What Did You Expect?

By Jeff Lyle Preached on: Sunday, October 30, 2011

Transforming Truth & Meadow Baptist 1446 Calvin Davis Circle Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Website: Online Sermons: www.transformingtruth.org www.sermonaudio.com/jefflyle

2 Corinthians 11 and verse number 23, in the middle Pauls defense he asked this question. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better oneI am talking like a madmanwith far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.1 Lets go through some passages tonight. I am not going to expound especially the beginning. I am going to illustrate with the Scripture the principle that I want to share with you. I am asking the question tonight to all Christians who encounter difficulty in life and at times were shocked by it, were unprepared for it, were trying to handle it, figure it out. Often times we cant. What is true for individual believers is true for families. What is true for families is often true for churches. And there is the tendency for us to revert to a formula. And this is the formula. Do bad, get bad. Do good, get good. If you are getting bad, it must be because you have done something bad. If you are getting good it is because you have done something good. And we are people that are inclined unto simplistic, inaccurate formulas. And I want to illustrate to you tonight through the Word of God that some of the most grievous difficulties that children of God ever face were not because they were out of the will of God, but directly in the will of God. Lets see what our Bibles say and maybe tonight we can dispel a myth. I want us to remember that we should expect difficulty in exiting bondage. And I am going to give you this from the book of Exodus and we are going to talk about Israel and the Exodus.
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2 Corinthians 11:23-28. Page 1 of 20

You will remember the historical part with me. There was in Egypt, a four century long enslavement of Gods people. It began with Joseph and his family. And when a pharaoh arose that had no loyalty to Joseph the enslavement began of the children of Israel. And for four centuries plus they were slaves. Every single day their life was about bondage, their life was about enslavement, their life was about no choices and constant toil, difficulty. Death and depravation, no freedom, very little joy and above all things it would seem that their cries to God went unheard for 400 years. But then God sent Moses. Moses raised up from the back side of the desert, reintroduced into the nation of Egypt, into the life of the people of Israel and God in his divine decree sent this man Moses to go and rescue these enslaved people. And one of the first things that occurred as Moses in the will of God on behalf of the people who were going to receive the will of God, the first thing that happened was not ease, was not an immediate release, was not a great celebration, but what I call an intensified struggle. Pharaoh and his bricks. Do you remember what happened in Exodus five? Moses is dispatched. He gains an audience with Pharaoh. He says unto Pharaoh, I want you to let the people go out for a little bit and worship. We are... the God of the Jews, the great I am has sent me. And I want my people to go out and we want to worship. And pharaoh said, Oh, really? You want to go worship, do you? I will tell you what I will do, Moses. I don't know who your God is. I don't really know who you are, but since you think the people have all this time to worship, let me tell you. If they have got all that time, what I am going to do is I am going to make their already impossible slavery more impossible. Whereas we used to provide the straw for them to bond with the mud to make the bricks, now they are going to go find their own straw. They will canvas the land, but I am not reducing their quota. So I want you to put yourself in the children of Israels position. Here comes this guy out of nowhere, Moses. And he comes down as the rescuer and he is going to set the people free. And on this very first attempt in the will of God, he makes their life harder. And think about Moses, Moses coming in. God, you told me to do this. You told me to... I was going to be able to free the people and now the people are upset with me. And they were. They were very upset. They gained an audience with Moses a little bit later and accusations flew. But here is my question. Was he in the will of God? Were they in the will of God or not? The answer was yes. But there was an intensified struggle. There was also frightening warfare. Moses remaining resolute in the will of God, not running away from the difficulty, not questioning the will of God, but staying firm in it, goes back and he pronounces and performs what would end up being the 10 plagues.

