Expectations Real and Unreal 2

When we picture Jesus riding that donkey, out of Jerusalem, surrounded by blessings and hosannas and praises, this moment of apparent victory, when it looks as though all these years of patience are now paying off, we have to view the whole thing against the background of the words he gave to his disciples when he first sent them out. From Matthew 10, verse 16, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents, and innocent as dogs.

Now it's Jesus himself who's a sheep in the midst of wolves, indeed the lambs surrounded by the ones that are about to swarm. And so while Jesus accepts their acclaim, allows them to come, he nevertheless does not allow himself to get caught up in this apparent success. At no point does he pin his hopes on this praising multitude.

He's wise as a serpent. Nor does he take advantage of the enthusiasm of the crowd and begin to manipulate these people for his own ends, as most modern evangelists do. No prayer letters, no love offerings, no nationwide networks of TV, nothing.

He's innocent as a dog, pure. There's a lesson in this that we need to learn, because moments come in our lives, too, where it appears that now big things are just around the corner. And unless we are wise as serpents and innocent as dogs, we will invariably allow ourselves to get caught up in expectations which are unreal, based on a lie, and which will take us far from God.

Oh, how Jesus' expectations could have soared that day if he had allowed himself to see success in their turn, and permitted his mind to become inflamed with their enthusiasm. But instead of this, Jesus keeps his eye exactly on the goal. Wise as a serpent, innocent as a dog.

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated as serpent, and they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise. That's what he came to do.

So a few days later, when things start going bad, the disciples fall apart. But Jesus keeps right on going, because his expectations are based on reality. He is not on a success trip.

He's on his way to a cross. When Jesus describes Satan as the father of lies, what does this mean but that Satan is the one who inspires us to unreal expectations? Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And that's not what God said. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, now she sees the tree in a new light, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.

She based her expectation on a lie, something which was utterly unreal, something which would never be. She ate the fruit, gave some to Adam, and it ends with devastation. Every downfall which we have experienced in our lives began with unreal expectations, where instead of being wise as serpents and innocent as dogs, we allow ourselves to be caught away with these unreal things and expect some kind of fulfillment to come from a hand other than God.

When I achieve success, then I will be fulfilled. When I make it in my career, then I will be fulfilled. When I marry that man or that woman, then I will be fulfilled.

When I own my dream house, then I will be fulfilled. If I have an affair with so-and-so, then I will be fulfilled. If I have that twin, if I swallow those pills, then I will be fulfilled.

The weird obsessions that go on underneath the surface of all our minds while we go about our daily lives as if we're perfect and normal, and every one of them is based on a lie. So what happens? When you get that thing you're after, you achieve that success. You make the million.

You have that affair. You have a wonderful drunk that lasts for three weeks. You're bogged down and don't know nothing.

Then what? Or you become the religious success that everybody is impressed with. Then what? You get the cathedral of the day after tomorrow going. Then what? Four inevitable fruits will follow expectations that are unreal.

Absolutely every time. And the first of these fruits is disappointment. Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar.

And after a time, Amnon, David's son, loved her. And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar. But she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything for her.

But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother. Jonadab was a very crafty man. There's always somebody around to help you out.

And he said to him, Oh, son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me? And Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. Jonadab said to him, Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat and prepare food in my sight that I may see it and eat from her hand.

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Pray, let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house where he was lying down. And she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cake. And she took the pan and emptied it out before him.

And Amnon said, Send out everyone for me. So everyone went out for him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into the chamber that I may eat from your hand.

And Tamar took the cakes that she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. But when she brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, Come, lie with me, my sister. She answered him, No, my brother, do not force me, for such a thing is not done in Israel.

Do not do this wanton folly. As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the wanton fools in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray you, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.

But he would not listen to her. And being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.

And Amnon said to her, Arise, people. His expectations were based on something false or absurd. They were all in his mind.

And when he got what he thought he got, he was bitterly disappointed. Reality is always a disappointment when we're living in fantasy. And how many of us have spent years sometimes trying to arrive at something, to get something, apart from God, that we were sure was going to fulfill us.

When it came, what a disappointment. How many marriages are wrecked because the man and the woman expect from each other a fulfillment that no human beings can give them. How many minds are destroyed because they're trying to arrive at a fulfillment from their job, their career, their profession, whatever they call it, that's going to stratify their lives.

The next group, which follows unreal expectations, is self-pity. The older brother of the prodigal son. He hears all the music and dancing going on inside.

Now this elder brother was in the field. And as he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called out to the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, your brother has come home and your father has killed a fatted calf because he has received it safe and sound.

He was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and he treated him. But he answered his father, for all these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.

Yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf. The older brother faced his expectations on his own right.

He said, I'm better than my brother, but I'm going to get what's coming to me. He has no sense of mercy, goodness, kindness, love that burns in the father's heart and longs to shower itself on his older brother. When that mercy welcomes the younger brother home, this man is absolutely devastated.

