We all have either had or will have disappointments so today's sermon will help anyone who listens/reads it. To listen to today's sermon, click here.
HOW TO DEAL WITH DISAPPOINTMENT
Patience, Persistence and Peace of Mind - Part 4 of 6
Exodus 15:22-27
03-10-13 Sermon
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water. Exodus 15:22-27
THE TRUTH ABOUT
DISAPPOINTMENT
1. Great successes in life are often
followed by ______________________________ .
"Then
Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of
Shur. For three days they
traveled in the desert without finding water." v. 22
Marah: "bitter" v. 23
". . . there the Lord tested
them." v. 25
2. Great service in life is often followed
by ______________________________ .
"So
the people grumbled against Moses saying, `What are we to drink?'" v. 24
What
to do with disappointment:
* Don't
______________________________ it.
"Bless
those who persecute you; bless and don't curse!" Rom. 12:14
* Don't
______________________________ it.
"To
worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish thing to do." Job. 5:2 (GN)
"Get
rid of all bitterness . . . anger, and slander, along with every form of
malice." Eph. 4:31
* Don't
______________________________ it.
"Do
not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a
foothold." Eph. 4:26-2
"You are only hurting yourself with
your anger!" Job 18:4
* You
______________________________ it.
"Then
Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of
wood. He threw it in the water and
the water became sweet."
v. 25
* Let
God ______________________________ it.
"You
intended to harm me but God intended it for good . . . " Gen. 50:20
3. Great
shortages in life are often followed by ______________________________ .
"Then
they came to Elim where there were twelve springs. . ." vs. 27
"The
Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in
spirit." Ps. 34:18
HOW TO DEAL WITH
DISAPPOINTMENT
Patience, Persistence and Peace of Mind - Part 4 of 6
Exodus 15:22-27
03-10-13 Sermon
We all experience
disappointment. We are disappointed
by things, by events. But most
often we're disappointed by people.
Moses was an authority on how to deal with disappointing people. We're going to look at him this
morning. No man put up with more
complaining. It was the favorite
past time of the Israelites. It
was the sin that kept them out of the Promised Land. They were very quick to criticize their leader. Their
philosophy was "When in doubt,
criticize the leader."
They questioned his motives, doubted his decisions, challenged his leadership.
The Israelites were always
having a problem with water. First
there was too much water at the Red Sea.
Then there was not enough water -- they were in the desert. Then they came to bitter water. v. 23 "Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the
desert of Shur. For three days
they traveled into the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah they could not drink the water because
it was bitter. That's why the
place is called Marah."
Marah means bitter.
This is no small
problem. They've got three million
thirsty people and a million thirsty animals and there's no water in the
desert. Notice it says,
"three days". Circle
that. What had happened three days
earlier? They had just come
through the Red Sea. It was a
great spiritual victory.
1. GREAT
SUCCESSES ARE OFTEN FOLLOWED BY FAILURES.
They're here and they're
wondering what's going wrong. Why
did God lead them to Marah. v. 25 "There the Lord tested them."
God's character is revealed in the big crises in life,
but your character is revealed in the little crises of life. God
showed His power at the Red Sea but at Marah where the water was bitter, it
showed what the Israelites were really like. And it said God led them there to test them.
How many of you have been
going through a test recently? Disappointments are tests. They are testing our character. They're
testing what we're like really inside.
Notice it doesn't say this about the Red Sea experience. At Marah, the Israelites failed the
test -- they complained. It says
they griped.
What does disappointment
reveal about you? What's your
Marah this morning?
Your Marah is anything that
is distasteful to you. It's that
thing that once was sweet but has turned bitter -- a job, a relationship, a
problem. Great successes in life
are often followed by failure.
2. GREAT
SERVICES IN LIFE ARE OFTEN FOLLOWED BY FORGETFULNESS.
v. 24 "So the people grumbled against Moses saying, `What are we to
drink?'" The Israelites had
a short memory. What happened
three days earlier? The Red
Sea. Three days later, they've
forgotten it.
Isn't that typical? Isn't it typical that when we come to a
problem, we forget all the things God's done for us in the past? Isn't it
typical that when you're facing a difficulty right now you think, "God's not going to help" and
yet how many times has He helped you in the past?
It's amazing how quickly
people forget. It's human nature. "What have You done for me
lately?" Children forget
parents. Bosses forget employees.
Spouses take each other for granted. Great service. You're going to do things for people in
life and they're going to forget it and you're going to be disappointed.
What do you do:
1) Don't curse it.
Romans 12:14 "Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse." When you retaliate, God says, "OK, it's up to you. Either I get even
or you can get even. You can
either settle the score or I'll settle the score. When you're disappointed with people, don't ever
retaliate. Let me do it." He says, Bless the people, don't curse
them.
