Greater Expectations

Intro

Just recently, last Sunday to be exact we had a birthday party for Cooper’s 9th birthday. It wasn’t a large gathering, just immediate family.

But you know how it is when you have people to your home, you want everything to look nice. You want to have you house presentable as you might say.

Well, if I am being honest, that is kind of outside of my wheelhouse.

But that does not mean I am not willing to help. In fact as we were getting ready Sunday afternoon, I asked Katelyn what I could help with.

She kindly asked if I would tidy up our bedroom because that is likely where the presents were going to go until it was time to open them.

So, of course I can handle that right. I mean, I know how to write code for robots for goodness sake. I can handle a bedroom.

So I go in and I re-make the bed so it looks nice and crisp. I take some of the clothes that I had folded on the floor beside bed and move them to the base of my nightstand and yeah it looked good to me.

Well, apparently my understanding of tidy up the bedroom and Katelyn’s understanding of tidy up the bedroom are not exactly the same thing.

I came back in to the room about 20 minutes later and Katelyn is in there and she has...

everything picked up off the floor

the dressers are all cleaned off and everything is put away

she even put the decorative pillows on the bed that I throw in the closet every night, what is the deal with those things anyway?

I walk in and I ask her what she is doing and she says, tidying up the room. And she didn’t say anything else, but I could just tell I didn’t quite do the job to here expectations. Mission not accomplished on my part.

You see what had happened ladies and gentlemen is what I call a breakdown in communication.

clearly, my expectations of what tidying up the bedroom were, were not the same as her expectations.

But here is the question, whose expectations mattered more?

Now you might be inclined to take the more diplomatic approach and say neither, but you would be wrong.

Because Katelyn was the one who asked me to do something, she was giving the instructions and I was the willing participate who would carry those instructions out, it was up to me to make sure I did the job to her expectations, and I failed to do that.

What is my point in all of this?

That all of us have certain expectations when it comes to how something should be done. The question is, whose expectations are we basing what we do on?

Our own, or the person whom we claim to serve?

If you are just joining us, today we are in series that we started last week titled Downfall: Lessons from the book of 1 Kings.

And in this series we are looking at principles that we can learn from the ways the Kings in Israel’s history led. And how the way they led either lead to blessing or a downfall.

And we want to apply these same principles to the way in which we lead our families so that by learning from their success and failure, we can prevent our families from experiencing a downfall.

Power in the Text

This week we are going to continue looking at King Solomon, specifically his task of building the temple in Jerusalem.

Up until this point, there was no formal place for worshipping God. But this was going to change. God had first birthed this vision for a permanent dwelling in the heart of Solomon’s father David.

But to David’s disappointment, it was not going to be him that built it, but his son Solomon.

So about 4 years into Solomon’s reign he begins this massive construction undertaking. This took place about 480 years after the Israelites had been delivered out of the hands of Egypt by Moses.

And when you read 1 Kings starting in chapter 5 and going into chapter 9 you will discover that God had a very specific and very detailed plan for what the temple would look like and how it would be built, even when it came to materials and furnishings it would contain.

So King Solomon has the blueprint of the temple given to him by God and this is what God says to him in...

1 Kings 6:11-13 NLT 11 Then the LORD gave this message to Solomon: 12 “Concerning this Temple you are building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David. 13 I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.”

The Lord tells Solomon that the assurance of God being present among Israel will be dependent on Solomon’s obedience to the old covenant. Just as his father David told him previously (1 Kings 2:1–4).

Solomon will be required to keep the law to ensure God’s presence. He must be willing to commit to God’s expectations rather than his own.

Time and again, the Lord tells leaders that he favors them so long as they remain committed to his word. Failure to do so doesn’t just impact them as leaders; it will impact the nations they are rulers over.

Big Idea

Like King Solomon we have a choice to make. We can choose to establish expectations over our lives and over our families. And we can work toward meeting those expectations.

Or, we can chose to adopt Jesus’ expectations over our lives and over our families and we can work toward meeting those expectations.

But the choice we make will determine like Israel, whether we experience God’s presence or not.

When we base our decisions on our own expectations, we will often be disappointed in the results. But if we base our decisions on God’s expectations, then his presence will never disappoint.

But here is the thing, following God’s lead will require that we trust him. And this can be hard to do when we are surrounded by voices that claim to know better than God.

Why it Matters

You see, the world is trying its hardest to train our brains to believe what expectations we should have.

And we are biting it hook, line, and sinker because the world has gotten really good at sounding good. Deception that is easy to detect isn’t very good. No, it is the kind of deception that is really hard to detect that is dangerous because you won’t see it coming.

We have to take serious the warning Paul gives to believers in...

Colossians 2:8 NLT 8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

The world says...

Don’t depend on anyone because you are all you need. Look out for number 1.

Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the word poor here meaning a realization of our dependence and need for support. That we can’t do it alone.

The world says, don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for what you do with your life; live your truth.

Jesus says, blessed are those that mourn, for they will be comforted. Mourn over what? The grief over their sin.

The world says, You are your own master. The captain of your own ship. You determine the course of your life.

Jesus says, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Meek meaning humble. The kind of humility Jesus is referring to here is the grateful and acute awareness that life is a gift, and it is demonstrated in our acknowledgment of absolute dependence upon God. We aren’t the masters of our fate, but we an know the one who is.

The world says, to seek power and wealth; to chase after all this world has to offer to find fulfillment.

Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. True fulfillment and satisfaction come not from the things of this world, but from chasing after that which is right and just. To chase after what is opposite to our human nature and embodied in the nature of Jesus.

The world says, it is a dog eat dog world. You have to take care of yourself no matter who you have to walk over to to do so.

Jesus says, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Mercy here meaning helping a person who cannot help themselves or who find themselves in difficult circumstances, especially if they are are there because of their own bad decisions. Because that is exactly what Jesus has done for us.

I could go on, but I think you get my point. The world’s expectations, and God’s expectation are rarely the same and in fact are not only different, but they contradict each other at almost opposite ends of a spectrum.

If we want to lead our families well then we have got to make sure that we are leading using the right expectations.

Application/Closing

King Solomon started out well. But over time he allow the expectations of the world around him to cloud his judgment and he began to permit things he shouldn’t have and eventually not only permitted them, he participated in them. As a result his kingdom split upon his death and struggled and suffered terribly.

His legacy in the end was that the kingdom of Israel would never again exist as it had under his father David. It eventually lead to their exile and ruin.

He started out well, but he did not finish well. I don’t know about you but some of us did not start out well. Some listening today have never given their lives to Jesus or they have only been a follower of Jesus for a short time and you have lived a large portion of your life under the standards of this world.

Or, you have been a follower of Jesus, but you have tried really heard to maintain the status quo.

You have made mistakes that can’t be taken back. You have established priorities that your kids have adopted that you wish you could go back and prevent.

You know that you weren’t best example and now if you say anything your family will call you out on your hypocrisy. But guess what if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a hypocrite and thank God for that because that means we aren’t who we used to be anymore.

You may not have started well… But you know what. It doesn’t mean you can’t finish well.

The wonderful things about the gospel is that it is a story of a people...

Who were living for themselves under the weight and shame of their sin.

Who were separated from their creator for choosing to live life according to their own expectations.

Who did not start out well.

And it is a story of a God who despite all of that sent his son Jesus to make a way for us...

To be forgiven of our past.

To be set free from the weight of our sin and shame.

To have our relationship with our God restored.

To set us on an entirely new path.

No, none of us started out well, but by God’s grace, all of us can finish well. But it will require that we start making decisions based on God’s expectations, and we can start making those decisions today.