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And I want you to put yourself in the children of Israels position. An already enraged pharaoh is now having to endure this powerful word from Moses and these miraculous displays of turning the water into blood and the frogs coming and invading the land and the darkness abiding on the land and the cattle being stricken with murrain and all of these awful things that were taking place unto the very end, day after day, these series of judgments being pronounced on pharaoh. And there are the people in Israel wondering every day, what is going to happen to us? We are still not delivered. We are being affected by of these plagues. Some of them didnt affect them, some of them did. And they are living in a land where all of these problems are taking place. And I am going to tell you. We read it like a wonderful piece of hallmark history. This was devastation to these people, terror to these people, wondering what God was doing. But I ask you the question. Were they in the will of God or not? They were in the will of God. This was Gods work, not making their life initially easier, but harder as he was getting them to exit their bondage. And then there were the impossible obstacles. The day came after the slaying of the first born and all of Egypt woke up and their first born sons with the exception of the children of Israel who had the blood over their door posts and their homes, marked by the blood they were free. Their firstborns were delivered, but Egypts first born males were killed by the death angel. And so finally pharaoh said, Get out of here, you Jews. Get out of here children if Israel. We will give you whatever you need. Get out of our land. And so they left and they are free and they are celebrating and they are shouting and they are dancing. This is the victory. This is the will of God. This is what being in the will of God looks like, right? Sure, until you hit the Red Sea. And the Red Sea says, You are not going any further. And behind them a now second guessing pharaoh is storming up with an army and there are the people trapped between an impenetrable sea and an impending army coming against them. And listen. You talk about helpless, where you are trapped between two immovable forces, an impossible obstacles. But I am going to ask you the question. In the will of God or not? Were they or were they not? Now we know what happens. God looks at Moses and says, Why are you crying to me? because Moses was saying, What are we going to do? Lord, what are we going to do? We have got the army here. We have got the sea here. And God says, Moses, why are you crying unto me? Tell the people to move forward.

