What To Do When... You Are Confused Series

What to Do When… part 1 “When you are confused”

Story – when I was little I had a bad habit of sleep walking. One night I guess I got really confused and I walked into our spare bedroom and thought it was the bathroom… this might not have been a big deal accept I was having a dream that I was going to the bathroom… needless to say we got rid of that couch!

This is the beginning of a brand new series call “What to Do When.” I know it’s not much of a title for a series but I hope the content will more than make up for the lack of a fancy title… So what are we going to be talking about here??? Life is a complex and ever changing mix of good times, bad times, and trying times… I think we all would agree with that. In this mix we often get lost, discouraged, distracted, and we lose our focus on the fact that God is our rock or foundation for our lives, God is the one that is to be praised in all situations and for everything that comes our way.

The goal of this series is two part:

1. that we realize that God never changes, and that he has a perfect plan for our lives that will not fail.

2. for us to become less focused on our needs, and become more focused on giving thanks in every situation and seeking God’s will.

We are going to talk on a variety of situations that we all face and tonight we kick things off with a look at What to Do When You Are Confused.

I have a question for you all; is there anyone in this room tonight that has not had to face a situation in life when they were just totally confused about what was going on, and what to do? It does not take us very long in this life to run up against a situation in which we were left scratching our heads… It can be from the death of a family member, or a loved one, it can come from the ending of a friendship or relationship, maybe even it is from a move that you are forced to make and leave people behind that you love and care for, Confusion can come from a decision you have to make that you are clueless about which decision is the right one, and then it could come from making the seemingly right decision and things just going totally wrong, The list could go on, and on, about the things that are thrown our way that we cannot figure out what the heck is God doing up there??? Tonight I want you to realize that you are in good company and I want to tell you a story as a backdrop for tonight’s message. We are going to read it and then revisit it through the night. The story is found in Matthew chapter 26 and it is the story of Jesus the night before he was about to be killed on the cross…

Matthew 26: 36 – 46

Here we have Jesus in one of the darkest hours of his life. Let me set the stage for you here: On Sunday of this week Jesus has just entered Jerusalem with a parade of people worshiping him, like I said life is full of good times…

On Wednesday Judas, one of Jesus hand picked 12 disciples, has gone to the chief priest who have been trying to plot a way to kill Jesus and tells them that that he will betray Jesus for money… Then as the day of the Passover feast comes on Thursday, Jesus is found with his disciples in what is known as the “last supper” Get this now, Jesus knows he is going to die, he knows that Judas has betrayed him, and he knows that these same guys he is eating with are about to flee and tell everybody that they did not even know Jesus… here we see even Jesus life is full of bad times. And on top of all this he also knows that this is God’s request of him, or his will is for Jesus to go through all this, and to die! So let me ask you, would you be confused here??? I know I would be asking myself the question “o.k. God, I know I am your Son and you love me, but what is up with all of this? Don’t you know what is going to happen to me and the pain that I am going to experience?” I think this was Jesus attitude as well when we look back at this story and see his conversations with God and with Peter, James, and John, He says “I am deeply grieved, even to death…” and then says this to God “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me…” He says this three times to God and it shows the human side of Jesus, the side that was just as concerned and confused as we would be. I think though that this story is important because it give us some principles to apply when we are all faced with this situation of being confused.