The Spirit Of Expectancy - Part 2 - Roadblocks Series

The Spirit of Expectancy

The Spirit of Expectancy

Roadblocks to Expectations

Part 2 of a Series

TEXT: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

Here is a short review to renew, reboot and refresh ourselves to the previous sermon in the series Luke 11:9-13 KJV, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

God wants you to do three things here:

1. Ask

2. Seek

3. Knock

In return, God promises three things:

1. You will receive what you ask for

2. You will seek what you are looking for

3. You knock and it will be opened

It is a simple concept really. Think about it……..

Now to keep everything in balance lets refer to James 4:3 “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

I mean, some folks just miss the whole point because they look at God as a mail order catalog or something. Yes, it’s okay to pray for you needs and even your wants, as long as you keep everything in balance….. Keep it within the agenda of the Kingdom and not just to heap it upon your fleshly lusts.

In the first lesson I said; Sometimes, good people go through difficult things but those people should never lower their baseline for their standard of living. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: What is the difference between a successful person and a failure? It is identified in the “Hang in there until you get it!” or in the “I quit!”

The person who hangs in there often has to work much harder than the other guy. He may not be smarter than the quitter, tougher than the quitter, more qualified, more skilled, or anything. What makes him a winner is the fact that he refuses to give up on the dreams until those dreams come true.

We also talked about Fear verses Faith. Fear actually opens the door for bad things to happen. We looked at Job who said; Job 3:25 KJV “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” I am firmly convinced that one of the reasons Job found himself in his predicament was because his fear overcame his faith.

We also talked about The Theology of Unbelieving Believers.

Think about it. What does it mean to be an unbelieving believer?

Some of you are probably even mildly offended by that terminology; Unbelieving Believers.” How can that be?

They believe in God

They are born-again

They pray and read their Bibles faithfully

They live moral lives

They pay their tithes

They are faithful to church

They may even give food to the food bank

Those things are good but…… they are still Unbelieving Believers.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Then we ended the teaching with the following three scriptures in order to keep us focused:

Matt 19:26 KJV “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:

Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

So, now we come back to our text in Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

God does have a plan for your life, and it is a good…. No, strike that…., He has a great plan for your life. He has designed your life to be filled with purpose, destiny and prosperity.

He is not a harsh, uncaring deity who is completely unconcerned about you. Nor is God Narcissistic or self centered. A self centered God would not have loved us so much that He would send His only begotten son to save us. Man, God loves you more than you will ever know…..

But there can be Roadblocks to the Fulfillment of Expectancy

Some of the largest roadblocks are not directly the devil’s fault. We will talk about that another time; right now I want to talk about the roadblocks we can find between the chin and the scalp.