Changing Faces Ministries Podcast
Handling Disappointment
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. If you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Here is your host, Pastor Jeff Landrum. (upbeat music) - Good morning, good morning, good morning. I wanna welcome each and every one of you to our Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. I am your Pastor Jeff Landrum and where we do believe, if you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Once again, that's another great Friday morning that God has given us and me. I have made a decision that I'm gonna be glad and give thanks to God for it and I'm gonna have fun on this great Friday morning that God has given us 'cause he didn't have to do it but thank God he did. And I wanna thank each and every one of you who have decided to come alongside of us here at Changing Faces Ministries to listen to God's word today. And we also wanna thank all of our listeners all across the world, 170-some countries across the world that we get a chance to come to you live every single Friday morning and we wanna say thank you. We cannot be who we are and what we do on this radio if it was not for each and every one of you. So we want to say thank you and we appreciate you coming alongside of us every single Friday morning for the last few years. We're excited to have each and every one of you to join us this Friday morning. So we're delighted, we're delighted. And we wanna ask, just ask the favor of you. Every chance you get, we ask that you like share and support this ministry in any shape format you have. Well, you know, on all your social media platforms. Get the word out there to each and every person that is out there and we wanna say thank you for doing that for us. And we also want to thank One Voice Radio for giving us this platform and giving us this opportunity to come to you every single Friday morning. We could not be who we are and we cannot come to you if it was not for this radio station or One Voice Radio. So we thank you, thank you, thank you. We thank One Voice Radio and we thank you, our listeners for every single Friday morning. And so this morning we wanna get into it this morning. I'm so super excited that we have this opportunity. Well, we gonna get into it this morning because what we wanna look at this morning and what we gonna talk about this morning that I'm pretty sure some, if not all of you at some point in your life, whether be as a child or as an adult, has come across this and have been faced with this at some point in your life. And you know what I say, there's already only three kinds of people in the world and I'm pretty sure there's only three kinds of people that's listening to my voice this morning. And those are people that are in something, coming out of something, only way to something. And I'm pretty sure that covers everybody out there because if you're in something, we're gonna pray that you hang tough and hang in there to the Lord, bring you out. If you're coming out of something, we're gonna celebrate with you that you made it through. And if you're out there and you think life is copostatic and everything is going well, we're gonna pray for you too, 'cause trouble has a way of showing up when you least expect it. Trouble has a way of finding this way to you. And like I said, if trouble come knocking on you, doing it brings in suitcase, sometimes trouble can be there for a while. So what we wanna do this morning, we just wanna deal with a topic. We wanna deal with this word. We're gonna deal with this word and I'm gonna give you what that word is, but I'm gonna give you a story. Then we're gonna talk, I'm gonna give you the text and then we're gonna talk about this word that we have. And I can remember this story just like it was yesterday. And little did I know, going into this, that this could possibly be, or that this would be my last organized basketball game of my life. I didn't know that. I didn't understand that going into the game. I just knew that we was equipped, we was ready and we was prepared for this basketball game because this was the game that when we win, you notice I said when we win, 'cause I'm taking myself back, that when we win this game, we go to the next level and we're heading to the state playoff state championship game. And I was so super excited for this game. And this game is going, it's a close game all the way through and it come down to the last few seconds on the clock and we are winning. We winning, we winning the game. 'Cause I've been in games before, we was down late in the game and we used to run a full court press and we come back, but this game, we are winning the game. A few seconds left on the clock, we winning the game, we got the ball. And in the midst of all of the chaos and excitement of the game, we turn the ball over. The other team gets the ball and right before the buzzer goes off, they shoot the ball, buzzer goes off, ball goes in, game over, my basketball career's over. I would never play another organized basketball game at my school, high school. Game is over, that is it. And when I started that day off, you never would have told me that that was gonna be how it would end for me. And I'm sure somebody out there under the sound of my voice can relate to what I'm sharing with you. Because whether it be you lost a job or whether it be that the relationship didn't work out the way you thought it was gonna be, whether it be the kids didn't grow up to become what you wanted to become, whether it would be family turned their back on you, whether it would