Encounter Henley Welcomes Lead Pastor: Tim Littleford

Have you ever felt like God let you down? Maybe your life doesn’t look the way you expected, your career has stalled, or a prayer for healing went unanswered. John Maxwell famously said that disappointment is the gap between expectation and reality—but for a Christian, that gap can sometimes feel like an ocean between us and God.

In this opening message of our new series, The Resurrection Files, Pastor Tim Littleford dives into the story of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) to show us how the resurrected Jesus meets us precisely in our moments of deepest disappointment.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• The “Emmaus” Escape: Why we often run toward comfort food, doom-scrolling, or old habits when God doesn’t do what we thought He would.
• The Cost of the Story: A fascinating look at the historical “floor price” of Luke’s Gospel and why he invested so much to include this specific encounter with two “nobody” disciples.
• The Perception Problem: Why the disciples’ disappointment was actually based on a misunderstanding of reality—and how Jesus was doing something far better than they could have imagined.
• Three Ways Jesus Meets Us:
  1. In Scripture: Loving correction that realigns our perspective.
  2. In the Breaking of Bread: Finding His presence in community and communion.
  3. In the Burning Heart: The internal witness of the Holy Spirit when we contend in prayer.

“Disappointment isn’t usually with who God is; it’s with what God has or has not done. Don’t stuff it down—speak it out to Him.” — Tim Littleford