Understanding the Power of Expectations, Part 2

If you’re going through something hard, welcome to the spiritual NFL.  Everybody takes hits.  But when you think you’re the only one, and instead of getting in a huddle and sharing what’s going on in your life, you get on the end of the bench, the helmet in your hand, your chin strap’s off, you’re leaning over, I’m not worth anything, what happens?  It’s not long before you walk off the field.

I sat next to a guy, and within 15 or 20 minutes, man, he shared some of the most sensitive material I have ever heard another man share with another man.  Stuff about his marriage.  Sensitive, sensitive stuff.  And I was so amazed, because he shared – and he’s a very mature guy – he shared it with a sense of, “These are very, very difficult things to go through, and it has been a very long journey, and this is normative for Christians.  This is my story.  This is what I’m going through.”  And then, we had the opportunity just to talk about it together.

And you know what? I’ve got the same ups and downs and struggles in my marriage, and just being with him, I was strengthened in one spirit to realize, there are fellow men, going through fellow things, and here is one that has perspective.  He’s older, wiser, more mature.

And you need that. We talk about small groups – if you’re not in some kind of a small group – a ministry team, an impact group, a Bible study, an informal group that meets in the morning with a group of men, a group of ladies, at least some sort of an elective class – it won’t be long before you find yourself sitting on the end of the bench, alone and discouraged, not living up to your conduct, because you’re not taking advantage of the resources in the body that God has to give you.

We’re going to form 50, 60 groups for guys to go on.  And we’re praying that another two or three hundred men will say, “Hey, guys, thanks for leading the way.  I wanted to go, and I couldn’t.  But next Friday night when you guys get together and have the big rally here, and you share what happened in your life, I’m coming!  I’m coming!  I couldn’t go – businesswise, otherwise.  I couldn’t go.  But I’ll be there next Friday night.  You guys give me a taste of what you had, and let me get connected with some other men.”

Look at the word contending: “contending as one man.”  He says, “Hang together in troubled times.  Hang tough – hang tough in tough times.”  And the second thing is, hang together in troubled, or testing, times.  This word, contending, is really interesting.  It has a prefix that means “together,” and the second half of the word means “to fight.”  It’s used of Roman soldiers fighting arm-to-arm, shield-to-shield, back-to-back, face-to-face. There is a huge adversary.  And what are they contending for?  They’re contending for the faith in the Gospel.  They want to move God’s agenda through their community, through their world.  And you take a lot of flak, and you take a lot of hits.  And so, he says, “As you do battle,” he says, “stand together.  Be unified.  Be arm to arm.  Cover each other, back to back.  Hold each other up.” We saw that real strong call to putting aside differences and standing unified in the midst of the battle to take the work of Christ on.

A young black man shared, on Saturday night, about racial reconciliation, not as some social obligation, but as from Scripture, not looking at people on the outside and looking at them on the inside, and actually living that out as obedience to God.  And, boy, he got fired up.  Then, about 50,000 guys got fired up. “Yeah!  Yeah!” And then we sang.  And we did lots of things that were uncomfortable for men, but only because we’re men.  But with 50,000 men doing it, it just seemed, kind of, okay.  You know what I’m saying?  I don’t hold hands with guys. I just don’t come from that kind of background.  When 49,999 guys decided we’d all hold hands, it’s okay.  I can handle it.  My insecurities are okay.  I think I can make it through this deal all right, you know?

And he began to talk about racial unity, and there were a couple of guys to my left – if they don’t make it in the NFL, they should.  One guy, about 260, 275 – big, strong black guy, arms about this big, a tattoo about like that, you know? And then, up here was a silver-haired – I could tell by his dress, and he’s an executive someplace.  I mean, he’s just well off and affluent and articulate. And as we sang, they said, “You know, if you’ve ever struggled with this issue, maybe you need to go to someone.  Maybe you need to face this thing, and believe and honor that you’re really a body.”

