Whack-A-Mole – Knocking Down Disappointment

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

We'll jump right in.

Today is week two of a series that we've entitled Whack-a-Mole.

And here's what we've been doing.

If you missed last week, or maybe this is your first time or first time in a long time, you need to know this.

We're dealing with some things that tend to pop up in our lives.

And sometimes they're annoying, they're frustrating, and all of those things.

And so we thought, man, let's take this month and let's deal with a few of those things.

And in Jesus' name, it's going to be a good time.

So let's do this.

Let's pray and then let's jump right in.

Lord, we love you.

Thank you so much for just the incredible worship we've already had.

We're starting off our week the right way, and that's in your house.

And so now I just pray that you would speak and let us leave here changed and better than we are when we came in.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Come on, we all said amen.

Access Church, I'm gonna be honest with you, there are some things that you can say to me that I'm not gonna mind at all.

Like if you utter any of these next few things, like I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be uh excited, elated.

Uh for example, if you said, Pastor Isaiah, I was looking at you and you are one handsome chocolate brother.

I'm gonna listen, I'm I I agree.

I'm just saying, like, if you say that, I don't mind at all.

I'm not advising you to go to talk to everybody like that, but I'm just saying, if you say that to me, I'm I'm gonna be all right with that.

If you said, Pastor Isaiah, your your wife is incredible.

I met her, she's amazing, and and she's better than you, honestly.

Like, I'll take that.

Like, I know I married up nine and a half years ago, and so I'll just tell you, like, listen, I'm you can say that to me, and it's totally, totally fine.

If you say to me, Pastor Isaiah, your kids, I have two beautiful kids, Nehemiah and Noel.

Nehemiah's eight, Noelle's three.

I love them, the pride and joy of my life.

If you say, I your kids are so sweet, I would tell you, I know I made them in Jesus' name.

I don't anyway, I'll just say that I love it.

It brings a lot of joy to my heart if you were to say any of those things.

But let me be honest with you, there are some things that if you said to me, I don't know if I'd be too excited about.

Like, like if you know who my favorite sports team is, and you come up and you want to debate how trash they are, I'm not gonna like that.

Because I'm telling you this year, the Ohio State University will be the champions.

I'm just trying to tell you that's just how it's going down.

And when it's all said and done, the Cleveland Browns will win the Super Bowl.

I'm just this section.

Can we pray for y'all?

We'll get into a debate, man.

I I don't there's I'll laugh, I'll joke, I'll give you all 65 teeth I got, but really inside I'm like, yo, what?

No, I don't like that.

I got pride for my team.

Pastor Jason, I love my team.

All right.

If you try to convince me that cheese is actually good, I'm gonna be like, yo, what?

Like you say that I like it's just not good.

Like blue cheese, what are you doing?

That's disgusting.

I just I don't know, man.

It's just not good.

But I'll be honest, if you say, uh, there are some things that you can say to me that I'm like, man, you you could crush my soul.

If I like you, if I respect you, if I got love for you, you could crush my soul, you could cripple my spirit.

If you say these four words to me, check this out.

I'm disappointed in you.

Woo!

Let me tell you, I'm a happy-go-lucky guy, but if I like you, I respect you, if I got love for you, if you say these four words to me, something inside of me will be shaken to its core.

And so today, for the next five hours, I'm just kidding.

Just today, just for the next few hours, I want to talk to you about this word that begins with a D, disappointment.

Everybody say disappointment.

I want to show you and talk to you about disappointment.

Disappointment, I would say, is an equal opportunity offender.

Because have you ever been disappointed?

Let's test who wore deodorant this morning.

Raise your hand if you've ever been disappointed.

Come on, let's test.

We're gonna find out who didn't wear it.

One more time.

Let's be honest.

Who has ever been disappointed in their life?

All of us, right?

We've all been disappointed.

And like last week, Pastor Jason said in his message, man, it would be awesome if there were certain verses that would just magically take all of these things that tend to pop up in our lives away.

Like that would be awesome if I could sit here and I could tell you for the next few minutes that disappointment will never come your way after today.

But I can't do that.

But all of us have felt disappointed.

Let me say it like this that some of us, we walked in here, some of us sitting right here, we're disappointed in something.

Some of us were disappointed in something.

So it's the it's the beautiful budding, sprouting relationship that you're in.

That that man, maybe it didn't work out.

And you're disappointed.

