Great Expectations
Numbers 13: 1-3, 17-33; Philippians 2:12
In the United States right now, the average life expectancy is 76 years old. So write down 76, and subtract your age. How many years do you have left? I freaked when I discovered I have only 29 years left! Some of you are in the lagniappe years, if you know what I mean. Now, here's the question: what are your expectations for your remaining years? Why is that important? Michael Jordan said, “You have to expect things of yourselves before you can do them.” You reap your expectations. Earl Nightingale writes, “We tend to live up to our expectations.” So in your remaining years, are you going to claim the purpose and life God created you for?” People with a great life purpose reach forward with great expectations. Here’s the good news: God is able to abundantly exceed all that we ask or think. Said another way: your expectations will never be so great that God is not able to more than meet them.”
The Israelites knew about expectations. For 40 years they had been wandering in the wilderness hearing about the “land of milk and honey.” It’s what carried them through the long journey. And for 40 years, their expectations of what life would be like had been growing. When they finally arrived, they were hesitant to cross over. Fears and worries flooded their minds. And isn’t that the way it often is for us? We hear the call and we may look forward with great excitement and anticipation to something new, allowing our expectations to flourish, but when it comes to actually taking that step, making that move and embracing that decision, then we’re hesitant. Moses knew he needed a vivid picture of where they were headed and what it would be like before the people were ever going to leave what they had known, the wilderness, and move into the unknown, the life that God intended for them. So Moses sent out 12 (we'll call them "spies") ahead of everyone else into the land of promise to scout everything out. And when they came back, their expectations were only heightened by the reports.
There’s another side to expectations as well. God had expectations of the Hebrew people. Many people throughout history have asked why the Hebrews spent 40 years in the wilderness when the journey on foot from Egypt to Israel can be done in less than 2 months. The answer is that God was using that time to shape and form the hearts and spiritual life of the people so that they might be ready to receive the Holy Land and live the life God expected them to live as a “light unto the nations.” The expectation of God for the Hebrews in the wilderness was that they would move forward spiritually. In other words, that they would grow in their faith and trust in God before they ever took on the challenges which awaited them in the Holy Land. And God has the same is expectation of us as well. God expects us to continue to move forward in our spiritual journey as well.
But to be able to get where you’re going, you first have to know where you are. I learned this over Thanksgiving when I was in Atlanta. We used our Garman to get around as we were unfamiliar with the area. Garmans are great because all you do is enter the address of where you want to go. But before it can give you directions, it has to first calculate your location. You can’t get to where you’re going unless you first know where you are. Because if you don’t know where you are, you can’t know how to get there. So where are you spiritually? To begin answer that question, let’s talk about the journey of faith. The Reveal study which has had over 1000 churches and 250,000 people participate has identified four steps in the spiritual journey.
The first is the Exploring Christ.
Characteristics:
- Searching for a reason to believe in God
- They may attend church regularly but have no personal relationship with Jesus
- They intellectually wrestle and struggle with the bedrock beliefs of the faith and often want convincing evidence to believe
- They may attend church but never really develop relationships with other people
- The longer they attend, the less likely they’ll become Christ-followers. In other words, they feel no sense of urgency in making a decision
- They represent approximately 10% of any congregation
The question for each of the four steps of the spiritual journey is: How do you move forward?
Five Most Important Catalysts:
1) Believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
2) Study the foundational beliefs of the faith and wrestle with what you believe
3) Serve in a ministry- at least once a month
4) Pray for guidance- at least several times a week
5) Reflect frequently on the meaning of Scripture
Growing in Christ
People who are growing in Christ are moving from an acknowledgement of God who is largely irrelevant to their lives to a personal relationship with Christ which begins to influence their everyday experiences
This groups is the most active participants in all church activities and in serving as volunteers in ministry
Their spiritual growth remains slow but steady
They may take a step forward in their spiritual growth and then a step back again
38% of people in churches fall into this category
Characteristics:
- They have a higher agreement with the core Christian beliefs and a higher love for God
- Becoming more comfortable with spiritual disciplines. Prayer is an important aspect
- Willing to invest considerable time and effort in developing their faith and growing in relationship with Christ.
- They are still learning and not quite comfortable in sharing their faith
- While they are growing in their faith, they still fall short in having the attitude and lifestyle of Jesus
- Serving those in need can be frightening
Five Most Important Catalysts:
1. God is actively involved in their life
2. Regular prayer
3. Reflection on Scripture
4. Going public through outreach experiences
5. Participate in a Bible study
Close to Christ
They are passionate about growing in their faith
They are willing to take responsibility for growing in their faith and not as dependent spiritual mentors, dynamic preaching or compelling Bible studies
They have a growing confidence in the presence of God in their daily lives
They use multiple channels to discern God’s voice for spiritual guidance, courage and support
Characteristics:
- Their relationship to Christ becomes one of their major priorities
- They invest personally in their spiritually practices: reading the Bible, reflect on Scriptures, pray for guidance, confess their sins, small group Bible study
- Prayer becomes more of a running dialogue with God and God is treated as a close friend
- They are increasingly involved in evangelism
- They go public with their faith by serving others and having spiritual conversations
- God’s work is their financial priority (tithe), they know their spiritual gifts and use them in ministry on a regular basis
How do you move forward?
