Crushing Expectations

The Big idea:

What makes a successful follower of Christ?

Intro:

Pressure, pressure is a reality for all of us. The world has made it very clear that each person has a measuring stick in life is used to Quantify the success of our lives. Those of you in high school have not only your hopes, but the hopes of your parents riding on the decisions that you make. As your choices are made and you begin to see your decisions play it can begin to feel like your not walking in your shoes but the shoes of those speaking into your life. Let’s think about that, what are the expectations placed on your future. For some this may feel overwhelming and even impossible to find success, but my hope after our talk tonight is that you can live in real expectations. You see, when Jesus came to the earth He didn’t come to give us false hope in our lives. Jesus can to bring real hope. The difference is that false hope leaves a person questioning, but true hope leaves a person assurance.

Story:

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees* saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?*”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Mark 2:13-18)