"Dealing With Delay and Disappointment"
Sermon Transcript for June 13, 2004
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:5-11
By Dr.. Ken Kinghorn
Dr. Ken Kinghorn retired from Asbury Theological Seminary as a professor of church history and historical theology after nearly 40 years of service. He also served the institution as vice president at large. Dr. Kinghorn, a nationally known author, has written 11 books dealing with Methodist history, discipleship, the Holy Spirit, Christian doctrine, and spiritual gifts. Source Ashbury Theological Seminary Website.
Thank you very much. I’m trying to educate Dan on Ken instead of Dr. Kinghorn. I got over this “Dr. Kinghorn” business a long time ago. When we got home from ceremonies in Atlanta where I had received a certain degree, I said to my wife, Hilda, who is here today, “Aren’t you going to call me Doctor?” And she said, “Sure, Doctor, take out the garbage.” I’m so grateful to be in this church. Mike was one of my former students and I like to boast that now many of my former students pray with me and for me where they had formerly prayed about me. Mike, I’m sure is having a wonderful time and looking forward to being back with you
I couldn’t help but think last evening as I was looking over the schedule of the church how much activity is going on. All kind of ministries some recognized and some not so recognized. But this truly is a church that has something for everybody. One of my colleagues on the faculty said that he was in Arizona one time and saw a dude ranch. A big sign at the dude ranch said, “We have a horse for everybody. For tall people we have tall horses, and for short people we have short horses. For fast people we have fast horses and for slow people we have slow horses. For fat people we have fat horses, for skinny people we have skinny horses. “ And finally the sign concluded by saying, “For people who have never ridden horses before, we have horses that have never been broken.”
But what a delight and a joy it is to share with you and be a part of this congregation. I couldn’t help but be impressed with as much music as we got out of a team of three people. It sounded like a whole choir; it was wonderful and very skillfully lead. And I so much am grateful for that.
I want to talk a little bit this morning about dealing with delay and disappointment. I suppose if I were looking for an alternate title I might say, “Why did God get me in this fix?” Or another title, “The day the roof caved in and the bottom floor fell out.” But a more dignified title would be, “Dealing with Delay and Disappointment.” And I want to share briefly two parallel stories that occurred at the seminary where I teach. Three student wives came to see me once. And they said, “We have had a very cranky boss in Lexington where we work. He’s mean spirited and crude and blames us for his mistakes. And there is no pleasing the man. And he’s just awful hard to work with.” So they said, “Our three husbands joined us on a Friday night for a barbecue in the backyard of a student apartment and one of the husbands offered grace for the meal. And during the prayer he asked God to touch the heart of this boss and change his outlook, his whole being. As John Wesley would say, “Change his tempers—attitudes.” And they said, “We forgot about that little prayer. And we went on Monday morning to the office and the boss called us to the inner office and gave us all three a generous raise, smiled at us (first time we ever saw that) and he told us he’d been converted to Christ over the weekend.” And they said, “It’s just been a transformation in the office and isn’t God good to answer a prayer like that!”
Now that’s a good story. Within three weeks, two student wives came to see me and said, “We have a very cranky boss in Lexington where we work. He’s awful; he blames us for his mistakes, you can’t please him, he’s grouchy, he curses just awful. Our two husbands joined us on Friday night for a long prayer meeting and some of us fasted from Friday night till Sunday noon and asked God to touch this boss and change him. And on Monday morning we walked in to the office, we marched in to the office triumphant like Joshua. We just were sure that God heard our prayer and answered the prayer. But we are here to report to you that in a fit of anger he fired us both.”
Now the first story is a wonderful story. And I can identify with that. But the second story is maybe a more realistic story. In many cases we don’t get what we want. One student prays for tuition and it comes the same day he prays for money for tuition. The other student prays for months for tuition; money doesn’t come in so he drops seminary for a year--this is a true story—and came back after a year of working two jobs and finished seminary and now is very happy in the parish ministry in the Detroit Annual Conference. One student gets tuition; the other student doesn’t get tuition. So I want to talk about these delays and disappointments.
