River Church NOLA
Wed October 22 Wednesday Setbacks to Comebacks
  • God So Loved
  • Rest On Us
  • Trust In God
  • You Are My All In All
  • Intro
    Take out your notes. Tonight we will look at when we have a setback that seems irreversible. On your outline I have defined what a setback is.

    Setback: A loss of progress, a defeat of a plan, or a reversal of good fortune. Anything that sets you back.

    So today we will look at what do you need to do when the setback seems irreversible. You may think that the door is closed and it can’t be opened again. So what do you do when the setback seems permanent? Maybe you think, I can never climb out of this hole.
    I believe we can find some answers (of all places) in the life of Job. In his day, Job was the wealthiest man in the world. He was powerful and famous, but on one single day, he literally lost everything. Every one of his sons and daughters, he had a big family, were murdered by terrorists on a single day. That's enough right there, but then, natural disasters wiped out all of his crops and all of his livestock. They all died on a single day. It was a disaster. He lost all of his wealth, and he became deathly ill with an incurable and extremely painful disease.
    I doubt any of us have had a day quite like that. He suffered a real setback and it looked irreversible.
    Job 30:26–27 NLT
    26 So I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell. 27 My heart is troubled and restless. Days of suffering torment me.
    I know that some of you have felt like Job must have felt at some point in your life…. maybe even now. You have had setbacks that seemed like there was no comeback from… like they were permanent.
    But Job has one of the greatest comebacks in history. He loses all his health, his wealth, his family, everything… posterity and prestige. But in the end, He gains it all back plus some. I think this story will encourage you no matter what kind of a setback you are experiencing today.
    We are going to look at 5 things that Job did when everything fell apart in his life. You will need this someday. We will use an acrostic to label these 5 things.

    How do I trust God for a Comeback When My Setback Seems Irreversible? TRUST like Job did.

    So what do you do?

    T - Tell God exactly How I Feel

    This is where you begin. God is interested in you so tell him how you feel. When you suffer a major setback, unload your emotions to the Lord. Don’t tell him how you think he wants you to feel. Tell Him how you FEEL. God will Listen and he wants and expects you to be honest. Even if you are… disappointed… frustrated… filled with doubt… filled with fear… Tell God If you can’t stand what you are going through… he can take it. Tell him how you feel.
    Notice how Job reacted to the news of his setback.
    Job 1:20 GW
    20 Job stood up, tore his robe ⸤in grief⸥, and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshiped.
    That’s the way they grieved in the middle east. They tore their robe and shaved their head. He's acting in total humility, even in despair, and in doubt, and in frustration, and anger.
    Anytime you have loss in your life, any kind of loss, you're going to have four emotions. You're going to have anger. Why did this happen to me? You're going to have grief. What have I lost? You're going to have shock. What's going on here? And you're going to have questions. Why did this happen? I can't believe this is going on. You're going to have fear. What's going to happen next?
    You need to express every one of those emotions to God. You don't need to hold it in. You can tell him you are afraid… sad… angry…

    God can handle any emotion you've got, because he gave them to you.