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Now that is not a logical thing, because, God, I am sure you had not noticed. There is a Red Sea here. And God says, What is in your hand? Moses takes that staff and by the power of God splits the obstacle. But I want you to know in the midst of that impossible obstacle and we know the story. They went through. But what I am trying to say is this. Before they went through, from the time Moses the leader showed up until the time the Red Sea split there was nothing but a worsening of the situation and every single moment their being and doing exactly what God wanted them to be and wanted them to do. But it didnt get easier until the ultimately deliverance. You know, some of us have a need for deliverance of bondage in our life. I spoke with a brother recently who is trying to give up a very long time habit in his life and it has been a very difficult thing for him. And it is not easy. It is not fun. It is not happy, but it is right. And often times when you do the right thing and when you are trying to fulfill the will of God for your life it seems like the obstacles should disappear, because, after all, your heart is desiring to cooperate with God. Yet isnt it interesting that God reserves the right to let it get worse before he makes it better? I believe part of the reason is he is testing your confidence in him. He is finding out, not for his own sake, but allowing you to see: Are you an individual that will trust him no matter what is happening before you? And ultimately faith sometimes comes down to an issue of trusting what you cannot prove, you cannot handle, you cannot control and you cannot understand. But God never wants you to place your ultimate faith in what you see around you. Your faiths object is upward, not this way. Lets go further. Beyond expecting difficulty and exiting bondage, I would ask the question: What do you expect? Well, you should expect difficulty in entering blessings, because now the children of Israel were out of Egypt. Now God had told them, I am going to take you into a land that is flowing with milk and honey. You are going to go up there and you are going to take this land that is currently inhabited by all sorts of warriors, but this is the land, I am going to tell you. I have already promised it to your forefather Abraham. It is yours. It has been waiting on you. Now is the time to claim it. I have given it to you. You are going to go in there and you are going to take the land that I have given you. Now listen. If I hear something like that, I am thinking, Great, God gives it to me. It is mine. This will be a cakewalk. No reference to yesterday. But a cakewalk, something easy, something wonderful, something to rejoice in, a stroll with God, arm in arm into the place of blessing and inheritance. Wont this be grand?
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Lets talk about what happened when they were in the will of God exiting bondage, but entering blessing. This is Israel conquering Canaan land. First of all, absolute dependence would be required. We remember the victories at Jericho, that first big battle going into the land. And God was going to give them the land, but listen. The very first thing they had to do was fight. Every square inch was going to be contested. There would be a battle on every front for years as they went in to conquer the land. And Jericho was the first one. And lets remember, Israel was not at this time a bunch of warriors and mighty army men. These were, pardon me, these were brick makers. These were slaves. These were people that were beaten down. These were people that experienced a great deliverance, but they knew nothing of warfare. For 400 centuries they had been dared by Egypt to fight and they never did. And so now they are coming against established cities and warriors. And when you look at Jericho you have got these massive walls. And they dont know how to bring down walls. They dont know how to fight even if they got the walls down. So the very first thing they see is God is giving them the blessing that he is promised them is a battle that they cant handle. What did you expect? What did you expect with all of the great things that God has placed in your heart, all of the manifold promises of Gods Word? Do you know what we expect in weaker moments when we are not thinking? We expect God to hand us the blessings. I mean, this is celestial trick or treat. Hold your bag open, God is going to dump them in. But that is not the way he operates. Here was Jericho and do you know what God required? Absolute dependence upon him. In order to conquer Jericho they had to do something that made no sense. It was illogical. It was very humbling if not humiliating. They had to march around that thing, march around it of days and then march around it on the last day multiple times. And they are going to blow a horn and God said, I will knock down the walls. Now, friends, we romanticize that battle. Make yourself a wife who is in that army. Make yourself a young man who is having to go forth under the command of God and the leadership of Joshua and going around that city, marching around a city. Let me just tell you. I never was great at physics, but best I can tell, marching does not knock down 12 foot thick walls. Blowing a trumpet does not obliterate the gates of a fortified city. And yet God says, This blessing you are going to learn is not going to be gained by carnal methods of man. This blessing will come as I lead you in every step of the way, absolute dependence. Let me tell you. We need to resist in these days. And, again, this is heavy on my heart. Forgive me if I am redundant with it. But we need to resist this urge to live by formulas
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and spreadsheets and mathematics and unbiblically tested logic. We need to quit drawing quick conclusions and recognize that the whole of the Christian life involves not only reason. That is a part of it, but it involves the overarching thing that all reason must be submitted to the one who reserves the right to do things differently than you reasoned. And that requires absolute dependence. Of course, they marched around. They blew the trumpets. The walls came down. And they conquered the city and experienced their first military victory in the history of Gods people. Now there was another city that they would be coming to and what we are going to find out is that as difficulty in entering blessings required absolute dependence, God would say casual approaches will be denied and that was seen at Ai. In Joshua chapter seven the next city fresh off this wonderful, miraculous victory, they were tanked up. I mean, they were feeling like we can do anything. Ai? That is nothing compared to Jericho. We whooped Jericho. We are going to easily take care of Ai. Send up a few people. We will go up there and we will put a whooping on those people. And they went up there to that comparatively wimpy city and they got their tails beat. They got turned away. They experienced absolute defeat. Why? Because they approached the blessing that God was giving them in a casual, flippant, I will get it the way I want to get it manner. And that is something God will not allow an individual to do. That is something God will never put his blessing on in a family and he will certainly never allow a church journey and blessing if that church is presumptuous saying, We got this. We can do it. We, in essence, dont even need to pray, dont even need to seek the will of the Lord. We will do what we can do in our own power. And God says at this critical stage in Israels history, I dont want you to learn the error that you can do anything apart from me. I mean, what do we expect when Jesus says, Apart from me you can do nothing? Do you believe that? Because it seems like we can get things done. But what Jesus is saying is that apart from him, nothing lasting in blessing or benefit or glory for him can ever be accomplished and I will even strengthen it. You cant leave here without him. You cant take your next breath without his permission. You cant do a single thing in life without the approval of the sovereign Son of God. But we live in a way that seemingly indicates that we got it. And God says, No, I dont want you to learn it. There was also this principle. As they were defeated at Ai they repented. They sought the face of God. God continued to give victory, but notice this that when the entered the Promised Land, it was already theirs. But every acre will be contested. They were in the place of the will of God. They were there by divine appointment, divine guidance, divine provision. God was there among them. And that did not negate the fact that they had to fight. They had to battle. They had to hazard themselves. They had to discipline themselves as soldiers. They had to seek the face of God.
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And so one of the things that we have got to remember is that when we are in the will of God, the enemy hates his territory being lost. He hates the glory of God in your life. He hates the victory in your family. He hates your personal victory. He hates the fact that a church might do something wonder for God. So the enemy, the Bible says we are not ignorant of his strategy. The enemy has a strategy. He has a will to fight. Sometimes his will to fight is higher than our will to meet him in the fight. Because, you know what we believe? Well, if there is a fight it is difficult and it is hard and it requires sacrifice and there is a little bit of risk and there is a little bit of effort. That does not sound like Gods will to me, because Gods will is supposed to be trick or treat. What did you expect? What did you expect when you committed your life to Jesus Christ and he delivered you from your sin? Did you expect the devil to say, Aw, shucks? Did you expect the enemy to just let the glory of God in your family go uncontested? Did you think that your children were going to be the ones that the devil wouldnt target? Did you think your marriage was going to be the one? Did you really expect that if you worked by the formula, do good to get good, you do bad, you get bad, so therefore dont do bad...? Friend, let me tell you something. Sometimes because you do good you are threatened with bad, because when you are living for the glory of God in the will of God, you are one of the rare individuals that is fulfilling the will of God and bringing him glory. And Satan hates one thing above all others. And that is for God to be glorified. Do you know why? Satan wants that glory. That is what got him evicted from heaven. He said, I want that throne. I want that worship. I want that glory. And God said, Get out of my heaven. And so on earth, anything that glorifies God, Satan will contest every acre of it. I am a firm believer as I look at the history, the short three year history we have on this property, I am absolutely convinced that the vast majority of difficulties we have are evidence that we are in the will of God and the devil is fighting and maybe we are saying, We dont know what to do. Every single acre contested, but, by the way, eventually the land was settled. Here is one of the discouraging things not found in the book of Joshua, but found prior to the entry into the Promised Land, just previous. Here is something that we need to expect as difficulty in entering blessings. What is it? Some will abandon the mission. Here is probably a passage that needs to be preached more often than it is from Numbers 32:6-7. Moses is speaking and he said to the people of God and the people of Reuben, that is one of the tribes: Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the LORD has given them?2
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Numbers 32:6-7. Page 7 of 20