There are two reasons why I think it is more difficult to deal with delays and disappointments in our day. The first reason being that some very well meaning people in sermons, books, radio, television, have developed a theology that we might call “name it and claim it”. You needn’t be sick, you needn’t be without resources, and you needn’t be disappointed if you only had enough faith you can have what you want—just name it and claim it. So we sometimes refer to that theology as name it and claim it, confess it and possess it, doubt and do without it, blab it and grab it. It’s probably not very nice to talk that way, but that theology really does not square, does it? Why are the scripture because some of the great saints, in fact all of the great saints in the Hebrews, Chapter 11 section just preceding the scripture we read today in Chapter 12, talks about those who had great faith and what about them? They had no homes, they were martyred, and they went begging and hungry. And you can’t say they didn’t have enough faith. So that theology has skewed us sometimes and made it difficult for us to handle delay and disappointment.
There’s a second reason why we have difficulty dealing with delay and disappointment that I think; and that is because we moderns have developed an inch for the instantaneous. We like to push a button and have an immediate response. We push a button and a whole automobile comes to life. We push another button and a television lights up with all kinds of PowerPoint slides and things that do wonderful things. We push another button and something wonderful happens, a rocket goes to the moon. So why can’t we push buttons with God? Now it hasn’t always been this way because I the Middle Ages, they knew more what it was to wait and to be more patient than we moderns. If you wanted a Bible in the Middle Ages what would you do to get a Bible? Well, you had to kill a sheep. What does that have to do with getting a bible? Well, you make a palate out of sheepskin and they could write on that. And the printing press was not invented until the middle of the fifteenth century, around 1450. And prior to the printing press how did you get a Bible? Well, you make this velum and then you go to a monastery and copy long hand. And it could take you months! And the monks were so careful. They counted the last word into the middle and the first word into the middle and if they didn’t match exactly, you’d made a mistake; you had to throw it away! That’s one reason many of our manuscripts are so accurate because they threw away those that didn’t jive by that kind of a testing method. And then if you copied the whole Bible it would probably take you well over a year, maybe two years, and it would be so heavy you would have to take the thing home in a wheelbarrow. But today you can get a disk; not only with seventeen biblical Bible versions for software but all kinds of commentaries on a little disk you put in your pocket. But today if you want a printed Bible you don’t have to go to a monastery. You can get one real easily by going to the furnace room of the church and there’s a whole stack of Bibles in the corner. It says “To Mary Martha, 1957”. Congratulations Mary Martha! And so you can get a Bible easily but you couldn’t always. But I’m just saying we moderns are having difficulty with wait, with delays, betrayals, and disappointments. And a whole number of philosophical, theological problems develops that’s called “theodicy” in theology. That is why evil happens to good people.
Well, I want to talk about three things this morning. And these three things are affirmations about the very nature and character of God. E. Stanley Jones, a graduate from our institution in Wilmore, use to say worldwide, “What gets your attention gets you”. So what is your focus in your delay and disappointment, and your betrayal and your heartache, and your cancer, and your divorce, and your business failure? What is getting your attention, the problem or God? So we want to look at God in three perspectives. And these three affirmations that I want to make this morning are three things that you can say with certainty about the very character, about the very nature of God Himself.
God is wise: Now the Bible goes to considerable lengths to contract human wisdom with divine wisdom. You and I see limited amounts partially with fuzzy understanding. God sees the whole picture from start to finish. I think God is eternal and He sees the past, present and the future. I think that’s what He does. He sees the perfect perspective. And you and I don’t know enough to fall into pessimism because the last chapter has not been yet written. And God’s wisdom is greater than human wisdom and often only in retrospect can we see that it was a good thing that God put us through the fire. It didn’t destroy us but it did burn up the cross. And I look back on my own life and I thank the Lord God twenty-five years ago I did not get what I thought I just had to have at the time. What I did get, what I didn’t think I needed or wanted or could take, but now that I look back on it, I think how much wiser God was than I was in my immature praying and expecting. And that it was much better for God to have God’s way with me than for me to have my way with God. So I do not say for a minute that God sends bad things into our lives. I don’t think God sends bad things. But I think God allows them and then will always use them for our sanctification, for our good, for our maturity, for God’s glory. And we don’t see the whole picture. And it may be five years before you will, and it may be twenty-five years before you will understand why. And in some cases I really believe you may never understand in the present lifetime. But that’s okay because we can trust God’s heart where we cannot always trace God’s hand. We trust Him where we can’t trace Him.
