When Disappointment Leads to Doubt, Part 2

Disappointment comes in all shapes and sizes.

Sometimes we're disappointed when we meet a celebrity who doesn't rise to our expectations. We're disappointed when we're persecuted for what we believe. Or perhaps it's when a random disease strikes someone we love, and it all seems so unfair. Whatever the case, disappointment can cause damage to our soul. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll guides us through a passage in Matthew 11 that reinforces our confidence in God's all-knowing care and compassion, even in our darkest moments. Chuck titled today's message, When Disappointment Leads to Doubt. We will one day, our Father pass through the pearly gates of splendor, and then we will know everything.

It will then make completely good sense, because we will see things fully from your perspective. How easy it is for us to become awash in our disappointments, disillusionments, and doubts. Life is no simple journey from earth to heaven.

It's not only complicated, it is complex. There are prayers that are not answered as we expected them to be. There are times that unfold in what appears to us to be nothing but tragedy.

There are events about which we tend to think have no good reason. Nevertheless, you were there through it all. You have never left. Your plan is unfolding in its sovereign timetable, and we are learning slowly that you are good and faithful, Father. I pray that you administer especially today to those lost in the morass of doubt. Give them ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts and minds to believe.

Even when the light at the end of the tunnel is blotted out, it cannot be seen. I pray for those who loved individuals with terminal illnesses. I pray for those whose children have gone away. They become wayward.

Some have virtually lost their senses, departed from what they once embraced. I pray for those struggling through their days of education, failing courses, feeling like failures. And for those aging and hope seems to be fading in purpose, God.

At least it seems so. Minister to all of us, Father, teach us the value of being still, stopping all of our activities, and discovering that you are God. And you do all things well, even this, even today. We're grateful for those who represent you in difficult places. Some were the uniform of our country, and they fight in the fight. Some are there as soldiers of the cross, followers of the lamb, who do not fear to own your cause or blush to speak your name. Bless these very faithful women and men, teenagers as well, who live on foreign soil in difficult places and serve the Lord Christ.

Some are in the middle of the beltway, that difficult place where cynicism is on the rise. Help those who know Christ to speak wisely and well of Him. More importantly, to model Him before those who do not believe. We pray for those who make decisions that relate to the whole country.

Bring wise counselors to them. May they hear what they say. May it make a difference. Deliver us as a nation from this current trend towards self-destruction. And now, Lord, we pray that you will use your Word in each of our lives as we sit before it and submit ourselves to it. We give our gifts that others might know the joy that we have of worshiping the living Christ.

It's in His name we pray, and all His people said, amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck about when disappointment leads to doubt. Often small frustrations lead later to disappointments and then we feel like Job or Elijah under the tree or Peter by the fire or Paul disfearing of life in our loneliness and disillusionment.

Are you ready for this? Even the cousin of Jesus doubted. His name is John the Baptizer, the forerunner of the Messiah, the only one, the appointed prophet, asks are you really the Messiah that we've been looking for or should we keep looking for one? He has now succumbed to doubt. Let me say no one is immune to this malady, but doubts never occur all alone.

There's always reason for them. Take John, for example. Verse 2 introduces him in a simple way. John the Baptizer was in prison. And what had John done? Told the truth, wasn't very tactful, certainly wasn't politically correct.

In those days when you spoke against a king, you paid for it dearly. Well, here he is. However, he has been the forerunner of the Messiah who will not only heal the sick and give sight to the blind and cleanse the leper, he will set the prisoner free. Where is he? Jesus hasn't even come for a visit. Are you the Messiah or should we be looking for another? You guys go ask him.

These are reasons that have built up into open doubt. First thought, I won't be here long. Messiah will know I'm here. His anticipation built to where it became through the help of imagination and reality. And in that vulnerable place of reality, thinking that what he had been anticipating would happen did not happen. And time continued.

A long time. Now there's disillusionment followed by disappointment. And finally, are you really the Messiah? Look at what Jesus does. Since it was the disciples of John who brought the message, John's in prison, verse 4, Jesus talked to them. Let's turn to Luke chapter 7. Luke 7 18. The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for the two of his disciples and he said to them, he sent them to the Lord to ask him, are you the Messiah we've been expecting or should we keep looking for someone else? Just what Matthew wrote.

