expectation

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;* the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic** church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen. for today we're here in matthew chapter 11. i'm going to read the first 19 verses

and then we'll we'll pray and dig out this text today so matthew 11 starting in verse

reading from new king james

11 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.

2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:

‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,

Who will prepare Your way before You.’

11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying:

‘We played the flute for you,

And you did not dance;

We mourned to you,

And you did not lament.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

The New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, 1982, p. Mt 11:1–19. the title of my sermon today is what do you do when god doesn't do what you think he should do.

you ever been in a situation like that if you have a pulse you have

at some point you're wondering what is god up to why is he doing it this way and not doing it that way so this is

what we're going to look at today from this story in matthew chapter 11.

in any situation when what you desire does not match what was delivered

you have expectation frustration something didn't happen the way you

thought it should happen something didn't turn out the way that you had hoped it would turn out

it might be that what you had desired was perhaps unreasonable it might be that

what was delivered was perhaps unsatisfactory or maybe a combination of both but

wherever you have desire that doesn't match the thing that you had hoped would be delivered

you have this kind of expectation frustration and it can include all kinds of things

and wherever it exists it breeds great disappointment in one's life

when you have in mind something that should happen and it doesn't happen it can be very

disappointing when you're in relationships and you expect this person to do that thing and

this person will do the other thing and it doesn't happen it can be very disappointing. when you expect that job

that you had hoped was the dream job and it doesn't happen going to be very disappointing i mean it happens on many different levels

let's talk for example about marriage marriage can be an opportunity for you

to grow in your faith did you know that because there are many times within a marriage where there is

expectation frustration.

you can have expectation frustrations in a lot of things not just obviously in marriage there's times when

what you expect doesn't end up happening but it can also be things that you buy don't turn out to work the way you had

hoped it would work the job that you had hoped would be that perfect job turns out to be

not what you had thought a friendship a romantic relationship people aren't always who they appear to

be and there is room for expectation frustration and it's bad enough in life

when you experience those things between a spouse or a friend or about a

job or something you bought but it is much worse

when it has to do with the lord that's what's happening in our story here

john the baptist is in prison and he is second guessing the identity of jesus

that he so clearly declared from the first day that he saw jesus you know when you read your bibles and you think

who was the very first person who identified jesus as the son of god as the messiah a lot of times people are

drawn to the story matthew chapter 16 when jesus takes his disciples up to caesarea philippi and says who do men

say that i am they say well some say elijah some say jeremiah some say a prophet of old and he says well who do you say that i

am and the apostle peter is the one who says you are the christ the son of the living god and many people think well peter was the first

one to make that declaration but in fact that isn't true the first person to make the declaration of who jesus really is and was

and remains to be was john the baptist in john chapter 1 verse 29 when jesus

was coming for john to baptize him in john 1 29 john saw jesus coming toward him and

said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world and a few verses later

john says i have seen and testified that this is the son of god

but about a year after making those bold assertions john begins to wonder whether or not

jesus really is the messiah and so he sends two of his own disciples remember back

in those days jesus wasn't the only one to have followers to have disciples if you were a rabbi in the day

you tended to have people who studied under you and john the baptist had his own disciples

as well so he sends two of his own disciples to jesus to ask jesus this question if you have

your bible still open there to matthew 11 it's verse 3. and the question is are you the

coming one in other words the messiah or do we look for another

the niv translates it or should we expect someone else to hear the expectancy

there they're frustrated john the baptist wants to know he sends two of his disciples to ask jesus this

question are you really that messiah or should we expect someone else

now why would someone who's so confidently asserted that jesus is the christ the son of god

suddenly question whether jesus really was the promised messiah

the answer is he has expectation frustration because things haven't gone according to

plan john the baptist finds himself in a situation where his circumstances have contributed

to his frustration about jesus now before we talk about what his

circumstance was and why it contributed to his frustration a quick background on john the baptist

for those who aren't familiar with this guy he was a prophet called by god in fact god called john the baptist to

be a prophet before john was even born even before he was conceived

the bible tells us in luke chapter one that god dispatched the angel gabriel to go to what would be the soon father

of john the baptist zechariah and the angel gabriel announced to zechariah

that he and his wife elizabeth were going to give birth and that this boy should be called john