Maybe it's the business deal that you thought was gonna go through that was gonna net you a lot of money and put your pant family in a better position than they are now, and it didn't work out, and you're disappointed.

It's something that you thought would change and it hasn't, and it leaves us disappointed.

Many of us are sitting here today, we find ourselves disappointed.

We're disappointed in something, but some of us are sitting here today, we're disappointed in someone.

It's a boss, it's a co-worker, it's a friend, it's a family member, somebody that rubbed you the wrong way.

We're disappointed in them.

It's very possible, and not just possible, but it's also probable that today you could be sitting here and you are disappointed with God.

I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but I know that there are some people in this room, myself included, that we've probably hit a time or two in our life when we've even been disappointed with God.

And I want to talk to that and speak to that today.

This this issue of disappointment tends to pop up in our lives.

What I want to do is I want to look at a great man.

He's a powerful, prominent, prolific man in the Bible, and his name is Moses.

Everybody say Moses.

Now, before we get rolling, you need to know just a little bit of something about Moses.

A lot of us know him from the burning bush experience spoken of in Exodus chapter 3, and you'd be right.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Man, you you some of us maybe we're not too familiar with the Bible, and we but we've heard about that.

That's that's Moses.

A lot of us we know, even if we can't quote the Ten Commandments, we know a little bit about the Ten Commandments, and God gave those to Moses.

He was this great man in the Bible.

He turned out to be a great leader.

Matter of fact, you need to know this.

One scholar said this that in the Bible, 803 times, Moses is referred to in your Bible.

One other scholar said that there's only two people above Moses referred to in the Bible, and that's Jesus and David.

So when we're talking about Moses, we're talking about a great man.

One of my favorite preachers said it this way.

He was describing the life of Moses, and he said Moses was abandoned by his mother, but with a stick and a stutter, he became a leader like no other.

I like that.

So I stole it.

So there you go.

That's Moses, though.

This is a great man of God, abandoned by his mother, but with a stick and a stutter, he became a leader like no other.

So I want to look at Moses.

Now he lived to be 120 years old.

So he was no stranger to disappointment.

I just want to look at three disappointments that he had in his life, because here's what I know some of the ways that disappointment popped up in his life is very similar to some of the ways that disappointment pops up in our life.

So I want to look at those today, and I hope that you'll be encouraged.

So after we look at them, I'm gonna show us, hey, what do we do?

In those moments when disappointment does pop up, what do we do?

But the first way I see it popping up in our lives, write this in your notes, is when things go from bad to worse.

Woo! You want to be disappointed.

Let some things in your life go from bad to worse.

Now I want to drop us into the text this morning, into Exodus chapter 5.

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

Before we even get there, you need to know the scene.

Exodus chapter 3, God comes to Moses via this burning bush, and he gives him this mandate, this calling that he places on Moses' life.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Moses gives some examples, uh, or I'm sorry, some excuses.

Uh, and after that, he does become obedient to God.

He tells the people of Israel, hey, God is going to deliver us out of Egyptian slavery.

They were slaves, and he says, Hey, God has sent me, God has heard you, he sees what you're going through, and he's gonna do something about it.

So I'm gonna lead us, we're gonna lead the charge, we're gonna follow the Lord out of slavery.

Now they're so happy that in Exodus chapter 4, they have a night of worship.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

And we have nights of worship here, and so uh we have a night of worship and they bow down, they worship the Lord, and it's incredible.

And then we get to Exodus chapter 5, because now rubber has to meet the road.

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

Moses and his brother Aaron, they go to meet Pharaoh.

Exodus chapter 5 says this.

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go.

There's that famous line that so many of us know.

So that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.

Pharaoh said straight up, Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go?

I don't know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.

Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us.

Now let us take just a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.

Or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.

But the king of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor?

Remember, they were slaves.

Get back to your work.

Then Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are now numerous.

They were in slavery so long that they had kids and generations upon generations upon generations.

So he says, There's a lot of them, and you're stopping them from working.

And that same day, Pharaoh gave the order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people.

He said this.

He got mad.

He got mad that Moses and Aaron were stepping into his palace, stepping in his court, telling him, Let all of your slaves go.

So he said this you're no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks.

What you need to know is that these clay bricks that they were using, they were fortified by straw.

And at the time Pharaoh was supplying this straw for them.

And so now he says, You know what?

You're not getting that.

So now you're going to be on your own finding the supplies to do what it is that I have for you to do.

