Unreachable Destinations
The Path
CCCAG 11/7/21
Scripture- Proverbs 13:12
So far in our series on The Path, we’ve learned that:
1. Your direction determines your destination. (Pr. 7:6-27)
2. Life is a series of mid-course corrections. (Pr. 22:3)
3. We shouldn’t trust our hearts but should trust our hearts to God. (Pr. 3:5)
5. Wise people seek counsel. (Pr. 15:22)
6. Attention determines direction. (Pr. 4:25)
(Referring to last point) Look straight ahead and don’t get distracted by things that will lead you off the path.
So what do you do when you realize that the destination you’re trying to achieve is unachievable, that the dream you had is not going to come true, that the hope you had is going to go unfulfilled. What do you do when you find yourself trying to reach a destination that is unreachable?
For years I had yearned to be a full-time firefighter, especially on my hometown fire department- Kenosha Fire.
I took the required classes, got in great shape (round is shape), and applied. I scored high on the written test, high on the physical agility test, and was ranked number 7 on the list of 125. They were hiring 10 firefighters immediately, and I was expecting the phone call any day for the interview.
Then it came out that the fire chief’s son had also applied, and that the chief directly graded some of the tests, and even though he could prove he didn’t touch his son’s test, the city threw out the whole thing and said they needed to start over.
Now the process is very slow to get through the written test, the physical agility, and the interview process. It takes about 8 months to a year because they have repeat all the background checks, all the application reviews, all of that stuff.
I went through it- and this time ranked number 8.
Again, they are hiring 10 immediately, and then another 10 over the next few years. I get to the interview and was doing well, and at the end I asked if there was any other questions I could answer for them, and what the remainder of the hiring process looked like.
I was then told that this interview was pretty much a formality because they were not hiring any Caucasian males. Apparently, someone in the community had filed a federal civil rights complaint that the fire department didn’t have enough diversity, therefore they were hiring only females, preferably of color. They didn’t even have 10 women of color apply, so they would be starting a new hiring process soon.
I was pretty discouraged, but then a good friend who was a captain on another department told me about an EMS training chief job opening up, that none of the union guys wanted so they were looking outside the department. So, I applied for that job thinking if I can get my foot in the door, I can always transfer to a line company later.
I went through that whole process and got to the interview. This was by far the strangest interview I ever had. Because this was an fire officer position, instead of a board interview of fire officers, you got interviewed by members of the fire and police commission- politicians.
To paint the picture- I sat across the table from the man in charge of the interview, who was obviously very drunk and had a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket.
First question- “What do you like to drink?”
I said, “Dr. Pepper or AW Root beer are my two favorite sodas.”
He replied, “I meant alcoholic drink smart alec!”
I said, “I choose not to drink alcohol. It’s not something I do well with”
He said, “How much do you smoke?”
I said, “I quit smoking when I started having children so I could set a good example for them”
He said, “What? You don’t drink, and you don’t smoke. What kind of fun are you?”
Now, my temper was starting to rise a bit because this guy is trying to bully me, and that is the number one thing I don’t tolerate from anyone, so I smiled and replied, “I’ve always found that if a person needs a chemical to have fun, then that says something is lacking in their personality that they need the chemical to cover up.”
Needless to say, that was the end of the interview.
And, it was the end of me trying to become a full time firefighter.
All of that was to warm you up to this final idea about walking the path of life with our God.
What happens when you have a dream that is impossible for you to get to?
Prov 13:12
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Repeat
Prayer
We are going to begin today looking at what happens when we have these plans or dreams that no matter how hard we try, we never can get to.
What do you do when you have a desire to reach a destination, and every road seems to be blocked, closed or destroyed?
1. You get heartsick.
When you feel heartsick you have a choice- either stay there and get bitter or work at it and get better.
The bible has several examples of people who had repeated times of being heartsick over a blocked road or dream.
As a seventeen-year-old, Joseph had all the dreams in the world. He had a literal dream that one day he would rule over his father and brothers. Then he found himself in slavery, and the dream died. His heart must have been beyond sick.