gabriel says to zacharias that

john will turn many of the children of israel to the lord and that he would go before jesus to

make ready a people prepared for the lord and so there's this great commission there's this great

calling on john the baptist's life even before he was conceived now zacharias hears this from gabriel

and he's stunned because he and his wife elizabeth had never been able to have children up to this point and in addition

they are as the bible describes them well zacharias even says out of his own mouth we are advanced in age they're they're elderly

they've never been able to have children and so this angel appears and suddenly says you're going to have a son

and god's hand is going to be upon him and we are commissioning he is going to be commissioned to be the voice of god in this

generation to prepare the way of the lord he's going to go before the messiah and be the herald be the one to proclaim

that messiah is here zacharias receives this information with some doubt and disbelief

for which he is made mute he can't speak until after john is born and then when

he finally declares in some scribbled message that this is

my son to be named john then his mouth is open and the bible says that zacharias prophesies at that point but

this is that john the baptist and john the baptist grows up and he fulfills all the things

that gabriel had told his father in advance now john the baptist was a rather

outdoorsy man he loved the great outdoors this is the guy who you know the bible describes in matthew

chapter 3 verse 4 as wearing an outfit made of camel's hair strapped with a

leather belt uh so he he's he's a very you know

rough outdoorsy kind of hunter fisherman kind of a dude that you know

would only shop i'm sure at bass pro shop this kind of a guy who's kind of wild and

wooly and lives in the outdoors proclaiming the message of repentance that the

kingdom of god is near and announcing that jesus has come onto the world scene he never married never had kids

never wrote a book never had a hit song never had money in the bank and never traveled more than a mile

or so in a few days journey but he was raised up by god as a voice

for his generation to prepare people for the messiah and here we are now nearly two thousand years ago still

talking about him he was bold and unafraid he was truthful

and unapologetic john the baptist preached a message of repentance

and he confronted sin wherever he saw it all as preparation

for the arrival and the announcement of jesus is on the world scene which brings us to our story because

whenever you go around very boldly declaring the truth as a prophet of god as john the baptist

was confronting sin the unvarnished truth that often people don't want to

hear you will inevitably offend people and john the baptist

offended people in his bold declaration of the truth and among those that he offended was

herod antipas also known as herod the tetrarch who was the roman appointed ruler over the province

of the galilee territory at this particular time in israel and john the baptist offended herod antipas

because john the baptist boldly confronted herod about the fact

that herod had stolen his brother's wife and taken her to be his own wife and

john the baptist calls him out on it he was unafraid and unapologetic in luke

chapter 3 verses 18 to 20 it says and with many other words john exhorted the people and preached the

good news to them but when john rebuked herod the tetrarch because of herodias his brother's wife

and all the other evil things he had done herod added this to them all he locked john up

in prison so that's why in matthew chapter 11 when we read our story that

it says that john dispatched two of his disciples to ask jesus this question about whether or not he really was the messiah

because john was in prison he was placed there by herod antipas because of his bold proclamation of truth

and so john couldn't go himself to ask jesus this question so he sends a couple of his disciples to

ask that question now the first century historian named josephus a jewish historian

recorded that john the baptist was kept in a prison in a fortress called makairus

that is located on the jordanian side of the dead sea and that he was kept there for about a

year before unfortunately meeting his death herod antipas would

behead him as a gift to herodius's daughter

that's another story for another day but you can imagine that john the baptist

now being in prison locked in prison because he simply was declaring the truth

boldly and unafraid he ends up in prison for doing what god called him to do and

no doubt when you're in prison you have extra time in your hands and when you have extra time on your hands

his mind probably goes where most of our minds go when we have time on our hands to dark places your mind starts to think

about things when you have too much time on your hands that are not pleasant and he started to think about his unpleasant circumstances

and he started to think no doubt because he's just as human as you and i no doubt he started to think to himself

you know i'm just trying to obey god i was just trying to serve the lord i was just trying to be a prophet of god

in this generation and i got thrown in prison for this you know where where is god in the midst

of all this and why is it that jesus by the way the bible says they were cousins

my own cousin whom i thought was the messiah but now i'm kind of wondering because he hasn't done anything about my situation