So let's let them go and gather their own straw.

But let's not reduce the quota.

Require them to make the same number of bricks as before.

But don't reduce the quota, the quota.

They are lazy, and that's why they're crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God.

So now the people, now the people, they were so excited, they had this night of worship, they think, oh man, we're gonna be free.

We are slaves, but now we're gonna be free.

Moses steps in the picture, talks to Pharaoh, and things go from bad to worse.

They were already slaves, but now the work as slaves has gotten harder.

Things have gone from bad to worse.

So they go, and the Bible says this in Exodus chapter 5, 22.

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

Show me this.

It says Moses returned to the Lord.

How do you think Moses felt?

He returned to the Lord and said, Why, Lord, have you brought trouble on these people?

Is this why you sent me?

Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.

Let me ask you a question.

How did Moses feel in this moment?

Disappointed.

Why?

Because he had excuses as to why he couldn't do what it is that God had asked him to do, but then he says, you know what?

I am gonna be obedient.

So he thinks, man, I'm doing the right thing, God.

And I spoke to Pharaoh, but magically now things have gone from bad to worse.

God tells him in Exodus chapter 6 that check it out, like I'm gonna, by my mighty hand, I will take care of Pharaoh.

Exodus 6 · chapter mention

So I need you to write this.

When things go from bad to worse, God's hand is still working.

When things in our life, disappointment sets in, when things go from bad to worse, but when this happens, God's hand is still working.

Moses had to get this.

The people of Israel had to get this in this moment that no matter what they were going through, God's hand was still at work.

I found out this.

I found that the one of the tricks that the enemy employs against us is he loves to ride the coattails of disappointment.

So oftentimes in our life, when things go from bad to worse, he slips right in at the most opportune time to feed us lies.

So you expected a miracle to happen in your life, and you wanted this miracle to happen in your life, and things haven't gotten better, they've gotten worse, and now the enemy comes in and says, that's because that miracle is just never gonna happen.

You prayed for the kid, you want that child into your life, and things have not gotten good better, they have gotten worse, and now the enemy slips in on the coattails of disappointment to tell you that's because you're never gonna have a kid.

You want to get out of debt, you want to be able to provide for your family.

You've been praying for God to be Jehovah Jirah, your provider, and things have not gotten better, they've gotten worse, and the enemy comes in on the coattails of disappointment to tell you that's because it's just never gonna happen.

But I just want to encourage you today that that is a lie from the enemy.

That when he comes in in the time of disappointment to you, he comes in to you, and all of these things are lies.

When he appears in these moments, these things are lies.

He does this over and over and over again.

And if we're not careful, we won't see it.

And in the moment of disappointment, he will come in and tell you, that's just because God doesn't care.

That's just because things are going from bad to worse because it's just never gonna happen.

Some time back I found myself uh in between what I feel like were like two decisions, two very big decisions.

And I felt like literally my life could go one of two ways, and I'm praying and I'm I'm seeking the Lord.

And I tried to orient my life in such a way where I can like hear God's voice and I can then do what he says, and and I just felt like I wasn't getting clarity either way, and and so I just kept praying, and and I did what what we always tell you pray until the peace comes.

And I'm saying, Lord, like I need your peace in this moment, and so I'm praying.

And I just felt like I wasn't getting clarity.

And as a matter of fact, I thought things were getting worse.

They were bad, but they were getting worse.

They weren't getting better, they were getting worse.

Then I felt my mind begin to spiral.

You know that feeling.

I'm sure you do that, that feeling of when your mind goes from one thought to the next thought to the next thought.

And then I began to have these thoughts that God's not giving you a clear answer because he doesn't want you to know his purpose and his plan for your life.

But that's a trick of the enemy.

And that is one way that disappointment pops up when things go from bad to worse.

Here's the second way that disappointment tends to pop up.

It's when things don't look like we think they should.

Oh man, I'm disappointed when things don't look like I think they should.

So now we're gonna jump down just a few chapters and we get to Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

And in Exodus chapter 14, a lot of a lot of scholars and theologians would say that this is uh one of the single most dramatic uh moments in Scripture, one of the most dramatic chapters in Scripture.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

Because what's happening is that the people of Israel by God's hand now have been released by Pharaoh to leave.

And the people go on their journey and they're guided by God, and their human leader Moses is taking them, and now we're talking about over a million people.