Years ago one of my young sons asked me an innocent question. “Dad, where do potatoes come from?” I thought about taking him to Kroger’s or the Farmer’s Market and say, “Potatoes come out of cellophane bags or they come out of truck beds.” But what we did was dig a garden in the back yard and that’s called “Kent’s Personal Garden”. And we put seed potatoes in there and fertilized them by going to the Lexington Stock Yards and getting some barnyard you know what. And we put that on his garden. And the green shoots became a mountain. And little Kent, when he’s five, has a coloring book with an apple tree in the coloring book. And he thinks potatoes will begin to hang from the bushes of the potatoes. What would you think if you were five? And in the fall, and we worked through the summer and little Kent perspired, worked hard, watered his garden. But in the fall, all the vines matured, turned brown, fell to the ground—a dead mass of vines. And he thinks his garden is defeated. But I know some things that he doesn’t know. And so, in October we got a wheelbarrow and a garden fork and we unearthed an unbelievable number of potatoes out of his little patch. And I have never yet told Kent when he was five where potatoes come from. But I don’t have to tell him; he tells me. And he puts his thumb on his Mickey Mouse t-shirt and grins like he swallowed sunshine. He said, “Dad, you and I know where potatoes come from, don’t we Dad?” And my suspicion would be that some of us in this very room are in the potato patch and our vines turn brown and we work hard but we can’t believe God would allow this to happen to my garden. But God’s wise and knows some things you don’t know. And someday you will know why.
Tracy sang this morning, “Through it all, through it all I’ve learned to trust Him”. And there’s another song we sometimes sing in the church, “Some through the fire, some through the flood, some through the deep waters, but all through the Lord.” And we sometimes sing in the church, “When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow; For I will be with thee, they troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” God is in the process of purifying the gold and if it means burning up the dross so be it! God is wise and we can trust Him where we cannot trace Him.
God is Faithful: The Bible goes to great lengths to talk about the faithfulness of God. And I’m willing to say a risky adverb, God “always”, God always brings to a favorable conclusion those things we surrender over to Him. Now we’ll probably never be in the timetable we would have preferred and seldom through the methodology we would have enjoyed. But in time, He is faithful to bring past what He has begun. The Bible promises it. And even the pain, the injustice, cancer, business failure, all of this one day will come out right. And that’s not Pollyanna. That’s simply biblical faith that God will bring to a good conclusion what we have surrendered to Him.
I like to think that centuries ago there were lots of young couples that had to pay taxes in Bethlehem. Let’s fictionalize one young couple; call them Simeon and Ruth. And Simeon and Ruth had these beautiful snow white horses. And they got on those snow white horses and Ruth was pregnant and they went up to Bethlehem to pay taxes. And when they got there, Simeon says, “Do you have a hotel room left?” “Yes, sir, we have one room left and you can have it.” And Simeon and Ruth go to the hotel room and they just praised the Lord. “Well, praise the Lord. God is so good. We named it and claimed it. God gave us what we wanted.” Now, I must say that sometimes things do work out that way, don’t they occasionally? Have you had those days when every traffic light turned green for you just as you got there? You make one telephone call and solve the problem and you’ve got the whole morning to work on your project? You plant a few shrubs in your yard and your neighbor’s dog dies the same day? Everything just seems to work out great.
