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.
Paul says, “I know whom I have believed.”
When suffering comes, grief sets in, and you discover your heart feels hardened by the grip of disappointment, I believe it would be easy to question. It would be easy to doubt. I can understand that fully. One wife of a victim on 9/11 said she lost her faith in God. She said, she could no longer bring herself to talk to Him again. Stages of Grief and disappointment are dangerous places to exist.
God encourages us to remember the good times, when the bad times come. It is easier said than done. I mean, it is shallow to tell someone suffering from a loss like this, “Well, just put your trust in God.” That is the easy way out. I think Paul has it right to say, “I know whom I have believed.” In other words, “I don’t know how you feel, I don’t know what you believe but I know what I have believed.
You see we have to go by what we know. We know God is our refuge and strength. We know that Jesus is our friend, our comfort in times of trouble. We know the psalms. And we know they tell us the Lord is in his holy temple .. on his throne in heaven, when the tough times come.
When you don’t know what to do and you are overcome by the feelings of disappointment you can say “I know whom I have believed.” You have to go by what you know, not by what you feel. Feelings can get you in lots of trouble fast. Go by what you know, and you know God is in control and loves you very much.
You can trust that knowledge because Paul says next in verse 12, “and I am sure that he is able.”
The 1st Century world marveled at the attitude that the Christians had about death. They couldn’t understand how Christians could rejoice when one of their friends died. But we are told that we can rejoice because Jesus has won the victory over sin and death. They could have been disappointed but instead they decided to go by what they had experienced. In the face of death, they recalled the times past when God was able.
Look at some of the paintings of that time. There is one that is particularly outstanding. It is a picture of Christians in the center of the Coliseum at Rome. Behind them are hungry lions ready to devour them. In the stands are people filled with hatred and malice towards the Christians, cheering on the lions. But on the face of every Christian there is a look of peace and life and hope, because "He is able."
Shelly believed, didn’t she? She knew the God whom she believed and she was sure that God is able. God is and was able. God is able to do any thing. However, God did not raise Shelly’s husband Steve from under the tons of destruction. But God is able to help Shelly heal. God is able to help Shelly raise her daughter. God is able to provide for her needs and is able to give her peace and life and hope.
Grief and disappointment are wanting to steal away your hope. But God is able to restore, rebuild, and reconnect. Death is no end for God. Death is no end for Christians. In grief there is hope, in death a resurrection. Shelly believes it. When you are disappointed and you don’t know what to do, remember your God who is able.
Finally Paul tells us that when we cry out to God, “But I’m disappointed,” I’m disappointed that you didn’t bring back my husband. I’m disappointed you let those towers fall. I’m disappointed in all the violence in our schools, corporate corruption, racism and discrimination, the divorce rate, … the hate, greed, pride. Paul tells us that, “The God whom we know is able, is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
Paul says, “Go by what you have been promised.”
I don’t know how many of those victims that died in tumbling towers, crashing planes, and burning buildings were Christians on September 11 but I am sure that some were. One day, because of what God has promised I hope to be able to be with them. I hope to thank those fire fighters and police officers. I hope to look in the eyes of the heroes on board Flight 11 that crashed into the fields of Pennsylvania and thank them for their sacrifice. I hope to see the face of Jesus and let him hold me close and laugh with him and listen to him.
And when life becomes disappointing, I think about what is promised. And I don’t only think about what will be. I think about what can be. I think about life and living life to its fullest because Jesus Christ is my best friend.
In the article I read earlier, Shelly Genovese says the same thing. Let me read the rest of this article to you.
A few days ago I turned 29. We had so many years we were supposed to spend together. Why my husband? Why did he have to work in that building? In all the questions, I know that God works out all things for the good, even though right now we can see no good. I know that God is bigger than anything that could happen here on earth, and that He’s going to take care of us.
I used to try to rush life: "I can’t wait for it to be December. I can’t wait till. . . ." Now, I wish I had spent more time enjoying every moment. Steve always told me, "Just enjoy every day. Don’t wish it away." He loved to live and he loved to work. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald for 17 years and felt that work was like being on a thrill ride every day.
I’ve lived here for five years and wasted five years of my life wishing I were back in Texas. Now all I wish is that I had my husband back. You realize how unimportant other things are. It really doesn’t matter where you live, but how you live your life. (From www.911recovery.com)
How do you live? Do you live in disappointment? Or grief? Or suffering? When your disappointed and you don’t know what to do … go by what you know. You know a God who loves you and died on the cross for you. Go by what you have experienced. You know God is able because he has been there for you in the past, hasn’t he? And go by what you have been promised. God is going to keep his promises. When disappointment comes the God you know is able has a promise just for your situation.
