When The Answer Disappoints Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Many people have long-term health issues. When they pray for healing, the answer appears to be an ongoing no. They hear the verse, my strength is made perfect in weakness, and wish their answer had been, here's the healing you seek. Are you disappointed with God?

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today we begin the last message in your series on the triumph of unanswered prayer. Tell us how we can experience triumph when the answer disappoints. Well, you know, Dave, as I have frequently said, it is so important for us to see the yes in God's no. And when God says no, he doesn't do it in an indifferent way.

As you said in an earlier broadcast, he has a larger agenda. Now, to all who are listening, I have to say that as a pastor, I've known many people who have turned away from God because of unanswered prayer. That's why I believe that this series of messages is so critical, and we are making it available to all those for a gift of any amount, those who connect with us. Here's what you can do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. How do we handle the disappointment with God? I know many stories of people who asked for something that seemed reasonable. God said no, and they walked away from the faith. Let's listen carefully, even as we listen to God's word to be encouraged in those times of disappointment. I'm sure it's true to say that one of the greatest disappointments that you can ever experience in life is the disappointment of unanswered prayer. If you were to ask the question why there are so many Christians who are cynical, they would tell you some story about how God did not intervene when they needed him, sometimes when they needed him the most. We've all had the experiences, you know, you pray for finances and then something happens, maybe you even lose your job and you say, well, that's not the answer I was seeking. You pray for protection and sometimes God gives it to you and then at other times there are accidents and we call on God. One day I was on a plane and there were some other Christians there and they said, oh, Pastor Luther, we're so glad that you're on this plane with us because if we had turbulent weather, we know that you have connections and you can probably get the turbulence to stop. I said, no.

I said, I'm just in sales, not in management. But the question, where is God when we need him? But I suppose that the deepest disappointment that people ever feel has to do with the divine healing. When you see a child suffer, when you see a young mother die of cancer, leaving three children behind, it is at times like this that our faith becomes so eroded we wonder whether we can go on believing. Barbara Sanderville, quadriplegic, said these words, knowing God had the power to heal me but wouldn't made me very bitter. I would read passages like Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter accusing God of holding the promise of healing before me like a piece of meat before a starving dog. He tempted me with the possibility but never enabled me to reach it.

That's why people are turned off. God does not come through for them. Well, as you know, this is the sixth and last in a series of messages, the triumph of unanswered prayer. And what we've been doing is seeing the triumph when prayer doesn't happen, when the answer is denied, when it's disguised.

I hope that you get that message because that one emphasizes what it is like to worship God even if the answer isn't there. Today we're going to turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and we're going to see that God does miracles for some people and not for others. And yet he expects us to go on believing anyway. Hebrews chapter 11 is the passage of scripture and I would like to give you today four facts about faith. Four facts about faith that we hope will put all of this into perspective that will enable all of us to go on believing and honoring God with our faith. Because the Bible says that when we have faith, we presented to Jesus at his appearing the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire might be found onto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. First fact about faith. Faith sometimes changes our circumstances. You look at Hebrews chapter 11 and it is filled with heroes who saw huge miracles.

We could talk about Abraham. We could always speak more clearly even in terms of miracles about Moses that begins in verse 23. But let me simply pick it up at verse 29 speaking about Moses. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. What a miracle. Moses stands there with his staff in his hand and God parts the waters.

And then if that isn't enough in terms of miracles, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. And we could go on and on and the author knows that he could go on and on. So he says in verse 32, and what more shall I say? There was a pastor who was preaching an interminably long message. And he got to this phrase and says, yes, and what more shall I say? And someone in the back row said, try amen.

Ever since that time, I keep my eye on the folks in the back row. He knows that he could go on for a bit. So he says, and what more shall I say? Time would fail to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. You talk about miracles and you've got dozens of them in this passage. Think of the different kinds of miracles.

Here are women who receive their dead back as it was during the days of Elijah. Talk about a resurrection. Talk about a healing. You have miracles that have to do with the protection of God's people.

Stop the mouths of lions, a reference to Daniel. You've got healed relationships and you've got all kinds of battles that were fought and God miraculously gave the victory. Sometimes faith changes our circumstances. Please keep that in mind.