Moses didn't say, "You guys can forget it! Have fun finding your own way back to
Egypt. I'm going on to the
Promised Land."
What do you do when you're
offended by people? Sometimes
we're at our most creative when we're offended. Sometimes we can be downright ingenious at ways at getting
back at people. The Bible says
don't do that. Don't curse
it. When you retaliate, God stops
acting on your behalf. He says, "Bless them don't curse them." That person who's irritated you at
work, who's let you down at school, that friend who's betrayed a confidence,
don't curse them.
2) Don't rehearse it.
Job 5:2 "To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish
thing to do." Ephesians
4:31 "Get rid of all bitterness,
anger, slander along with every form of malice." Have you noticed that every time you
review a hurt, it gets bigger? The
more you think about it, the bigger it gets. It gets blown out of proportion. When you're disappointed with somebody, don't curse it,
don't rehearse it. It's an
extremely dangerous habit because you can become very addicted to it.
3) Don't nurse it.
Don't take it
personally. Don't have a pity
party. Don't allow it to make you
negative. Ephesians 4:26-27 "Do not let the sun go down while
you're still angry. Do not give
the devil a foothold."
When you go to sleep angry, you're giving the devil a foothold.
Anger is not always
wrong. Sometimes it's an
appropriate response. Jesus got
angry. God got angry. So anger is not a sin. There's right anger and wrong
anger.
But something that is always
wrong is when you hold on to anger, because holding on to anger turns into
resentment and resentment is always wrong. It always hurts you more than it hurts the person you're
angry against. It gives the devil
a foothold. Don't do it. Job 18:4 "You are only hurting yourself with
your anger."
Some of you may have had a
tough week, a tough month, a tough life. You're disappointed. You've had some experiences where you
feel like you're a victim. Some of
you may be continuing to allow people from your past to hurt you in the
present. That's stupid! They can no longer hurt you unless you
choose to hang on to the hurt.
Choose to say, "I'm not going
to be a victim any more. I'm going
to let go of it. I'm not going to rehearse it. I'm not going to nurse it. I'm not going to curse it. I'm going to get rid of it. I'm going to let God settle the score."
Don't nurse it. "You
are only hurting yourself with your anger." It's human nature, when we
get disappointed, to say, "I'm going
to pull in, build a high wall around myself. I'm not going to let anybody else hurt me. I'm going to build walls. Never again will I allow anybody to
hurt me." That's not
living, that's just existing.
Can you imagine Paul doing
this? Paul was disappointed by
many people. Lots of folks all the
time let him down. But you never
see him giving up. One of the
marks of leadership is you expect to be criticized, misunderstood.
Can you imagine Jesus doing
this? Can you imagine Jesus going
back to heaven ahead of schedule and the angels saying, "What happened, Lord?
How come You're here?"
And Jesus saying, "I had a
bad experience! Somebody really let Me down. Not everybody liked Me. Actually I was criticized more than a little bit. They didn't appreciate Me."
Trying to please everybody is
asking to be hurt. You're going to
be hurt. Just about the time you
get Crowd A pleased, Crowd B gets upset with you. Once you get Crowd B excited and happy, Crowd A gets upset
with you. You can't do it. One minute you're going to be a star
and the next minute you're going to be a scapegoat. It's a fact of life.
The greatest successes are
often followed by failures. The
greatest services are often followed by forgetfulness.
What do you do? You don't curse it. You don't nurse it.
4) You disperse it.
This is what Moses did. Give it to God. Let it go. "Cast all your
cares upon God." You
don't hang on to it. v, 25 "Then Moses cried out to the Lord and
He showed him a piece of wood. He threw it in the water and the water became
sweet."
Notice the first half of the
verse: "Moses cried out to the Lord." He didn't write a letter to the editor. He didn't say, "I'm upset." He didn't start a chain of gossip in the office to talk about
how somebody had mistreated him and he'd been passed over for promotion. He didn't try to line up people on his
side or tell people at the church.
He didn't try to build a case for himself. He went right to the Lord.
Instead of holding a pity
party, instead of gossiping in the office, instead of lining up people on your
side, pray and tell God about it.
Disperse it. "He cried out to the Lord."
What's your Marah this morning? What is bitter? What is distasteful and you don't like
it? It may be a physical Marah --
an ailment, an illness. It may be
an emotional Marah. It may be
something at your job. It's
something that just hasn't turned out the way you thought it would. Maybe your marriage.
Give it to God. Pray about it. Say, "Ok God, I'm crying
out to You. Telling other people
doesn't do any good. I'm going to
tell You." When you do
that, then you can do the fifth thing:
5) Let God reverse it.