Scripture says there's about 600,000, just the men.

And so when we add in women and children, there's over a million people, and Moses is leading them, but now they walk right into the Red Sea.

Moses, uh not Moses, but Pharaoh has changed his mind now and now is on their heels.

And now it's like, yo, what are we going to do?

Now we pick it up, Exodus 14, 10 says it like this.

As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and they panicked.

Because now they're like, What are we gonna do?

We thought we were going free.

In front of us is the sea, behind us is Pharaoh.

So they panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them.

They cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, So they're crying out to the Lord, but they're complaining to Moses, and they say, Why'd you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?

Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt?

What have you done to us?

Why did you leave us?

Why didn't you leave us in Egypt?

And Moses says, or the people say, Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt?

We said, Leave us alone.

Remember, things have gone from bad to worse, Moses.

Every single time you step on the scene, things don't get better, they get worse.

We said, Leave us alone.

Let us be slaves to the Egyptians.

It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness.

But Moses told the people, speaking in faith, he says, Don't be afraid, just stand still.

Maybe you need to know that in your moment of disappointment today.

Don't panic, don't throw in the towel, don't give up, don't worry, like we talked about last week.

Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.

The Egyptians that you see today, you will never be seen again.

The Lord Him, take this and take this home with you.

You might need it this week when you face those moments of disappointment.

The Lord Himself will fight for you.

Just stay calm.

Now watch this.

Let's jump in the sandals of Moses.

He says this to the people, but can you imagine him looking up to God like, what are we gonna do?

I'm talking in faith here, but all I see is the sea and Pharaoh.

I need your help.

So give me the next verse.

Uh we drop it down just a little bit.

There should be one more.

No, there's not one more.

Okay, it doesn't matter.

Here's the deal.

I'll tell you the story.

I'll tell you the story.

He says this, right, in faith, and then God ends up pulling them all the way through.

And it's this beautiful moment because what they didn't see is they didn't see God's plan.

They saw the seed, their problem, they saw Pharaoh, their problem, but they didn't see God's plan.

And so here it is when things don't look like we think we should, church, I'm just trying to tell you, God still has a plan.

Sometimes in disappointment, we get disoriented, and sometimes we're we're frazzled and we're here, there, and everywhere.

We talked about last week.

We are worried, we're divided, and what about this and what about that?

And what am I gonna do over here?

But when things don't look like we think they should, God still has a you may not be able to see it, but God was about to perform for these people one of the biggest miracles in the Bible.

People that don't even go to church know that Moses parted the Red Seas.

And there were just two miracles.

Can I just give this is off the record, but this is for free.

There were two miracles that day.

It was that the seas parted and they didn't walk through on muddy ground, they walked through on dry ground.

Because God still had a plan for them, even in the midst of their disappointment.

How do you think Moses felt?

Like, I'm leading these people.

And God made, uh, performed an amazing miracle right there.

Now, now here's the deal.

I've been using this word disappointment.

Let me give you a working definition that you just need to know.

Here's what disappointment is it's the psychological reaction to an outcome that does not match up to expectations.

And I think we see this in that these people think, okay, we're getting out of slavery.

We we have an expectation of where we're going, and things don't look like we think they should.

And here it is with with with with uh disappointment.

It's the greater the gap, the greater the disappointment.

So I just use this word expectations.

So let me show you this visual real quick, just to get your mind around this.

A lot of us have expectations, but reality doesn't quite meet up, and in the middle is disappointment.

What's a good surefire way to get disappointed?

So when my expectations are here, and reality is here, and now I'm disappointed.

And we have this in so many areas of our life.

Matter of fact, some of us have this as it relates to God.

We expected God to do something up here.

We put our expectations on what we think God should have done in a situation.

So our expectations are here, reality is here, and now we're disappointed with God.

Have you ever been there?

And so often we make a mistake, which is putting our own expectations on God.

I think I'm trying to come to a place in my life where I'm not gonna put my expectations on what I think God should do.

I'm not gonna put that on him.

I'm just gonna stand back and do like Exodus 14, 14 says, and say, God, you fight me, you do what you need to do in this situation, and it's your plan and your purpose on your timing, right?

Because so many of us in the moments of disappointment, we're praying to God and we're asking him certain things, and we're putting our expectations on him, not knowing he has probably a whole nother plan in place.

And oh, by the way, pastors can be disappointed too.

