Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Disappointments. We can learn from them. They're powerful tools, and we want to embrace disappointment tonight. We don't want to run from it. Church, it would be ridiculous for us to try to have a life that is padded and coated, thinking that we'll never get hurt.

David J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Jack Hibbs: Do you need encouragement, clarity, and solid teaching for everyday life? At jackhibbs.com, you'll find sermons, podcasts, devotionals, and streaming content designed to help you grow in your faith. Visit jackhibbs.com today and stay connected to what matters most.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called Disciplines of Life in a message called Discipline of Disappointment. You know, we've all felt it. Disappointment is a normal part of life. But if we handle it well, it can actually make us spiritually stronger and wiser.

You see, disappointment comes when reality doesn't match what we've hoped for. Maybe we're expecting too much from people or wanting life to go a certain way. We could avoid disappointment by avoiding risks or relationships, but that's certainly not the life that God intends for us. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that disappointment is part of God's process. God allows it because it teaches, corrects, and even redirects us when we're not going the right way or doing the right thing.

So before we jump into the message, I had a chance to sit down with Pastor Jack and talk with him about it. Let's get into that. So Pastor Jack, some folks handle disappointment well. I've been on and off my whole life. I don't know about you. And just stuffing it down and pretending it didn't happen, does that work well?

Jack Hibbs: It never works well. Just because you stuff it down, it doesn't mean it's going to stay down. It will come up. It will lead to actually further disappointment because what you're doing is just kicking the can down the road and you're delaying the dealing with it.

Look, all of us will be disappointed. Life is going to hurt you. People are going to let you down. Even your best friend, the one who loves you the most, they're going to let you down. You want to know why? They're not God. God will never disappoint, but every human being, including yourself, my friend, will disappoint and be disappointed.

It's not the end of the world at all. In fact, as a Christian, you can learn so much from disappointment. The great thing is Jesus put it this way: "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

David J: Very good, Pastor Jack. And now we're going to get into the disciplines of disappointment. Here it is.

Jack Hibbs: Father, we pray for those that are not only here, but Father, for those that are viewing in, listening in. We ask, Father, that by the power of your spirit, your word would change our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Church, grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to two portions of scripture tonight. One is the predictable, that is Matthew chapter 28, which is the theme of our entire series. As we look to the disciplines of life, tonight we look to what you see on the screens: the discipline of disappointment.

I’ve got to tell you, I'm encouraged by this message. You say, "How can that be true?" Because God has given us the tools and the resources to conquer, and to manage, and to know about this thing, disappointment. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 says, "And Jesus spoke unto them saying," that is the disciples, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Now, keep going to the right to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 13. Just the front end of that verse. 2 Corinthians 2:13 says, Paul is speaking, "I had no rest in my spirit because..." and I'm going to stop right there. We can fill in the blank about what's going on in our life regarding the "because." But we're looking tonight at the discipline of disappointment.

How many of you ever been disappointed? Raise your hand. If you can't raise your hand, you have never lived in this life. And I mean that sincerely because without love, without life, without hope, without filling in the blank, you will never experience disappointment. You say, "I don't want to experience any disappointment." Then you will never have a life that's worth living.

Now, this is not some sort of a psychobabble message tonight. It is pure fact. You and I live in a world and in a life and the Bible anticipates disappointment for us. Mankind is something that has to battle with disappointment. Disappointment's part of life. You will never escape it. And so that's why the value of tonight's message I think is so vitally important.

Noah Webster defines disappointment, and I found this extremely profound. You might want to write this down. Noah Webster, in his dictionary, defined disappointment. He said it is the defeat or failure of an expectation, the defeat or failure of hope, of a wish, of a desire, of an intention. Listen to this. It is the miscarriage of design or plan.

Noah Webster went on to say that disappointment must be well-managed. For if we hope for things of which we have not thoroughly considered—listen, this is deep—of value, our disappointment will be greater than the pleasure derived from the fulfillment of them. We are prone to complain of the disappointment of our hopes and plans, but disappointments most often prove to be blessings and save us from calamity or even ruin.