Do you know the context there? Rueben, Gad and later the half tribe of Manasseh, part of the 12 tribes of Israel they are going into the Promised Land and Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh said, You know, I dont think we really want to go all the way into the land. Do you mind if we just stop right here? And listen. We will just take this little territory. But going over there and all that fighting and stuff. I dont think that is for us. We will just take our little land here. And Moses says, Oh, really? Do you really think your brethren are going to go and fight for the glory of God in this land that he has promised to give and you are going to sit on this side of the river and you are not going to fight and you are going to discourage the heart of those that will fight? Part of the difficulty in moving forward in the will of God is this thing called attrition. It means you are going to lose some folks. Friends, I grieve as a pastor just about every time somebody departs in the heat of the battle. When I made my covenant to this assembly I knew that that covenant was staying there until God providentially loosed me from that covenant. Now, friends, I want to tell you. We all get irritated. We all have disappointments. We all get dissatisfied. There are conflicts because we are sinners saved by grace. You dont like everything about this church, but will you discourage the heart of your brothers by copping out and quitting when there is land to be conquered? You say, Jeff, hold on, man. We are here tonight. We aint going anywhere. I get you, but what I am saying is, Dont you be discouraged when people leave. I had somebody, sweet, sweet lady ask me about a year and a half ago. A lot of people have left our church, are we doing something wrong? And I was privy to what was going on with some of those that had left and I said, No. Quite honestly, we are doing something right. I want you to know. I believe personally it is a lot more difficult to receive permission from the Lord to break a covenant with a local assembly than most people do. If it is called a covenant, lets treat it like a covenant. I dont like the word membership. Look I am a member at the gym over there. You can see how good it is doing me, amen? I go when I want to go which is not since June and I refrain when I want to refrain. Why? Because I dont have a covenant with them. But if I did I would be there when I said I was going to be there. I put forth what I said I was going to put forth. And I wouldnt leave until that covenant was broken by the one in authority.

