Today I want to talk to you about expectations.

First the disclaimer: expectations are not good or bad.
They’re neutral, just like money.
They aren’t bad, but how you use them can be.

When you are expectant that God is going to move or do something, there’s nothing wrong with that. The issue is when we elevate that expectation in a way that causes us to reject God as our source, to reject his timing, to idolize a thought process over what He’s said. Just like when we say God doesn’t care if you have things, just as long as things don’t have you, the same goes for expectation. You can have expectations, just don’t let them have you.

Taylor Swift had some expectations in her song, Red, which is the Good Song Bad Theology focus for today.

1. Expectation makes you reckless
Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly
Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall
Like the colors in autumn, so bright, just before they lose it all

Some scenarios:
- You at the boss’ apple in the fridge. Adam and Eve
- Your dad said wait here but you got impatient. Abraham
- EVERYONE is telling you not to fall for her but you do anyway. Israel
- Your wife tells you to go to the grocery store but you go to the driving range instead. Jonah

What did you expect was going to happen?

Genesis 15:1-6
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 16:1-6
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children[a] by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

Genesis 17:15-20
And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.

Can we all agree that Abram was being reckless?
Reckless defined: an action done without thinking or caring about the consequences of that action.
Expectations make us reckless.

Expectations are created when we have an idea about something but don’t know how it will play out.

What is interesting is that the initial idea may be good, godly even, but because we don’t know how its going to end, we tend to put out hands into the dough trying to influence the outcome. We’re being controlling in that moment!

Maybe that comes from a genuine desire to help.
Maybe that comes from past hurts, though, too.
Maybe that is some orphan spirit narrative
If anything happens for me, I have to make it happen.
No one will help me.
I’m all alone.
I have to work to prove I am worth it.

This is the DEFINITION of the orphan spirit! It is time to get free!

I believe the crux of this point lies in two verses from what we’ve just read.

Genesis 15:6
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 17:18
And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” Between those two verses:

God had spoken the promise, Abram and Sarai doubted the process,
Abram listened to another voice (Sarai), Abram fathered a son.

The reason Abram was so adamant that God see Ishmael was because in Abram’s mind, he’d solved the problem!
- This fed so much of his flesh!
- He got the “I fixed it” endorphins rush
- He’d proven that he could have a son
- He’d proven that HE was not the problem!
- But he’d also inadvertently created a problem so big we’re still dealing with it today.

And don’t let it slide that in Genesis 16:1 we learn Ishmael’s mother was an Egyptian. Abram fathered a child with the nation whose abuse to Abram’s children would be so severe that it literally created the entire nation of Israel’s historical identity.

Don’t, even for a second, believe that your action don’t have drastic and severe consequences! Every word, every deed, every thought, they ALL matter! They create the materials for your expectation to build with and the result is a reckless series of actions that actually work to hinder what God has for you, not help it!

Hebrews 11:17-18
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

By faith.
Abraham is the father of faith but he clearly didn’t act in faith when it came to the promise. His expectation made him reckless.

What expectations do you have that are making you reckless?
- God promised this but he needs my help.
- God said that but it isn’t happening quickly enough.
- God showed me this but I can’t see how it is going to happen.

THIS IS NOT FAITH.
Faith makes you with and trust when expectation is pushing you to act.

Is your expectation of how God is going to accomplish his Word causing you to be reckless instead of faithful?

2. Expectation trades a lot for a little
Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark gray, all alone
Forgetting him was like tryin' know somebody you never met
But loving him was red

There’s a fine line between Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks.
Missing him was gray but loving him was red vs I could have missed the pain but I’d of had to miss the dance.

Is what you’re left with worth the pain?
Perspective:
- Is the feeling you get from acting out in your flesh worth the fallout?
- Was that sin you were actively engaged in really worth the separation you have with God?
- Was your getting your justice worth the price you had to pay to get it?
- Do you like who you are once the dust settles?

Sin - Defined:

James 4:17
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.It is rarely ever the boulders that trip us, but the pebbles.

Song of Solomon 2:15
Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.

Matthew Henry: Seize the little foxes, the first risings of sin, those sins that seem little, for they often prove very dangerous.

Matthew 16:26
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

We’ve all had moments in our lives where we have to decide to do or not to do something. Daily we have these. Sometimes those decisions are little, sometimes they are huge. Sometimes the little decisions create huge results. (Drink 10 little cans Dr Peppers every day and let me know the result.)

Are the decisions you are making driving you towards God’s promise or are they simply fueling your expectation?

Sin always promises heaven but it always delivers hell.
(Adam and Eve - You will become like God!)

Whether that sin is little or big, it still creates separation. It is true that sin is sin and it all separates. But a big sinful lifestyle always starts with a little sinful lie. You believe something, you take the bait, and what you do is you trade something so valuable (your soul, your closeness with God), for something you thought would satisfy. It’s trading his promise for your expectation.

This is the story of the prodigal son.
This is YOUR story.

So how do we stop this?
First, you have to stop having more faith in your expectation than you do God.
That’s just idolatry.

Second, you have to actually repent.
Whether you know you are doing wrong (the Bible will tell you) or you don’t (the Bible will show you) you actually have to repent.

Repent is to not only say sorry, but to STOP DOING THE SIN. But if I stop, my whole life has to change. Choose your pain. A change now, or hell for eternity. “What does it profit a person…”

3. Expectation leads to regret
Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes
Tell myself, "It's time now, gotta let go"
But moving on from him is impossible
When I still see it all in my head
In burning red

Does that sound like regret? How would her life had been different if rather than seeing his love as red, she saw it as a red flag instead? Boy howdy do we fall into the same trap so often?!?!?

Matthew 19:22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions
- Some of the most tragic words ever written in the Bible.

His sadness came from two things in my opinion:
First, that his life would change drastically. This is what happens when a noun defines you, not God. You can’t imagine life without that thing. So you not only regret that you can’t change, you regret the situation you’re in to being with.

Second, that his life would change drastically. This would end up being his biggest regret, and he may not have known that in the moment, but there was a point in his life where he realized the mistake he’d made.

Do you have any regrets that were born out of an ungodly expectation?

So what do you do about it?
Repent.
You messed up. You know it. God knows it. But remember if you will be faithful to confess and repent, he’ll be faithful to forgive and restore.

Be faithful.
Be faithful to the one who gave the word, not the word itself. God’s word will accomplish its purpose with or without you (good song) God doesn’t need your help, just your faithfulness. Being faithful means you trust him for the outcome. It means being willing to do what needs to be done to see God’s plan accomplished.

This is not a message today that is saying just sit and do nothing and hopefully it works out. When she met this fella, she probably wasn’t trying to mess up. She probably wasn’t trying to usurp God’s plan.

Her biggest issue was that she refused to see what she needed to see, to get counsel, to pray about it, to seek the word on it, to do the right thing.

When you sow what your flesh sows, you get the fruit that the flesh grows.

I’m not telling you don’t try, don’t take steps, don’t reach forward. I am saying listen to the voice of God more than your flesh, more than your wants, more than your expectations.

Here’s how we land today:

Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Today I am asking you to lay your expectations on the altar.

I am convinced had Abraham believed God and waited for the promise, he wouldn’t have had to lay Isaac on the altar. There was a moment when he chased after the expectation harder than the promise. Whatever God spoke to you, whatever your purpose is, whatever he has for you, the waiting on God’s timing and fulfillment, it’s worth it.

Let’s pray
God thank you for your word, your promise, your purpose
Forgive me for being impatient, for trying to do it on my own
I commit to your plan, your purpose, but also your timing, and your process
In Jesus Name

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?