How to deal with failed expectations and be disappointed but not discouraged.

<p>How to deal with failed expectations and be disappointed but not discouraged.</p>

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Freedom Health Ministries

Gabriel Arruda

Disappointed but Not Discouraged

All right, title of this message is Disappointed but Not Discouraged.

And we're going to talk about how to deal with failed expectations.

So 2 weeks ago I spoke at a young adult retreat that was let out by the Open Door Church in Sacramento and F5, that ministry that Calvin Kim has.

Yeah, there was like 150 to 200 people there.

It was, the Lord really blessed, but I was just thinking, you know, what am I gonna share with these people?

And as I was thinking about it and praying about it, my mind was led to a topic that I've been thinking about for a while, and that is failed expectations.

And I ended up, out of this study, I ended up becoming a four-part series, so you'll probably be hearing more about that.

Have any of you ever had any failed expectations?

You know, this is a really serious topic.

As I was thinking about it, it was just something that initially fascinated me, but as I got into it, I realized, wow, this is really important, like this is really serious.

Marriages break up because of failed expectations.

Children don't talk to their parents anymore because of failed expectations.

Friends stop becoming friends because of failed expectations.

People leave the Seventh-day Adventist Church because of failed expectations.

People leave God, period, because of failed expectations.

You know, you may have been in a conversation with a group of people and they'll be talking about some issue and someone will say, you know, but it's not salvational, so it's not that important.

Well, I'm here to tell you this is salvational.

You could lose your soul if you do not understand how to deal with failed expectations.

And all you have to do is live life a few short years and find out life is full of failed expectations.

The 12 disciples of Jesus, When Christ was crucified, how did they feel?

Now, did all 12 of the disciples come out of that with their salvation?

No, there's 1 that we will not see in the kingdom, right?

Judas, he did not know how to deal with failed expectations.

The nation of Israel, you know, we hear about the prosperity of the early church and you know how thousands were baptized on this day and thousands were baptized on another day.

But when you back up and think, there were millions of Jews, millions, The minority of Jews accepted the Savior, accepted the Messiah.

He didn't come the way he was supposed to, according to their narrative.

Is anyone gonna be in the kingdom rejecting the Messiah?

Doesn't look very good And so millions of Jews and then in more recent history Something near and dear to our hearts the Millerite movement the great disappointment of 1844 Some estimated that there were close to a hundred thousand people waiting for Jesus to come on October 2nd 1844.

After that you know how many hung in there and continued in the faith?

Many of them got into a wild fanaticism, some left church completely, they lost hope in all scripture completely, failed expectations.

And so if you don't know how to deal with failed expectations, it can be devastating to your entire salvation, your whole destiny.

And so we have to know how to deal with that as a people.

Now, how do you know if you have had a failed expectation?

Anytime you're disappointed, you have had a failed expectation.

I'm a little disappointed in this winter so far.

As I look out and see patches of grass, I love to go on the mountain all the time.

This winter did not meet my expectations so far and 1 of the many disappointments that we experience in life.

And so what are you hoping to get from this life?

You know, perhaps you're sitting there and you're thinking back on your life and you thought by this time in your life you'd be over here but you're actually finding yourself over here.

Perhaps you thought God was going to give you a certain career or a certain job, but that didn't work out.

Perhaps you thought you were going to marry a certain person and that didn't work out.

Perhaps I know people that they thought by the time I'm in my 30s I'm gonna have a big family, lots of kids, and they're still single.

You know, we have lots and lots of expectations for the way we hope things go and that doesn't always work out the way we want it to, does it?

Well, I want to show you that Jesus showed us how to deal with disappointment without being discouraged.

When we go from disappointment and we slide into discouragement.

And I'm speaking from personal experience.

I actually, as I was thinking about this, God revealed to me, I'm like the worst case scenario.

I'm very ambitious and I have a very strong melancholy streak.

That's a really bad combination to be really ambitious and have a strong melancholy streak because ambitious people, they achieve things but guess what?

They get disappointed a lot along the way.

And if you're melancholy, that's really easy to slide from disappointment into discouragement.

And so I've had a lot of experience with this, unfortunately.

But Jesus shows us how to be disappointed without being discouraged, which is really key.

So please turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 49, Isaiah the 49th chapter, and we're gonna read verses 1 through 4.

Now as we get into this, it doesn't use the word Messiah or Jesus, but we're going to see it's actually referring to Christ.

It says, listen, O Isles, unto me, and hearken, you people from afar.

The Lord has called me from the womb, and from the bowels of my mother He has made mention of my name." Okay, question for you.

Was Jacob mentioned by name prior to his birth?

Was Isaiah mentioned by name prior to his birth?

Jesus was mentioned by name prior to birth.

He hath made my mouth like a sharp, what?

Like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand, he had hid me.

And he has made me a polished shaft and his quiver has hid me.

Now there's someone in the book of Revelation and in prophetic language, they're pictured as having a tongue, their tongue like a sharp sword.

Revelation chapter 1, it pictures Christ and out of his mouth where his tongue is, it says there was a sharp sword.

You see all the symbolic imagery here telling us who this is.

Notice verse 3, And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Now it said Israel, but let me ask you a question.

Did Israel live up to the glory that God expected them to give Him.

They never fully lived up to the glory that God expected them.

They started to with the reigns of David and Solomon, but they never fully lived up to that glory did Jesus.

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Disappointed but Not Discouraged

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