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I want you to start thinking about your covenant here and when other people break it, dont be discouraged. That has always been a part of being in the will of God. Some people wont hack it. Now, listen. I want to be fair here. Some people are moved by the will of God. We saw two this morning that God is moving. I am not talking about that. This is not a control issue. This is simply a statement of mine that says, I dont want to look at the fact that people leave, because if we are going to do that, lets applaud the fact that a lot more come than have left. Those arent the issues. That is not what you determine the will of God by, by counting heads, how many are coming, how many are going. You determine the will of God by what he has revealed, what he has commanded, what he has empowered and the land that he has promised you are going to have to fight for it. So, brothers and sisters, what did you expect? Lets fight for it. Now lets look at the verses that we read and we opened up with in 2 Corinthians. I am going to take us out of the Old Testament and into the New Testament. I am in the proper way infatuated with the life of the apostle Paul. I am astounded by his biography, his testimony, his writings. I want to major in Paul, because he is a major part of our New Testament. And when we get to 2 Corinthians I hear him with a reluctant sigh saying, I dont want to do this, but I have got to do this and I have got to defend who I am in the Lord to these people that are undermining not only my name... Paul wasnt overly concerned for himself, but he understood that they undermined him as an apostle, they could then undermine what he taught and he taught them the truth. And so he is here in 2 Corinthians in chapter 11... I am going to tell this. Expect difficulty in fulfilling your purpose. Paul sacrifices for the gospel ministry here and, brother and sisters, hear me and join me in this chorus. We labor in gospel ministry. We sacrifice in gospel ministry. We groan in gospel ministry. We give in gospel ministry. We are servants of the most high God, no longer belonging to ourselves, but belonging to the eternal care of God almighty who for a season has said, I leave you on earth to make known my Son with all of your life. And that owns us. Not just the ordained fellow, but all of us are owned by the Lord, gloriously owned and sent forth with purpose. And it is going to be hard and I am going to ask you the question. What did you expect? Lets look at Paul because if he endured, I dont think anybody in here... I would probably be safe to say nobody in here has ever sacrificed, lost, invested, toiled and endured the things that Paul did for the sake of Jesus. And so if Paul could do it, that means in my little tiny parallel, much less than what Paul... surely I can endure what God entrusts to me. Surely you can endure what God entrusts to you. Well, lets look at it. I want to tell you. A life lived for the glory of Christ involves exhausting labor at times. Paul has to ask this rhetorical question. Are they servants of
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Christ? Who is he talking about? He is talking about the people accusing him saying that they were better servants. Paul says, I am a better one. He is meeting them at their game. He says, I am talking like a mad man. He says, But I have lived my life with far greater labors. You see, what they were having was a spitting contest here. And they had pulled out their rsum and said, Let me tell you about myself. Dont worry about Paul. This is what I have done. This is what I believe. This is the results of my influence in the kingdom and Paul, he cant even barely speak. His writings seem impressive, but in his actual presence he is nothing to throw a stick at. I mean, he is just... listen. What you need is me and you dont need Paul. And so they were hanging out their rsum and Paul said, I really didnt want to do this, but... And he pulls out his rsum and it is long. And it makes their rsum look really small. Now Paul was very reluctant to do it, but he was forced into a position that if he didnt, his very message was going to be undermined. Paul says this word, Far greater labor. Have you ever been tired serving the Lord? Why not? Have you ever thought, I just cant do this another week in a row? Have you ever felt like you were going to lose your ever loving mind trying to get the gospel across to somebody that you had a burden for, but they just kept getting harder and harder and harder? Have you ever wept groaning tears over an issue in your life that you knew was precious from the heart of God that had become precious to you that had hurt and you had to labor intensely of that thing? Ladies, forgive me, but the illustration of giving birth, this thing in you that just wont come to pass and eventually you are hurting and you are pushing and you are crying and you are wanting this thing to happen and it is hard. If you ever wonder why I am a little tough with some of the ridiculous things that are going on in churches today and I have done very well in the last six months of not mentioning a certain preacher that you have heard me mention a lot once upon a time, that I believe reduces the gospel not only to heresy, but a damnable heresy that leads people into the pit, because he said you can have your best life now. Listen. If this is our best life ever, ooh, not a piece of good news. No, friends, the best is yet to come. The best is reserved not only for a different time, but a different realm of existence. And for right now I am just going to tell you something. It is hard in the will of God sometimes and you are going to have to endure hardness as a good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

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You say, Jeff, is there another way? Cant you give us something? No. You know what? I cant sometimes. Sometimes there is nothing but getting up and being who is right and doing what is right, being the woman that God expects you to be, being the man that God has empowered you to be and refusing to buckle though the results arent conducive. You are doing what you are supposed to do, you are trying to honor the Lord, but the labor is exhausting. And meanwhile there is the discouragement of looking around and seeing as Jesus described the people acting like little children piping in the market place and they are playing games and it is all fun for them and you sense the burden inside. Can I just ask again? What did you expect? Dont be discouraged. Dont you ever think about quitting. Realize that it is intended to be difficult. Remember, every acre is contested. Exhausting labor. Here is Paul, personal danger. Now I dont ... I really dont have this in my experience. Most of you dont. Far more imprisonments... have you ever been sent to jail for Jesus? I have not. Some of you might have. I havent. Countless beatings. Anyone? Anyone? Often near death for Christ. Five times I received at the hand of the Jews 40 lashes less one, the maximum punishment that they can enforce, 39 lashes. Paul didnt have to endure that one time, not two times, not three times. Paul went through this 39 stripes on his back pulling it apart and he had to have this over and over the fifth time. Why? Because his life for the Lord, in the will of the Lord, was hard. Paul might echo, Well, Jeff, what did you expect? He goes on. He says, I was beaten three times with rods and once I was stoned. I like how he just throws that in. They killed him at Lystra. Most conservative Bible scholarship believe that Paul literally died at Lystra and as brought back to life. A lot of them tie that to his revelations where he was received up into the third heaven and saw things that would blow away the minds of any of us. But he just said, Yeah, and they stoned me one time. I am thinking, They beat his head in. And do you know what he did? He got back up and went right back in the city and kept preaching the gospel. Do you know what I would have done? I aint going back to Lystra. Treat me like that, bless God. I will go down here to Iconium. I am sure they are going to be friendly in Iconium or maybe Derbe. I will go to Derbe, but Lystra, I am not... Paul just went right back into the gate and preached the gospel to them and went into a new town the next day.