    The only reason you have any feelings, you have any emotions, is because you are made in the image of God. It's what makes you different from animals? And God is an emotional God. The reason we have emotions is because God has emotions. They all come from Him so he can handle any emotion you throw out to him.
    That’s what Job did.
    Job 7:11 GNB
    11 No! I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak.
    He is telling God that He is angry. If you read the book of Job, you will actually see a progression in his reaction to his giant setback where he literally lost everything. First, he expresses confusion, what's going on in my life? Ever felt like that? Yeah. Then number two, he starts complaining. Then he starts blaming God for all his pain. And at one point he says, "God, you didn't do this right. You handled it wrong. You let all this bad stuff happened to me and God, I don't like it, or like you right now." Listen, God can handle that emotion.
    The right response to loss, or tragedy, or disaster is not to grin and bear it. God never wants you to fake emotion. He doesn't want you to put on a happy face that's faking it. He doesn't want your platitudes. A platitude is what you think you ought to say to God in prayer.
    He wants you to honestly tell him how you're struggling. God, I'm grieving right now. God, I'm hurting right now. God, I'm in a lot of pain. I'm depressed. I'm discouraged. I'm having some doubts. You tell it all to God and God can handle it.
    Some of you parents know what I am talking about. Out kids don’t always listen and do what we say do they? Most of the time, they never question our love, or that we have been around longer than them… they just think they know better. They may say that they didn’t like what you did, or that you were wrong… I would rather that than them lie to my face… and so does God.
    Lamentations 2:19 NCV
    19 Get up, cry out in the night, even as the night begins. Pour out your heart like water in prayer to the Lord. Lift up your hands in prayer to him for the life of your children who are fainting with hunger on every street corner.
    He’s saying spill your guts to the Lord.
    With God honesty is always the best policy. At the end of Job’s story, God commends Job, encourages Job and praises Job because he did this frist step. He told God how he felt. He was honest. Job never stopped trusting God, even when he was angry, even when he was upset, even when he didn't understand it. When he was confused, when he had doubts, even when he thought God had messed it all up, he still kept trusting God, but he was just honest.
    There are other people in the bible that spill their guts tot the Lord.
    Jeremiah comes to mind. He told god that he thinks that God lied to him.
    Naomi - told God to call her bitter because God made my life bitter.
    David - Lord, I've taken the worst from you and I've taken all that you can give and I'm fed up. I've had it." And God says, "You're a man after my own heart. David trusted god no matter what.
    Habakkuk - Why? Why God? Why is this happening to me? Habakkuk saw his nation being overrun by terrorists.
    Are there any frustrations you have never talked about to God? work… marriage… kids… parents… the nut relative… Talk to God he can handle it.
    The first is to Tell God how you feel.

    R - Refuse to become Bitter.

    It’s ok to complain to God, but it’s not ok to become bitter with God. Bitterness is saying I don’t trust God. We say stuff like, Why is God letting this happen to me? Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.
    Job didn’t get bitter. He saw the big picture. We need to look for the big picture in our lives too. Job will help you see the big picture… that no matter what is happening, God is still in control.
    Job 1:21–22 LBP
    21 “I came naked from my mother’s womb,” he said, “and I shall have nothing when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had, and they were his to take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all of this Job did not sin or revile God.
    I have done a lot of funerals, and I have never seen a U-haul parked by the grave site. We came into the wqorld with nothing and we leave the same way.
    If you study Job, the main question in this book is, Will you love and trust God no matter what happens? We need to love and trust him at all times. Let me give you a few things that we need to grateful for. Why?

    The antidote for bitterness is gratitude for God’s goodness.

    So let’s look at these.

    What to remember when you’ve had a setback

    God will never stop loving me. Job 10:12

    That’s a big deal. He says, I love you and there is nothing you can do to change that.

    God has a plan for my life. Job 23:14

    God cares about every detail of my life. Job 23:10; 31:4

    There is nothing too little in your life that God isn’t interested in and He is never too busy running the world to be there for you.

    God is in control of things I don’t understand. Job 34:13

    God will protect me. Job 5:11

    Those are 5 things that you can build your life on when you don’t know why things are happening in your life. God is here, God is near, God cares, God is powerful, God can change it, God has a plan, purpose, and he's going to use it all for good.
    You know, earlier I mentioned that prophet named Habakkuk, and I said that in the first three chapters of that book, they're all about the question why? Why God? Well look at this verse on your outline. Habakkuk 3:17-18, here's what Habakkuk did when he had a setback that looked like was irreversible.
    Habakkuk 3:17–18 GNB
    17 Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no corn, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, 18 I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my Savior.
    What are you bitter about today? What is some bitterness that you've allowed to take root in your life? I said it earlier, bitterness is a poison. Bitterness destroys. It's like a cancer that will take over your life. When you are bitter, it always hurts you more than it does the person you're bitter at.
    The problem with bitterness is, it doesn't hurt anybody else. You can be bitter at the person you're bitter at, they don't even know it. They could be out having a party, eating a steak celebrating and it's destroying you.
    If you're going to break through the setback to a comeback, you got to tell God exactly how you feel, but then you got to resist bitterness and you need to realize two things.
    First, in an imperfect world, everything has been broken by sin and there's always going to be plenty of disappointments to become bitter about, so don't be surprised at that. And Jesus said, in the world, you will have tribulation and trials.
    But second, you need to remember that both bitterness and happiness are choices. And every moment of your life you're always choosing one or the other, and if you choose to be bitter at the some moment, you're choosing to not be happy because you can't have both the same time in your heart and your mind.
    So my question to you is this. Which one do you want? Happiness or Bitterness? Job said that God gave him everything and that if chose to take it away, He would trust god anyway.
    Tell God how you feel… Refuse to be Bitter…

    U - Unite with people who’ll help me focus on God.

