X-treme X-pectation
What to Do in the Waiting Room of Life
I. Introduction
Billy’s mom asked him for a small favor. Usually her favors include driving somewhere and picking up something. And to Billy’s surprise, this favor was exactly what he expected – driving somewhere and picking up something. “Billy, Can you go to the store and pick up some chocolate chip cookie dough for me?” “Sure, mom,” he said as he grabbed the money she was holding out and raced out the door to hop in his Toyota 4Runner. Billy loved driving, so running up to the store was no big deal for him. He did it all the time.
But on this particular day, something was different. He had this strange feeling that today was going to be a big day for him. Maybe he’d meet the girl of his dreams, or get hit on by the checkout girl. Or maybe he would find some cash on the ground before he walked in. He knew something good was going to happen to him on this particular trip to the store.
He walked in to the supermarket and noticed there was nobody in line, so he rushed over to the cold food aisle, grabbed a tube of cookie dough and headed back to the checkout counter. When he got back, every line was full, backed up halfway down the aisles, even the Scan-it-Yourself line was packed. So Billy found the line that he thought was the shortest, and proceeded to wait. Everybody in Billy’s line was very grumpy. They all made off-handed comments about the cashier being too slow and that if she didn’t hurry their ice cream was going to melt. Everybody was upset except Billy. He didn’t have a care in the world, but he still had this strange expectancy that something cool was about to happen to him.
After twenty minutes of standing in line, he was finally next. And as the cashier scanned his tube of cookie dough, a loud siren sounded, confetti and streamers came down from the roof with a loud bang, and Billy hit the deck as quick as he could. The cashier assured him that everything was okay and he could get up and claim his reward. “Reward?” said Billy. “What’d I do?” “You’re this week’s one millionth customer and we’re giving you a $200 shopping spree!” Billy was shocked. To him, it seemed like there was one million people ahead of him in line, but the whole time he knew something good was about to happen to him and he waited patiently with expectation.
Tonight we’re going to talk about X-treme X-pectation, What to Do in the Waiting Room of Life. Throughout your lifetime you’ll wait in a ton of lines. Just think about how many lines you’ve waited in up to this point in your life. Supermarket lines, mall lines, cafeteria lines, fast food lines, theme park lines, bathroom lines, doctor’s office lines and the list goes on and on, not to mention other things you have to wait for.
Patience is a key factor here, but it’s going to take more than patience if you want to move beyond just standing in a line until it’s your turn. If you want to get the reward of a one millionth customer, you’re going to have to have extreme expectation.
II. What It Is
Expect – 1. To look for as likely to occur or appear, 2. To look forward to, count on, plan on, hope for, or lean on
When you expect something, you have a good feeling that it’s going to happen. If you expect to win your baseball game, then you count on beating the other team.
How many of you have heard the phrase, “Don’t get your hopes up”? That’s the exact opposite of expectation. Expectation is getting your hopes up and keeping them up.
I used to think that if I have low expectations, then if what I want happens, I’ll be happier, but if what I want doesn’t happen, then I won’t be disappointed because I didn’t really expect it to happen anyway. With that kind of attitude, what I wanted rarely happened. But when I found in God’s word that expectancy plays a big role in getting what you ask for, it changed the way I viewed things, and it changed my expectations about getting the things that I wanted.
III. Don’t Just Sit There, Wait With Expectation
John 5:1-4 “1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.”
Look at these sick people. Look at them. They’re blind, they’re lame, they’re deaf, they’re paralyzed. And what are they doing? They’re sitting beside this pool, waiting for the water to move. Why? Because after the water moved, the first person in was healed.
Well, how are they waiting? Are they waiting as if they’re in a waiting room at the doctor’s office? You know, reading a magazine or staring off into space thinking about all the work they have to do when they get out of that stinkin’ office. Are they waiting as if they’re in line at a grocery store? Checking out the candy, trying to decide if they want a Snickers or M&Ms to pass the time. Or reading the tabloids about the alien that ate Oprah Winfrey’s toupee. Or are they waiting like Sammy Sosa at the plate with a 3-2 count, with his bat held tight in his hands, his eyes focused on the ball, and a determination to hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th? I’d say they’re waiting like Sosa, because as soon as that water ripples, they’re diving in, and the last one in is definitely still a rotten egg, because the first one in is made completely well. These sick people aren’t just waiting. They’re waiting with expectation. They know the water’s going to ripple. And they know they have to be quick in order to get their healing. Let’s read on.
John 5:5-9 “5Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
7The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." 8Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." 9And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.”
This guy has been waiting at this pool for a long time. He’s been sick for 38 years, and I can’t tell you that he’s been there at the pool for the whole 38 years, but I can tell you that he’s been waiting with expectation for his healing. How do I know that? Because he was indeed healed. Every day he may have waited at the Bethesda Pool counting on the water to move and hoping he could get in there quick enough, but because he couldn’t walk, he never made it. But then Jesus came on the scene and asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” To which the obvious answer was, “Yeah.” But what this man was saying was, “I’ve been trying to be made well for a long time, I just haven’t been fast enough yet.” Then Jesus healed him, and he got what he had been expecting for such a long time.
Let’s look at another fella that knew what it meant to wait in expectation.