now not a show of hands but have you ever been in a situation yourself where you have wondered why is it that jesus20:14

seems to rescue other people but not me why is it that god seems to be taking care of all the other people

in the world but my situation seems to go unnoticed what can happen when you start to think that way you get discouraged

you get depressed this is no doubt what is happening with john the baptist

it was not on his list to end up in prison as part of doing god's work but

nevertheless this is where he is and his circumstances of course

contributed to him questioning now you know why has god allowed me to be in here and why hasn't

jesus rescued me at this point and now he's feeling discouraged and so when life doesn't turn out the way that you

would hoped it would turn out you have the tendency to either blame god or question god one or the other or both

this is john a prophet of god who's at a place so low in his life that

he begins to wander and question the very person who made the first declaration that jesus is the son of god

is now questioning whether he really is and why was he questioning whether jesus

really was and is the messiah because of expectation frustrations i expected god

to do this i expected god to do that i thought jesus would do this other jews would do that and it has not

turned out the way i thought and this is what happens this is what happens with any of us

and so when we get in this situation

where what we desire does not match what is delivered

and i'm talking primarily about our walk with the lord but this could this could apply to you know any relationship or

anything in general what are we to do well when you look at this story with me i think there are three things that are important points

to remember about how to overcome expectation frustration if you're taking notes the

first thing i see in this story number one is that we need to look for what god is doing rather than

for what he is not doing when john's disciples ask jesus this

question are you the one to come or should we look for somebody else because we're not really sure anymore jesus does not defend himself he doesn't

stand there and say yes yes yes i am the messiah i am the son of god john already declared this remember the

time when he baptized me and he said the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world he didn't go on on that kind of a rant he didn't try

to defend himself and he didn't try to explain himself this is what he said in your bibles look at verse four he just instructs those

disciples to go back and tell john the things which you hear and see

and then he runs a list in verse 5. it's a short list but he says in verse 5 the blind sea and the lame walk the

lepers are cleansed and the death here the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel

preached to them go back and tell john all of that

see because the fact of the matter is that too often we get focused on what we think god isn't doing

and we lose sight of the many wonderful things that he is doing this is why jesus wants to remind

john listen these are still the things that i'm doing here you know i'm still lord despite the fact that you're in the

situation you're in that does not define me we need to get this everybody our situation

whatever it might be the good of it or the bad of it does not define who god is it's not a commentary

on god's faithfulness or lack of it he is faithful he is just he is true

he is loving he is merciful in all his ways and just because we don't sense that in

whatever our circumstance is doesn't change that immutable immutable character of god

he's still god whether in my moment it feels like it or not

he's still god and he's up to things that i may not always understand this is the case with john the baptist

and so we have to be very careful that when we get in that kind of a slump that we stop and say okay wait a minute

but what are the many wonderful things god is doing and get our eyes off the one or two things that we think why didn't god do

this and why didn't god do that yeah but look at what he is doing you know it's human nature for us

to focus on in life on what is missing instead of what is present to focus on what is negative

instead of what is positive to to look at things that you know as a loss instead of

well what did we gain in the process because even when god is not doing everything that we think he

should do he's still doing something that we need him to do

always and it pains me to think in my own life ask yourself how many times in a day

do we tend to harp on our kids or on our spouse or on an employee for the one thing they aren't doing

instead of seeing all the wonderful things they are doing because we do the same thing with god we

need to ask ourselves what is god doing that we might

miss because we're too focused on what we think he's not doing and so jesus says to john the

baptist disciples there in verse 4 go back and tell the things which you hear

you hear and you see in other words tell him to open his eyes

and ears to the miraculous work of god because i'm not done

even though jesus may not be doing exactly what we expect him to do he's still god and sometimes we just

have to cling to that cling to the truth that god is at work and seen in unseen ways

even when it doesn't add up to what we expect so that's number one the second thing i

think that jesus adds in in his advice uh to us and to john the baptist number

number two here is to fall forward not away and you will be blessed what do i mean

by that when you look at verse six jesus says and blessed is he who is not

offended because of me offended because of me now

ask yourself why would someone be offended at jesus answer when he doesn't do what you

expect him to do that's when we get offended at each other too by the way

in the niv translation it says blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me and the greek

