But I'm Disappointed Series

Please e-mail me with any comments or if you use any part of this at your church at Mail4ChrisR@aol.com. I would love to hear about it. God Bless! - Chris

Series: “What To Do”

See also I Don’t Know What To Do; But I’m Disappointed; But I Just Can’t Win; But Life is Too Hard; What You Need, God Has)

2 Timothy 1:8-14

Series: “What to Do”

But I’m Disappointed

Outline:

Intro: Our nation grieved the loss of thousands last year in the 9/11 tragedies. Disappointment was one of many feelings we shared. We have all felt disappointment. Comfort is what we seek when we are disappointed. Paul tells us how he is comforted.

I. Go by what you know (v. 12)

A. Disappointment is a dangerous place to exist

B. Don’t go by what you feel

II. Go by what you have experienced (v.12)

A. Remember when God was able in the past

B. God is able to restore, rebuild, and reconnect

III. Go by what you have been promised

A. God has promised his children an eternal home

B. God has promised his children a great life

Conclusion: What matters is how you live your life in Jesus.

Sermon:

No Chance To Say Goodbye

The following is a true story. It is the sad story of a wife who lost her husband Sept. 11.

The phone kept ringing that morning, but Steve always unplugs the phone by my bed so I can sleep until I wake up with the baby. My mom, who was visiting with us for the week, came into my room saying, "Shelly, wake up! Call Steve!" I immediately tried, but the lines just kept ringing. This was about 9:00. So I checked my phone messages, and the first message was from my husband.

Steve had fear in his voice: "Shelly, wake up! Answer the phone! I think a plane just hit my building! Turn on the TV. Wake up!" When I turned on the TV I thought, Steve called. He’s fine. I automatically felt peace. He was in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and had made it down the stairs, so I wasn’t really worried.

I kept thinking Steve would call on his cell phone. About an hour later, on TV, we watched the second plane hit the other building, and I thought, Steve still has time to get down. When I saw Steve’s building fall to the ground, I fell to my knees screaming. I was devastated.

Then I just felt this peace about me. I know it came from God. I felt that Steve was safe and that he had made it down before the building collapsed. And that he’d call. So I started baking bread for when he’d come home for dinner.

By that night, when he didn’t come home, I felt like maybe he was just in a hospital or couldn’t call. Friends and family were going from hospital to hospital and putting Steve’s information on the computer, and Steve’s brother was on "Larry King Live." About the third day, 50 people showed up at my house, and we all prayed together. I really had faith that God could do miracles and could bring one person or a million out of those buildings.

But we had all these false hopes, too, because people said they saw Steve come out of the building.

I was not watching TV or reading the newspaper at all, but after a week I saw the headline on a local newspaper article about Steve that said, "Husband, Father, Friend Not Coming Home." That’s when everything hit me.

My first thought was of my daughter without her dad. Two days ago Jacqueline put her first two words together. The loss hasn’t hit me completely yet, and I dread the day it does. (From www.911recovery.com)

3,000 plus must have felt this kind of disappointment in September of last year. And while I mourn the loss of life, I can in no way know the pain and grief the victim’s families felt and still feel because of their loss.

But we all know about loss. We all know about disappointment. Perhaps, not to the degree which Shelly felt or the other wives, husbands, moms and dads, and children feel about September 11, but we all have faced disappointment in our lives.

It is a desperate feeling, isn’t it? A lonely feeling? Well, what do you do when you feel disappointment. Do you lie down for a nap, or maybe, eat ice cream or some other comfort food. Perhaps you read book. Comfort is what we seek when disappointment comes, when suffering comes.

The Apostle Paul felt grief, pain, suffering, and perhaps even disappointment at times. In verse 12 of our passage for today I think Paul lets us in on his comfort.