01 - Failed Expectations 2011 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

John Wesley said, “The doctrine of divine providence has been received by wise men in all ages. It was believed by many of the eminent Heathens, not only philosophers, but orators and poets. Innumerable are the testimonies concerning it which are scattered up and down in their writings.”

The Roman orator Cicero wrote that: "All things, all events in this world, are under the management of God” (which describes a belief in providence).

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon told his vast congregation, “I am constantly talking about providence in my preaching, and I thought it quite as well to devote a whole sermon to explain what I believe are God's great wonder-working processes which we call Providence.”

WHAT IS PROVIDENCE?

(SCREEN SHOT) Providence is the belief that God has a plan for the world and for our lives and that He is working in the affairs of men every day -- fitting things together to accomplish His glorious purpose.

Providence refers to God’s guidance, protection, control and preservation in our lives to bring His will to pass.

IN A NUTSHELL: Providence refers to God being in ultimate Control of All things.

Scripture testifies that God is providential over:

NATURE

In Genesis following the great flood, God promised Noah, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).

And He is providentially in charge of:

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

A). God holds the life of all creatures in His hand. “Not a sparrow falls to the ground,” Jesus said, “without your Father’s permission.”

He also taught us that:

B). God provides for the creatures He created, and this is supposed to assure us of His providential care for us. “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow….yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

And God’s Providence rules the:

NATIONS

Ps. 47:7-9 “For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”

And God is also providential over the:

LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS

Prov. 16:9 “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”

Ps. 75:6 “For exaltation comes neither from the east, Nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another.”

God is providential over:

EVEN THE SMALLEST THINGS

Matt. 10:29-31 “Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Now, let’s bring SOME BALANCE TO UNDERSTANDING PROVIDENCE...

Even though God is sovereign:

We should not interpret all things that happen IN THE WORLD or TO US as the direct result of God’s Providence:

The Bible reveals that:

Some things may be the result of Satan's activity (Remember Job?) Jesus Himself clearly warned that the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy.

In His parable of the wheat and the tares, when the tares were discovered growing up right next to the wheat, Jesus said, “An enemy has done this.”

Other things may be the consequence of the actions of evil men, as with a drunken driver, a murder, etc.

Some things are accidental. When the tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people in a terrible accident, the people were blaming God’s judgment. But Jesus didn’t agree that God did it. He simply warned His listeners that they, too, would likewise perish if they didn’t repent.

The message of Providence is that, though God is not directly responsible for all that happens, He does promise to override all things by His providence and work them for our good. (Ro. 8:28)

ILLUS: The cruise ship and the Captain

In the next few weeks, we’re going to look at four people in the Bible whose stories illustrate God’s mighty providence:

NAOMI—Providence at work in the valley of Failed Expectations

JOSEPH—Providence at work through the heartbreak of Broken Dreams

ESTHER—Providence at work in the crisis of Perilous Circumstances

ABRAHAM—Providence at work in the hour of Desperate Need

Now today let’s look at Naomi, and how Providence worked in her valley of Failed Expectations.

Naomi’s story begins on a happy note.

Due to a famine that had come upon the land of Judah, she and her husband, ELIMELECH, along with her two sons, MAH’LON and CHIL’ION, set out for the land of Moab to weather out the storm.

Not long after arriving, her husband Elimelech died. Her two sons went on to marry Moabite girls, one named Orpah and the other, Ruth.

But lo and behold, before long both sons also died, leaving Naomi only with her two Moabite daughters in law.

Scripture tells us she tried to convince her two daughters-in-law to return to “their people” and “their gods,” clearly indicating that they had come from a strongly pagan background.

Orpah heeds her advice and, after a kiss, returns home.

But Ruth refuses to go, and delivers one of the most beautiful and classic pronouncements of loyalty and commitment in all of recorded literature:

“ Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.

17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”

Who could argue with that?

Together, the two women return to Bethlehem upon hearing that the famine had passed.

When they arrived, scripture records in 1: 19-21…

“All the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi (pleasant); call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

And then Naomi sums up the cause of her deep disillusionment:

21 “I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty.”

I went out full of expectation and hope, I went out with happy prospects, I went out with a picture in my mind of how my life would turn out, but the opposite has happened. So…

“Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me? Call me bitter!”

NOW NOTICE: Naomi is attributing all of her tragedies to God. “The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

But there is nothing in the Bible’s account that tells us God had anything to do with it!

Nor do we see any recorded sin on Naomi’s part that would have caused God to “deal bitterly with her.”

Naomi wrongly interpreted her circumstances through the lens of a faulty understanding of God.

And people respond wrongly to adversity all the time. Here’s a few:

FIRST WRONG RESPONSE: Blame yourself.

If something bad has happened to me, then there must be some sin in my life. God isn’t pleased with me.

SECOND WRONG RESPONSE: Blame your faith.

My faith wasn’t strong enough. It was my lack of faith that caused this.

THIRD WRONG RESPONSE: Blame God.

God isn’t who I thought he was. He just hasn’t come through for me.

My belief in God hasn’t delivered the blessings I assumed it would.

He must not have been real after all.

Naomi is a perfect example of a person blaming God in the presence of her FAILED EXPECTATIONS.

FAILED EXPECTATIONS like Naomi’s occur when what you thought was going to happen, or what you believed by faith God would do doesn’t come to pass.

The Bible says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”—Pr. 13:12

Nothing is more grievous than the disappointment of a high expectation when it is delayed. It sickens the heart.

And even worse is when our hope is not just delayed, but totally dashed. It crushes the heart when our hope never happens at all.

The higher our expectation was, the more cutting is the frustration when it fails.

It is in the presence of failed expectations that Satan swoops in upon the weak in faith to overthrow their walk with God.

All kinds of thoughts come rushing into our minds when our hopes are dashed:

“If God is there, how could He let this happen?”

“If God were all-powerful, He could have done what I asked.”

“If God really loved me, He would have stopped this.”

Naomi’s reaction reveals a faulty understanding of God’s Providence.

Remember, while God is ultimately Providential over all things, not everything that happens in the world or to us is from Him.

But the promise is that, no matter what comes our way, God’s Providence will work it out for our good and to His glory.

So, the first lesson of Providence is:

Be very careful what you attribute to God.

Naomi was right in her belief that God was on His throne and ruled the world through His providence.

But she was wrong in assuming that He had targeted her for destruction.

When Job had lost everything, the Bible says, “In all this, Job did not sin by foolishly charging God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:22).

The second lesson in understanding Providence is:

Trust that His providence is at work, even though you can’t see it.

Though Naomi couldn’t see it in her grief, God’s Providence was already at work in the presence of Ruth, through whom God would turn Naomi’s tragedy into a triumph.

Tell rest of story…

A third and last lesson is:

The voice of Providence says: HANG ON. THE FINAL CHAPTER HASN’T BEEN WRITTEN. GIVE ME TIME TO WORK.

Naomi’s valley of Failed Expectations became her mountaintop of Unanticipated Blessing!