The Danger Of Living With Low Expectations

The Tragedy of Living with Low Expectations

Acts 3:1-9

Introduction

I am constantly surprised, bewildered and honestly sometimes even disgusted at how people who claim to love God and claim to have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior and even testify of the moving of the Holy Spirit in their lives, live so far beneath their privilege as children of the king.

I am disturbed over the fact that many of us have been in church longer than we have been in anything else and yet while we excel and achieve in other areas of our lives we keep flunking out in the area of spiritual development. We are seemingly hooked on holy happy meals and addicted to spiritual junk food. So much so that whenever an attempt is made to wean us off of the bottle so that we can be introduced to table food we rebel and must be given a pacifier to suck on. I am disturbed. So I wanna talk to you today about the tragedy of living with low expectations.

If we would be honest today many of us who have entered into the church today, this place that is sanctified and set apart unto the worship of our God have come in satisfied with your present spiritual level. Even though this place, the church, is a place that is pregnant with possibility and potential many have come today not expecting to get anything and have absolutely no intention of taking anything with you when you return back home.

Yes, you came ready to hear good singing, Yes you came prepared to hear powerful praying and some are even hoping that the preacher will put on a good show, but few have come expecting to leave here today challenged, changed, different, stronger, better, more stable, more secure, more confident, loosed, healed, delivered, set free. Few have come saying God, “my storage is empty and I am available to you.” Few have come saying.” Is there a word from the Lord.” Few have come saying, “ Lord, I give myself away,I give myself away, So You can use me, I give myself away, I give myself away,So You can use me." It's sad to say it but we have become content to live our lives daily with low expectations.

Now, I am not suggesting that you don’t come to church.

I am not suggesting that you don’t love fellowshiping with the saints.

I am not suggesting that you don’t read your bibles from time to time.

But what I am suggesting is that over a period of time we have become accustomed to not seeing much, so therefore we don’t expect much. Then the enemy comes in and tricks us into believing that not much is to be expected anyway and that this is just the way it is supposed to be.

Let me share a story with you I heard Paul Harvey share before, I think it fits good right here. (tell story of man and the bird)

The Man and The Bird

There was once a man who didn’t believe in the incarnation of Christ or the spiritual meaning of Christmas, and was skeptical about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in her faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her faith and mocked her religious observance of Christmas. “It’s all nonsense – why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It’s such a ridiculous story!” he said.

On that snowy Christmas Eve, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had left, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.

Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window. And another thump. He looked outside but couldn’t see. So he ventured outside to see. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of birds! They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but had been caught in the snow storm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles.

He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, “The barn would be a great place for them to stay! It’s warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.” So he opened the barn doors for them. He waited, watching them, hoping they

would notice the open barn and go inside. But they didn’t notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear. He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.