And I have never been so moved.  The tears just flowed down my face.  I watched this silver-haired executive, I could tell from the labels on his clothes that he shopped at the right places, and there is nothing wrong with that, that was just his lifestyle.  And I watched him look around, and he had one of his sons with him, and he stepped back, and he put their hands together, and then, he walked out the aisle.

And then, he walked down to three rows, and two of the largest, strongest, tattooed, earring-toting black brothers that I’ve ever seen in my life, and he walks in between them, and he steps in like this.  And with the biggest grins, they both turn, like that. And he stepped in there, and then, they joined hands, and they sang and they prayed.  And then, I watched, afterwards, we prayed together.  And I had one eye open.  Probably illegal, but God was speaking to me just a little.  And I watched these three guys, with their arms around one another.

That is what Paul is saying.  What God expects of you, and what He expects of me, is to live a life worthy of the Gospel.  Live consistent with your privileges and also with your responsibility.  Hang tough in tough times! And then, hang together.  Hang together in times of testing.

The third word is a word for “without being frightened.”  It literally has the idea of, “be courageous in the face of the future.”  It’s a word that was used when a horse would be spooked or scared.  You know how they buck, and then, stampede?  It says, “Don’t live like a horse that could be spooked.  Be courageous because of your relationships.  Face the tough things.  Don’t quit.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give in.  Hang together.  And when you see what seems to be overwhelming odds in your life, stand together, face it together, and trust God.”

We had an elders’ meeting.  The length of the elders’ meeting was not an awesome experience.  It always goes like that.  We started about 6:30, and, close to midnight, we were wrapping it up, which really wasn’t bad for us.  But one of the biggest issues that we had to face – we have a three-year commitment, two million dollars.  We’ve only got about four to six months left, and there’s $500,000 dollars or so, a little more.  And, as leaders, the elders have to get before God and say, “What do You want us to do?  Should we just pray as a church?  Should we make the need be known?  Want to put a thermometer in the front – no, no, that’s not – I mean, what do You want us to do?  We’re absolutely convinced it’s Your will to provide space.  But $500,000 dollars in 90 to 120 days or so . . .” And it was like, What do you do?  And we hem-hawed around, you know, “Gosh, I don’t know.”

It was interesting, because two or three of the guys that have been through the hardest and most difficult times in the life of this church, for unusual reasons, they couldn’t be there.  And we have 98 percent attendance in every elders’ meeting.  And we waited and we prayed, and so we decided, God always leads by leaders leading first.  And we had a long, long season of prayer, and then, we offered every possibility, and then, we said, “Well, we can’t deal with anybody else.  Let’s ask what God would want us to do.”

And we went around the table, and each guy said, “This is just in this room, but this is what I’ve done on the building.”  And I heard, to the man, every single person, “This is what I pledged.  I’ve already paid it off.”  And then, remember last year, when we needed $300,000?  You’d hear one guy say, “Well, I gave half again as much back then.”  And another guy said, “Well, I gave a third again as much.”  Another guy, “I gave again what I had already originally planned.”  Every man had already paid his off, and then, last year, six months ago, every man stepped up and had given another major portion.  And here we are again.

And then, I watched every single guy flat out step up to the plate. You say, “Well, have a lot of people moved away?  Maybe a lot of people have had financial reversal, and they can’t keep their commitment to God.”  And we don’t know all the reasons.  You know what?  It’s not our role to figure out the reasons.  It’s our role to lead, sacrificially, and do it for Christ.  And each guy said, “This is what I got in the bank.  I could take this out of retirement.  I could . . .”  And this is over/above their general giving.  This is over/above their missions giving.  This is over/above what they have pledged already.

And you know, I don’t know what’s going to happen on this building, and at this point, I just know God is in control.  But you talk about standing together, with one mind, contending for the faith of the Gospel, in no way being frightened by what seems a huge mountain.  “It’s a sign” – what does he say?  “It’s a sign of destruction for them.”