    For any comeback, you're going to need other people with faith to back you up. You're going to need other people in your life who can actually believe God for you, when your faith is shaky. This is why small groups or teams of believers are good and it’s why we want to do more of them. You cannot isolate yourself.
    God never intends for you to go through life on your own. He never intends for you to go through grief, or sorrow, or tragedy, or loss, or difficulty, or setback by yourself. He made us for each other. He wired human beings to need each other. We're better together. We're better in community. And the first thing God said to man, when he created man, is it's not good for man to be alone.
    Here's the problem. When you have a setback, or I have a setback, when we're going through pain, or suffering, or sorrow, or sadness, or loss, the problem is our natural reaction to pain is to withdraw from others, to pull back. And we want to build a wall around ourselves. We want to put up barriers. We want to keep people at a distance. We don't want anybody close to us when we're in deep, deep pain. And God says, no, no, no, no, no. That's the exact opposite of what you need to do.
    One of Job's friends gave this wise advice in Job. Notice this, there on your outline, his name was Elihu….
    Job 36:18–24 CEV
    18 don’t let your anger and the pain you endured make you sneer at God. 19 Your reputation and riches cannot protect you from distress, 20 nor can you find safety in the dark world below. (the occult) 21 Be on guard! Don’t turn to evil as a way of escape. 22 God’s power is unlimited. He needs no teachers 23 to guide or correct him. 24 Others have praised God for what he has done, so join with them.
    Underline that last phrase… Others have praised God for what he has done, so join with them.
    You got to unite with others who are going to support you, encourage you, pray for you, be with you. They'll help you out.
    Now, where do you find those kinds of friends? Who will lift you up when you're down? Well, a couple of places.
    First at weekend worship. It's where you are right now. That's why ... by the way, for those of you who are watching online, I want to actually encourage you to come to a church service. Because, there are about a dozen more benefits that you receive by actually going to a church service and participating with other people instead of just watching remotely. You don't get all those benefits just by watching remotely you. He says, join with others in worship.
    Then the second place that you find these kind of encouraging people, is in a small group Bible study that meets on a weekly basis at a home, or an office, or dorm room, and you need a small group for your setbacks. I could give you dozens of examples from my own personal life about how my small group has helped me through setbacks.
    Now, Job's friend points out a couple of very important truths in what he says. First, he points out that pain is a great equalizer. In other words, disaster is impartial. It hits everybody. When you're in pain, your possessions, and your position, and your power are worthless. It doesn't matter how much money you've got, if you're going through a marriage crisis that's tearing your heart up, it still hurts. Reputation and riches, he says, can't protect you from stressful setbacks. They don't help, but then Job's friend gives two pieces of very wise advice and this is what you need to do when you have a setback that seems irreplaceable or irretrievable, you can't comeback from it.
    First, he says this, here's his 1st advice. Never use evil to escape pain. He said, you know, don't try to avoid it with doing drugs, or getting drunk, or doing something foolish like have an affair.
    You know, a lot of people become self-destructive when they're in pain. They know it's wrong, but still do it anyway, trying to relieve or escape their pain. The Bible says, you know what, you're only going to make it worse, make the problem worse. So he said, don't run from it doing something stupid.
    Second Job's friends says, a better alternative is to increase the amount of time you spend hanging out with God's people. He says, join with them. Get with God's people who praise God, who are focusing on God. That's what worship is. And he says join with them, when you are needing a comeback, don't try to do it on your own. Get with people who are God's people, who can build you up, encourage you, help you focus on God. When your heart's breaking, when you're confused, when you're down, when you feel like you're about to lose it all or you have lost at all, don't turn from God, turn to God.
    If you turn away from God, what's the alternative? Bitterness, despair, hopelessness.
    Now look at this…
    1 Chronicles 16:11 GNB
    11 Go to the Lord for help, and worship him continually.
    That means focus, worship means focus on God's goodness. Life is not always good, but God is always good.
    Now, what should you ask for when you're talking to God about a comeback. When you've had a big setback that seems irreversible, like Job. Well, you ask God to do a couple things and they're right here in this passage.
    You ask him for wisdom, so you can have a clear perspective, and you ask God for strength because you're going to need both God's wisdom and God's strength for your comeback. You can't do it on your own.

    Ask God for Wisdom and for His Strength.

