Faith Series 5

Faith Series

Part 5

“When Your Faith is Disappointed”

2 Kings 5:11 “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’”

I’ll explain this passage in just a moment...

I want to talk to you today about disappointed faith—how we can sometimes be convinced something is the will of God and pray with all our might, only to be disappointed with the outcome.

When our faith is disappointed it usually falls into one of 3 categories:

God doesn’t do WHAT we thought He would,

WHEN we thought He would,

or the WAY we thought He would.

When these things happen, we can experience disappointed faith.

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Now, the passage we quoted is taken from the story of a man named Naaman...

Naaman was a highly prominent, respected man who was the captain of the entire Syrian army.

He was famous, celebrated, and highly accomplished.

But Naaman harbored a dark secret—he was a LEPER.

This great man had something in his life he couldn’t control that was eating away at him, body and soul—like many ppl experience today.

In Naaman’s case is was leprosy, but today it can be some enslaving habit, some secret weakness, a sin problem, that eats away at you and robs your happiness.

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Now, one day on a military expedition, Naaman captured a young Israeli girl and brought her home to become his wife’s servant.

This young girl soon became aware of the family secret—Naaman was a leper.

But this girl just happened to know about a prophet in Israel named Elisha, much like someone today would know about Jesus!

So the young Israeli girl tells Naaman’s wife about Elisha and his miraculous ministry, claiming he can heal Naaman.

Naaman’s wife quickly tells him this good news.

He immediately gathers together an impressive entourage and heads straight for the land of Israel and Elisha’s house.

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Now, here is where we see a perfect example of disappointed faith...

First, we find that...

Naaman had a right request, but a wrong expectation

He goes to Elisha’s door, knocks on it, and Elisha doesn’t even answer, but sends his servant instead who tells Naaman something he didn’t expect:

“Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10).

This hit him wrong in all kinds of ways and Naaman became furious.

The Bible says, “...he turned away in a rage.” (Vs.12)

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Now, why was he so angry?

What made him stumble over Elisha’s directions?

The first 5 words from Naaman’s mouth in verse 11 give us a clue, “Indeed, I said to myself...”

You see, Naaman had had a little talk with himself on the way to Elisha’s house about how the whole thing would go down.

The Bible records what Naaman expected out of his own mouth:

“...he (Elisha) will surely come out to me,”

“and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God,”

“and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.”

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He had a fixed idea of exactly how Elisha would respond.

As he made his way to the prophet’s house, he rehearsed the dramatic healing he anticipated over and over in his head.

And when it didn’t happen the way he expected, it almost caused him to lose his blessing!

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And this is what we often do as well!

Without even being aware of it, we can develop a very narrow, fixed expectation for exactly how we believe God is going to answer our prayers.

We have a right request but a wrong expectation.

You see, God often has a BETTER PLAN for reasons we don’t fully understand.

And just like Naaman, when He doesn’t do:

WHAT we thought He would,

or WHEN we thought He would,

or HOW we thought he would, we experience disappointed faith.

Because we’re about to see that God chose to answer Naaman in a way he could never have imagined!

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Now, a second problem Naaman had was:

II. God’s answer offended him

First, Elisha didn’t even come to the door, which offended his pride.

Second, the Jordan River wasn’t stylin’ enough for Naaman!

The Jordan was a muddy, sluggish, discolored river that didn’t fit well with his pride.

He wanted a more sophisticated answer, an answer more pleasing to his flesh.

He protested, saying, “Are not....the rivers of Damascus (where he was from), better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” (Vs.12)

In other words, “God, I want you to heal me, but I’d prefer you do it my way.”

To Naaman, God’s answer seemed silly...

And the very idea of dipping down into it 7 times in front of his entire entourage was humbling.

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And God’s answer for people today has the same effect...because God’s answer for the human race is the Cross where His Son bled and died!

And people have the same reaction to the Cross as Naaman had to the Jordan River.

We want God to heal us, but we don’t want to go by way of the Cross.

We want God to fix our schools, stop the violence, and heal our nation, but we don’t want to bow before a crucified Savior for the answer!

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Paul encountered this attitude toward the Cross everywhere he went!

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

“...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles...” (1 Cor. 1:23)

Yet Paul also knew that in the Cross lay the answer!

“...but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vs. 24).

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Perhaps some of you want God to heal you of the sin that is ruining your life, but you don’t want to humble yourself by going to the Cross of Christ where Jesus bled and died.

Jesus says to you, “...blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matt. 11:6).

There was only ONE WAY for Naaman, and that was the Jordan.

And there is only ONE WAY for us today, and that is Jesus Christ!

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Third, we see that...

III. God had a better plan

So often when we pray, we don’t see the bigger picture of what God wants to do.

For instance, Paul prayed for deliverance from his thorn in the flesh, but God had a bigger and better plan...

Paul testifies, “Concerning this thing (his thorn in the flesh) I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:8-10).

God answered Paul, but not in the way he’d imagined.

God’s answer revealed a higher and better plan!

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As we read along, it becomes clear that God wanted to not only heal Naaman, but also to save his soul...

Naaman finally made his way to the cold, muddy waters of the Jordan, waded out into the murky stream, and lowered himself under and back up like a person being baptized 7 times...

And on the 7th time, “...his flesh became as healthy as a little child’s, and he was healed!”

It was here that Naaman realized that the God of Israel was the true God and he was converted to a living faith in the living God!

“Then he and his entire party went back to find the prophet; they stood humbly before him and Naaman said, “I know at last that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:14-15).

Not only was Naaman healed, his soul was saved.

God’s reason for the Jordan now became clear!

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If your faith is disappointed, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding...”

God’s plan will unfold with time, and the bigger picture will one day become clear.

Until then, when you don’t understand God’s hand, trust His heart!

LET’S PRAY