The Mystery of God • Apr 21, 2026
Faith Without Answers • Apr 27th 2026
God and Your Expectations: Following God When Life Makes No Sense
Many Christians eventually face a painful reality: God does not always do what we expect Him to do.
In this deeply moving message, Gene Edwards explores one of the most difficult questions in the Christian life through the story of John the Baptist. Here was a man chosen by God, faithful from childhood, devoted to prayer, sacrifice, and obedience. Yet as he sat in prison awaiting death, John found himself asking a question many believers have asked throughout history: “Are You really the One, or should we look for another?”
Why? Because God was not acting according to John’s expectations.
Drawing from the Gospel account of John’s imprisonment, Gene examines the tension between faith and disappointment. John expected the Messiah to establish His kingdom in a certain way. Instead, he found himself isolated, confused, and facing execution while Jesus continued His ministry without rescuing him.
This message addresses a struggle familiar to every believer. What happens when prayers seem unanswered? What do we do when suffering continues? How do we respond when God’s actions appear inconsistent with what we thought He promised?
Rather than offering easy explanations, this teaching invites us to consider a deeper question: Can we continue to trust God even when we do not understand Him?
Through biblical examples including Job, Israel’s captivity, and especially the life of John the Baptist, this message reveals a profound truth about spiritual maturity. Faith is not merely trusting God when His plans make sense. Faith is trusting Him when they do not.
If you have ever wrestled with disappointment, confusion, loss, unanswered prayer, or unmet expectations, this message offers both challenge and encouragement. It calls believers to embrace a deeper relationship with Christ—one built not on explanations, but on trust.
This timeless teaching reminds us that some of the greatest servants of God lived and died without receiving the answers they desired. Yet they continued to follow Him. The question remains for every believer today: Will we trust a God we do not fully understand?
Go and preach to Herod and know the consequences. Feel the shackles upon your feet and hands. Be thrown into that dungeon, knowing you will never know what will take place. That all the dreams you had, the very things that were the engine of your enthusiasm, your willingness to sacrifice, that you might see the glory of the coming Lord, you will see nothing, and you will know nothing. And blessed are you if you’re not offended with Me.
Today, your head was purchased by an obscene dance. They’re coming to take your life, John. What an ignominious way to go. And blessed are you, John, if you’re not offended with Me.
A rope is cast into the dungeon. John is hauled out of the pit. He makes his way up the precarious steps of the cliff and finally to the courtyard of Herod’s splendorous palace. The gates of the courtyard opened. Blessed are you, John, if you’re not offended with me. Kneel. Blessed are you, John, if you’re not offended with me. The blade rises to the sky. Blessed are you, John, if you are not offended with me. In a moment, life will go blank. You will never know whether you have lived for purpose or died in vain, nor will you know who or where, nor when shall come the Messiah, if ever. And blessed are you, John, if you are not offended with me.
Death is at your side…and life is now ended, and your questions are going unanswered. And blessed are you, if you are not offended with such a God…
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