so the sister sent word to him saying lord behold that means this is urgent he whom you love is sick look at that he whom you love is sick they didn't say please come please heal him they just they were just sending a message the one you love is sick now why did they say that because they knew listen what the scripture says now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus they knew that jesus loved them and so they didn't sense that they had to tell him anything else but jesus the one you love is sick they didn't say lazarus who loves you but the one you love is sick their expectation was as soon as he heard that he would either come and heal lazarus by touching him or raising him up or whatever it might be or at least he would speak a word to the messenger and say you go tell them their brother is healed and when he walks in with that message lazarus would be healed all they said was you just tell him that he's sick well that's what happened four days later jesus shows up lazarus is dead in the tomb rocks already stone rolled against the tomb he shows up and so what happens is because there was such animosity toward jesus such hatred told him in fact even after lazarus was raised in the grave the bible says the pharisees and the sadducees were plotting not only to kill jesus but to kill lazarus too because his the fact that he was alive was living proof that this jesus was not an unusual man but the most unusual one who claimed to be the messiah and so they hated him and so when jesus came upon the scene in bethany uh he waited outside the city outside the town because he didn't want to cause any any turmoil and so from mount they sent a message martha goes out to meet him what's the first thing she says lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died now was there any disappointment in that absolutely there was try to cover that up and be a false now here's the question was martha disappointed in jesus or was she disappointed in the fact that her brother had died and now he's gone i don't think you and i could say that she was disappointed in the person of jesus she was certainly disappointed in what happened but to say that she was disappointed in the lord jesus whom she believed to be the messiah the son of god and i don't believe she was she was disappointed that jesus for some reason did not come and allowed her her brother to die you and i would have been disappointed lord i mean martha could have said lord how many meals have i cooked you how many meals have i served the disciples i mean my home's always been open you've always been a guest i've always been there for you when you needed me and now when we needed you you didn't show up i don't think she said all that but you know what being human she thought it she had to think it i mean this was not god she was mary and martha she was human and you read that 10th chapter of luke and the message we preached on some time ago i mean she came out and said jesus why don't you why don't you tell my sister mary to come to the kitchen help me i mean she was a normal natural woman and so they were disappointed he didn't show up in fact it was so bad the messenger didn't even come back and say jesus said i'm not coming it was just a cold empty delay and so they were disappointed now so let's get it down there where it is reality that's what reality is all about we all get disappointed so the issue is how do we respond how do we how do we respond to disappointments in life because no matter who you are you're going to experience them and more than likely you may experience one this coming week you could experience one before you get home today disappointments are out there so i want to give you several principles in this passage that if you'll jot them down i am absolutely sure and confident they will help you they've been tested and tried by millions over the years and i can tell you personally every single one of them works no matter what you're going through they will work and the first one is simply this god has a purpose for allowing the disappointments of our life he has a purpose for allowing the disappointments of our life he's god he could prevent him if he wanted to he could change any circumstance of our life to prevent any kind of disappointment if he wanted to and you and i can look around us and say well how could he how could he have prevented that because he's god and so he could prevent them if he chose but he allows disappointments in our life for very specific reasons now he could have spoken or he could have arrived in time to save lives lazarus from death but he didn't his higher purpose was not simplest not simply to heal his friend but to raise him from the dead far more impressive far more convincing listen far more powerful and not only that he would be able to do several things first of all he would teach his disciples something about faith he says i'm glad that i wasn't there so that you may believe let us go to him because he knew that the cross was very soon coming and that their faith was going to be tested and tried in every way possible he wanted riveted into their mind that when they nailed him to the cross and he was his body was placed in a tomb he was going to be resurrected just like he promised and that he had the power to raise from the dead even those who had been in the tombs four days he'd been there so what was his purpose his purpose was to glorify god his purpose was to gl was to be glorified himself his purpose also was to teach them to trust him to believe him and his and certainly his his purpose was to do something in the life of mary and martha and lazarus they would never forget as long as they lived they would live with this legacy that he died and jesus christ the son of god raised him from the dead living proof as long as they live this christ is the messiah his purpose was higher now whatever disappointment god allows you and me to go through he doesn't just ignore it now watch this we are quick to claim this verse of scripture but oftentimes we fail to apply it in the nitty gritty of