Illus: Reaching the end of a job interview, the Technical Recruiter asked a young Engineer fresh out of college, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"
The Engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."
The recruiter said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of your salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red Corvette?"
The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"
The recruiter replied, "Yes, but you started it."
It is important that we have REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS.
Illus: I like what some of the airlines expect, but I must confess they do not always seem reasonable. Look at some of these airline statements:
• “This is a non-smoking flight. Anyone caught smoking in the washroom or anywhere else while in-flight will be asked to leave the airplane immediately.”
• “Thank you for flying WestJet. I hope our airline has met your expectations. If not, you definitely should lower your expectations before flying with us again.”
• On a Continental Flight with a very senior flight attendant crew, the pilot said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants.”
• On landing, the stewardess said, “Please be sure to take all your belongings. If you’re going to leave anything please make sure it’s something we’d like to have.”
• From a Southwest Airlines employee.... “Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XXX to YYY. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt, and if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.”
•“Last one off the plane must clean it.”
• After a real rough landing in Phoenix, the Flight Attendant came on with, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Capt. Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we’ll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.”
It is wise for us to have REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS. Many times our life has become miserable because we have UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS.
Parents across this nation complain about our public schools. In fairness to these parents, we have to agree - much of the trouble in the public schools has been brought on by the schools themselves.
But in all fairness, many of the problems we have in the public schools are no more than the problems we have in our homes.
If parents do not raise their children to RESPECT them, it is certain that when they attend school they are not going to RESPECT the teachers. When they do not respect the parents and teachers, they are not going to respect the police.
In all fairness, most of the problems we have in our schools and society can be traced back to the homes of Americans. The solution to our problems is to deal with them at home.
Illus: I like what former Secretary of Education, William Bennett, said in his book, "The Declining Values in America." He said that education in America is NOT UNDER-FUNDED; it is UNDER-PRODUCTIVE! If the problems of education are ever to be solved in this country, things will have to change in America's homes.
Illus: The child whose parents have not taught him to sit still and listen and follow instructions, not only will not learn anything himself, but he will keep 20-40 other children in a classroom from learning anything.
When the parents of this nation stop being parents in name only, and begin being authoritative figures in their homes, then children will learn to behave and there will be some major changes in our schools and society.
Life has become frustrating because often our EXPECTATIONS ARE UNREASONABLE.
As Christians, we want the Lord to be magnified in our bodies.
Paul spoke about magnifying Christ in our bodies in Philippians 1:20-21, "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Look at the two words, "EARNEST EXPECTATION." Paul is speaking about some EXPECTATIONS that we all need to have if we are going to magnify God in our body. In order to do this, we must live our lives considering THREE KINDS OF EXPECTATIONS.
We must make sure all three of these are reasonable expectations. For example-
I. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF OURSELVES REASONABLE?
We were all born:
• In different regions of the country
• Of different parents
• In different settings
• With different opportunities
• With different skills
We need to recognize that our expectations of ourselves should be based on these things.
Illus: One thing that we tell our young people is, "If you set your mind to it, you can become anything you want to be." We say that to them because we want them to have BIG EXPECTATIONS for themselves. But the problem with this is that IT ISN’T ALWAYS TRUE!
We can not all be ANYTHING WE WANT TO BE!
Illus: Consider these examples:
• Washington, D.C. is filled with Congressman and Senators who want to become President of the United States, but very few of them will ever be able to achieve that goal, no matter how hard they try.
• Many young people can have the desire to be a brain surgeon, but most will never be able to achieve that goal.
• Many young people set out in life to become rocket scientists, but they are never been able to achieve that goal.
• Many young people have set out to become professional baseball players, but very few ever achieve that goal.
• Many young girls have set out to be Miss America, but very few have ever reached that goal.
They will never reach those goals because they simply DO NOT possess certain skills and attributes that they need to reach those goals, no matter how hard they try.
It is important that we have reasonable expectations for ourselves. If we do not set reasonable goals, then we will see failure in two ways.
Some will experience great frustration and disappointment. Why?
A. BECAUSE THEY UNDERESTIMATE THEIR SKILLS
Such was the case with Moses. Remember, in Exodus 3:10-18, God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go.
Moses had a real self-esteem problem. That is, he could do more than he thought he could. Because of his low self-esteem, he really did not believe he could do what God asked him to do.
Illus: One of the things that will shock people when they get to heaven is that they are going to see what they could have done with their lives if they had only obeyed the Lord.
Moses began making excuses as soon as God told him to go to Pharaoh.
Exo. 3:11, “And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
God finally convinced Moses that he was capable of doing the job, and Moses is known as one of the great leaders of God's chosen people.
Why was he able to obey God? If God calls you to do something, He will equip you to do what He has called you to do. It is reasonable to EXPECT God to equip us with any tools we need to do the job, if He calls us to do something.