Don't ever get too impressed by anybody up here because you think, oh, well, they have it all perfect and they have everything put together.

They're so I have disappointments too.

I have expectations that I feel like are unmet as well.

And so I've just resigned myself to figure out, man, if I'm praying about something and I feel like God is silent on me, it just means he's working on the solution.

Matter of fact, you need to write that down.

If God is silent, he is working on the solution.

I'm not gonna play into the enemy's tricks and his his his snares and all of his strategies to get me to think that God doesn't care and that God's never gonna meet my expectations.

I'm not gonna play into any of that.

I'm just gonna resign myself that if God is silent, it just means he's working on the solution.

So here you are today.

If you're feeling disappointed, you need to maybe just have that in your back pocket for the moment of disappointment that just says, listen, if God is silent, that means he's working on the solution.

What I said just a few minutes ago, the enemy loves to ride the coattails of disappointment.

So many times we have our expectations so high that when they're not met, we're disappointed.

And don't get me wrong, man, expectations are amazing.

They make room for hope and for anticipation and for a brighter future, but they're also risky because when they're unmet, we become disappointed.

It's the expectation that my spouse would see what I do, they would give me verbal credit for it, and they didn't.

In that moment of disappointment, the enemy comes in and says, that's because they just don't care.

It's when you sat down with your boss and you thought you were seeing eye to eye, you thought everything would work out well and it didn't.

You expected it to work out well and it didn't.

And now the enemy says, That's just because you're just a number, and they just don't care.

You expected yourself to be better in a certain area.

You've been struggling in a certain area, you expected better of yourself, and you didn't, reality didn't quite meet that expectation.

And the enemy loves to ride the coattails of disappointment to tell you that's just because you'll never get through this.

But that is a lie from the enemy.

That's not what God says about you.

So are a couple ways that we see disappointment pop up in our life.

Here's another way that we see disappointment pop up in our life, and it's when things don't change.

Come on, talk to me.

When things don't change, man, I'm I'm disappointed.

So many people, if we were to pull the room, that you would say that's a pet peeve of yours.

If something's not changing, if there's no follow-through, we get disappointed.

So now we move over to the book of Numbers, fourth book in your Bible.

The historical backdrop of Numbers is the people of Israel in the wilderness and they wander for 40 years.

God's been providing for them, but God's been providing the same thing day after day after day.

It's manna, it's this cake-like, bread-like substance.

He's been providing that day after day after day.

And the people get to a place where they're disappointed with God.

And they're angry with God.

And in Numbers chapter 11, we read about it says this, that Moses heard the people of every family, all these people He had led out.

Numbers 11 · chapter mention

People of every family, not just crying, not just weeping, but wailing at the entrance to their tents.

The Lord became exceedingly angry.

One of the times that we see this about the Lord, just he became angry.

And Moses was troubled.

Moses disappointed.

He asked the Lord, Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?

What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?

Did I conceive all these people?

Did I give birth to them or did you?

Moses getting slick with God.

Some of us do the same thing.

Come on, we'll be honest.

Raise your hand.

No, don't raise your hand.

I'm just playing.

But he says, Listen, come on, man.

Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries an infant to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?

Where can I get meat for all these people?

They were sick of manna.

They wanted meat.

They keep wailing to me, not crying out.

We're wailing, man.

They're upset.

Give us meat to eat.

I cannot carry these people by myself.

The burden is too heavy for me.

If this is how you're going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me.

Moses is disappointed.

You only talk about God killing you when you are.

You don't do that on a good day.

You do that when you're disappointed.

I hope you don't.

I don't know.

All right.

If I found favor in your eyes, Moses says, do not let me face my own ruin.

When things don't look like when I'm disappointed with the way things look, I need to remember this that God is still in charge.

Write this down.

Here it is.

When we're disappointed with things not changing, God is still in charge.

You see, the people were upset.

The people were disappointed and angry, and Moses disappointed and angry.

God even says, listen, I'm sick of you guys.

Y'all are crybabies.

I can't handle all this.

Right?

And they're disappointed.

Because things aren't changing.

But they had to realize that God was in charge.

Maybe you didn't catch it, but when as I was reading it, Moses has so much of the focus on himself.

Did I give birth to them?

Did I conceive them?

These people, why'd you bring in trouble on me?

And he was carrying so much of the weight.

And if we were to keep reading on, we won't for time's sake today.

But if we were to keep reading on today, what we would find out is that God would send him people to help him shoulder the burden.