word there for offend or fall away is scandilidzo we get our english word scandalize from

that greek word and by the way it is the same word used

in the gospel that describes when jesus's disciples abandoned him

and fled away at the time of jesus's arrest and crucifixion they

scandalidzo they fell away they ran away they abandoned him and there's this

warning here that jesus gives to the multitudes and and in essence to

john the baptist as well about listen there's a blessing for those who aren't offended by me who don't fall

away on account of me and so the challenge for us is kind of a play on words that i'm

coming up with here but but it's fall forward instead of fall away press into the lord

lean into the lord when he doesn't make sense don't run from him we have this tendency in human nature

when there's an uncomfortable situation or a disappointing situation let's say someone in particular has

disappointed you what's typically what happens we retreat from that person we don't want to be around them if they

disappoint us if they cause us pain if if there's if there's some kind of disappointment we tend to run away from

them and this is what we end up doing with god too it's not right i'm just saying this is human nature

we tend when we think that god has not done something we want him to do or should have done or think that he

should have done we get disappointed and then people tragically fall away from the lord well god disappointed me he let me down

he didn't intervene in this situation he didn't help me in that situation and so the tendency is in our human nature is

to is to run away is is to it's to fall away it's to leave him

unmet expectations in life whether with god or people tend to cause us to run away from the source of our

disappointment but the problem is that when we do that with god we actually are denying ourselves

the very help that we need that can only come from him what i mean is if we are in a situation

where we think well that's disappointing because god didn't show up when i thought that he should and then we retreat from god then

we just end up becoming more miserable perhaps angry even bitter and the only one that

can help us and heal us and our anger and in our bitterness is the very one we're running from

because we're not going to just find that healing on our own on our own or in ourselves we have to

turn to the very one that we've actually abandoned because we're disappointed in what didn't happen but

what we need to do in those moments is do the uncomfortable thing you know i i really have grown to appreciate our linemen

but we tend to run away from that kind of a thing and and this is this is similar to to the way it30:12

is with the lord something gets uncomfortable the storm comes we don't understand what is going on here god's disappointed us

so we tend to run what we need to be is like linemen we need to run toward the storm we need to run towards the disappointment towards the

pain because he is the only one in the long run that can help us anyway so even though in our minds we

feel like god hasn't done something we think he should have done we need to defer to the lord as being

the one who is all wise all knowing all loving and run to him

even when it's uncomfortable because he's the one that can really help our hurting hearts fall forward

not away and he says and you'll be blessed for it

even after these disciples of john the baptist say to jesus what they said are you really the messiah or not that

after they leave to go back with the message that jesus told them to tell john the baptist jesus turns to the multitude and he

defends the ministry of john the baptist and and the man of integrity and character that john the baptist is

he just goes on for many verses they're talking about you know what did you expect when you when you came out to the wilderness would you expect to see

a reed just you know blowing about what do you expect the guy in fine clothes no that's what kings wear this this guy came to prepare

my way and so he he even he even commends john the baptist he doesn't want people to stand around in the crowd

and think well that was not a very spiritual question to be asking jesus are you the one to come or should we

expect someone shouldn't john the baptist i mean the baptist read their bible don't they know better than that

they weren't asking that kind of question because jesus was defending the character and integrity of john the

baptist it's okay if you have times in your life you're like you know lord i don't really get this i don't understand this you

know what happened here god's a big god he can take our questions he can take our doubts he can take our disappointments

but we need him to help us in those times of doubts and disappointments

so don't fall away fall forward and you'll be blessed for it

and that's what we must do whenever our expectations don't match god's plans

we have to fall forward and jesus says you'll be blessed if you do

the third thing and the final thing here to help us overcome expectation frustration is taken from verses 16 to 18. jesus says but what shall i like in this

generation now he's about to rebuke this generation so listen up because he's he's got a word for this generation and

i think it applies for us too he says but to what shall i like in this generation

it is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying we played the

flute for you and you did not dance we mourned to you and you did not lament

for john came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon the son of man came eating and drinking

and they say look a glutton and a wine bibber a friend of tax collectors and sinners but wisdom is justified by your children

now jesus is rebuking his generation i think we need to heed his words too

the idea here about playing a flute is something done at a wedding a time

when it's supposed to be joyful the idea here about we mourned it to you that's playing a mournful tune that's