    Job 12:13 MSG
    13 “True wisdom and real power belong to God; from him we learn how to live, and also what to live for.
    If you want to know how to live… what to look for, you will need God’s Wisdom.
    The second thing he asked God for, is not just wisdom, but you ask him for strength.
    1 Chronicles 16:11 NLT
    11 Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him.
    Seeking Him is worshipping Him. Worship will relax you, make you wiser and give you strength. Studies have shown it actually slows your heartbeat down, lowers your blood pressure. People who go to church, studies have shown this every week, live longer.
    Psalm 69:32 GNB
    32 When the oppressed see this, they will be glad; those who worship God will be encouraged.
    Worship makes you wiser. Worship gives you strength. Worship relaxes you from stress. Worship encourages you because you remember that God is bigger than the problem and the setback you're facing, and no TV program can offer that.
    So, to comeback from a setback, especially one that you need to do what David did. He went to church, he went to worship. David says this…
    Psalm 63:2 MSG
    2 So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory.
    That’s what you do in worship. You put your eyes on God. Your problem gets smaller and your God gets bigger and you become stronger. The same thing happened with Paul. He is talking about the benefit of people praying for you.
    Philippians 1:19 NCV
    19 Because you are praying for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is helping me, I know this trouble will bring my freedom.
    Underline Freedom. What is Paul saying here? He is saying that prayer is your path to a comeback. That’s why we build relationships… have 21 Days of Prayer… do small groups…
    If you are going through some sort of setback, I want us tp pray right now. Heads bowed and eyes closed. If you are going through any kind of a setback right now, raise your hands. Health… financial… relational… lonely… dealing with chronic pain… feeling the loss of someone… any kind of setback. We are here as a family praying together.
    Heavenly Father, we don't know all the needs that are being represented by those standing, but you do. And just as you care about them, we care about them our brothers and sisters. So, thank you for these with raised hands right now. Thank you for bringing them to be a part of our church family.
    We ask for the things that Job asked for. We're asking you to give these people wisdom in their situations, give them strength in their setbacks. For those who are in pain right now, give them relief. For those who are having a hard time sleeping because they're worrying, help them to sleep better.
    Together as a church family, we pray that you would encourage the hearts of our friends, and our family members who are standing right now and we ask your blessing on them, turn their setbacks into comebacks. In Jesus' name, Amen
    If you are facing a setback, the path to a comeback is to get to River Church every week… I recommend Sunday and Wednesday.

    S - Surrender my future to God.

    This is exactly what Job did in his comeback. Anytime you have a loss, anytime you have a failure or setback, what paralyzes you after that, is actually not grief. Grief is a good thing. What paralyzes you is fear. It's fear of the future. And sometimes when you've had a setback, people will give you the wrong advice and that makes you even more fearful. And sometimes that wrong advice will come from friends that you've trusted or even family members who love you. Because sometimes they give you the wrong advice.
    In Job's case, he got some bad advice from his wife.
    Job 2:9–10 NLT
    9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
    This may have been the first recorded encouragement for suicide. But she was totally wrong.
    Now notice, Job's response to the problem, the setback in his life that seems irreversible is total surrender. He says, "I don't like it, I don't understand it, but God, I surrender my future to you after this major loss."
    Look what Job says…
    Job 13:15 CEV
    15 God may kill me, but still I will trust him and offer my defense.
    That is surrender. No matter what happens in my life, I may not understand it, but I belong to God and I know those things that are true. That God made me, He loves me, He has my best interest in His heart. I know that God is in control. I know that this life is not all there is. I know there's more to life than just here and now. I know that one day I'm going to eternally be with God in heaven.
    Job said, these are things that give me hope and comfort when I've lost everything. I know God is a good God and I don't understand it, and it doesn't look good, and it's not good and I’m in a lot of pain, but even if God allows my life to be taken, I'm still going to trust him. Because I know the kind of God he is, and I know what he's got planned for me in heaven. Folks, that is the ultimate expression of a mature faith.
    How mature is your faith? Is it like a fair-weather faith that you only trust God when things are going good? Or is it a wimpy faith like a washed-out baby diaper faith? Or do you have the mature faith of a man of God or a woman of God that can handle setbacks? Or do you just flip out and flake out when things go wrong?
    So, how do you know when you’ve got a weak faith? One word, worry. Worry is the warning light that your faith is weak… unless you have a chemical thing going on… that happens.
    Matthew 6:32 CEV
    32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.
    When you have a setback in your life, listen, you're either going to worry, or you're going to worship. The more you focus your life on God, the less you're going to worry during the setback. 
    Review them. Tell God exactly how you feel, that's T, R, refuse to be bitter. U, unite with people who help me focus on God. S, surrender every detail of my future to God, and T, is…

    T - Trust Jesus for every detail of my comeback.