life when we have difficult hurtful painful disappointing experiences in our life what about romans 8 28 when he says that god is engineering our circumstances for our good well does he engineer our circumstances for our good sometimes most of the time all the time because he is god he does it all the time whatever disappointments we face in life whatever he's allowed he has allowed them for a purpose listen for a purpose that is listen that he will turn for our good and oftentimes to our surprising good if we will respond in the right fashion and that's simply to trust him there's a second principle i think here and certainly it was true in mary and martha's life second principle is this and that is that god is more interested in our spiritual growth than relieving us from disappointments he's far more interested in our spiritual growth and relieving us from disappointments now here's a good lesson i think about this whole issue of faith because martha and mary are are getting ready to experience a monumental leap in their faith monumental leap in their faith you say well didn't they already have faith they listen to jesus mary sat at the feet of jesus martha had said the feet of jesus and they'd listened and they'd watched and they'd heard and they'd fed him and he'd been there many times and sharing experiences about the father and things they were going through didn't wasn't she already lady of faith yes she was now listen very carefully listen say amen that's not pretty weak let's say that again amen there is a difference between having fundamental faith an active vibrant practical working life-changing impacting faith that's the difference now watch this i said to you you believe jesus christ son of god yes you believe he's the messiah yes you believe he was virgin born yes you believe in salvation by grace alone yes you believe the new breath has gone by to heaven yes do you believe that god answers prayer yes do you believe that that you are justified by faith in the death of jesus the cross yes you believe jesus christ is coming again yes you believe you see the father's right hand yes you believe he's in a sitting for you yes you believe you're going to be resurrected yes you you believe there's a heaven yes you believe you're going to spend time in heaven yes yes yes well you got it down now you get some big disappointment in your life oh god where are you lord lord lord lord where are you help me jesus you know what it's one thing to have the fundamentals down it's something else to live by faith so when somebody says well i believe the book from cover to cover that's not the issue that's the bottom line the issue is am i able to take the principles of scripture and apply them to my daily life where i live so when i hit one of these big terrible painful horrible disappointments in life it doesn't stall me derail me and get me out of god's will and keep me from becoming the person god wants me to be here's what i want you to see all of us when we get in the depths of some situations and circumstances here's what happens the mind that that is that this battle goes on in our minds faith versus reason reason said four days he smells his body is deteriorating and he's dead faith says whatever you say jesus is gonna be and there was a hesitation on her part to roll back the stone even though she just said i know even now that whatever you ask of god god's going to give you now i'm saying all that to say this this woman was human every single one of us is human we will face situations and circumstances and disappointments in life where our faith is going to be tested and trot if it weren't tested and tried we wouldn't grow what is it that causes us to grow ease comfort and pleasure absolutely not what causes us to grow is difficulty hardship pain disappointments trials in life those helpless times when we don't know what to do and how to handle anything but to trust in god it was an awesome lesson of faith for her and i believe that those times of disappointment in life are god's opportunities to stretch our faith it's one thing to say what we believe when everything is going our way do i still believe it is my faith vibrant and alive and active and practical and listen will it stand the test of fire and floods if he won't stand the test of fire and floods desertion abandonment the threat of death and everything else then that faith is weak and so what happens he knew this was an awesome opportunity to do for martha someone who he loved dearly he could the greatest thing he could give her is to absolutely explode her faith and watch what happened then i want you to think about something else and that is that our disappointments do not are not an indication that god doesn't love us but how many times have i heard this well now if god really loves us why does he allow these painful difficult circumstances why does he allows why does he allow us to hurt the way he hurts if he loves us disappointment has nothing to do with the love of god if there is no indication that god does not love us because he allows us to go the disappointments we just said he's got a tremendous purpose in mind and oftentimes fantastic purpose in mind oftentimes he's in the process of growing us up spiritually has nothing to do with love now watch what the scripture says scripture says for example when they sent this message they sent the message it said behold he whom you love is sick so certainly they knew that jesus loved lazarus and that he loved them now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus so they had this wonderful loving relationship god in their relationship with each other and so there was no question about that now what i want you notice is this jesus response to them with silence that's hard it's like you're praying in some great difficulty and your prayers are getting to the ceiling and they're just bouncing around hitting the wall and coming back and you're thinking god where are you remember this whenever you feel that away he's where he's always been right here god doesn't move thank god he does he