Sometimes, in our expectations of ourselves, we underestimate ourselves. That certainly makes us unable to MAGNIFY the Lord in our bodies. Also, many times people cannot magnify the Lord in their bodies-
B. BECAUSE THEY OVERESTIMATE THEIR SKILLS
Illus: A young Christian man graduated from high school. He went to church every Sunday, and he dressed in a suit and looked like a clean-cut ministerial student. In fact, he looked so much like a clean-cut ministerial student that some church members told him he looked like a preacher. He heard this a lot from people, and as he was praying for God's will for his life, he thought maybe God was calling him to preach because he, in his appearance, looked like a preacher.
He decided to enter a Bible College and after many years he graduated. He began to preach, but although he looked like a preacher, he was not able to preach.
He has taken four different churches and each of them had to discharge him because he cannot preach. Over twenty years have gone by and he is still not able to preach.
Illus: That reminds me of the young man who told a congregation that God had called him to preach. He said during his sleep one night, two large letters appeared in the sky. They were "P C." He figured God was telling him to "Preach Christ." He went to preach Christ, but after several years he came back to that same congregation and reminded them of the large letters he had seen. He told them, "You remember, I thought when I saw, ‘P C,’ that God was telling me to ‘Preach Christ.’ Well, I was wrong. Those letters stood for "PLANT CORN"!
Many people live lives of frustration because they have OVERESTIMATED themselves. They will never be able to live up to their EXPECTATIONS.
Our expectations have to be based on God's will, then we can rightly use the skills He has given us. We never will be able to MAGNIFY THE LORD IN OUR BODIES until OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE REASONABLE FOR OURSELVES.
Also, if we want to glorify the Lord in our bodies-
II. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS REASONABLE?
Now we all know professing Christians who do not expect much of themselves, but they expect a lot of others. They have one standard for themselves and a different standard for others. This what we call a "double standard."
Illus: While most people recognize that the feminists have taken the equality issue too far in the work force, it is hard to believe that it has been a standard practice on many jobs that if a woman did the same job a man did, for the same length of time, she received less money.
Anyone that has a bone of decency in his body knows that is not right. It should be, "Equal pay for equal work," and gender should not have anything to do with it. If it does, this is a double standard.
Likewise, who are we to expect more of others than we expect of ourselves”
Illus: One of the problems in this nation is that we have some today who believe in a class warfare. That is, they have the philosophy of life that they EXPECT those who are successful financially to share their hard-earned financial resources with others who waste the time they have on whatever they wish to waste it on.
Some think that just because they are Americans, it gives them the right to EXPECT others to do for them what they refuse to do for themselves.
Spiritually speaking, we have many like this in our churches. They have one standard for themselves, and another standard for others.
Listen, if we are going to magnify God in our bodies, we need to be careful and make sure our expectations of others are not greater than our expectations for ourselves. Also...
III. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF GOD REASONABLE?
Many have the mistaken idea that God is their personal bellhop, and all they have to do is snap their fingers and He will come running.
We have some today who EXPECT that at the snap of the finger, God will provide them money for everything they want.
Listen, God does not have anything against working. In fact, God says, “WORK SIX AND REST ONE!” If you want a life of frustration, just let your expectations of God be UNREASONABLE.
Having said all that, we must also tell you that there are some REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS we may have of God.
For example, as we are in God's service, we have every right to expect God to help us win the battle.
A. CONSIDER DAVID
1 Samuel 17:44-47 tells part of the story of David and Goliath. We see that David recognized he was no match for the enemy. We are told that David was small in stature, and the giant he was about to face in battle was almost ten feet tall.
But David was in this battle because of God and he felt he had every right TO EXPECT GOD TO HELP HIM!
In 1 Samuel 17:45-46, we read, "...Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
David, who knew his strength was no match for Goliath, felt he had every right TO EXPECT God to help him. He made it clear as he faced the giant that this was God’s battle and he was trusting in God to give him the victory!
B. CONSIDER MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS
Mary EXPECTED help from God when she knew she could not accomplish anything within her own strength.
In Luke 1:31-38 we read of how Mary was told that she would conceive the Lord Jesus, God’s own Son! Mary knew this was impossible of herself and she had one question. Look at verse 34, we read, “…How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”
God had told her what He was going to do and when the time came, Mary had every right to EXPECT God to do the miraculous thing that she was incapable of doing. The time came and she magnified the Lord in her body because she EXPECTED God to do what she could not do.
Conclusion:
It is important that we have EXPECTATIONS, but in order to glorify God in these bodies we have to have REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS!
I. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF OURSELVES REASONABLE?
II. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS REASONABLE?
III. ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF GOD REASONABLE?