I left that meeting, and I was dead and tired, and I thought, If God has put the leaders of this church, that are willing, in round three, to give over and above here, over and above here, over and above here, God, I don’t want to be any place else in the whole world.  I don’t know how You’re going to remove this mountain, but I know this: You’ll take care of it.  What an honor.  Because when leaders lead, people follow.

And leaders lead when they follow Christ, and they do what they ask others to do.  And it was exciting, an exciting opportunity.  And pray for them, will you?  They’re giving out of where they don’t know where it’s going to come from.  And it will mean lifestyle changes. So, just pray for them.

But you need to know – they’d never tell you that – you need to know that living worthy of the Gospel, standing firm, contending, not being frightened – that’s where we’re at right now.  And you know what else?  That’s what God expects.  That’s what Jesus expects of this church.  It’s what He expects of me, of the elders, of you, of everyone.

Now, let’s flip the coin and ask, “What can we expect from God?  What’s it going to be like to love Him and walk with Him?”  He wants us to stand firm.  He doesn’t want us to quit.  He doesn’t want us to give up.  He doesn’t want us to give in.  He doesn’t want us to shrink back in the face of it.  He wants to press ahead.  But what can we expect from Him?  In verses 29 and 30, he explains.  He says, “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe [in] Him, but also to suffer for Him” – or, “for His sake” – “since you are [now] going through the same struggle” – or, “conflict” – “you saw I had, and now hear [to be in me].”

There are two things we can expect from God.  You notice the little phrase, “It’s been granted to you”?  Interesting phrase.  It means “it’s a privilege.”  We get our word grace.  It means, literally, “a gift.”  God has given you a gift.  If you belong to Christ, He has given you two gifts.  Here are two expectations.  You can just take it to the bank – two things He has already given you, as a privilege.

Privilege number one: “It has been granted to you a gift of faith.”  You can believe.  You’re going to go to heaven.  Your sins are forgiven.  The Spirit lives in you.  God is faithful.  He is dependable.  He is going to see you through.  He loves you.  He will never abandon you.  You are secure.  That’s one gift.

There’s a second gift.  This is one you don’t hear a lot about.  Look at the construction, grammatically.  “It has been granted to you for Christ’s sake to” – (A) – “believe in Him and” – (B) – what does it say?  Look at it.  “To suffer for His sake.”  It’s a gift!  You talk about framing your expectations – going through hard times is normative.  It’s to be expected.

I don’t want to be critical of radio and TV preachers, but I’m going to be, so . . . There are many that are good, that are great.  But there is a section of those people that talk about health and wealth and believing Jesus, your life will all work out, and your finances will be all good, and it’s a self-help heresy that violates the heart of Scripture.

I’m going to tell you something, you go in believing that trash that you hear, and that’s what it is.  It’s from the pit of hell.  God never said life is going to be easy.  What He said is, life will be great.  It will be great. It won’t be easy.  Nothing great is easy.

You find me someone with a great marriage – it wasn’t easy.  You find someone who has built a great business – it wasn’t easy.  You find a great musician, a great athlete, a great artist – it wasn’t easy.  You find someone who has really worked hard with their kids, and you see some product of it – it wasn’t easy.  It was filled with tears and pain and late nights and hard work and suffering.  You live in a fallen world; you’re going to suffer.  And he says, “We can expect suffering from God, along with faith.

2 Timothy 3 says that for all those who live a Godly life, or want to live a Godly life, in Christ Jesus, they will be persecuted.  Jesus, the last night, in John 16:33 – remember what He said to His disciples?  He said, “In the world you will have tribulation” – hard times – “but be of good cheer.  I’m with you.”  You’re going to suffer!  But not in vain.  See, everybody suffers.  Do you know anybody that doesn’t suffer?  Some people are just suffering for nothing!  You get to suffer for Christ.  Seriously! No, think that one through!  Everybody suffers.  Everyone has struggles.  Everyone has setbacks.  Everyone has physical limitations.  Everyone has problems in families.  Everyone goes through financial and emotional ups and downs.  We get to suffer for Christ.  It’s normative.  It’s to be expected.  You swim upstream, you’re going to take hits.