something done at a funeral so he's talking about these two situations where sometimes you play a

flute it's joyful it's like a wedding sometimes you have a a mournful song that's what you

do at funerals and he's basically saying here that you know everybody's expected to act a

certain way when you go to a wedding you act one way when you go to a funeral you act a different way you know a funeral is

usually more somber you know people are crying when you go to a wedding well sometimes people are crying there too but for different reasons it's joyful

time people are happy it's very celebratory

and so you're expected to act a certain way depending on the setting and jesus is saying here in this text

basically that sometimes adults are like little children playing a game expecting god to act one

way in this situation and another way in that situation and they even went so far

in this day to accuse john of having a demon and to accuse jesus

of being a drunk why well because they weren't doing things the way that they thought it should be done jesus is

hanging out with tax collectors and sinners and he must be a drunk and john the baptist man that guy is wild and wooly and when

he preaches i mean he's on fire i think he's got a demon and they're all reacting in this way like you know we played a flute for you why

didn't you dance you know we did this why didn't you do that it's all a statement here between verses 16 and 18

of how jesus and john the baptist for that matter but jesus in particular is not performing for them the way that they

expect him to perform and what we have to remember is the last point here the third thing is3

to remember that god's ways are not our ways he's not obligated to perform for us

because we play the flute we can't put these expectations on god

and then if he doesn't do what we expect him to do what's the end result we just get disappointed

how about we just defer to god trust him realize that his ways are not our ways

isaiah the prophet in chapter 55 verses 8 and 9 says it this way and this has brought me

great comfort over the years i pray it brings you great comfort isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9. god says through isaiah the prophet for

my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways but just as the heavens are

higher than the earth so are my ways and my thoughts higher than yours

and we we need to get that in our soul where we realize god's ways and his thoughts are

immeasurably higher and better than ours we don't understand everything we have to recognize that we have to just

humble ourselves and realize god understands it all god sees the big picture we only see a

tiny little part and and and we can't you know bring discouragement upon ourselves

because we evaluate god and think that he should perform the way that we expect god's ways are bigger god's thoughts are

bigger he he has that perspective from a vantage point that we just simply don't

have and i close with a story i actually uh read this story a couple of years ago

but it's it's worth repeating if you didn't hear it then i wonder say it again because there's a short little story that max lucado wrote

in one of his um books called in the eye of the storm that i think just really illustrates this again i apologize if

you've heard this before but whenever i think about how we are so limited in understanding the big

picture it would it would be better for us to to recognize

our limitations and that we just can't always see the big picture and then trust god

and so here's the story for max lucado in the eye of the storm there was a poor man who lived in a tiny

european village his only means of income was chopping wood and dragging it out of the forest

to sell it to people of the village and he had a beautiful white horse

and the townspeople came to the man and said sell us your beautiful horse and then you won't be poor but the man

said no it's like a member of my family i could never sell my horse well one day the horse was gone from the

stall and the people of the village went up to the man and said your horse must have been stolen you were cursed

and the man said say not that the horse was stolen or that i am cursed but only that the horse is missing from the stall

for all we see is a little fragment of the story well the horse came back a little while

later leading 12 wild horses with it and came back to the

man and all the people of the village came to the man and said you were right and we were wrong

you are blessed you now have 13 horses and the man said say not that i am

blessed or right but only that the horse has returned and a dozen with him for all we see is a little fragment of

the story well the poor man's son was trying to

break the wild horses and he fell off and broke both his legs and the people of the

village came back to the man and said you were wrong we were right these horses were not a blessing but a

curse your son has broken both his legs the man said say not that i am cursed

state only that my son has broken both his legs for all we see is a little fragment of the story

soon thereafter their country went to war with the neighboring country and all the young men of the village were

recruited into war except the poor man of the village whose son had broken both his legs

the people of the village came to him and said you were right we were wrong you are blessed for your son has been

spared the ravages of war and he said say not that i am blessed

but only that my son did not go off to war for all we see is a tiny fragment of the

story and that's life we only have this tiny little picture

so we have to trust the lord defer to him his ways and his thoughts are higher

than ours but he still loves us he still cares about us and he's still god amen

“The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’