Disappointments. We can learn from them. They're powerful tools. And we want to embrace disappointment tonight. We don't want to run from it. Church, it would be ridiculous for us to try to have a life that is padded and coated, thinking that we'll never get hurt. Disappointment is a form of great hurt. In almost every case, disappointment though, unfortunately, is mismanaged or handled in a wrong way.

Jesus warned against the mismanagement of disappointment. In Matthew 13:21, Jesus says, "For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word of God, immediately the man stumbles." Jesus is talking about the one that goes and sows the seeds of the word of God and it falls upon the heart of someone who believes in God.

Listen, they're not converted. They only believe in God. They're never born again by faith. They believe in God for a while. But what happens is disappointment overrides or overrules their belief that should have taken them to faith. Jesus says watch out because it winds up ruining your early stages of coming to faith, and that is that belief moment.

You can believe in God tonight. You can say that you believe in God, but he's not governing your life. And the reason why that's true, in that he's not governing your life, is because you don't have faith in God. This is quite shocking for people to hear. Jesus in Matthew 13 says, "These are they who believe for a while, but when persecution arises, they go back to the world. When hardship comes up, disappointment comes up, they give up on Jesus and head back to the world."

They were never born again. They believed for a season. Your belief for you to make it to heaven must take you from belief to faith in God. Why is that important? Because faith in God will see you through every disappointment that comes into our lives. That is vitally important to understand.

So church, number one, jot it down tonight in our study. The discipline of disappointment is this: why do we experience disappointments? You ought to write that down. Why do we experience them? If God is God and God is good, then why do we experience disappointments? Well, here we go. And I'm going to be looking at my notes a lot tonight because I've written down a lot of quotes from great, great speakers or great teachers of yesteryear.

"When we place our expectations," G. Campbell Morgan says, "on anything other than the character of God, we set ourselves up for disappointment." Isn't that a great statement? It's so simple but profound. When we place our expectations on anything other than the character of God, we set ourselves up for disappointment. He says, "This is reality, and it is the teaching of scripture."

Disappointment. Why do we experience them? In all honesty, number one, it's this: disappointment comes from our unreasonable expectation. All of us have expectations. You came in here tonight with an expectation to meet God. Spurgeon said you've come tonight, Charles Spurgeon, in his great writing on this, said that you come into the congregation of the fellowship of God's people to have intercourse with God, to worship him and to have him speak to your heart. That is a profound statement.

Disappointment though comes from an unreasonable expectation in life. Maybe you're following God, and God, in your opinion, is not answering your requests or your prayers, and you're a little bit disappointed in God. I don't know. Maybe someone's disappointed you, and so you're harboring bitterness or whatever. We'll talk more on that in a moment.

But we need to have a well-balanced, secure mind when we talk about this issue of expectations. Church, listen. Mark it down if you need to. Every expectation that you and I have, we've all got them, we need to examine them and challenge them in reality. If you're looking to someone or something to be your rescue, to be your life raft, that's a dangerous thing.

If you put, or if I put, anything in that place of God in my life—well, this guy's going to pull me through it all—no he's not. God will see to it in life that every human being will experience some form of disappointment. Listen, God will see to it that you and I experience a disappointment regarding that person that we might so highly esteem in life that it's almost as though as it was in the days of Isaiah.

He so exalted King Uzziah that the Bible says, "In the year that King Uzziah died," what does it say? "I saw the Lord." Isaiah chapter six. King Uzziah was a great king of Israel. But regarding Isaiah's life, Uzziah seemed to be in the way of him seeing God. You might have a child that's in the way of you seeing God. Maybe you're idolizing that child or maybe it's some person in your life. That's a dangerous thing. They can become an idol easily.