    You have to trust Jesus with every detail of your life for him to turn that setback into a comeback.
    Now, you know some of you were around when this happened, but many of you were not. Many, many years ago, here in the Saddleback Valley, we had a devastating wildfire, that spread all across Saddleback Valley. And many of our members had homes that burned down, and what was puzzling is that most of those homes that burned down, actually had fire resistant roofs. So they thought that they were safe from the fiery embers.
    In one of the many California fires, many of the houses that burned up had fire resistant roofs. So what happened. the embers floated through the air and landed in gutters that had dry leaves in them and they caught the houses on fire.
    That’s like a real life parable. I don’t want you to go up in smoke. So, what’s in your gutter of your life that’s waiting for a spark to burn you down?
    On the outside, you may be looking great… like you have it all together. But what’s in the gutter? anxiety, worry, bitterness, loneliness, confusion, tension or guilt.
    We need to give whatever is in the gutter of our lives right now to Jesus. Ask Him to clean it out so that when the fires and storms come along, you won’t burn up.
    Look what Jesus promises.
    John 16:33 MSG
    33 I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”
    That’s a promise and it’s the path to your comeback.

    Job’s Comeback

    Here is what job did after he lost everything…family, wealth, health, prestige, power… He trusted God through the whole process and God engineered the greatest comeback you can imagine.
    Look at the last verse on your outline…
    Job 42:10 NLT
    10 When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!
    Now that’s a comeback. God doubled what he lost in his setback in the comeback because God is faithful and Job trusted in God and his goodness.
    Job got double for his trouble. That’s pretty good. There is only one person who can make that happen for you and that’s Jesus.
    Every head bowed and eye closed.
    I want to lead you in praying these steps.
    First, Tell God how you feel. lonely… angry… frustrated… tired… at the end of your rope… Be honest with God.
    2nd, Tell God you refuse to be bitter. Tell God that you are going to trust God for the things that you don't understand that have happened in your life. Say, "God, I know that was not good, but you're good and I'm going to trust your goodness even in the bad that's happened." Just do that.
    3rd, Uniting with people who will help you focus on God. You need more fellowship in your life. You need a small group in your life. You need to be more faithful in your attendance at worship because that's where you're going to get the wisdom, and the strength, and the encouragement that you need. Say, "God, I haven't been faithful to you in worship. I haven't been faithful in fellowship, but I want to be. I want to unite with others."
    4th, Surrender - Dear God, I surrender my future to you. I surrender my future to you? I don't know what it is, but I surrender. I'm not going to worry about it."
    5th, Trust - Say, "Jesus, I'm going to trust you with every detail of my comeback. I trust Jesus for my comeback. I trust Jesus for my future. I trust Jesus to get me out of this mess. I'm giving every area of my life to you.”
    Father you hear these prayers, and I ask you to bless them, and give them a sense that you have heard the prayers as they begin the next step to their comeback. In Jesus' name, Amen

      • Job 30:26–27NIV2011

      • Job 1:20ESV

      • Job 7:11NIV2011

      • Lamentations 2:19NIV2011

      • Job 1:21–22NIV2011

      • Job 10:12NIV2011

      • Job 10:12NIV2011

      • Job 23:14NIV2011

      • Job 23:14NIV2011

      • Job 23:10NIV2011

      • Job 31:4NIV2011

      • Job 23:10NIV2011

      • Job 31:4NIV2011

      • Job 34:13NIV2011

      • Job 34:13NIV2011

      • Job 5:11NIV2011

      • Job 5:11NIV2011

      • Habakkuk 3:17–18NIV2011

      • Job 36:18–24NIV2011

      • 1 Chronicles 16:11NIV2011

      • Job 12:13NIV2011

      • 1 Chronicles 16:11NIV2011

      • Psalm 69:32NIV2011

      • Psalm 63:2NIV2011

      • Philippians 1:19NIV2011

      • Job 2:9–10NIV2011

      • Job 13:15NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:32NIV2011

      • John 16:33NIV2011

      • Job 42:10NIV2011

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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