But number two in terms of the facts are these. Sometimes faith does not change our circumstances. Did you notice, and I hope that all of you have your Bibles open, but did you notice that I stopped reading in the middle of verse 35? Now normally I don't stop in the middle of a verse, but here I did because there is a break in the middle of the verse. You have to understand that when the manuscripts of the New Testament were written, they did not have chapters or verse divisions. Those were added later to make it easier to find various passages. And I think that the person who gave the verse divisions here should have begun a new verse in the middle of verse 35, but he didn't. And so that's where I stopped because the text is open. There it is. Middle of verse 35.

All right. Women received back their dead by resurrection, but some, oh, there's another category. Some were tormented, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with a sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, mistreated of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves in the earth. And we might add, and there was no deliverance.

None. They were sawed in two, he says. That's a reference to Isaiah, the great prophet. Isn't he a person of faith?

Why didn't God come to his deliverance, may I ask? It's a reference to that prophet. And then when he goes on talking about wandering about with goatskins and trying to live in caves and in poverty and being persecuted, very probably a reference to the time of the Maccabees. There was a man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes who went into Egypt and then came into the land of Israel and he offered a sow on the altar to insult the Jews and then he began a horrendous persecution. Eliezer was the high priest and he skinned the high priest alive.

I will not even tell you what he did with Eliezer's seven sons because it's too gruesome, but just know that he dismembered them in some very, very torturous ways. Where was God when that was happening? Let me ask you. Faith sometimes changes our circumstances. Sometimes it doesn't change our circumstances. Now that was then. What about today?

Let's fast forward it. We always think that the time when the church was persecuted is the early centuries. Let me be clear about something. More people have died as Christian martyrs in the last 35 to 50 years than ever died in the persecutions of early Rome. Thousands of people have been put to death.

There's a magazine that I get and Rebecca said to me, she asked me recently whether or not I read it and I have to confess not too often, but I should read it often. It's called The Voice of the Martyrs, begun by Richard Wurmbrand, who has spoken here at the Moody Church, by the way, and who was imprisoned in Romania many years ago under communism. But this magazine details all the persecutions around the world. Yesterday I read the story of a young man by the name of Lorenzo, newly married, 22 years old, goes into a village and is identified as being a Christian, asked to dig his own grave, which he does, pleading, pleading for his release.

And after his grave is dug, a noose is put around his neck and he is strangled to death and left in the grave to die. It's happening today in countries of the world. Under communism, yes, under some countries in Islam, your brothers and sisters are crying up to God for deliverance and they're not seeing the walls of Jericho fall. They're not seeing the Red Sea as it parts. What they are doing is they are crying up to God and saying, God, where are you?

Save our families, deliver us. And for the most part, they see very little deliverance, though there are some surprising stories of God's intervention. Faith sometimes changes our circumstances, sometimes it doesn't. You know, we love to tell the story of Daniel, who closed the mouths of lions, and it's a true story. But my wife and I, Rebecca, we've been to Rome and we've walked through the Circus Maximus where all those Christians did die and they were thrown to animals.

And there was no one there. There was no angel that came out of heaven to close the mouths of those hungry beasts and they were torn in two. Faith sometimes changes our circumstances, sometimes faith does not change our circumstances. Number three, faith never judges God by circumstances. Faith never judges God by circumstances. Faith never says, well, God, since you haven't healed that person and since you haven't done what you think I should, I'm out of here. No, the reason that these people, the second category in Hebrews 11, the reason that they also are in the catalog of faith. When you speak of the heroes of faith, the Westminster Abbey of faith in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, never forget to include the last category that never saw the miracles. But they didn't judge God by circumstances. They believed that God was doing right by them, even though he does things differently. You have Acts chapter 12, James is beheaded. And then later on, Peter is delivered, both of them in prison, one saved, one not.

I mean, isn't this the way life is? You see deliverance over here and no deliverance over there, but both are heroes of faith. Sometimes what we need to do is to simply hang on to promises like this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. As it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is saying, what will separate you from Christ's love? Will being killed do it? No, the sword won't do it. Will sickness do it?

The sickness won't do it. Can angels do it? Angels can't do it. Can demons do it?

Kings can't do it. And you keep believing no matter what. Some of you haven't been taking notes yet. God bless you.