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You talk about a great object lesson. There is a man that believes. There is a man, I mean, he is walking in and he is beaten and battered and I believe that if I am not mistaken it was at that time or shortly thereafter where he told the people a message that we are going to talk about here in a minute where he told them that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God. You think he meant it with his head split open, with his eyes bloodied and blackened, with his teeth knocked out? What do we expect? Is it possible...? And listen. This is not meant to accuse. This is mean, really just to reorient us into what it means to be a Christian in the will of God. Dont believe the hype, guys. Listen. We are not post millennialists that they believe that we are just going to keep getting better and better and better and things are going to get better and better and when we finally present this glorious earth that is perfectly suited for Jesus, he is going to descend in the midst of our bliss. The Bible doesnt teach that. The Bible teaches that it is going to get worse. Arent you glad you came tonight? It is going to get worse. And you are going to be in big trouble in your faith if you have got your mind made up that in the will of God things are so supposed to be good and easy and happy and conducive all the time, because you know what is going to happen? Something deadly. That in the end when persecution comes in such an intensity, do you know what is going to happen? Real Christians and false Christians will come to the surface. Real Christians will endure. They will endure until the very end. Look at Revelation chapter two and three. You who overcome, you who overcome, you who endure until the end... Endurance is a mark of the validity of your Christian faith. But if you believe that it is all supposed to be easy and it is supposed to be pro you and it is supposed to be for you in this life and in the life to come and you when you came to Christ you got an immunity from labor and pain and persecution and difficulty, I am just going to ask you the question again. What did you expect? Where did we get this from? Certainly not from Christ, certainly not from Paul, not from Peter, not from the apostles, not from the prophets, not from the Bible. Do you know where we got it? From people that were wrong. And so I want you to let this flavor your life. Marinate in this for a moment. It may never reach the level of what Paul is describing, but if it did, where would you be? Can he count on you? That is a legitimate question. Can he count on you if it gets harder? Will you praise him? I am not saying it will be easy. I am just saying will you do it? Will you give him the glory? Will you be the woman or the man that he has empowered you to be? Will you continue to follow? Will you persevere? Will you endure? Will you
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overcome? Because, brothers ands sisters, I am going to tell you. I dont know what the future holds. I would love it if Jesus would just come back and wrap this thing up tonight. That would be great with me. Are you ready if he does? You need to be ready. But if he doesnt and the best that I can tell in Scripture is that it is going to get more and more difficult for the true Church. And that means you. That is not a general principle. That is a specific reality that is going to affect you. And I am not even just talking about the outside forces coming against the Church. What about just the normal stuff in life? Some of you have buried loved ones. I have, too, this year. Some of you experienced financial hardship that you never saw coming when, I mean, in 1996 you were way up here. And you just thought everything was going to be up here and that is not the way it is anymore. Our church used to never have to mention money. And you hear about it a lot now. And some of you if you are not careful are going to think, yeah, we got out of the will of God. You need to watch it. You need to be careful. What do we expect? Paul had to renounce the comforts of home. Here we go. We thought he was done. He is not. Remember, he has a longer rsum. He says, Three times I was shipwrecked.3 Why was he shipwrecked? Not because he was on a Mediterranean cruise having a little [?] cocktail. No. He was voyaging to get the gospel to people that hadn't heard it. And it was wrecked. A night and a day he was adrift at the sea. Please get it. He was in the water. You know, not on a catamaran. He is in the water. The ship is gone. And that didnt happen once or twice. It happened three times. Frequent journeys, dangers on the rivers. Dangers from the thieves, the robbers. Dangers from my own people. He is peaking about the persecution that came from the Jews that hated the fact that their number one protg, the prize of Israel, the great Pharisee, the persecutor of the Church, Paul had the audacity to become a Christian and they hated him. So they persecuted him intensely. And then he got it from the Gentiles because Gentiles were polytheistic and they loved a god here, a god there, a god everywhere and Paul came and said, Oh, no, I am sorry, there is only one God. And he busted up the idolatry business. And he wrecked a lot of incomes because people started turning away from their idols and all the men that made the idols lost income and so the Gentiles hated Paul and so lets kill him. Lets throw him in the jail. And Paul refers to that. He said, Dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.
3

