This Palm Sunday message was aimed at revealing how God doesn't meet our expectations but often exceeds them. The same Palm Sunday crowd who was praising Jesus as he entered Jerusalem was pretty much the same crowd who on Good Friday yelled out about Jesus "crucify Him." And why did they have such a change of heart? Because Jesus did not meet their Messianic expectations. They expected Jesus to lead them in a rebellion against Rome so that the Jews would be in power again. But Jesus did not meet their political, military, or economic expectations. On Good Friday he stood before them beaten, bloody and bruised. He looked too weak to be the warrior Messiah they expected. Many abandoned Jesus at this point because he did not meet their expectations.
Although Jesus does not always meet our expectations, if we can hang on to him beyond the Good Friday death of our expectations we may experience him exceeding our expectations on the Easter Sundays of life. Clink on the following link to listen to the sermon. Please feel free to comment, disagree, ask questions, etc. Here is the link:
http://www.stroudsburgwesleyan.org/index.php?page=audio_sermons2&audio_id=47
2 comments:
Pastor Lenny,
First, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Easter sermon all THREE times I listened to it! For some reason, this sermon brought me back to the movie that changed my life, "Facing The Giants." Especially the one line that still sticks with me today... "we will praise Him when we win, and we will praise Him when we lose." I have noticed that when He doesnt meet my expectations, I still love Him and praise Him as though He were meeting them. Yes, it is tough sometimes, but I put my complete faith in Him that He knows what he's doing.
OK. Before I start rambling I'll end now. Once again, great sermon!!!
I am amazed and grateful that God constantly exceeds my expectations, and am reminded that we are limited by our humanity, but He is not! In my day to day life, my prayer is that God will reveal Himself to me. I don't always need a burning bush, but once in a while it is wonderful to see how God reaches directly into our lives and shows up when we need Him most. Recently at work, a colleague tried to undermine a meeting that I had convened. In the end, the entire situation worked to my advantage, and I immediately recognized the hand of God (it was seriously the only explanation). It may seem small, but it was the manna that I needed to get through that day. Thank you, God, for doing "exceedingly, abundantly above all that I asked or thought." (Ephesians 3:20) Thank you for NOT meeting my expectations!
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