A few of you have. We actually help you, don't we, by giving you my outline in the bulletin. Do you like that? By the way, I do that for you every blessed week.

But here's what I'd like you to write down. Faith isn't merely receiving from God what we want. Sometimes faith is simply accepting whatever God gives us. Faith is accepting whatever God gives us.

That also is faith. Look at Jesus in Gethsemane. See there, Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me, Jesus, please.

See him there. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. An angry, bitter woman said to her pastor, so where was your God when my son was killed?

And he said he was in the same place where he was when his son was killed. Faith accepts whatever God gives us. We commit ourselves to God and then we leave the decision with him. Yesterday, to be more clear, last week when I preached on what commitment means, and I hope that you are here to hear that, when I preached on what commitment means and how we commit ourselves to God, someone asked me later a very good question. They said, well, does that just mean we commit everything to God and then don't pray anymore? Listen, when you and I commit something to God, we'll pray more about it than we ever have, but our prayers will be filled with thanksgiving and praise and a sense of confidence that it's off our shoulders and it's on God's. The true Christian does not believe that there's no value in prayer unless you see an answer that you would like to see. Prayer has other values, as we've been trying to help each other to understand.

Prayer means that I draw near to God with my need. I come preoccupied with my need, but I leave preoccupied with God and I believe that what God does in me is sometimes more important than what God does for me, as he teaches me faith, as he teaches me love, even when I don't see the miracles. Faith never judges God by miracles or I should say never judges God by circumstances. Number four, faith always leads to ultimate victory.

It always leads to ultimate victory. I'm back now in just a moment looking at Hebrews chapter 11 again. By the way, faith always leads to ultimate victory. Yes, Hebrews chapter 11. I want to give you an illustration of how people of faith accept disappointment.

How do they do it and why is it that they can ultimately be blessed even though they don't see the miracle they desire? Let me read you a story that is very familiar to all of you. It's found in the book of Daniel and it has to do with three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Bible school we used to say, shake the bed, make the bed, and into bed you go.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The king says to them, bow down before this image. If you do not bow down before this image, I will throw you into the fiery furnace. By the way, something not quite like that but something approaching it could end up being our lot as well. But this is what they say.

I love this. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. In other words, there's no use even discussing this. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand, oh king. But now notice. But if not, be it known unto you, oh king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. God can deliver us if he wants to, but if he doesn't, we will be people who die in faith believing that God knows best. Are you to that point in your Christian experience?

Oh God, we know that you are able to heal so and so. We know that you're able to take care of this situation, but if you don't, let angels and demons and anyone else around me know that I will not swerve in my commitment to you because faith isn't merely receiving from God the things that I want. Faith is the ability to receive whatever God gives me. This is Pastor Luther and I'm going to speak to you directly from my heart to yours. We're living at a time when there is a great deal of disappointment in God, especially because he so often doesn't do what we think he should.

You and I know people who have turned away from God because of that kind of disappointment. I believe that this series of messages is so critical for people in their walk with God in the midst of those disappointments to keep on believing and trusting. This is the second to last day we're making a resource available to you that I think will be a great blessing.

For a gift of any amount, these messages can be yours in the form of a CD. And the benefit is simply this, you can listen to these messages again and again. I can't help but think that there are some of you who perhaps heard some of the messages, but not all of them.

Or even if you heard all the messages, the fact is you know people who need to have this truth in order that they might not turn away from God in the midst of their own disappointment. I want to thank the many of you who support the Ministry of Running to Win. Thanks to you, we are in 20 different countries in three different languages. We deeply appreciate your support and your prayers. For a gift of any amount, we are making this CD series available to you entitled The Triumph of Unanswered Prayer.

Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com and by the way, thanks in advance for helping us because I believe that many of you are going to respond to our need, to where we are in the ministry because you appreciate and have been blessed as a result of running to win. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series The Triumph of Unanswered Prayer.

That phone number again, 1-888-218-9337 or go to rtwoffer.com. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 614. The Christian life has times of both joy and suffering. Next time on Running to Win, we'll learn why faith always leads to ultimate victory but may not change our immediate circumstances. We'll come full circle in our series on unanswered prayer and then find ourselves content with the God to whom we pray. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Tannenbaum, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.