But there's more here. John's two disciples found Jesus and said to him, the baptizer sent us to ask, are you the Messiah we've been expecting or should we keep looking for someone else? At that very moment, at that very moment when the question had just fallen from their lips, right then, notice what it says. Right then, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, evil spirits, restored the sight to many who were blind. Then, notice, right then he did that and then on the heels of it, he told them, go back to John, tell him what you've seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised alive.

The good news is being preached to the poor. Is there any question I'm Messiah? Now back to Matthew 11.

Jesus does all these things and then he adds a beatitude. Blessed are those who are not scandalized because of me, literally. God blesses those who are not offended because of me. Take heart, John.

Take heart. Special blessings await those who are not offended because an answer hasn't come as they expected. Blessed are you, John, for staying right there and knowing that I am Messiah and God's sovereign plan is unfolding.

Now it gets even better, I think. The disciples hear that and they turn, these two, and they make their way back to John. Look at the next transition. As John's disciples were leaving, you will often find a transition in the narrative at the beginning of a verse.

Here is one. As they turn and they're making their way out and on their way to John, while they're gone, he talks about John behind John's back. We often use that phrase in a negative way. Here, I don't know that there's a greater statement of affirmation than what we read in the verse that follows.

I mean, look at this. He says this about the man who just said, are you Messiah or do we look for someone else? What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see?

You see, the crowd had heard about that statement the disciples said, and so they were forming opinions and Jesus said, I need to clarify who John is. What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed swayed by every breath of wind? You know better than that. He's a man of strong convictions. Look at the next verse. Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothing? You know better than that.

He's a man of self-denial. Verse nine. Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, he's more than a prophet. In the sense that he was the chosen prophet to be my forerunner. Furthermore, he's the one of whom other prophets prophesied.

And then he says what you'll never read anywhere else. John is the man to whom the scriptures refer when they say, look, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare your way before me. I tell you the truth of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.

Look at that statement. The very man who had said, are you Messiah or do we look for another in honest doubt and sent his disciples to find out, Jesus said, John the baptizer on this earth there is none greater. When we are children of his in the kingdom, he says later, then we will be greater than that. But for now on this earth, on this earth, there's none greater than John.

Jesus said that of no other person. May I say to you on the basis of this, if you are wishing to become, and I'll speak to the man because John was such, you are wishing to become a man of God. How do you start?

Where do you go? Let me give you these three guidelines to follow. A man of strong convictions.

Start there. Cultivate strong convictions. There's no weak read in John. Second, a man of genuine self-denial.

He cared nothing about making a good impression or the latest clothing or looking important. He was who he was, dressed like a man in the wilderness, a man of self-denial. And the third, a man true to his calling.

Called to be the forerunner and he fulfilled that calling. Can I go a step further with this? You have a son? You have a grandson? You want to build godliness into that character?

Good place to start. A daughter as well for sure, but in this case we're referring to sons. When he was stationed in Australia and serving as a supreme commander of the Allied Forces in South West Pacific area, General Douglas MacArthur wrote this prayer for his only son Arthur and I quote, build me a son O Lord who will be strong enough to know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid. One who will be proud and unbending and honest defeat and humble and gentle in victory. Lead him I pray not in the path of ease and comfort but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Let him learn to stand up in the storm. Let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high. A son who will master himself before he seeks to master others.

One who will reach into the future and yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his add I pray enough of a sense of humor so that he may always be serious yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness. The open mind of true wisdom and the weakness of true strength. Then I his father will dare to whisper I have not lived in vain. If Jesus would say this of the baptizer. He is a man of strong convictions and genuine self-denial and true to his calling and then call him the greatest on the earth.

I'll suggest the same qualities are worth our time and attention. Trust me if you have a young person close to you related to you under your mentorship the pressure they live under we can hardly imagine as adults. For him or her to live like this they have to stand up against the mockery of the cynic. The words of those who see all of that is foolish I mean self-denial in the 21st century. Are you kidding?

Not kidding. True greatness how we long for that in our own lives and now in the lives of those who will come after us. Let me offer four things to remember about doubt. I hope that they will help you.

