Dangerous Expectations

Welcome, thank you for joining us! (any notices?)

. This week we are going to be talking about expectations, and looking at some of the potential traps and issues that can arise from expectations, but also at how our God is not necessarily a God of expectations.

. What i mean by this is that God does not work within the confines of our expectations of him. In fact i would even go as far as to say that i don't think we should really ever have expectations of God!

. But simply have Faith and Trust that he is for us! and that he is working out his divine plan of redemption for human kind and we are here to serve him however he sees fit.

. I also want to touch on how our expectations of other people, and also other peoples expectations of you can also be a dangerous thing.

Acts 12:11 NKJV

And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”

. Now a little context.. Peter had been imprisoned by king Herod, who did so after killing James (one of the disciples) and seeing how much it pleased the Jewish people.

. Basically Peter had now been condemned to death, and all of the Jewish people who were against him, expected that he would be put to death ( at this point even Peter probably expected to die for his faith) but the night before this would happen Acts 15 tell us.

. That an angel comes to Peter inside the prison and leads him out to freedom, which takes us to the scripture we read just before

. I find this interesting on multiple levels firstly the expectation the Jews had that Peter would be executed is the obvious one, and now he was free form that!

. But also on a deeper level the expectations that the Jews who were against Peter (and the rest of the Apostles and Disciples) These people had certain expectation of what the Messiah should look like, how the Messiah should Act and exactly what they expected the Messiah to do when he came.

. and as a result the Jews people rejected Jesus and also anyone who would follow him, because there expectation did not line up with what there had seen and where seeing before them!

. You see if was there expectations that stopped them form being able to receive and accept the truth that was right before their eyes.

. Do you think its possible that your expectations of God and what he should do for you or how he should give to you, have hindered you from seeing him working right in front of eyes??

. Our Expectations cause us to be so focused on things being how we imagine them, that we miss out on the things that are actually happening right in front of us.

. Its totally possible that our expectations blind us to the reality of what God is doing.

. There are also other times where we convince ourselves that we have a right to expect a certain things from God because of our service to him. (my expectation of getting a wife!!)

. Just as the expectations of the Jew’s stopped them form seeing that God himself was before them (Jesus)

. because for them it has to happen the way that they pictured it or it could not possibly be real, but there expectation caused them to miss what God was doing.

. Don’t allow your expectations of how you think God should be working in or through you, cause you to miss the reality of what he is actually doing!

. OK so shifting a little bit now, we also need to careful about the expectations that we place on people. and especially for all of us as believers we should not be placing expectations on each other.

.(there are certain basics that i think you can expect, to be loved, to be cared for, to be accepted,to be valued and not be mistreated)

. but specific expectations that we can place on individuals are at times unfair and are in fact dangerous.

. let me list a few that i have seen have negative outcomes.

the expectation that every phone call you make or text that you send should be answered immediately.

2. The expectation of someone to always do a certain job just because they did it once.

3. The expectations that certain people should drop everything that they are doing to help every time you get stuck or don't know what to do.

4. The expectation of somebody having to be perfect and never say something wrong. ( we all have bad days, and we all fall short of the glory of God)

5. The expectation that everything should continue to be done the way you like it, just because its the way YOU like it.

. And all of these flip around as well, its not fair or right for certain expectations be placed on us, its also not fair that we place those expectations on others! ( i really struggled with this as a young leader, i had really heavy expectations, and i still remember a conversation with a friend of mine one day that really helped me to see how my expectations were destructive. )

. Because our expectation that we put on others limit our ability to see what God is doing with them and in them, we don't know for certain what God has in store for anyone else, we don't know for certain where God is leading somebody else to serve or what he is calling them to do.

But what im pretty certain of is that our expectations, are in fact nothing compared to the reality of what God has in store!

. I want to finish today showing that God is greater than our expectations, what he does is so much greater than our ability to think and our ability to comprehend.

in Acts 23 we find Paul also imprisoned because of his works for God and things are not looking that great for him, again it was the expectations of the Sadducee and pharisees that caused them to not be able to see the power and the truth of God through Paul.

. God had spoken to Paul in the past and told him that he would one day go to Rome to speak of Jesus, but in this moment it dint look like that would be possible, again these people were calling for and expected Paul to be put to death.

Acts 23:11 NKJV

But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”

. God was reminding Paul that his current circumstance was not the reality that God had in store for him.

. God didn’t want Paul's expectations for his life be limited by the reality of his current circumstance.

. and it is the same for you! DO NOT let your current circumstances and troubles cause you to have expectations for your life and for God that are not the reality of what he wants to do through you!

Ephesians 3:20–21 NKJV

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

.other translation say “imagine”

. God is greater than your expectations and the life he has for your is greater and most likely different to your expectations.

.Don’t let you expectations of God of yourself or of others hinder you form seeing and experiencing the power of God and the blessing of God at work in your life.

pray

next week Greg and Caz will be bring a message to you on Wednesday at 7pm.