Finding Faith Amidst Chaos and Disappointment

"Well, we get done with golf. I'm like, okay, cool. No big deal. No big deal. Now we're in San Antonio. I want to go see the Alamo because I've never seen it before. I want to go down and just like, you know, I'm not a history buff. I'm like, oh, that's cool. Let's go see something old. Well, we're walking. If you've never been in San Antonio, there's a river walk right in the middle of the city. And so we're, we're walking down the river walk and it's like this pretty river and like all these little outdoor shops and stuff like that. And, and like trees that are growing up, but there's like this sidewalk and it's all manicured. It's like downtown. So they're taking care of it. It's not Riverside, whatever. So, well, there's this crowd of people that are gathered up like around this bush or plant. And I'm like, oh, what's going on? Is there like some street art is like, you know, I don't know what's going on. So, so I go over and I'm like, like, I'm not like touching them, but I'm like right up on them. And I'm like looking." [00:03:53]

"You ever realize it's interesting how when life becomes chaotic, we become confused? When we're faced with that chaotic moment, we just, we kind of like get all out of sorts? When dilemma strikes, our focus becomes diluted. We hit a setback and it stops all of our forward progress. We find ourselves just being, watch, watch me, watch me. We find ourselves in a moment where we should be locked in. We're just unwound because something has caused us to become shaken. Something has caused us to just be, come undone. And that's kind of where we find ourselves today. And maybe it's not a snake while you're playing golf or in downtown San Antonio. Maybe it's a diagnosis that you received. Maybe it's a phone call that you got from somebody. Maybe it's an unanswered prayer. Or maybe it's a prayer that was answered just not in the way you wanted it to be answered. And so now you are struggling to get your bearings on." [00:05:42]

"That's really where we find ourselves in the passage that we're looking at today. Let me kind of set it up and storytell it for you real quick. We're in Luke's gospel chapter 24 today and Jesus on Thursday night, he has gone to the garden of Gethsemane to spend time in prayer and then he's betrayed there in the evening and goes on this flurry and frenzy of a trial that goes kind of through the night and this interrogation and there comes a moment on Friday morning where he's condemned to death and then he goes from this mockery of a trial to now he's hanging on a cross and he's there for a short period of time and then all of a sudden he's dead and they have to rush him off the cross because then they have to get him in the tomb because in their calendar timeline, this would be Passover weekend. It's the biggest weekend for them and so they have to rush him off and get him in the tomb and now he's in the tomb all of the rest of Friday and all the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning and Sunday morning and Sunday morning and Sunday morning and Sunday morning and Sunday morning." [00:07:15]

"shows up and the stone gets rolled away and women are there and they're witnessing that Jesus, the tomb, he's not there. The tomb's empty. Is somebody taking him? Is he alive from the dead? What does all this mean? And the disciples are somewhat in a quandary. And in Luke chapter 24, it says that very same day, there's these two guys that are traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It's a seven mile journey and they encounter Jesus and they start to have this conversation with him and he's asking them what's going on. And they're like, have you not been on Twitter? Have you not been on? Did you not have wifi to check your social, to check your Facebook? Like Jesus of Nazareth has died and now people are saying he's back. And here's what they actually tell him. They said, we thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel." [00:08:26]

"disciples, but yet they were close enough that they watched miracles happening. They were there when teachings were going on and they had been impacted by the ministry of Jesus, but they encountered the intimacy of Jesus where he spoke to the deep things on the inside of them, their purpose and their calling. And they had been so, such had this moment in some period of time over the course of at most three and a half years, or at least one moment where they had been so locked in that now they are shaken in what's going on in life because they have struck the rock of dilemma. It's Jesus that we thought he was the Messiah. Like we saw him walk on the, we heard about him walking on the water and we saw him open blind eyes and we saw him, we were possibly there when he fed five, you know, over 20 ,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Like we were just, we were, we see all and we've heard all that he's done and we thought he was the Messiah." [00:09:39]