They've helped me and I think they will help you. Number one doubts will arise because we're human. When you are in the midst of doubt you are looking at life from a horizontal perspective.

You have a limited understanding of the big picture and we've allowed the domino effect to happen. Quite likely you can trace your doubt back to that anticipation and that expectation all of which were dashed which led you to where you are today. Let me say secondly doubts may temporarily disturb our relationship with God but they do not permanently destroy it. Doubts may temporarily disturb our relationship with God but it's not a permanent destruction. In case you're fearful of that be assured of those words. Even when we do not stand for him even when we deny him he does not deny himself. Let me say third special blessings await those who can live with life's inequities. If you have come to the place in your life where you can live with the fact that what you expected didn't happen and it doesn't shatter your faith it doesn't drop you into the dungeon of doubt special blessings are yours.

It's a special measure of maturity you've reached. May I add if you choose to linger in your doubt you're on your way to a life of cynicism. The cynic is a cynic because he or she chooses to foster and to build on their own doubts rather than to go back and realize they really are not in charge of their lives. Here's the fourth doubts will come but they need not derail us.

If you starve them out it's a remarkable recovery. If you linger there I remind you you are on your road to cynicism and I know of no good thing that comes from cynicism. Many good things come from questions.

Probing involves asking the hard things. The cynic doesn't want answers. The cynic simply wants to throw rocks and stand against truth, the truth of the scriptures. Not an easy sermon to preach but a necessary one for all of us to hear unlike us to bow together. You may be somewhere along the way in the syndrome of the dominoes.

You may be right at that vulnerable place where your expectations are obviously not happening and the reality of all of that is now crashing in on you. It's a good time to pause and reacquaint yourself with the promises of God's Word. Great peace of they who love by law writes the psalmist at the very end and nothing will offend them. A great love for the Word of God will do much to guard you against cynicism, will soften the encroachment of doubt not give it a place. If your doubts come because of no relationship with God what a perfect place to come right now. You think like you think because you've never met the Savior.

So you believe what others have told you about him rather than what God's Word teaches. Good time in this quiet moment for you to face the fact that you are not your own master. You did not create yourself. You did not give yourself your parents. God chose them. You do not have control over the results of your destiny.

All of that is set. What you have to deal with is preparing yourself for it. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be rescued. Think on these things through this afternoon will you? Lord not only do we pray that you would enable us to build us sons and grandsons and daughters like we just heard but we desire to have a life like that ourselves. It always comes the hard way through struggle, hardship, disappointment, dreams that are dashed, hopes that fly away. Give us the strength we need within to trust you in the dark and to stay true in the long tunnel of trials and tragedies. Provide hope, I pray, so that we might continue our growth toward maturity on our journey from earth to heaven. And here are the prayers of those who today turn to you for eternal salvation. These things I ask in the name of Christ our Savior who loved us and gave himself for us. Truly the Messiah who has come to rescue us and all God's people said, amen.

Our topic yesterday and today what to do when disappointment leads to doubt. You're listening to the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll and this is Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry please visit us online at insightworld.org.

It's possible you've come to a place of discouragement and quite candidly your trust and confidence in God's sovereignty is waning. Well let me point you to a helpful book Chuck's written that will bolster your confidence. This is a tremendous resource for yourself or perhaps someone you love who's going through a challenging time. It's a devotional book called Perfect Trust.

You'll find all the details at insight.org. In addition we're inviting you to add the Swindoll Study Bible to your personal library. The Bible is integrated with Chuck's pastoral insight, practical application and inspiration and it's laid out in a format that's simple to navigate. Plus Chuck's conversational style brings a warmth that's rarely found in study Bibles. To purchase this Swindoll Study Bible go to insight.org slash store or if you prefer Collis.

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There's never been a season quite like this one and we're intent on walking alongside you every step of the way. To provide the means necessary to broadcast Chuck Swindoll's messages on radio and the internet you can give a donation right now by calling us. If you're listening in the United States dial 1-800-772-8888 that's 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. Thank you for your generous support. Chuck Swindoll describes how the disciples responded when Jesus turned up the heat Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message when disappointment leads to doubt was copyrighted in 2016 and 2021 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.