Daniel, at about the same age, found himself chained to other young Israelites and dragged hundreds of miles into exile in a foreign country. His heart must have been sick.
King David got word one day that his newborn son was probably going to die. How would he deal with that?
The Apostle Paul found himself with a physical disease. He called it a “thorn in his flesh.” We don’t know what that was exactly, but it was a handicap that likely severely limited him.
Some believe he had poor eyesight. Imagine struggling to read if your whole life revolved around communicating and writing and preaching? Some believe it was poor knees. Imagine barely being able to walk in a culture that had no trains, planes, or automobiles.
We don’t know what Paul had, but he despaired over it. His heart was sick.
Then there’s Jesus. The Bible says that on the night before He was crucified, He went to the Garden and prayed about the kind of death He was facing. He prayed, “Father, if there is any way we can do this without me having to die on the Cross, please take this fate away from me.” He was so anguished about it, he actually sweated drops of blood.
What do you do when you’re heartsick?
Will we chose to get bitter or will we chose to get better?
How can you avoid bitterness and work toward “betterness”?
Actually, it’s a choice- Paul Chose betterness
Turn over to 2 Corinthians 12:7
You can’t always avoid what happens in life, but you can chose how you react to it.
Paul chose to allow adversity to make him better.
He writes to his friends in Corinth: (2 Corinthians 12:7-8).
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me
Paul had had some amazing things happen to him in his life—his highs were really high. But now, he’s got a really low low. He’s got a physical ailment that he is going to have to live with for the rest of his life. It’s probably painful, and it certainly keeps him from fulfilling his dreams.
Look what he did.
1. Paul prayed fervently.
Paul prayed fervently three times that God would take this from him. God says no, and then gives him clarity on why this ailment was being allowed to be in his life-
(2 Corinthians 12:9).
9But GOD said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"
2. You can listen for God’s voice.
In the midst of prayer, it is possible to hear God’s voice.
If that doesn’t bring a change, and you sense God saying, “This is going to stay with you,” then find the good in the bad situation.
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
Paul found a way to believe that God’s grace was sufficient for him, that God’s power would be even better displayed in his weakness, in his physical infirmity.
3. You can accept reality and find the good in it.
This is a potential section of the path toward betterness.
Back to 2 Corinthians Paul continues:
(2 Cor. 9:7-10). Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong
4. You can use your hardship for God’s glory.
Whatever it was Paul had, he determined to use it for God’s glory.
Now back to our central scripture-
Proverbs 13:12 says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
Hope is deferred when we realize that our dreams probably aren’t going to come true.
We probably aren’t going to get married, or get married again… at least not for a long, long time.
We probably aren’t going to be able to keep our home, or keep our job, or get the promotion we always wanted, or have the kind of health that we assumed would be ours.
These are examples- Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
This is a reality of life on earth, friends. Earth is earth—it is not heaven. Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble... (Matthew 16:33).
I don’t know a single person who has had all their dreams fulfilled. I suspect it wouldn’t even be healthy if they did. There is something about God saying no that softens us, something that enables us to admit we are not all that, something humbling (in a positive way) about not having all our dreams fulfilled.
Let’s apply some of these principles to the beginning of the sermon and me trying to get on a full-time fire department.
Looking back on it now- if God had given me what I wanted, I wouldn’t be here today.
There is no way I would have followed God’s call into ministry and given up that career.
With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight and knowing who I was almost 30 years ago, I would have probably become a nominal Christian in name only because the fire department lifestyle would have become the important thing in my life.
God has the advantage of seeing the end from the beginning, and even every possible end from every decision you and I can make.
God loves us so much, that HE will shut doors that would lead to destruction.
What you call a hope deferred might just need to be relabeled to “God said no to protect you or God had something even better in a future you can’t envision yet because you are not yet ready to receive it. But if you stay on the path he has for you- look out- that dream may yet come true in your life”
Close your eyes for a moment, and drink in this promise from God’s word-
(Romans 8:28).
