Joining In On The Song

Preached at Whittlesea. Watch Video.

Disappointment

Disappointment is such a strong emotion and feeling, it is often painful and very difficult to talk to others about.  When undealt with disappointment can be crippling, it can lead us to distance ourselves from God and what he is doing, it can cause us to become cynical and critical, it can cause us to lose trust in our leaders.  It can cause us to shrink back and close up our hearts.

I remember a time of disappointment in my life when the church I was part of folded after a long period of conflict between our board and senior pastor.  This left me incredibly disappointed.  Disappointed in leaders, in God, disappointed about the ministry area I was leading and my own abilities, the lost opportunities, what could have been and the broken relationships.  It really hurt and at times it still does.

Discussion: As a group, have a discussion about a time of disappointment in your life?

What was interesting for me in my disappointment was that I had attached a bible passage to my disappointment, Isaiah 54:2.  This is because it was a prominent passage used at our church in the lead up to the initial time of conflict.  This left me with negative emotions every time I hear this passage mentioned.  The interesting thing about this is that this passage itself actually speaks to overcoming disappointment and finding hope in God again.

Read through Isaiah 54:1-6

Discussion: What do you notice this passage says about disappointment?  How does this make you feel?

Let’s now check out Revelation 4 & 5, as you read through this as a group imagine that you are eavesdropping in on the scene.

Discussion:  What did you notice in Revelation chs.4-5? How does the worship towards God and the Lamb make you feel?

The passage you just read was written by John, it was a vision that he had.  Could you imagine what it would have been like having that vision.  What is interesting to think about (this thought for me was inspired by the NT Wright book “Small Faith, Great God”) is that John in his vision only ever observed, he never joined in the singing.  Could you imagine being in the environment and not joining in on the song? Now this isn’t so much of a critique of John but it’s to get us thinking about whether our disappointment may be stopping us from joining in the song that is going on around us.  The beginning of Isaiah 54 encourages us in this as well “Sing, O’ barren Woman…”

This year at CityLife we are singing a song called Kingdom Life!  A song that is calling us to bring Kingdom Life wherever we are.  To take a step in discipleship and growing in our relationship with Jesus.  To share stories of His goodness and His Kingdom coming to Earth as in Heaven.

Take a moment as a group to have a look over the elements of our CityLife vision for 2024.

Discussion Questions
1. Is our disappointment causing us to eavesdrop and not fully enter in to singing the song?
2. What will we do with our disappointment? 
3. What does it look like for us to be able to dream again?
4. What does fruitfulness look like for us on the other side of disappointment?
5. What does it look like for me to join in singing to song of Kingdom Life this year?