But there is this other couple that I’ve got to tell you about. They aren’t married; but she’s pregnant but it’s not like you all think. He’s called Joseph and she’s called Mary. And if I told you the story you wouldn’t believe it! But anyway, they were going to pay taxes in Bethlehem and they don’t have two white horses. They just have one pathetic gray donkey and they are still making donkey payments on him at Jakes Used Donkey Lot. And they go to Bethlehem and Joseph says to Mary, “You know, dear, I’m just sure God’s going to give us a room at the inn. I have faith to believe it. God is going to give us a room at the inn.” And they got there and what happened? Joseph and Mary had to go to the stable. And if I would have been God, I would have had my son, Jesus, born in the hotel but not in the stable. But Jesus was born in the stable. And they didn’t smell quite soft, gentle smells of alfalfa hay. They smelled something different in the stable. And I have to ask questions. Why did this occur? Did God love the first couple more than the second couple? Does the first couple have greater faith than the second couple? Is the first couple more deserving and worthy than the second couple? None of the above! Okay then, why did the first couple get the hotel room and the second couple doesn’t get it? Why does the first young man get his tuition, the second young man doesn’t get it? Why do three wives get a new boss at work and two wives get fired at work? Why? We don’t know, do we! But we know that God is faithful and he’s bringing out a conclusion to His plan. I’m sure that we don’t know as much as we think we know sometimes.
Back when I was a freshman professor at the seminary, my first year of teaching, a student remained after class still writing in his notebook. And I thought, “Oh, he’s really taking good notes on my wonderful lecture.” And I said, “Well, you’re still scribbling notes, aren’t you?” And he said, “Oh yes Prof, I am.” He said, “And I just wrote a limerick about you, Prof.” I said, “You did? Well what did you write?” He said, “As a pastor, Kinghorn was a guesser. His knowledge grew lesser and lesser. It finally got so small that he new nothing at all, so they made him a seminary professor.” I don’t know why your wife left you, your business failed, the doctor said, “You have cancer”, or why your child broke your heart. I don’t know that why. But I believe, I believe God is faithful and He will bring to a favorable conclusion. Now it won’t be like we orchestrate; it will be a faithful conclusion if we are in His hand nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And all the time you are becoming more and more like Him. I don’t know a saint I have ever read about in the history of Christianity, I’ve never read about one saint that did not know her share, his share of pain, discipline, delay, and betrayal. That’s the stuff of which saints are made. And I say, “God, bring on the pain if that’s required, or the jackhammer or the fire or the blowtorch. Do what you need to do because I want to be your person. I said 1) God is wise, 2) God is faithful, and finally, but last…
God is Loving: The Scripture says in Hebrews, Chapter 12, “Those whom the Lord loves, he chases.” Now wouldn’t you think that the Bible would say, “God …(Lost some of transcript due to tape change)
Maybe I need chasing more than I think I do. And getting my way is so a good thing. And getting your way and my way is not nearly so important as we sometimes think it is. So God is up to something very, very good. I was over in West Virginia once. I’m going to close with this poem. I was sitting at a church fellowship supper with a retired coalminer. He sent me a poem that he…he was quoting poetry at the table and I got to tell you something parenthetical about church fellowship supers. If all the meatloaf I’ve ever seen at church fellowship suppers would be laid end to end, I’d just let it all lie there. But anyway, we survived the church supper and Kyle was telling me poems. And I said, “Kyle, you’ve got to send me a copy of that poem.” And he did. And I want to close with this poem. It’s called, “The Refiner's Fire”.
He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore,
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
And He wanted the finest gold
To mold as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems with a price untold.So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Though we fain would have said Him "Nay,"
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
And melted and passed away.And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright;
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire--not the Master's hand--
And questioned our anxious fears.Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a form above,
That bent o'er the fire, though unseen by us,
With a look of ineffable love.Can we think that it pleased His loving heart
To cause us a moment's pain?
Ah no! but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.So He waited with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And that gold did not suffer a bit more heat
Than was needed to make it pure.
UnknownLord, bring on the fire! Purify the dross, burn up the dross, and purify the gold. And I want to say this as the final, final thing. When you go through the difficulty, the delay, the disappointment with God who is wise, faithful, and loving, you come out on the other side having born within you your character, the very fabric of your moral being, the spiritual qualities of wisdom, faithfulness, and love. And so my prayer this morning is, “God, do anything in me today that you must in order to do everything for me tomorrow that you plan."
Let us pray, “Now, Lord, sanctify to us the truth that delay and disappointment may be some of your finest means of purifying the gold and making us into the saints that you call us to be. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”
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