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
Let’s apply this to Joseph- from being betrayed by his brother and thrown into a deep pit to die. To being sold into slavery to Potiphar’s house. To then being falsely accused of rape, and being thrown into a prison.
Joseph’s heart was sick- his hope was deferred and seemingly dead.
Then, everything changed in ONE DAY- he was summoned before Pharaoh, and his dreams began to be fulfilled in ways he could never have imagined.
In one day-He became Prime Minister and saved all of Egypt, and his own family, from starvation.
And then one day- his dream was fulfilled- He saw his brothers bow down before him and his father fall to his knees in gratitude to God that his treasured son was really alive and doing so well.
Most often, God leaves us with a thorn in the flesh, an obstacle or two that we have to learn to trust him with. That can be a good thing in itself. But sometimes, sometimes he does a good thing that is more than exactly what we wanted—it’s beyond what we could have asked or imagined.
I believe that every dead and dying dream is in the hand of God today.
God knows about your dream.
God cares about your dream.
But God cares about you more.
So he may not restore the dream, but never believe that he can’t, or he won’t, if it is truly good for us.
However, Sometimes God buries our dreams because they wouldn’t be good for us. Sometimes he asks us to bury our dreams so that he can resurrect them to better things.
Remember our scriptures:
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
Romans 8:28
In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.
Matthew 16:33
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick;
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Let’s review
So what do you do when your hope gets deferred?
1. You get heartsick.
2. You can pray fervently.
3. You can listen for God’s voice.
4. You can accept reality and find the good in it.
5. You can use your hardship for God’s glory.
If you can preserve and do all of these things-
6. You can believe that somewhere along your path, God will do something outrageously good for you.
God loves you and he wants to bless you. He wants you to experience joy – and he knows you need hope.
The second part of Proverbs 13:12 states, “but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
What do you do when your longing is fulfilled?
The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years.
They had disobeyed God and lost their chance to enter the Promised Land. Their dream was dead. Then one day God said to Joshua, “Let’s resurrect that dream. Line the people up tomorrow and we’ll cross the Jordan.”
(paraphrase if time is limited)
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
So when your longing is fulfilled, you make sure people hear the story.
The Israelites stacked up some rocks so that whenever anyone saw them they’d say, “What’s that about?” And they’d reply, “That’s about when God showed up, let me tell you the story…”
Think for a minute. How many of you have a story of when God showed up and fulfilled the longing of your heart? Some of you are sitting next to him or her. Some of you live in it. Some of you bear the scars of it. Some of yours are in the Promised Land.
I know some people wonder why I give so many personal stories in my sermons about what God has done in my life.
This principle is why- proclaim God’s goodness every chance you can get, and if you can use a personal story to do it- that’s the best thing you can do because people might be able to argue the bible, but they can’t argue your experience.
In the famous hymn, “Come thou Fount of Every Blessing” the second verse says this-
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
In the KJV, that monument the Israelites raised was called their Ebenezer rock. It was a rock of remembrance of how God lead them on this path toward this destination.
Did they take some exits they weren’t supposed to take?
Yep
Did they fail to walk in faith at times?
Yes
Did they openly rebel at God’s plan for them?
Yes, yes yes!
But, in spite of the wrong exits, in spite of their lack of faith, and in spite of their rebellion.
God was faithful to bring into the promise.
Remember that when your hope is deferred, and your heart is sick, and you don’t know what to do-
God is faithful! (Slowly)
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” (Romans 8:28).
All rise-
How do you work through this?
I want to suggest the following
1. Work through the steps of disappointment.
When you get up each day this week, talk to God. Spend a few minutes alone with him, either in Proverbs or another passage of Scripture.
2. Create your own rock of remembrance.
Remember one specific instance when God has been good to you.
Create some sort of reminder so when you wake up every day you can look at that reminder and say, God was good to me then, and HE will be good to me in the future!
Prayer