be whatever it is, the money got funded, whatever it is. All of us can relate to that in some kind of shape form of fashion. And all of us can deal, look at that and say, I can understand. And I can, I know how you feel. Because all of some things affect us differently, but all of us gonna be able to relate to what we're gonna talk about this morning. Because at that moment, I was, I just didn't know how it was gonna turn out. I just didn't know, that was it. High school career over. Basketball career over. I never played another organized basketball game after that game over. And little did I know. So what I wanna talk to you this morning about, it's gonna help us. And I wish I would've knew that then what I know now, it would've helped me a lot better. So what only thing I can do, I can't go back and fix what's not already happened. Only thing I can do is help and encourage someone who may be dealing with that or going through that and helped you in that situation. So if you got your Bible this morning, I wanna read something to you. I want you to understand something. And we're gonna look at this because this is gonna help us. Remember, wherever you are, if you in the game and the game is close, it's gonna help to get through the game. If you came out of the game and it didn't go your way, it's gonna help to recover from that game. If you're going into the game, it's gonna build you up to be the best you can be in the game. So wherever you are, this is gonna help you. So turn with me to Psalm 34 and 18. Psalm 34 and 18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted "and saves those who are crushed in spirit." For a subject this morning, we wanna look at handling disappointment, handling disappointment. There on the Father God Almighty, once again, we thank you so much for bringing us thus far and another week. We thank you for bringing us here this Friday morning. And right now, I'm asking you that you prepare our hearts and minds to receive what it is that you have for us on this morning. And right now, Lord, I'm asking that you remove me, that they hear none of me, but hear all of you and let your word go forth at power to make us better than we were than we came. And we will always be so grateful and careful to give you all the praise, all the honor and all the glory. And your son, Jesus Christ's name, we do pray. And we all say it, amen. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saved those who are crushed in spirit. You can only imagine what I was dealing with and what I felt at that moment in time. I felt disappointed. It didn't go my way. It didn't happen the way I would like it to happen. So if I would have knew then what I knew now, it would have been a lot easier to get through. So only thing I wanna do today is help somebody out there who may be feeling disappointed is handling your disappointment. Webster describes, defines disappointment as sadness or displeasure caused by the non-fulfillment of one's hopes or expectations. I want you to listen to me now. Sadness or displeasure caused by the non-fulfillment of one's hopes or expectations. That more than I woke up expecting to win. And like most of you, we don't expect to lose. But in life, sometimes it comes our way. And so this morning I just want to prepare us and to share with us some things that we can do and getting through these things of life known as moments of disappointment. So let's look at talking about handling disappointment. I'll just give you some scriptures that can help us. And when we're dealing with that, because when we started talking about this, it says sadness or displeasure caused by non-fulfillment. You expected to get the job. You expected the relationship to last forever. You expected certain things to fall your way. But not all times does it do that because we have to understand that this world is not ours. We used to sing a song when we was growing up as kids. He has the whole world in his hands. This world belongs to God and we're just passing through. But even in passing through, he says in Jeremiah 29 and 11, he knows the plans that he has for us. And it's for a future and a hope. And it's for an expected end and it's gonna be good. So if all of that is the case, what we have to learn to do is we have to learn to get by these moments of disappointment and be able to get through it because if we are and we belong to him, the end result is gonna be good, but we just have these moments that we have to deal through. Romans 828 reminds us of this and it says, and we know. So what we first thing we need to do, we got to get to a point of knowing. And we know that all things works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. First thing we're gonna do is we got to get to a point of knowing that all thing, even when the family didn't turn out the way you want to, even when the job situation didn't work out the way you want to, even me losing the game. And I know I have to get to a point of knowing that all things work together. And then we're gonna look at some things we got to get to a point of trusting in the Lord. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 has trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. What we have to understand is disappointment is a common thread in the fabric of human life. We've all experienced in one form or another, whether it's the job, whether it's the relationship, whether it's the dreams that you had that then turn out the way you want to or then turn out at all. We have to think about this thing and we have to look at this. And we belong to God and all things are working together for our good. I'm gonna give you some principles today through a man's life that we should learn from and that's gonna help us get through this thing known as life. Because in the Bible, we find numerous examples of individuals who face disappointment. Yet emerged victorious through their faith. And one of these such individuals as a gentleman we're gonna talk about today and despite things that he faced in life, despite situations and circumstances that came upon him in life, he faced numerous setbacks, but ultimately he became a man after God's own heart. I want us to understand that. 'Cause what we have to look at this man known as David, the first king of Israel, we have to look at this being a known king as a boy, as a shepherd boy, being a known king, but he still had points, moments and times in life where things didn't go the way he thought they should go. So David's life is a testament to handling disappointment. Annointed as a young boy to be the future king of Israel, but David spent years fleeing from the king of the day. King Saul who wanted him dead. He wanted to kill this king and despite his anointing and the promises over his life, David faced countless trials and setbacks. Can you imagine in life being anointed and knowing that you got the kingship coming? Knowing that you're gonna be one day, you're gonna be the king, but you find yourself on the run trying to save your life. I don't know about you. If I didn't have a trust in faith in God, that would mean pretty, pretty disappointing that in order for me to get to a place, I got to go through something. So what I'm here to tell you this morning, not all the time when you are going after your goals and dreams, it's gonna fall in your lap. Sometimes it's gonna, your goals and your dreams are gonna take you through hell and high water over heels and mountains and valleys and you're gonna have to do some things and go through some things before you ever achieve some things, but you have to first understand that all things are working together on your behalf because sometimes we got to go through some things to appreciate where it is that God has taken us. David faced countless trials and setbacks, yet through it all, he continued to trust in God's timing and plan for his life, eventually becoming one of the greatest kings of Israel. Matter of fact, I even tell you this, David became God's first chosen king. Saul was the king that the people wanted. David was the king that God chose. What question to you? Do you know you have been chosen for such a time and such a moment that you're in right now? If you belong to God, you have been chosen for this moment in time. So you ought to get excited when the trials of life come because the trials come to make you stronger. So three things we wanna look at this morning when we started talking about handling disappointment. First thing we wanna look at is seek God in times of trouble. When the times of trouble come, I didn't say if trouble come, I say seek God in time of trouble. You've heard me say it before. And the book talks about the, the book Bob talks about a man that is born of a woman is but of a few days and life is full of trouble. So the first thing you must do when we're handling disappointment is we must seek God in the times of trouble. Psalms 34 and 17 says, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all of their troubles. Seeking God can give you some peace. See, when we look at David's life throughout his life, David consistently saw God during times of trouble. When Saul pursued him, David did not retaliate but instead saw refuge in God. Which this teaches us the importance of turning to God when we face disappointment. Because he hears our cries and he is ever ready to deliver us from our troubles. So the first thing we must do in moments of disappointment is we must learn to seek God in these times. You know, my brother always telling me look for God in everything. Because if all things are working together for our good, that means God is always there. So we need to look for God, stop asking why me, why now? Why am I going through this? And we need to ask God, what is it that you're trying to show me? If all of this is working together for my good, where is it that you're taking me, that this is going to benefit me, that this is going to profit me, that you can get the glory for all things. Give me the strength and wisdom to understand what it is that you're taking me and where it is that you're having me. This disappointment is not to detriment of you. It's not to your end, but it's all working together to make you better than you are today. Seek God in times of trouble. Second thing that we're going to look at is, which we all are guilty of, I know I am, is waiting on God's time, waiting on God's timing. Psalms 27 and 14 says, wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. David wasn't known at King long before he ascended to the throne. I want you to understand that you was chosen long before you arrived. Because God says, I know the plans I have for you. It's for a future, it's for a hope. God says he knew us before we was ever formed, formed in our mother's womb. If he knew us before we was ever formed, but he had a plan for us. So we arrived with the plan. We arrived with everything that we needed in us to fulfill the plan, but we have to wait on his timing. Because even though David was anointed King as a boy, he had to wait on God's timing for it to reveal itself to him. During the waiting period, he faced numerous disappointments. Yet he