Dealing With Disappointment

Scott McFarland
07/04/21 - Sun AM Worship

If you’ve ever tried to share your faith with someone else before, chances are likely you’ve dealt with disappointment. In most cases, people don’t respond. For X number of times you share the gospel, only a small number of those times people will respond favorably in wanting to know more or to follow Jesus.

So, what to do? Honestly, most of us just don’t share. The fear of failure or disappointment is the number one reason most of us are inactive evangelistically. It gets tiring hearing “no” or getting awkward looks and feelings from people time after time. But, that’s not what Jesus did. That’s not what Paul did, as we saw this morning.

I have to remind myself at times that while Christianity multiplied and spread across the Roman Empire, it wasn’t popular and often was rejected and ridiculed in other writings of the day. We have cartoon drawings from the 1st century mocking Christianity. We have public officials documenting the Christians and scorning them for their fanciful beliefs. People’s rejection of God is not new—Jesus dealt with it, the Apostles dealt with it, and the early Christians dealt with it.

Jesus reminds us of this (and worse) in Matthew 5:11—“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” You can deal with it. God has prepared you for it. Don’t stop sharing.

-Scott McFarland