Well, God will see to it that those that you might look up to are humbled. But we need to challenge our expectations. Lamentations 3:24 says, "The Lord is my portion," says my soul. I love that. "Therefore I hope in him." Do you hope in him? Are you trusting in him? It was said that we must not set aside the pursuit of greatness or achievement or excellence. We should never set that aside. But listen, do your best for God's glory and after having done your best, leave the results to God. Why? Because the Lord is your portion.

Unreasonable expectations in life, they set us up for disappointments. People will let us down. Make a note of that in your heart. But God will never let you down. Listen, if you think God has let you down, you have mismanaged the situation of your life.

You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here is Pastor Jack.

So watch out about unreasonable expectations because disappointment will come. I'm not saying, please don't misunderstand me. We are Americans from all nations of the earth. We have come here to be Americans. And here's the deal about Americans. I've heard this from people in Europe. "You Americans, you Americans." "What about us?" I've been told this. "You guys always want to fix something. You guys always want to do this. And when the light turns red, you guys, if you look around and there's no cars, you'll walk across the street. You guys are so independent. You'll do this and you'll do that."

We are like that. We are like that. I'm not saying let your guard down or lower the standard of your heart that God has given you to pursue, to stand strong, to challenge. That's good stuff. Any of you in college, ask your professor why. Why what? Whatever. Whatever your professor says in college or in high school, your teacher, say, "Why do you think that's true?" Ask questions. You'll learn more that way.

God's word says this. Jesus said, and here's the fix to unreasonable expectations from man that break our hearts. John 15:11 says, "These things," Jesus said, "I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full." If your commitment is in Christ and that is your focal point regarding expectation, he will never let you down.

John 16:33. Jesus says, "These things I've spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, disappointment. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Those are verses that you need to hang on to right now. Are you going through something? You need to latch on to those verses.

Another thing is this. Disappointment comes when hope is misplaced. That is when we put hope in someone or something where it ought not to be. In Genesis 3, verse 4, the Bible says, "Then the serpent," listen to this, "then the serpent said to the woman," Eve, "You will not surely die. For God knows in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate."

What is that all about? Listen, disappointment comes when hope is misplaced. Was not Eve supposed to be hoping, trusting, living, and walking with God? And then Satan comes along and says, "Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you eat this thing? God says not to eat it. Oh yeah, you know what? He doesn't want," listen, "he doesn't want you to become like him."

Any doctrine that says that you can become a god comes right from old Satan himself. "Oh come on, Eve." And what she did was she took that and it must have been so appealing to her that she misplaced her hope. She took another doctrine. She listened to another form of teaching other than that which was scriptural from the mouth of God.

And here's the fix for that. God's word says in 1 Samuel 2, verse 2, "No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God." Okay, listen to this. I hope this is exciting to you, what I'm about to say, because it really got me going. If there is no God like our God, he's the only one that there is. He's enthroned in heaven. Take your finger. Get ready, everybody. Get your finger ready. If there's no God like our God, point to where heaven is. I mean, you know, symbolically, right? Yeah. Okay, now watch this.

We need to stop thinking from the bottom up in our life regarding disappointment. If he is our God and our Lord and there's none like him and that's where he's at, is not our citizenship, says the Bible, in heaven? Is that not our home? Does not the Bible say that we're not home yet? We're passing through. We're going home. We're en route.

So check this out. We need to stop thinking from the bottom—earth—upward. If our citizenship's in heaven, we need to start thinking from the top down. We need to—isn't that what God does with the Bible? He wants us to think heavenly thoughts. He wants us to think godly thoughts. He wants us to make our decisions based upon the information from above.

I just find it kind of interesting that everything that you and I do now is almost predicated upon you and I getting information from above in the sense of, what's my phone say? What time is it? What temperature is it going to be? How should I dress today? Where am I going? I mean, this is true. Maybe you have this app on your iPhone. But if I park at some big place where I'm not sure I'll remember where my car's parked, when I pull up, I pull out my iPhone and I press a button and it memorizes the exact GPS spot of where my car's parked.

