On Sunday, January 30, Michael Baggett began a relationship series with opening up discussions about expectations. We all have expectations – with ourselves, other people, and with God. Our expectations with each of these does affect our expectations with the other two. Michael began by opening up a dialogue about our expectations we have about ourselves. We looked at things we appreciated about ourselves as well as ways we sometimes fail to meet expectations for ourselves.
Michael showed a video titled ‘People Don’t Meet Your Expectation‘ by Steven Furtick. In this video, Steven Furtick talked about how the same stimulus can trigger faith in some people, but that exact same stimulus can trigger fear in other people. It all depends on if a person took just one moment and sought out God’s wisdom. Steven brought up the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19. In this story, Naaman wanted to be healed, so he went to the king who only ridiculed him. Then when the prophet Elisha heard of this, Elisha sent a message for Naaman to come and Naaman did come to Elisha’s door. Elisha sent a message to Naaman to go to the Jordan River and wash himself 7 times. At first, Naaman was angered because his expectation was that Elisha would just wave his hand over Naaman and he would be healed. Elisha’s officers began to reason with Naaman telling him that obeying the message Elisha sent was something he needed to do in order to be healed of his leprosy. And so Naaman finally did go to the Jordan and he washed himself 7 times and after that he was healed. From this Naaman learned that the one true God was the God of Israel and not the king or the burnt offerings he had been burning.
Just as Naaman had to change his expectation for what Elisha was telling him to do, we have to change our expectations for what God is telling us to do. God tells us in Romans 12:9-10 to honor one another. He tells us in Galatians 5:13-15 to serve one another. Then He tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 to build each other up. And He tells us in James 4:7-8 to submit to God. And last, in Romans 15:5-7 He tells us to accept one another. Michael ended this message with telling us how God knows what is best for me, God knows what is best for us, and God is not a legalistic God. Please come hear more on expectations next week on Sunday at 5:00 pm at Life Commuity Church.