God would provide meat for his people.

He would provide, because that's just the type of God that he is.

But the reality is, like, they had gotten to this point, but they had forgotten, even Moses had forgotten God was in charge.

Can I be real this morning?

There's a lot of us in the room.

We want something to change.

It's not changing.

We want a situation, a circumstance, we want a bill, we want to change.

We want all these things.

We want so much stuff to change.

We're thinking to ourselves, man, like, man, if this would just, if this situation would just change, I'd be all right.

So many, so many of us want people to change.

We want someone to change.

Don't look at your spouse, don't do that.

Not right now.

Later, you could talk.

But right now, so many of us want somebody to change.

We want our kid to change, our spouse want our job.

We want someone to change.

And if we're honest, it's because we want to be in control and we want to be in charge and we forget that God ultimately is in charge.

And the people had forgotten that that God was in charge of them.

These are just a few of the ways that in these stories and in this life of Moses that I see.

And then there's probably hundreds more, but but this is how disappointment pops up, isn't it?

So now that we've arrived at this place, man, what do we do with it?

Because again, I cannot tell you today that disappointment is not waiting for you when you leave here.

I cannot tell you that life with God is just easy and filled with no disappointment.

That is a lie.

That's not true.

Inevitably, disappointments wait around every corner in life, it feels like.

So I can't do that.

So when it pops up into my life, Pastor Isaiah, what do I do?

You asked a great question.

I'm glad you did.

Here's a couple things.

First of all, I think this.

I think number one, we need to turn to God for his answer.

When disappointment pops up into your life, we need to turn to God for his answer.

What I want you to see is that, and we read it today, and there's so many other times throughout scripture, when Moses was ticked off, when Moses was burning with anger, when Moses was disappointed, he went to God.

He didn't go away from God.

Here's the reality: a lot of us, when we're disappointed, we pull away from God.

But I actually think it's in those times where God wants us to press into him.

That he doesn't want us to run from him in moments of disappointment, but he wants us to run to him because he can handle it and he can do something about your disappointments.

That, friends, is good news.

When I hear that, that gives me a little bit of joy.

I think when I leave these doors, I can make it through when I run to God.

You hear that?

When we run to him in our disappointment, because he wants to be there with us.

And he was with Moses, and as he was with Moses, so he is with you, whatever your disappointment is.

I love what the writer, the Apostle Paul, says later in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 12, 9.

He was dealing with like a thorn in the flesh, is what he calls it.

And I won't debate what that is exactly, but here's what we know is something that was bothersome to him.

And he says this in 2 Corinthians 12 9.

I love this verse.

He says, each time, because he went to God and said, God, take this away.

But each time, God said, My grace is all you need.

My grace is all you need.

I'm running to God with my disappointment, but I'm looking to him for his answer.

Will he rescue me from disappointment?

Maybe.

But like Paul, even if he doesn't, his grace is all you need.

I came to speak that over somebody today that his grace is all you need.

My power works best.

What's this word?

One more time for the people in the back?

My power works best in weakness.

Let me just substitute this one.

And the Bible doesn't say this.

Go back one more.

It's a remix moment right here.

My power works best in disappointment.

Whatever you're plagued with disappointment by this morning, God's power works best in those moments.

I don't win when I run from God.

I win when I run to God in the moments of my disappointment.

Because God can handle it.

And He wants me to be, He wants to be involved in those moments.

I thought of a way to try to illustrate this this morning, and this is the best I got, so just bear with me.

But I hate being sick.

Anybody you hate being sick, it's just there's nothing more.

It's just worse.

It's the worst.

And I hate being stuffed up and you can't taste your food and you're hungry, but you can't taste your food.

Anybody hate that and you're coughing, you can't sleep.

I love NyQuil, everybody.

I love NyQuil.

I love Nyquil.

I got issues.

No, I'm playing.

I don't abuse NyQuil.

But I go to NyQuil, right?

Because it helps me, it helps me get through the night.

In a greater, deeper, higher way, right?

Think about this.

Like physically, my ailments make me run to NyQuil.

I don't abuse it, by the way.

Online, I'm just trying to tell you.

But it's my ailments that make me run to NyQuil.

In a greater, deeper, higher way, it's my disappointment that should make me run to God.

And then with my disappointment, I give that to him and I watch out for his answer.

Not what I'm expecting him to do, but what he wills to do.