2 Corinthians 11:25. Page 13 of 20

It reminds me of that told show Lost in Space. Danger, danger, danger. Do you remember that? Young people dont. Maybe some that are older do. Danger. Hey, let me ask you something. Are you open to that in your life? Are you open to the fact that Gods will for your life as he is seeking to bless you fiercely, might involve you losing the comforts that American Christians treasure? I was talking with a brother. I think it was Tuesday night at dinner and he made mention to me that most Christians could not conceive that in order to get in the will of God and we were talking about finances, that they might actually have to get rid of some of the possessions for which they are in debt. Could you imagine that Gods amazing will might require you to sell the car you have or even turn it back in an get something cheaper and unimpressive so that you might be faithful in giving? Or what if he wanted you to get rid of the house? How difficult it would be in this market, but not impossible. And move into a house that you could actually afford and give to your church? Most Christians would say, Come on, man. Are you kidding me? I mean, what did you expect? Did you expect an exception to the call to be faithful in your giving? Is it for the rest of people, but not for you? And, after all, God understands the situation and your prize is that you trust him. Oh, it is getting quiet in here. Renouncing the comforts of home may be something that God intends for your life and that is not necessarily a mark of his disfavor when you lose you property. We love our property, friends. We do. I mean, listen. We love it. When foreclosures and all of the mess that is going on. That is an agonizing thing. But we love our stuff way too much. And I wan to tell you something. Listen I am going to be bold with this. If you cant go on because you are losing some of your stuff, you are an idolater. There are some things that you need in life and God will provide what you need, but I am going to tell you. Much of what we think we need is just because we have gotten used to it. And the thought that God might say, I want you to live a little bit more by faith so I am going to shorten your crutches. My precious wife is progressing. She was here. She stayed as long as she could yesterday and she was in the wheel chair, but we will go therapy at nine AM tomorrow morning and I remember the first time we walked into therapy, it took 10 minutes to get in the door. I wheeled her in. It was agonizing for her. But we go back a couple of weeks later and she has gone from a wheelchair to a walker, but it is still agonizing. We go back a couple of weeks later, it is from a walker to crutches, but it is still agonizing. We went
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back last week and it was a cane and it is still agonizing to her. But do you know what I am saying? I am saying that God is teaching her to walk in a new way. She used to run. She used to run. And then she got brought down physically and God says, I am going to teach you to walk again. And that physical reality maybe a spiritual possibility in your life where you used to run, man, you had all the power. You had the open wind in your face and it was just all great. An God has allowed you to be brought down a little bit not to hurt you, but to teach you how to walk, to teach you how to slow down and appreciate every single step with him. If that draws you closer to Jesus, I would say it is worth it and I would say that we need to be prepared to expect it. I will get down to the very last verses. You are a patient group and I love you for it. I would say this. Expect difficulty in following Jesus. And I am talking to you that made up your mind sometime ago that he was everything to you. And, man, that is a great commitment to make and a lot of us make it in a moment of sense of victory, sense of missional purpose, a sense of destiny. I am going to follow Jesus. We experience some of us in this very room. I was there when some of you were saved and radical transformation of your life in an eye opening experience and he ripped all of that sin that used to own you out of you and all of the sudden you know that Jesus was the love of your life. And then things get hard and sometimes we lose our zeal and our shout and our song. So expect difficulty in following Jesus, but, by all means, please keep following him. Jesus promised difficulty. Here we go. Ooh, I am so wanting to send this message to Houston that preacher to get this. Jesus promised difficulty to his disciples, John 12:25 and 26. Here is what Jesus says. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.4 Let me clue in on some phrases here. If you love your life here, it is loss. You can live it out. And Jesus says everything you live for is lost in the end. It is gone, valueless, the power of it, the rush of it, the thrill of it, the pleasure of it, never to be experienced again because you old out the Son of God who comes in a package predetermined and preloaded with difficulty in order that you might have your life, that you might have it your way. And he says, Whoever hates this...
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John 12:25-26. Page 15 of 20