I go on my trip, I come back, I walk out of the airport, I press the button, and there's a little blue dot that's me and a little red dot that's my car and it leads me to my car. When you're over 50, that's what you do. It's really cool. It's a great little app.

Everything's coming down from above. If things can come from a satellite and direct us, don't you think it would be even wiser yet still to have God let his wisdom and his guidance rain down from above and speak to us and lead us and guide us? God speaks to us from the top down. We need to stop viewing it all from the bottom up. His vantage point's perfect.

I love this. In 2 Kings chapter 6, this is a great, great event. Elisha, you know, can you imagine hanging out with Elisha? Gehazi, his assistant, he had an assistant, personal assistant, Gehazi. Elisha, he saw things. He could see things. Elisha would talk to God, "God show me something." Boom!

So check this out. In 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 15, it says, "And when the servant of the man of God arose early, he went out," got out of his tent or stood up and walked out, "there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, 'Alas, my master, what shall we do?'" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

Okay, excuse me. There's two of them and they're surrounded by a massive army. Then Elisha prayed and said, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So the enemy had his army that you could see on this level, like you and I. "Oh my goodness, we're going to die." In the invisible realm looking from above, Elisha just simply says—can you imagine walking with God like that? Elisha was like, "Hmm, those poor armies." And his assistant's freaking out and he says, "Lord, open his eyes so he can see what we can see." And the guy blinks and opens his eyes and he sees flaming chariots about ready to slaughter the armies of the enemy.

How do you know right now if in your moment of disappointment, there's not some divine, supernatural, invisible answer right over your head?

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Discipline of Disappointment. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called the Disciplines of Life, a series that highlights the discipline of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

You know, I'm kind of concerned these days about what kids are actually learning in school about America. I don't think they're getting the right signal for the most part. What are you thinking?

Jack Hibbs: Well, I'm thinking the same thing. You know, this is a horrible place to live, Davey. I mean, it's—you know, we're trying to break out of this country to find some other place. It's disgusting, you know. It's just the worst country in the whole world.

David J: On Earth.

Jack Hibbs: Which is why over a million people a year legally immigrate to the United States, because it's so bad.

David J: It's terrible. Right. Who wants to live in a country where you have individual freedoms, the right to bear arms and free speech? What kind of a messed-up place is this?

Jack Hibbs: But kids aren't getting that. Kids aren't getting that these days. They're not understanding it. No, it's that same old argument of socialism and everything—you notice when you have to make excuses for socialism like, "Well, it's never been done right before." Excuse me, hello. It's because it can't be done right. That's kind of like putting, you know, a donkey in a horse race. It ain't going to happen.

Socialism doesn't work. The Bible makes that very clear. Private ownership, free market trade, all of that is actually biblical. This is called stewardship. And so, no, this is a great nation. It's miraculous that we're coming up on 250 years. Yeah, our nation needs to return back to God, but this is just part of it.

David J: We've got to let the kids know about it.

Jack Hibbs: I personally believe that children—we really need to take advantage of children being children, meaning this: they're very impressionable. Of course, you know, those who have embarked upon Marxism and Communism, notice they always go after the kids. And we, who know liberty and freedom, seem to be latecomers to the party.

And so we have a wonderful little booklet and it's called Happy Birthday America: 250 Years of God's Blessings. I think kids are going to get not only the great cartoon graphics, but the storyline, Davey, is something that can walk a child through, as a devotion with Mom and Dad with God in the center, because America has the most unique story of all the nations throughout all of human history. So we've got quotes, for example, from Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King and George Washington and Billy Graham and a lot of other really great things that are going to help a kid look at the American timeline and how God has been in the center of it all.

David J: The Happy Birthday America booklet, helping the next generation discover the founding truths of our nation. Get your copy today for free. Just pay shipping at jackhibbs.com.

Hey, thanks again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.