"How do you keep disappointment from derailing you? Because that's what they've encountered. We thought he was the Messiah and now we don't know what. You have had an encounter in your life and disappointment is looming over you. How do you keep disappointment from throwing you off curse? What do you do when the dust has settled and the honeymoon is over and now it's like this is wild? What do you do when the prayer is not answered in the way you wanted or maybe it's not been answered at all yet? What do you do when the job that you were hoping for that feels like it's the answer to you? So the prayer that you have is given to someone else. What do you do when what you were anticipating, actually you see happening, anticipating for good in your life, you see happening someone else's, but you're still stuck in a moment of frustration. You're still stuck in like, hey, I wasn't praying that for them. I was praying that for me. God, what are you doing? Where are you? How do you keep on going when pain has inserted itself into your life?" [00:11:25]

"How do you keep on going, hear me, when trials and difficulties are knocking the wind out from you and pulling the rug out from underneath you? How do you keep on going? How do you not allow yourself to get derailed? How do you handle a moment when you find yourself living in a moment that life is a contradiction to your faith? where you are, where you're trying to stand on Psalm 61, from the ends of the earth, will I cry when my heart is overwhelmed? But you are feeling more overwhelmed than you are feeling like you're actually standing, much less. And then you are feeling like I'm going to go down, no up and go down. standing on the word. How do you, when you find yourself, Job 23, behold, I go forward and he's not there and behind me and I can't perceive him into the left. I can't behold him into the right. I don't know what he's doing. And even though the rest of the verse says, but he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I will come forth as pure gold. That's great. But I'm still stuck back here in my dilemma. I'm still stuck back here in my disappointment, trying to figure out God, where are you?" [00:13:04]

"Maybe, maybe this isn't a story about two guys walking to Emmaus. Maybe this is more of a story about us where we're finding this difficulty and struggling. And Psalms 46 says he's an ever -present help, but I am feeling lost, wondering when help is going to show up. Trials, let me read this to you. Trials and dilemma strike, and it feels like purpose passes away, calls, the calling feels cluttered, and our desire to connect with God, watch, begins to grow. whole. So we unknowingly begin to entertain religious routine and forfeit relationship because disappointment has knocked the wind out of us. And we still might attend, but our faith to move mountains has been overcome by cynicism. Here's what it really is. It's John 21." [00:14:18]

"It's the same timeline, but the disciples are now encountering the same dilemma, the 12. And Peter looks at him and says, hey, let's go fishing. Peter was a professional fisherman. He had left his business to follow Jesus. And now dilemma has struck. And he says, you know what? Let's just go back to what we used to do. Let's just, I can't handle this. So let me go back to what I was comfortable with. You ever, you ever find yourself going back to what you're just comfortable with? And that's how you handle the pressure, the pain. And in this moment, they leave what they had known for three and a half years and they lose the, watch, they lose. the intentionality of the relationship. And instead of pressing in, they discard everything and allow their passion to decay, their purpose to deteriorate. What they find themselves in is spiritual entropy. Entropy. It's the gradual decline into disorder. Fear hits. Faith vacates." [00:15:00]

"And we start to deteriorate. Struggle hits. Trials hit. Testing hits. Dismay hits. Dilemma hits. Disappointment hits. And what happens? We have the opportunity in this moment to press into him or allow our faith to become deteriorated. And I feel like there's a lot more times, often than not, that I find myself in this spiritual entropy where I am allowing my faith to wane. And regardless of the situation we're facing, we must live a life focused and connected to Jesus when we feel him near and when we don't. Because no matter what's going on, the resurrected Christ is with me. even when I don't recognize it. These guys are walking with Jesus and they did not realize it was him. How many times has that happened to us that he actually is near, but I am so focused on the dilemma, I am not cognizant of his nearness. I'm so focused on the moment that I'm unaware he's actually right beside me through it all. Here's what happens." [00:16:15]

"How do I keep focused when life has derailed me? I look for the patterns that I find him always operating in and they bring me back to a course correction where I recognize he's actually close by. Verse 30 through 32, as they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it. He broke it and then he gave it to them and suddenly their eyes were opened and they asked each other, they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us as he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. They intention. made a moment with him that brought clarity to the middle of their despair. Hear me, hear me. They let the dust settle and they allowed a moment intentionally. They focused in and when he began to operate in a pattern that they were familiar with, it brought clarity back to them." [00:18:53]