But now, you need to be really careful.  All suffering isn’t from Christ.  See, when you’re going through a really hard time, don’t take this passage and run to the corner, and say, “Oh, I now know why.  It’s just because I love God so much.”  If it’s because you love God so much, great.  But there are at least four or five different reasons why we suffer.  When I’m going through a really, really hard time, I go through this little index in my mind, and say, “God, I need to understand why I’m suffering.”  And so, I go through some of these reasons, and then, I ask.

Reason number one we suffer is my sin.  I do dumb things.  I say bad things.  I disobey God.  I walk outside of His will, and the Scripture says you reap whatever you sow.  When you do dumb, sinful things, you’re going to suffer.  But don’t run to this passage and say, “It’s for Christ.”  It’s not for Christ.  It’s because you’re like me.

Second reason you suffer, I ask God, “Is this spiritual attack?”  Job wasn’t doing anything wrong.  God wasn’t down on Job.  Did he suffer?  You bet.  There are times where the enemy comes against you.

Third reason you suffer is, it’s a fallen world.  There’s bacteria out there.  People get sick.  Cars’ brakes give out.  The world isn’t perfect.  Some of it, it’s just generic.  There’s suffering in the world.

Fourth reason we suffer is spiritual discipline – Hebrews 12.  There are times in your life God wants to get your attention, and you’re moving in a way that will be harmful to you, and He is your Dad, and He loves you so much, He will give you a spiritual spanking.  And He will unplug your finances, He will unplug some relationships, He will unplug your work, He will unplug something, until you say, “Hey, did You want to talk?”

The fifth reason that God will allow you to suffer is spiritual development.  2 Corinthians 12 – God wanted Paul to be spiritually developed, to be dependent at a new level, because he could handle much more revelation that way.  And he asked to be delivered, and God says, “Here’s My deliverance, Paul.  My grace is sufficient for you.  Your circumstances don’t change at all.  You just get more of Me in them.  That’s it, bud.  Step up to the plate.  This is normative.”

This passage is talking about the spiritual opposition.  It’s for the sake of the Gospel.  It’s when you believe in Christ, and your parents don’t understand.  It’s when you believe in Christ, and you want to take radical steps, and your mate can’t grasp it.  It’s when your friends abandon you and say, “You know, you used to be so much fun to be around, but you never want to go to the bars with us anymore.”  It’s when you get your finances in biblical order, and, before it gets better, it gets a lot worse, and you’re saying, “Giving off the top?  Am I doing this with my brain connected?”  It’s when you get criticism for standing on a principle that’s not politically correct, but it’s biblically sound.  That’s what it means to suffer for Christ.  It’s when you get rejected, and you’re viewed as narrow.  You’re persecuted by people.

I remember touching down on a plane in Cochabamba, and the mortars were going off, and the guy said, “Don’t think you guys are going to get to play here.  The rebels aren’t real excited about your team.”  And the plane went right back up, you know?  I’ve been with Tom Randall and had submachine guns faced right at my ears, and saying, “Thomas, tell them something quick.”  He said, “These are the Communists.  They don’t like Christian teams.  Let me try and handle it.”  You suffer.  And I didn’t know whether I was going to live or die.

That’s what he’s talking about. Here are your expectations.  Do they align with your experience?  Can you embrace the suffering, and realize that the models are Jesus?  He didn’t do anything wrong.  He lived in the perfect will of God.

He wasn’t healthy, wealthy, and wasn’t being interviewed for talk show hosts.  They nailed Him to a tree because He obeyed God.  But the glory and the suffering and the reward that He received, the Scripture says, is not to be compared with even the temporal suffering now.  It goes back to that eternal perspective, doesn’t it.  It goes back into where your focus is, doesn’t it?  It goes back into your purpose and why you’re here and what you want God to accomplish.