If there is anybody in the
Bible who had a right to be bitter it was Joseph. Joseph had a dream as a young man. His brothers didn't like his dream. They threw him into a pit, started to
kill him then said, "No, let's sell him into slavery." He's sold into slavery. He's accused of rape. He's put in jail.
For the first forty years of
Joseph's life it's downhill the whole way. If anybody had the right to be bitter, it was Joseph. "God, this stinks! God, I don't like what's going on! It’s
not right. It’s unjust. I didn’t do anything to deserve this."
But later, he had a chance to
retaliate against his brothers. The circumstances changed. They came to him asking for help and he
had a chance to blow them away. He
says in Genesis 50, one of the greatest verses in the Bible, "You intended to harm me, but God
intended it for good."
God intended it for good.
One of the popular words
we're hearing today is the word "victim". The fact is, there are many experiences in your life that
you have no control over. Some of
you have been hurt very deeply, even by family members, by other people, by
former schoolteachers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, employees, former
husbands, former wives. And you've
been hurt.
I want to say that you can
choose to not be a victim. If I didn't believe that I'd quit the
ministry. God says He has the
power to help you overcome any circumstance. Any circumstance. "We
know that all things work together for good." It doesn't say all things are
good. There's a lot of bad. Someone gets cancer -- that's not good,
that's bad. Someone gets raped --
that's not good, that's bad.
Someone is verbally abused -- that's not good, that's bad.
They meant it for bad but God
meant it for good. We can either
believe that verse or cut it out of the Bible. It says that God has a plan and even the things that come
into my life that victimize me -- He gives us the power to overcome those
situations. He is working in all
things, even the bad things.
When disappointments come
into my life, things that are Marahs, bitter experiences that I don't like, I
don't curse it, I don't rehearse it (I don't go over and over it), and I don't
nurse it. It is my job to disperse it and let God reverse it.
That sounds simple but it's
not. Some of you may need to get
some professional help to do that.
You need to get a caring Christian counselor who can help you disperse
it. Some of you have been hurt in
ways you don't even know about.
It's going to take somebody to help uncover that and help you find it
out. But once you find it out, you
disperse it and you let it go.
You'll never see God's solution as long a you're wallowing in self
pity.
v. 25 "Then Moses cried out to the Lord [that's what you do when
you're disappointed -- cry out to the Lord]
and He showed him a piece of wood and he threw it into the water and the water
became sweet." Moses
responded correctly. He didn't
grumble. He said, Disappointments are His appointments. God provides the solution to turn the
bitter experience into a sweet experience. Notice it says God showed Him a tree. Circle "showed". It doesn't say God created a tree. It says God showed him a tree. The tree -- or the solution for turning
the bitter experience into a sweet experience had been there all along. God didn't have to create it, it was
there all along. But if we wallow
in pity, we don't see it. He said,
God showed him a tree.
The answer to your
disappointment is within sight.
But you've got to get your eyes on the Lord. Let Him show it to you. You'll never see it as long as
you're looking at yourself or something else, looking at the problem
3. GREAT
SHORTAGES IN LIFE ARE OFTEN FOLLOWED BY FULLNESS.
v. 27 "Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs."
The Bible goes on to say there were seventy palm trees and they camped there
near the water. Twelve springs,
seventy palm trees -- they're at Palm Springs!
This is a flat out
oasis! The Sinai is miles and
miles of barren desert. There is
absolutely nothing there. Yet it
says, "Then they came to Elim" and
there was plenty of water for everybody. And there was even some shade and palm
trees which means there was probably dates and things to eat. In the Sinai this is a paradise, this
is an oasis -- all the water they need.
Question: How far is Elim from Marah? If you were to get out a map and look
at it, you would discover -- remember they had come across the Red Sea and
three days in they were complaining about bitter water and God gives them a
solution there and then it says, "Then
they came to Elim" where there was plenty of water. Elim is five miles
from Marah. They just stopped too
soon. They gave up.
A number of years ago there
was an article about the 747 plane that crashed in the Andes and the horrible
things that went on as the people began to die. They began to cannibalize and eat those who had already died
in order to stay alive. Terrible
things. When the rescuers finally came in and rescued those people from the
plane crash the people were astonished to find that they had crashed less than
six miles from a resort. They had
been there at the crash site about 91 days. They got stuck!
And they stayed there rather than pushing ahead.
Elim is just around the corner,
a surplus of water. Yet they're
complaining and ready to give up.
The lesson is simple: We
give up too soon. We throw in the
towel. Don't quit! The answer may be just five miles away.
Question: How do you get from Marah to Elim? How do you get from the place of
disappointment to the place of delight?
How do you get from pain to paradise?
The answer is ... you just
keep on going. Keep moving ahead.