never lost sight of God's promises. Which teaches us to be patient and trust in God's perfect timing. Our disappointments often arise from our impatience and desire for immediate results. But God's timing is always best. I think that deserves repeating. When David had to wait on the process of becoming King, it teaches me and it should teach you be patient and trust in God's perfect timing. Our disappointment often arise from our impatience and desires for immediate results. See, when we get anxious about something, when we get anxious and we got to have it now, that can say disappointment because it may look like God ain't fulfilling. It may look like God is not sure enough. But when we become and we start operating within his time and not our own time, we're gonna get a chance to see some things and that can eliminate some of this disappointment that we go through. Because when we understand to learn to wait on the Lord, how can we be disappointed when God don't show up when we want him to? Because as my grandmother used to say, he may not come when you're wanting, but he is always on time. Now I'll be honest with you, sometimes he gonna test you, but he's never late. He is always on time. Second thing we have to do is we have to wait on God's timing in the matter. See, because I didn't understand, I got upset and was disappointed because we lost the game, but we didn't lose life. I want you to understand, we lost the game, but we didn't lose life. Because that experience and that lesson taught me about being prepared and seeing things through to the end. Yeah, we was up, but we lost the ball. Now, how many of you have ever been going through life and you've farmed the ball? We have to learn to wait on God's timing. And the third thing, and the final thing we're gonna look at before I get out of here today is we have to find strength in God's promises. See, when you know the promises of God, that should give you the strength to endure, to overcome the disappointments of life. And the only way you're gonna have and know the promises of God is if you study the word of God and you read the word of God, it's full of promises. Like I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'll be with you always, even to the end of the world. If I be for you, I'm more than the whole world against you. You are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. In all things, there's a time and there's a season for everything. So if there's a time and a season, I need to learn the trust in God's time and while I'm trusting in this time, I'm gonna find strength in the promises that he made me. And if he made me promises, I'm gonna trust in it, promises because God cannot lie 'cause he's not a man. And if he's not a man, he can't lie. I'm gonna live on the promises of God. Samuel, first Samuel, 30 and six says, David was greatly distressed. The men were talking about stoning him, but David found strength in the Lord, his God. When you had disappointed, your strength should come from the Lord. Because when David came back and he returned back to sick ziklak and he found out that the city had been destroyed and everybody had been abducted and taken on, it says the people that were with him, they was talking about stoning him and throwing, they was talking about killing David because of the situation that they found himself in. But it says, however, David found strength in the Lord. This lets us know how in the face of great disappointment because you gotta think about, not only was everybody else's wife was gone, David, wives, couple wives was gone too. So David was disappointed as well. So y'all, they was trying to stone David. They was dealing with the same thing that they was dealing with. But oftentimes when people are going through things and you may be going through the same thing with you, but because of their disappointment and they don't know where to find strength from, they may walk away from you or they may want to kill you or may want to disown you. But what do you do when you're disappointed when you are dealing with the same thing everybody else is doing, but everybody else is coming down on you. How do you do it? Where do you find your strength from? In this moment of disappointment, David found his strength in the Lord. Which shows us that in the face of great disappointment and distress, we can draw strength from God's promises. When we anchor our hope in God's word, we can face any disappointment with confidence. See, one thing about life. One thing about, I'm learning and one thing I found out about this thing as life. As long as I know and stay focused on the outcome, I can walk through the valleys of the shadow of death. As long as I stay focused on the outcome of what God has promised me, I can deal with anybody that come against me. As long as I stay focused on the promises that God has made me, this world is not my home. I'm just a stranger passing through. And I know that I'm not gonna get out of this life alive. As long as I stay focused on the kingdom that God has provided for me, I can get through anything because in the kingdom, there's only but one king. And this king says he has a promise for me. He says he know me. He says he got something good for me and it's gonna end with a good result. So I seek strength in the Lord. So when we look at these three things that help us deal with disappointment, first thing we talked about is seeking God, seek God in times of trouble. So we seek out God in trouble. Look for God in everything. Wherever you are, good, bad or ugly, you seek in God in everything that you're