Five Most Important Catalysts:
1. Believe God is an active and personal God
2. Seek guidance daily through prayer
3. Reflect on Scripture daily
4. Share their faith with others and serve others
Christ centered
The mindset of surrender is the defining characteristic of this group: believer who have surrendered control of their lives to Jesus.
When we think of surrender, we usually have the image of painful sacrifice. And yet nothing could be further from the truth. When you surrender, you give your all without thinking about what you are missing because you are so immersed responding to the love of God. People who surrender give more than they have without thinking that it is a sacrifice at all. They choose to say yes to God to do anything He asks, no matter how menial or prestigious. What matters is that we are doing the will of God and that brings us great pleasure and joy. What matters most is that you are doing the will of God. The mindset of surrender is a daily decision as they pick up their cross and follow Jesus.
This is the first group where secular values give way to spiritual values. The culture’s definition of personal happiness, identity, security and success through money, power, and possessions has given way to the spiritual values of selfless love and serving others as defined in the life of Jesus but relinquished those secular values and given control over to Jesus.
In this frame, we find that the more of God we have, the less of everything else we need. We do not renounce material possession. We just realize that we need less to live and be happy. Thus we become detached from things. We are free from encumbrances. We are travel light.
Christ centered followers know their weakness, acknowledge their dependence on Christ, confess their sin and surrender everything they have and are to Jesus
Jesus is their moral compass and their love for God and others guides their lives. It is submitting to the authority of Scripture as the guide for our life. Jesus is your life, your source of spiritual nourishment and the example which you seek to emulate with your thoughts, words and deeds in every circumstance.
Christ centered followers are the most active servants in the church and outside it as well
Their love for God exceeds everything else as shown in using their spiritual gifts, sharing their faith and their giving
Characteristics:
- Daily devotion to spiritual disciplines. It is not only about becoming a student of Word but daily reflecting on the Word for your own life, allowing God to speak to you. It means not just having a time of prayer each day but praying throughout the day which is centered more on listing to the voice of God for your life than it is speaking to God.
- Head over heals in love with Jesus
Jesus is more than an acquaintance, He is your best friend and greatest influence on your life. When you have a question, a problem or a decision, you turn to God in prayer and to His Word for guidance. You depend on Him for guidance in your life. Rather than viewing Jesus to be there to help you, you respond to his call to sacrifice and lay down your life to serve Him and advance His mission in the world. You move to living as you exist for Him- to know, love, obey and serve Him. Most importantly, because Jesus is your all and all, you are willing to risk everything that’s important in your life for the sake of Jesus and His mission.
- Tithing, serving and evangelizing more than any other group
Christ centered followers become a servant to others and serve those in need, no matter how demanding or inconvenient. They deliberately give up our lives, physically, materially, mentally and emotionally all for the service of God, disregarding their own needs and instead focus on the needs of others.
They become public Christians by letting others know you follow Jesus not just with your words but by the very nature of the life you live. That leads into sharing your faith others. It is having a burden for the lost so much so that you seek out opportunities to have spiritual conversations with others.
Living a lifestyle devoted to Jesus means your heart has been transformed by the love of God. You no longer see the world and other people through the world’s eyes but rather see it through the eyes of God with love, mercy and grace offered readily. You find yourself living a life of love and compassion because we know that all come from God and are deeply loved by God. We find that we begin to live, work and associate with people that we would never have dreamed we would want to have contact with. We immerse ourselves in the lives of others who have hurt, despised or even repulsed us because of God’s overflowing love in us. Jesus modeled this kind of life by reflecting compassion for the poor, the hungry, the sick and the possessed. He came not to be served by to serve and we seek to do the same.
Five Most Important Catalysts leading to a Christ Centered life:
1) Giving away their lives to Christ by risking everything important
2) Deciding Christ is first
3) Embracing their identity in Christ that they exist to know, love and serve God
4) Believing in the authority of the Bible
5) Reflecting frequently on Scripture
So how do you get started?
Take ownership of your spiritual growth. Belonging is not enough. Join a small groups by sharing joys and struggles so that they can face and resolve issues together. The goal isn’t more people in small groups but to et them there so accountability can happen
Accept the call to a high commitment because that is exactly what Jesus did and if they just want to sit in the pews and soak things in, perhaps they need to go someplace else
Identify where you are on your spiritual journey
Decide your next step. Overcome inertia. That’s the biggest obstacle. Just do it. Take the first step. Give it a try or test run
No matter where you are on the spiritual journey there are two practices that will move you forward: every day read God’s word and applying it to your life and pray listening to the voice of God and His will for your life.
