18 Dec “Expectations Made Clear” | New England Locations

Announcements:

GO TO WATERSCHURCH.ORG/EVENTS TO REGISTER

NEW ENGLAND LOCATIONS:

All announcements and the Waters Event Calendar can be found at:  waterschurch.org/events

Alpha: New ministry – conversation style Small Group called Alpha that Mehdi and April will be leading.It is for seekers, those on the fence about faith, or disenfranchised from faith.It is to reach lost people. Join the conversation today @ waterschurch.org/alpha

All announcements and the Waters Event Calendar can be found at:  waterschurch.org/events

Alpha: New ministry – conversation style Small Group called Alpha that Mehdi and April will be leading.It is for seekers, those on the fence about faith, or disenfranchised from faith.It is to reach lost people.  Join the conversation today @ waterschurch.org/alpha

Location Text Alerts:

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Key Verse: 1 John

Definition Of Expectation:

An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. An expectation is a belief that someone will or should achieve something.

Expectations can be high, low, good, bad, reasonable, or unreasonable.  We are surrounded everyday by hundreds of  expectations.  We often come into situations with perceived notions of how things should be like or look like.

Ice-Breaker:

Q. What is something that turned out totally different than you expected (marriage, kids, career etc..)?

1 John 2:1-6

The Apostle John wrote 1 John for the purpose of proving who was and who was not a true Christian.  Our expectations of God may have been tainted with our experiences and emotions.  God told us what we should expect from him.

I – What Do We Expect From God?

1. Jesus is Our Forever ADVOCATE1

John 2:1 (ESV); Hebrews 7:24-26 (NLT)

Sin is a ‘big deal’ topic.  Sin is a negative word in our culture.  Our culture does not want to talk about sin because our culture is all about positive vibes and the good life.  It is about karma and live your own truth.

Sin is anything we say, do, or desire that is going to miss Gods perfect plan.  Anything outside of that is sin.  John is not expecting us to live a sinless life, but as we walk closer to Jesus we start sinning less and become more like Jesus.  Jesus sees our shortcomings and we can expect He is on our side.  We are guilty but Jesus bails us out because of His shed blood on the Cross.

Q. How might your sin disallow you to believe that Jesus is advocating for you?

What Do We Expect From God?

2. When We Pray, He Hears our Prayers

1John 5:14-15 (ESV)

Sometimes our expectations of Jesus are the same as Santa and if we do enough good things we will stay on the ‘nice list.’  We come to church to check the box and still go do the wrong things.

Jesus is more than just a wish fulfiller. Sometimes what we are asking is not according to His will.  We need to align our hearts with His.  We need to trust His authority that He will fulfill our desires with what is best for us. Sometimes our human idea of what is best does not line up with Gods idea for what is best.  Sometimes we see our expectations as not met, but God is advocating for what is best for us as any good parent would do.

Q. What prayers have been answered totally different than you expected?

What Do We Expect From God?

3. Jesus is Our Intercessor

Hebrews 7:24-26 (NLT)

John 17:9 (ESV)

Jesus prays for us.  Intercession and prayer are sometimes overlapped but are different.  Intercession is lifting the needs of others up to God.  Jesus stands in the gap lifting us up in prayer and supplications.

Q. How does it comfort you to know that Jesus is interceding for you?

What Do We Expect From God?

4. Jesus Forgives Sin

Acts 10:43 (ESV)

1 John 1:9 (ESV)

God has lifted the sentence of condemnation through the death of Jesus Christ.  We are no longer looked at as guilty when we put our faith in Him. He sees us perfectly blameless.  God, the judge became the One who was judged for the guilt of men.  We receive forgiveness instead of punishment.

Q. Even though we know we are forgiven, why do we still find it hard to believe we are no longer guilty?

II – What Does God Expect From US?

1. As a Father, He Expects Us to Obey Him

John 1:2:3; 5; 6 (ESV)

Expectations go both ways.   God has some expectations of us that are either met or not met because we are not robots.  He views himself as our Father and as his children he expects obedience from us.  Obedience to God is not a new idea, it is all over the Bible.  Our desires need to match God’s desires.  As we draw closer to him his desires become our own desires.

Q. As you draw closer to God, how have your desires changed?

2. As a Father, He Expects us to Deal with Sin

1 John 3:9 (ESV)

God knows us, he knows what he can expect from us that is why He went to the cross for us.  The ‘do first ask forgiveness later’ does not fly with Him but if we give our selves over to God we cannot keep on sinning.  He expects us to seek him and model ourselves after him to the best of our ability.  He refines us and equips us to grow in strength and obedience.

Q. As you seek after Christ, how does He strengthen and equip you?

3.As a Father, He Expects us to Extend Grace to Others

Colossians 3:13 (ESV)

When we fall short we ask God for forgiveness but when others mess up and are not always quick to extend that grace and mercy.  We are forgiven, therefore we must forgive others not kick them when they are down.  We are to rally around them not cast them off.  Jesus heals and restores.  He is in the business of second, third, and even sixty fifth chances.  The Church should be doing the same thing.

Q. When have you found it hard to extend grace to someone who has wronged you and why?

Q. Why is it crucial that we forgive others that have wronged us?

4. As a Father, He Expects us to Live with Truth

1 John 3:18 (NLT)

3 John 1:4 (NLT)

Jesus is the Truth and to know Him we need to know His word.  We need to open our Bibles.  The Deep Dive podcast is a study in the Bible verse by verse and it is great way to study God’s word.    We should surround ourselves with Christian community so we have the truth in place before there is a crisis.   That is why it is so important to be committed to your Life group.

Q. How has studying God’s word equipped you in crisis?

III- Expectations Can FALL SHORT

Proverb 13:12 (ESV)

1 Kings 8:17-19 (NLT)

We can fall short and handle our expectations poorly because we are human and have not control over what the world throws at us.   King David had all the right intentions. He believed he would be the one to build the Temple but God steps in and says ‘no’, He had other plans. David’s expectation did not line up with God’s expectation.   David had a choice, to  fall away from God and leave the Church or trust and follow God’s plan for his life.  We all get to this point at some point.

When we get crushed we succumb to discouragement and failure but the more we seek God’s expectations the more our expectations become one with Him.

The major thing we need to do to get there is to say ‘yes’ to him. To surrender our lives and obey Him. Trust He will never fail and we can always trust him to save – today, tomorrow, and forever!

Challenge: Study God’s word, draw near to him, earnestly seek Him and see how he changes your expectations.