doesn't move i may move you may move we may not be able to find him in our own mind in the heart where we think he ought to be feeling what we ought to feel he hasn't moved his love has not changed disappointments do not mean that god doesn't love us sometimes those disappointments in fact if we will respond right he will turn every single one of them into something fantastically good in our life we will profit from the disappointments but if we get into this this mode well god you if you loved me you wouldn't let this happen and yes i am disappointed and i'm hurt and um lord why don't you do this and why don't you do that that's not the issue because think about this if you love somebody you always want what's best for them if you love someone you will always try to provide what is best for them does god love us yes does he always want what's best for us always not sometimes not most of the time always he wants what's best does he provide his best for us always do we always experience the best no why because we're not willing to surrender to what his best is because here's what i want you remember that god god's choice of our best isn't always our choice we think we have needs that god knows we don't have we don't think we have needs that god knows we do have and so oftentimes in our disappointments because we lose or because there's loss because there's separation because something happens out there that that absolutely places us in the position of being so disappointed we cry out god how could you love me and allow this and all the time god is loving us you know why i know that because it's his nature to love he can't do anything else not told his children told his children he loves us no matter what's going on in our life will he allow us to go through painful difficult trying heart searching rending times yes does that mean for a brief moment he cease to love us no does that mean that somehow god's love is less than no is his love for us waning no is there something that we have done or something we've missed somewhere along the way that he couldn't possibly love us the same anymore no and yet there are a lot of people who believe that that somewhere along the way you must have done something that god can't quite love you quite as much as he used to yes he does now here's the problem when i'm hurting and this pain and and the pain is so intense i mean sometimes it's difficult to feel his love and the pain at the same time that's when you have to go not by feeling but by fact the fact is the truth is god loves me just as much in my tears in my hurt in my crying in my in my pain and my in my sense of emptiness at the moment he loves me just as much now as when everything is going my way you can't go by feeling and so in our disappointments has nothing to do with it he loves us or not well let's move on to something else for example faith that god is in control will enable us listen it will enable us to endure every single discipline in life now here is a major key faith that god is in control if god is not in control of your life you are a victim you're a victim of circumstances if he's not in control of your life here's what life is like if he's not in control of our lives we're like people in a little one-man raft out in the middle of the pacific ocean in a storm and you know what we don't know what's going to happen if god is not in control of your life you don't have any assurance of anything absolutely nothing whatsoever no assurance of anything if god's not in control very important that you not remember this when we face disappointments one thing listen the bottom line the foundational truth is god is in control of your life if you've trusted him as your personal savior i don't understand what he's up to i don't know how long this this disappointment is going to last i don't know what the end result is but i know that my god is in control he's going to turn it for my good no matter what once you settle that issue you will be able to look beyond any disappointment in life and know that god's up to something good when you surrender your conviction that god is in control you give up the basis of your absolute peace and joy and contentment and faith in difficult times in life and you're out there swimming on your own and my friend you'll be sorry it just doesn't work that way she knew she said she said even now even now i know no matter what i'm seeing no matter what i hear no matter what i see even now i know that you're in control whatever you ask is going to happen well let's move on something else i want you to notice and that's this that peace will prevail in the midst of our disappointments when we learn to wait upon the lord peace will prevail in the midst of our disappointments when we learn to wait upon the lord you say well now how could you think that martha and mary had peace they had a sense of underlying peace because they knew that jesus they knew jesus listen while they were disappointed in the fact that he didn't show up and they didn't understand what was going on deep down inside when she said i know that whatever you ask the father is going to he'll give it to you there was this overwhelming sense of peace that amidst the does that mean no pain no listen you can have pain and sorrow and hurt and disappointment and be grieved in your spirit but underlying that there's this indescribable layer of peace that absolutely cannot be moved because of your simple faith and trust in god i don't like it god i'm hurting i'm painful i'm disappointed lord you know what's going on and yet in spite of all that i know that you're in control and i know that you only want what's best for me and i know you're only going to do what's best for [Music] me

Channel: In Touch Ministries

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Keywords: Charles F. Stanley, Charles Stanley, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries, Preaching, Bible teaching, Dr. Stanley, Intouch ministries, intouch

Id: Nqqv6_8rH8g

Length: 25min 54sec (1554 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021