So I gotta run to God.

When disappointment pops up, I run to him.

But then here's the next thing.

The next thing is I choose to have the right attitude.

Oftentimes disappointment leads to things like bitterness and resentment and anger and worry and it just runs the course.

And it's like one domino falls and the rest follows suit.

But if I can choose to be angry and hateful and bitter and resentful and all those things in my moments of disappointment, I can also choose to do what David said in the Bible, encourage myself in the Lord.

It's just a choice.

And those moments, I sometimes I have no control.

Again, it's inevitable that disappointments come to us in our life, but I can choose to have the right attitude through my disappointment.

Does this make sense to you?

All of us, we can we can choose that.

And we talked yesterday, Pastor Barry and I talked with a young man, and we told him, listen, you can only control what you can control.

And sometimes we're trying to shoulder the weight and the burden and carry everything for everybody else.

But there are some things that only you can control, and the rest is out of your hands.

One thing you can choose to do in moments of disappointment is you can choose to have the right attitude.

Here's the third thing.

When disappointment pops up in your life, check this out.

Keep on.

You gotta keep on.

I was in the store the other day, and um, you know, when you're in the long line and everyone's waiting, there's a complication of the register, it's like awkward, and um and I'll be honest, I'm nosy.

Like I really am.

Like I want to know when people start talking, I'm like, oh, what they talking about?

She did what?

Dang, like that's me.

And um, I know I'm still praying and I'm still I got issues.

But this day, earlier this week, I said, no, I'm not gonna do this, I'm not gonna do that.

I want to, but I'm not gonna do it.

And so I said, no, let me step back.

This one lady turns behind to the other lady and says, Hey, how are you doing today?

And lady number two says, you know, I'm alright.

Today's the anniversary of so-and-so, the passed away of my family, so I'm doing all right, but I've learned that I gotta keep on.

The lady in front of her says, You know what?

That actually I I have kind of a similar situation, and they started talking about it, what it was, and she said, I'm like you, though.

I've learned that I just gotta keep on.

And you know, Pastor Jason, I have this thing in me that I, since I know I'm a pastor, I'm like, man, is this a prayer moment?

Should I pray for them?

But then my next thought was like, seems like they got it going on.

Like, can y'all pray for me, ladies?

I need prayer.

Like, you know, there's like these moments where, and so they they had this moment, and I thought, man, what a powerful principle.

That perhaps on the other side of my disappointment, I'll find what God has for me.

But I have to get through it.

The only way to get through disappointment is through disappointment.

And I'm not minimizing it, I'm not sweeping it under the rug, I'm not saying it didn't hurt or it doesn't still hurt.

What I am saying is that I'm no longer gonna let that disappointment distract me, destroy me.

Rather, it's just a slight delay.

I think disappointments in our life were never meant to destroy us.

There may be slight delays, but we can make it through.

I love what Paul said in Philippians 3.

Here it is.

Last verse of the day.

Boom, there it is.

One thing I do, I forget what's behind me.

I'm straining towards what's ahead, and I press on.

Everybody say press on.

He said, I press on toward towards, not backward, I press on towards the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

You want to get through disappointment?

You gotta get through disappointment.

With God's help, you can do it.

And we can knock down disappointment in our lives.

All over the room.

Let's pray.

Wanna pray and close this morning.

Here's what I'm gonna do.

First and foremost, I'm just gonna ask you, with every head bowed, every eye closed, if you're disappointed in something or someone today, would you just right now raise your hand?

I just want, come on, all over the room.

Maybe you're online, put the hand emoji, something like that.

I just want to pray for you.

You can put your hands down all over the room.

That's all of us.

We're all in this together.

Firstly, I want to pray for you, and then after that, if you say, you know what, I don't even have the first step down.

I'm disappointed, and I don't even have a relationship with Jesus in my life.

I want to pray for you right after that.

Lord, we come to you firstly for those that are disappointed with something or someone in their life.

God, I pray that they would take this message, that they would act it out.

Not just hear it, but act it out.

And I pray, Lord, by your spirit, you would go with them through the disappointment.

As you were with Moses and Paul and David, all these other people in the Bible that we read about you are with us.

And when disappointment pops up, it's inevitable.

We can get through it with your help.

So I pray for my friend, my brother, my sister that they would lean on you.

They would look to you for your answer.

They would choose to have the right attitude, and they would keep on, keeping on.