Disappointed, then he begins to wallow in self-pity. All these years I've served you, I never transgressed your commandments. What have you ever done for me? And how many of us right here in this room have been doing this, wallowing in self-pity? Some of us don't even realize how our lives are absolutely warped by self-pity.

Religious people are the best at it. They all cover it over, you know, on the persecuted wife. They're not being persecuted for Jesus' name, they're just doing signs of it.

The next step down the ladder, the next fruit of unreal expectations, of course, is bitterness. And one of the best examples would be King Saul, who, because he went off on his own and disregarded God, lost his anointing, his king. The disappointment that came upon the heels of this, and the tough that he finally gave way to a long season in Saul's life of bitterness.

Bitterness toward David, because I am David all the time. Bitterness toward his own son, Jonathan. Bitterness toward everybody around him, including himself.

That's sour, sprouts. Many of us have experienced this, we've tasted it. You know, when all joy goes out of our lives, and the peace leaves us, and we have no mercy, no kindness, no room for anything, anybody else, every thought we think about people is negative.

And we give ourselves over to a smoldering bitterness, which is the very prelude of the final step, the final fruit. It is hell itself. Separation from God.

Such is the journey of the soul. It tries to find its satisfaction in things other than God, even if they're religious things. Whether it be money, or romance, or religious pain, or kinky pleasures, the core fruit always follows.

Disappointment, self-pity, bitterness, and hell. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, and don't expect some spiritual counselor to guide you through all this.

You're supposed to use your head. Be wise enough to keep your eye on the goal, and be pure enough never to compromise. So Jesus puts his expectation and his hope, his goal, certainly not in the acclaim of this crowd, nor is his goal to take over the temple, even though he turns over the table to the money changers and does all that when he gets into the town, nor is it to take over the throne.

Jesus has come up to Jerusalem to die. His goal is a cross. And so is yours.

And so is mine. Let's make this very clear that the goal of following Jesus Christ in this world is a cross. Don't let anybody try to tell you that the goal is prosperity, or spiritual thrills, or any other kinds of goodies.

Pass them all. That's where we go. Now the cross that waits at the end of the road for each of us who is serious about following Jesus, and that sanctifies every moment along the way, is our one source of joy, never disappoints us, heals our self-pity and our bitterness, and transforms our private hells into heaven.

Let the rest of the world go after success, whatever that is. And let celebrity Christianity go chasing after crowds and trying to make a name for itself before men. We have been called to go out as sheep in the midst of wolves with our Lord, to lay down our lives with him at the time and place of his truth.

And if anybody thinks I'm off the track scripturally, listen. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, her cross, and tell me. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone.

But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Or you say, that's only Jesus talking about himself. He's talking about himself and you and me.

Because the very next words which follow are, He who loves his life will lose it. And he who loses his life or hates his life in this world, will lose it. God helps us to see our fulfillment in the one thing he has provided for each of us, a cross.

By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. At the end of the road, for each of us, is a death.

And on the way to that death, a thousand deaths, even if it comes tomorrow. And we can expect from that death, and all the deaths between now and then, that the Father will give us rivers of living water. That's where the life comes from.

Every time we lay down our lives, give ourselves, spend ourselves, lose ourselves, deny ourselves, we touch heaven. We come into the glory of God. We come to know Jesus again in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and the likeness of his death.

Every time we deny ourselves, lay down our lives for somebody else, we're cured of self-pity, and in place of overwhelming thanksgiving. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy is forever. In place of self-pity, joy.

In place of heaven, in place of God, in the bitterness that we have known before, peace. In the place of this hell that we've been living in so many times, unspeakable is heaven and joy. What is it that you are expecting out of life? What is it? Is it success, or is it a curse? If it's success, help yourself, go get it.

But if it's a curse, if you seriously deny yourself, have taken up your cross, and are following Jesus, then understand that you are a sheep in the midst of wolves, who will try to take you off the track by inspiring in you unreal expectations. May God help us all, every one of us, to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, and to go on with Jesus' right path, all glory, all peace, all prosperity, to that place where we drink the cup of death, and receive a baptism by which he was baptized. Faithful unto death, even unto death, God help us to expect nothing less than what we've done.

Father God, help us this day to get our minds on the true goal, and by the power of your Spirit, to gladly throw apart and aside and get rid of these phony goals we've been chasing after. Give us the wisdom, heavenly Father of serpents, to see how we've been compromising ourselves, trying to get mammon along with God. Pain, gain, and pleasure along with Jesus, enable us to experience the joy that comes from nowhere else, that is beloved and blessed and wonderful and awesome.

For cleanse us afresh in our hearts with the blood, and give us the wisdom and the vision to see the cause that you call hospitality, and sustain us as we carry it all the way to the end. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.