THE POWER OF EXPECTATIONS Philippians 1:20-28 Intro: - How many of us are settling for less than God intended? - How many of us have gotten our hopes up only to have them dashed? - How many of us have heard the call of God upon our lives, upon our families, upon our careers, gotten inspired, began to rise to the call, and then let it fizzle out? - There are a number of reasons for why we don’t always live up to our calling, but I believe the biggest one is that we have not tapped into the power of expectations. - If the truth were known, we would find that most of us are not advancing spiritually, experiencing God more fully, or developing personally because we do not expect for those things to happen any more. - Somewhere along the line we gave up hope for a better tomorrow, and in the process forgot what it was like to live in anticipation of a bright future. - We find the Apostle Paul still holed up in his prison cell writing to the church at Philippi. - And rather than finding a man who has given up hope for the future, we find a man that is still filled with the power of expectation. - Let’s make his story our story this morning, and begin to experience what it means to live our lives fully expecting God to do great things. - We’ll do that today by answer three basic questions. 1. What Happens When I Live In Expectation? 2. How Do I Begin To Live In Expectation? 3. What Does Living In Expectation Look Like? 1. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LIVE IN EXPECTATION? - As I said, some people have simply stopped expecting. - They have accumulated enough of life's disappointments to become afraid to dream, to reach, to stretch, to broaden their horizons. - But God wants to free us into tomorrow – to show us that there is always somethi... ... middle of paper ... ...ies with Heaven. • speak the clean and pure language of Heaven. • bear the title of Heaven, Christian, and do so proudly. • bear witness to the customs of Heaven. • carry on the affairs of Heaven. • dress as a citizen of Heaven. • allow no infiltration of worldly influence whatsoever. • live and conduct ourselves as a Heavenly colony within a polluted and dying environment.. WE SEE THE CHURCH UNITED WE SEE THE ENEMY DEFEATED - The united front that we present is one in which Satan, the great imposter, cannot penetrate, try as he might. WE SEE VICTORY IN THE STRUGGLE - Some people are quite discomfited that God does not promise those who live in expectation a life without suffering and struggle. - But comfort can be found when we see the picture God has presented, not of a life without struggle, but a life where victory can be found in the struggle itself.
What I had wanted as a child, what I thought would have gotten, is all outside my grasp. That house I wanted? Maybe a bit smaller…and about that car, I’ll take a Honda Civic. I am now forced into the dilemma of choosing which dreams to fulfill. Even then none of them might come to be. I still seek to attain my goals however, but with all due diligence will I attain half-success. What I found didn’t fit with what I sought to be. What I was promised and what I believed will not come to be. I was once jubilant over the inevitability of adulthood, but now, all I seek is the impossibility of another
Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He questioned the very nature of why things were the way they were, while never settling for simple, mundane answers. Socrates would rather die searching for the truth than live accepting what he considered a blatant lie. I like to think of myself the same way. I too would rather examine the wonders of life rather than accept what I am just told. The truth is some can’t handle the truth. I on the other hand welcome it with earnest anticipation and fervent enthusiasm.
As I read the part on low expectations, I found myself agreeing with Cose. One of his fellow employees of the New York Daily News talked about his career being blocked. His own expectations of himself were causing him no room to grow. Conrad Harper commented that if someone is constantly being told he can never amount to anything better, he will in fact start questioning his own abilities.
The American Dream is dead and people are now concerned with just holding on to what they have.
“Never came trouble in the likeness of your grace; for trouble being gone, comfort should remain, but when you depart from me, sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave”(1.1.80-83).
What we hope for is not always what we need. This is prevalent in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston where the characters have his or her dream crushed for the sake of fate. This is especially true for Janie who strives throughout the novel to have her dream of “the pear tree” realized, and Hurston shows this using a variation of metaphor, imagery, and personification.
It is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions of all time: if there are gods who have control over humans’ lives, why do they allow good followers to suffer? How can there be any justice in that kind of world? Philosophers and thinkers like Seneca and authors of the Bible have debated and written about these questions since ancient times. Perhaps because hardships affect every person, many people continue to debate the same topics today. Seneca writes extensively about the topic of suffering in his essay “On Providence,” which is contained in The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca. Likewise, Paul writes about how to face hardships in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians, and the book of Job in the Old Testament contains more thoughts and wisdom on the subject. Although the reasons that they provide for why gods allow humans to suffer differ, Seneca and writers in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible agree that in all cases hardships are beneficial to those who suffer.
live ,we are responsible to the Lord and when we die we are responsible to the
We leave you now with this final word: Seek to know all that you can, but seek mostly to know and understand yourselves. Self-knowledge is the most valuable knowledge to each of you. Be a soldier of the seeking of self-knowledge.
And where is God in the midst of hardship? Is He non-existent, as the pagan statement, "It's Chance alone that moves and rules our lives" implies (Neiman 442). Or is God only partially in control of situations, as Harold Kushner concludes, writing, "there are some things God does not control" (462). Is all suffering a direct result of our own actions, as David Neiman offers ("He who is suffering and believes in a God of justice, must also blame himself for his state of being"" (438). Moses Maimonides prefers to view the question by focusing not on the external life that surrounds us, but on the internal condition of the heart. He argues that good and evil have their own reward and punishments within the spiritual realm and outward appearances are inconsequential (Behrens and Rosen 434).
us to nurture life, to love life, and to live it. Let's do our best.
Suffering is not something that one can choose to, or choose not to partake in. To continue living day to day in a state of suffering is not easy. Not being able to escape from the suffering obligates the person to learn to work hard to get past the low points in life. A significant factor contributing to happiness is a sense of accomplishment. People are happier when they feel like their efforts are making a change and that their diligence is worth something. Suffering through difficult parts of life increases a person’s contentment with themselves and with their life, as they feel like they have overcome something they thought they were incapable of. For instance, in the article “Beyond Money” by Ed Diener and Martin E.P. Seligman, it is stated that “Some people consider paid work to be an unpleasant activity that must be suffered in order to earn money. Research, however, indicates that people obtain pleasure from their jobs” (45). Having endured through hardships in order to get to a better place in life makes people feel like they are worthy of being happy as they have worked hard to get where they are- that they are capable of more. Happiness is not solely a result of the end product, but rather the journey, and suffering provides a journey to embark on, to find
The Hope is here, but the way is unclear, all we have to do is wait and we will find the way. We must follow this way offered to us and we will achieve the happiness that we always wanted. In that way, our hope is not wasted.
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Though the enemy of God, the devil, hates us and desires our ruin, we ought to not be afraid, for “the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?” (Psalm 27) Today, Christians need to remind each other of this truth. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with this spiritual enemy par excellence that studies us to discover our weaknesses and to cause us to abandon the Faith.