There was a guy named Jose, who has been paralyzed from the waist down since he was born. And since he was sixteen years old, he had his family roll him down in his wheelchair to the Civic Center for every event and sit him just outside of Gate B, so he could ask everybody that walked by for money. The Civic Center people didn’t have a problem with it, so Jose sat outside of Gate B everyday asking people for money. And everyday he expected to get something that would better his situation, either an encouraging word, or some money that would go toward his surgery. One day, these two preacher guys walked by him, and as usual, Jose asked them for money. They both stopped, and one of them said, “Look at us.” Up to this point, he always looked at the ground when asking people for money, but when these guys asked Jose to look at them, he did. He gave them all of his attention and he expected that they had something for him. “Look, buddy, we don’t have any money for you, but we’ve got something else. In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.” And the guys took Jose by the hand and lifted him up out of his wheelchair. Jose’s feet and ankles were strengthened immediately and he danced around and gave thanks to God right there in the Civic Center.
This is actually the story of a lame man that Peter and John healed at the gate of the temple. But this guy waited everyday hoping, expecting something to make his life better, and he got more than he bargained for that day. Let’s read Luke’s account of the whole deal.
Acts 3:1-6 “1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." 5So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
III. Pray…Then What?
Psalm 5:3 “3In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”
When you pray, what are you doing? As David puts it, you are laying your requests before God. If you have a request, something you want, you ask God for it, right? Ok, let’s be truthful now. Most of you ask your parents first, right? But after you ask your parents, and they tell you it’s not happening, you ask God. You get down on your knees and you pray. Then automatically before your very eyes, the thing you asked for magically appears, right? Wrong. There is some waiting involved in the whole process. There is some time that goes by before the thing you asked for shows up at your front door. Again, the question is, how do you wait? Do you wait like the guy that’s waiting to take a shower, who has 5 sisters and only one bathroom in his house? He plops down in a chair outside the bathroom door and dozes off. He’s next in line, but while he’s snoozing, one of the other sisters rushes into the bathroom as soon as the door opens. Are you waiting like him? Or do you wait like the Cookie Monster would wait in line at the Great American Cookie Company? He stares intently at the glass case filled with cookies, dreaming about what the Double Doozie’s going to taste like when it hits his lips. I’d say the Cookie Monster is waiting in eager expectation.
Proverbs 8:34 “34Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.”
Does this verse say, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, but stares off into space while he wanders around aimlessly in front of my door”? No, this verse implies that when a man or woman listens to God and waits in x-treme x-pectation, he or she gets what they want and need. Think about this. Let’s say you go to school tomorrow, and in your first class, somebody asks you if they can borrow a pencil. And you tell her yeah, but to hold on a minute, to wait. Well, the bell rings and class is over before you can get her a pencil. You get out of your seat and head down to your next class. That class ends and as you walk out the door, you see the girl who asked you for a pencil, standing there right beside the doorway. You ask her what she’s doing. And she tells you that she’s been waiting on her pencil right outside your class. You say, “Oh, ok, well, I have to get to my next class, but I’ll get you your pencil.” Throughout the whole day, this girl is following you from class to class, waiting on her pencil. She doesn’t beg you, she doesn’t ask you over and over where her pencil is, she simply says that she believes that you are a man of your word and that her pencil is coming. She waits in expectation that you’ll be true to your word and give her the pencil that you promised. That sounds a little extreme for a pencil, doesn’t it? Maybe, but does she get her pencil. Yep, because the next day, you bring her not just one pencil, but a whole pack of pencils, because you want to show her that you are a man of your word, plus you don’t want her following you around all day, either. That’s extreme expectation, and God says that you’ll be blessed when you wait in expectation. So, pray and expect what you prayed for to happen.
IV. Get Your Hopes Up
Romans 8:24-25 “24For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
What does this mean? Hope that is seen is not hope. If you have received what you’ve been hoping and praying for, then you’re not still hoping for it, are you? If you were hoping and praying for a new dirtbike, and last Christmas you got a new dirtbike, are you still hoping and praying for a dirtbike? No, because you already have it. But, if you didn’t get your dirtbike, then you’re hoping for what you don’t see, then you eagerly wait for it, or wait for it in expectation.
Pastor Nate, I’ve been praying for such and such for three years now, and I still haven’t gotten it. What’s my problem? How are you waiting? If you’ve been praying for something, and you wait without any expectation of it happening, that’s not faith. Faith is believing that you have what you ask for at that moment when you ask for it. If you believe you have it at the moment you ask for it, and that’s faith, then you’re going to expect to see it happen in your life.
There was a little boy who always walked around town with a frown on his face. He lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his mom. His dad had died when he was six. Everyday after school he went to the ice cream shop and sat on the bench right outside. He would just sit there with a frown on his face. All around him he would see other little boys and girls running out of the ice cream shop with ice cream cones and hot fudge sundaes, and he hoped that one day he would get to eat ice cream after school. Day after day he went to the ice cream shop and sat on the bench outside. He never thought he would get any ice cream because his mom couldn’t afford to pay the bills, much less give her son money for an ice cream after school. So, he never went in, he just sat there on the bench, watching all the other kids play and enjoy their ice cream cones. One day, the owner of the shop noticed the little boy sitting on the bench all alone, so he walked outside and began talking to him.
“Hey there, son. Why do you sit outside here on the bench everyday and never come inside?” He asked.
“I don’t have any money to buy ice cream, so I never come in.”
“But, don’t you know that boys and girls ten and under get a free ice cream if they come in from 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon? And everyday you sit out here from 2:30 to 3:30 and watch all the other kids eat their ice cream. Why don’t you come inside and get your own?”
The little boy went inside and got the biggest ice cream he’d ever seen, and everyday after that he went to the ice cream shop counting on getting his free ice cream.
If this little boy expected to get ice cream, he probably would have went inside the Ice Cream Shop instead of sitting outside moping around everyday. Is there something you want? Do you really expect to get it, or are you going to mope around just hoping that one day it will come? Get your hopes up, get your faith out, and raise your expectations. Let’s pray.