going through. Then you got to wait on his timing. It didn't gonna might not happen when you wanted to, but if you're waiting on his timing and then you're gonna seek strength in the Lord. I don't know about you, but these three things encourages me that no matter what I'm coming through, no matter what I got to go through, and no matter how bad it may seem, these three things can help us get through any disappointment that we're going through in life because if we looking for God and we're waiting on God and we finding our strength in God, what is it that I can't get through? I'm here to tell you, even though situation and circumstances may not be working out the way you want them to right now, you just hang in there. You keep on keeping on, because if you keep on keeping on and you just keep doing what you need to do and you're finding your strength in him, he will. He will notice what I say. I didn't say he might. I say he will get you through anything that you're faced with. Cause Psalm 34 and 18 says the Lord is close to the broken hearted and saved those who are crushed in their spirits. I don't care how God can take old humped the dump. They say they say the old humped the dump that sat on the wall, humped the dump that had a great fall and all the king horses and all the king men, they say they couldn't put a humped it back together again. But I know a God that no matter how much it falls, no matter what you're going through in life, no matter how bad it may seem, God can take what is broken. He can put it back together and he can make your whole again. So no matter what the disappointment is, no matter how bad it may seem, you just hang in there because the God I served can work, can turn, can hit a bull's eye with a crooked stick. I don't know about you or what you're going through and how bad it may seem. You may be ready to throw in the towel and you may be ready to quit. But I'm here to tell you, God brought you to this moment, this moment in time right here for you to hear this message because somebody out there needs to know how to handle disappointment. So whatever you it is you're disappointed about, you need to seek God, you need to wait on his timing and you need to find strength in him. And when you can do those three things, you too, even though you missed the shot, even though you're form of the ball, as long as there's time still on the clock, you can make it through. How do you know I can make it through? Because there's still time on the clock. Well, how do you know there's time on the clock? If you can hear my voice is the game is not over. And when the game is not over, you can make it. Yeah, we lost that game at the buzzer. And the game, that game was over. But this thing known as life, we still had. And I can still remember that, that was back in the 90s. And here it is in the 2000s, the 20, you know, the 20, the 2024s. All of these years later, I lost that game, but I didn't lose this life. God loves me so much that he brought me to this point. And God is no respected person. What he done for one, he can do for the others. It's what he done for me, he can do for you. So no matter what it, no matter what the disappointment is, you just hang in there. You too can make it if you just hang in. So handling disappointment requires seeking God in all of our troubles, waiting on his timing, and finding strength in his promises. Consider the process of refining gold. The raw gold must go through intense heat to remove impurities. Similarly, our disappointments and trials are like the refining fire that purifies our faith and character. When we trust in God and his promises, we come out stronger and more radiant, ready to fulfill the purpose he has for us. Let us embrace our disappointments with faith, knowing that God is at work in our lives, refining us for greater things. God's words for God's people. And if there's anybody out there who is in a point of disappointment and don't think that you can make it, I want to encourage you to invite you to join this family right now. I want to encourage you to invite you to join the family of God. If you have never received Christ as your Lord and your Savior, today will be a perfect opportunity to do it. Today, you may have dropped the ball, you may have fumbled the ball, but the game is not over. You still got fighting you. And if you hadn't dropped the ball, you can do what they call get a rebound and go back up and let's make this shot. You can pick up the fit football and continue to run to the end zone. Wherever you are, because you can hear my voice, that means the game is not over. Today, I invite you to accept the only one that has overcome this thing known as death, and that is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you've never received them, today will be a perfect opportunity for you to do that. Or today will be a perfect opportunity for you to come aboard and become a part of this ministry. Wherever you are and whatever you got going on today, whether you across the world or wherever you are, today will be a perfect opportunity to do that. Go to our website, changeandfacesministries.com. Drop us a message. Let us know that this word encourages you. And if you do that, we believe here at Change and Faces, when you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a change in faith. This will conclude our podcast, and we will see you again on next Friday. God bless, take care, and see you soon. Thanks for tuning in to the Changing Faces Podcast. Be sure to download the podcast as well as like, subscribe, and share. (upbeat music)