Whaddaya Want?
Louie Anderson 7-Eleven monologue
So let me ask you today, “Whaddaya want?” What do you want out of life? Are you looking for a good deal? Do you want a good job with even better pay? Do you want your children to make the honor roll and get into the “best” college? Do you want a fancy car? Do you want peace on earth and good will toward men? Do you want your brother to quit drinking or your best friend to quit smoking?
One Sunday morning a stranger entered a small country church right at the beginning of the sermon. The man was dirty and clearly smelled of alcohol. The usher attempted to seat him in some back corner but instead this guy walked up to the front pew and sat directly in front of the preacher. Then to the congregation’s horror the man began to make loud comments to the pastor’s sermon. “Amen. That’s right! Preach it brother.” The minister gave the man a nasty look, but it was to no avail. The stranger just continued, “Hallelujah, Testify!” Finally the usher approached the man and whispered in his ear, “Sir, we don’t act like this in church.” “But I’ve just got religion,” said the stranger. “Yes sir,” said the usher, “but you didn’t get it from here.”
When you walked into church today what were you expecting? Hymns, a sermon, scripture reading, communion, a time for fellowship. We all come to church on Sunday morning with expectations of what we’ll encounter when we get here.
We all have EXPECTATIONS, what we want out of life. We expect to receive a paycheck for working. We expect our children to behave, to clean up their room, and to learn the difference between right and wrong. We expect to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect. We expect people to turn right when they have their right turn signal on. We all have these EXPECTATIONS in life.
Jason was thrilled. Tomorrow would be his first day working as the national sales manager for Covenant Communications, a start-up software development company. The job seemed like a perfect fit. He loved computers and best of all, the owners of Covenant Comm. were Christians, and Jason was excited that he would be working for a “Christian” company.
But at the end of his first month his paycheck turned out to be only half of what he had been promised. The second month, he got pretty nervous when the auto leasing company called to find out where his payment was. Jason was sure Covenant’s owners had said they would pay all his car expenses. He felt better after he talked with the owners about the apparent mix-ups and they assured him everything would be straightened out the next month.
But by the sixth month-and after many more broken promises-Jason decided Covenant’s owners couldn’t be trusted, and he quit what he had thought would be his dream job. Hearing Christian music piped through the company sound system and listening to the owners’ talk about how important their church was to them just didn’t make up for missed paychecks and harassing phone calls from the car-leasing agency. We all have expectations in life.
Most parents love their children and expect certain things of them. They pray, work, and do all they can to influence them in certain directions. They have high hopes, big dreams, and lofty expectations.
Wendy and I have certain expectations of Cody. As all parents do, we want our children to grow up learning respect, manners, good self-esteem, love for others, and how to do their own laundry. One thing we try to instill in Cody is that we not so much concerned that he “be the best” but that he “do his best”.
Maybe your expectations of your children are different. Maybe you expect your child to follow you into the “family business”. Maybe you want your children to enter a certain college. Maybe you want your children, after they move out and start their own family, to remain close to home. Or maybe not.
I think my biggest expectation for Cody is for him to have a deep and lasting relationship with God—one that will see him through any crisis here on earth and give him absolute assurance concerning the future.
ILLUS. Headhunter – what’s your goal in life?
Expectations, we all have them. But in the midst of all our looking for what we expect, what we anticipate, what we want, how many of us have ever taken the time to ask what God expects from us? I believe that God is the greatest visionary of all. There are certain hopes, dreams and plans the He has in mind for each one of us.
An interesting cartoon shows a fourth-grade boy standing toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with his teacher. Behind them stares a blackboard covered with math problems the boy hasn’t finished. With rare perception the boy says, "I’m not an underachiever, you’re an overexpecter!"
Many professing Christians are just like that little boy. We deny that we are underachievers in the faith while at the same time accusing God of being an overexpecter -- of setting his expectations for us too high.
You can look all throughout the Bible, every book, and find what God expects of us. From beginning to end, the Bible tells us what God expects of us.
Adam had expectations placed on him. “Do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.”
In Exodus Moses, and we, are given the Ten Commandments. Those two tablets with writing on them were not called the Ten Suggestions. They constitute the basis of moral principles throughout the Western world, and they summarize what God expects of his people in terms of faith, worship and conduct.
Twelve times Deuteronomy says we are to love God. In fact, Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 when he gave the most important commandment as "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" (Mark 12:30).
As I was preparing this week’s sermon, I read through many chapters in many books and I think, at least in the New Testament, that you could find at least one of God’s expectations for us on every page.
Here is a partial listing of God’s expectations for us as Christians:
MATTHEW To Thomas, “Stop doubting and believe. “
Do not judge, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, don’t worry, love your enemies.
“Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.”
MARK “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you”
1 JOHN Do not love the world or anything in the world.
Love one another.
Do not let anyone lead you astray.
ROMANS Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Romans 12 is full of God’s expectations for us.
COLOSSIANS chap. 3
God expects us to know Him. —to know who He is—to know what His will is for our life—to experience His power in our lives. And after we come to know Him, He expects us to grow. II Peter 3:18: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Don’t be satisfied with an “entry-level” position.
ILLUS. A little boy constantly fell out of bed. No matter what his parents did, the boy couldn’t sleep without rolling out of bed. His parents asked him why he thought he kept falling out of bed. The little fellow thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t know, unless its because I stay too close to the place where I get in.” God expects us to grow past the place where we get in.
Some people hearing this, or reading it for themselves would see the Bible as a giant rulebook. For some, religion and faithfulness is primarily about keeping rules, about obeying a lot of “Thou shalt nots”.
For some, God expects too much from them.
I think that anyone who looks on the Bible and the Ten Commandments in that way is misguided. We all have expectations, what we want out of life. For ourselves and for our kids. We expect certain actions/responses from our children. It’s no different for God. These are God’s expectations for us as His children.
And just like our children sometimes fail to meet the expectations we have for them, we too fail to meet God’s expectations for us as His children.
So let me ask you again, “Whaddaya want?” What do you want to do with your life? Are you ready to do the same thing we ask our kids, to keep trying, to keep striving to reach the expectations laid out before us? Because, just as we give our children encouragement, God also gives us, His children, encouragement.