Notice it says, "Then they came to
Elim..." It doesn't say
God brought Elim to them. He
didn't. They had to reach it by
keeping on going in spite of their feelings.
Sometimes someone will say,
"I'm just so tired. I don't feel like praying. I don't feel like serving any
more. I don't feel like coming to
church. I don't feel like tithing. I don't feel like giving my life
away. I don't feel like reading
the Bible." What do you
do when you don't feel like doing those things?
You keep on reading the
Bible. You keep on praying. You keep on tithing. You keep on serving. You keep on doing the things that are
the right things to do.
Can you imagine calling your
boss tomorrow and saying, "Boss, my
heart really isn't in coming to work today. I don't feel like coming to work. Honestly, Boss, I know you wouldn't want me to be a hypocrite
about it. Since I don't feel like
coming to work, I think I'll just stay home, watch the soap operas and eat
potato chips."
Most of the good things in
life are done by people who don't feel like doing them. That's a mark of maturity. People who live by their feelings are
immature. God wants you to learn
to live by commitments.
God wants to work in your
life if you'll let Him. Face those
feelings. Face those fears. Face yourself. Face those experiences in your past and
go through them. Part of the
problem is you got stuck there.
And you need to go back and go through them. You need to go on to Elim. And get out of Marah.
Don't be stuck there. God
never meant for you to stay at Marah.
Some may say, "You don't know! If I were to tell you the pain that
I've been through you wouldn't understand."
Let me say this, I have not
experienced all the pain in life, that's true. But nothing shocks me anymore. Having pastored and been in the ministry now for 33 years,
nothing shocks me anymore. I have
seen things that you would have thought, "No
way could that person come out of that!" I've talked to lots of people. The power of God is to bring people from Marah into
Elim.
Some of you are in Marah
right now and I want to say, You didn't miss God's will. Marah is on the map. God knows exactly where you are. Romans 8:28 applies to you. And He's leading you through this
experience just as definitely as He led the Israelis through Marah. The greatest successes in life are
often followed by failure. The
greatest service in life is often followed by forgetfulness. But, the greatest shortages in life are
often followed by fullness ... if you keep going. Elim is just a ways down the road.
Psalm 34:18, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are
crushed in spirit." Has
something that was once real sweet in your life grown bitter and sour and now
you just can't swallow it? A job,
a dream, a relationship? Quit
trying to get even. Don't curse
it. Don't rehearse it, it only
increases the hurt. Don't nurse
it, that just infects you more. Disperse it, give it to God. Let Him reverse it, He will use it for
good in your life.
Some may say, "I got burned once and never again am I
going to risk. I'm not going to
let anybody hurt me."
That's not living, that's existing. It's interesting that God's solution to a bitter experience
was a piece of wood. Why He chose
it, I don't know. It was a
miracle. But God said, Here's a
piece of wood, throw it in the water and it will turn the bitter water sweet. So Moses did it simply as an act of
obedience. And a piece of wood was
used to turn a bitter experience into a sweet one.
Approximately 2000 years
later, God used another piece of wood called the cross to turn your bitter
experiences into sweet ones. When Jesus Christ hung on that cross, He was
saying, "I am taking all the sin of
this world." You talk
about a victim! Sinless, no
reason, yet He took it all on Himself so that you and I could be set free. That's the Good News. That's the gospel. That's what it's all about.
I want to introduce you to
somebody who will never disappoint you.
You will be disappointed by your father, your mother, your husband, your
wife, your sisters, your brothers, your children. You will be disappointed by
your pastor. You will be
disappointed by teachers. You will
be disappointed by all kinds of people because people are imperfect. But there's one person who will never
disappoint you -- Jesus Christ. He
says, The truth will set you free.
Prayer:
Would
you let Jesus Christ heal the hurt and resentment and bitterness that you've
experienced at your Marah? Some of
you have an uneasy feeling that "Something's
wrong in my life." You're
right. You need to face it and
deal with it and you need to go through it. You need to remember these principles from Marah. Some of you feel like you're ready to
throw in the towel about a job or experience or relationship. I want to remind you that Elim is just
a few miles away.
The
prayer I want to lead you in this morning is simple. Would you say, "Jesus, help me to not give up. Help me to not get stuck in the bitter
experience, but to push ahead until I come to Elim." Many times we don't want to push ahead
because we're afraid. Say, "Lord, help me with my fears. Lord, I want to claim the verse that
says, they meant it for bad but You meant it for good. I don't understand it all but I know
that You have a plan for my life and purpose in it. I do believe Romans 8:28 that all things work together for
good. I want to declare myself a
non victim and with Your power in my life I will be able to change. Lord, I'm not expecting any instant,
overnight miracles, but I want to press ahead until I get to Elim."
Thank You Father for
Your word. May it encourage us
all. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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