Now, obviously this is not an unhealthy, sadistic or masochistic view of hating yourself and loathing yourself and hating your life, but it is the opposite of adoring all your creature comforts and adoring all that you have done and all that you hope to do. He is saying, in essence, your great love for me and the life I have for you, must be so strong that your love, your selfish love appears as hate. And then he adds this and this is something we just dont believe. I am just going to say it. We dont believe this. I fail to believe it a lot. If anyone comes after me, if anyone serves me, he must follow me. Ok. I am going to follow you, Jesus. Lets raise the debt. Jesus lets open the eyes of the blind. Lets feed the thousands, Lord. Lord, lets make the crippled walk and, Lord, lets preach with Holy Ghost anointing. Lord, I will follow you. And Jesus says, You don't understand. I am going to a cross. I am going to die I am going to renounce every right I have in complete abandonment to the will of my Father and I am telling you if you want to serve me, come on and follow me. What do we expect? That cross comes in a lot of different ways and the cross is not that, you know, you have got an aggravating person at work that you are annoyed by. That is not your cross. Your cross is your identification with Jesus and the difficulty that results from it. Your cross is also enduring the paradoxes of this life where sometimes where you are doing right and being right and sacrificing and serving and doing everything that you possibly can for the glory of God and being the woman or the man that he wants you to be and it just doesnt seem to result in fruitfulness. And that can feel like a piercing nail. Friends, that is part of it and Jesus says, in essence, it is a challenge. It is a command I am phrasing it as a question. What did you expect? Is it really supposed to be easy? And let me ask this corporately as a church, because this is highly individualized tonight, but what did we expect when we moved up here? What did we expect when God opened up new opportunities of relationship? What did we expect when we went from reaching hundreds to reaching millions through TV and internet, millions? What did we expect when we decided we wanted to plant a church in Scotland in a place that is dead to the gospel? What did we expect when we wanted to start a discipleship program? Did we really expect that ease would follow? Or should we rather be more wise and expect ooh, we have just claimed some territory that used to belong to the enemy. I bet he is going to fight. Friend, I want to challenge you on this and I am just about done. Dont let doubt and discouragement and words of negativity and words that do not edify and do not build up concerning your church family, its leaders, decisions that are made, please do not let the expression... and we talked about it this morning. Jesus said we are
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going to give an account for every careless word. Please be wise and understand that some of the very difficulties that we have faced and are facing are because we are exactly where we need to be. There are some things we could have done differently and done better, granted. Nobody here is perfect, not you nor I nor anybody else. Brothers and sisters, we are exactly where we need to be and this opportunity is still as great as it was on day one. So let me get to the end of the text and then I am going to give you a couple of things and we are going to go home. Paul promised difficulty to the Thessalonians. Jesus promised it to the disciples. Paul promised it to the Thessalonians. Look at what Paul said when he wrote the Thessalonians. He said: ...that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.5 This is strong language. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.6 Paul is doing what leaders do, because sometimes followers get amnesia. Why? This is hard. This is crazy. This is difficult. This is killing me. This is suffocating me. This is bad. We are out of the will of God. The devil I son us. And Paul says, Wait a minute. Dont be moved by this. Dont lose what you know to be true. I told you this was going to happen. He said, We kept telling you beforehand. But I want you to get this. This is what he said. He said, You were destined for this. Let me test your theology here. Who decrees destiny? Come on. God. You say, Jeff, destiny is kind of new age word. It is related to this word, destined. God destines some things. And part of our destiny as the children of God in this world is some pain, is some trouble, is some difficulty, is some disappointment and some heartbreak and some sacrifice and some exhaustion and some disillusionment. And Paul breaks into the Thessalonians which were a sharp group of people and he says to them, I told you this was part of the package when I was with you.
5 6

1 Thessalonians 3:3. 1 Thessalonians 3:4. Page 17 of 20

But when the package arrives and the courier walks away and leaves you with the junk, you say, I dont want this. Well, what did you expect? And then, finally, Paul promised difficulty to anybody that he could. In Acts chapter 14 and I love the apostle Paul. Goodness. His ministry was so comprehensive. And part of it involved this, confirming the souls of the disciples. That is encouragement, affirmation. And exhorting them to continue in the faith. Why? Why would he have to exhort them to continue? Because listen. There are times where life makes you want to quit. And he says: And that we must through much tribulation, we must through much, much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. It is not debatable. This is part of the package for you and me. And in the name of Jesus for the glory of the Son of God, lets do it. Lets not quit. Lets not give in to discouragement. Lets not misread what we see as being evidence that God is against us. If anything, if you want to spiritualize it, some of it, by the way, is just life. But other parts of it, if you are going to spiritualize it, say that the devil is against you. Because it is hard it must not be from God? Let me give you some evidence. Was the will of God easy when Noah was mocked for building the ark under sunny skies with no rain in the forecast? Was that easy? Was Noah in the will of God? He was, but he was all alone. Was it the will of God easy when Abraham was told to sacrifice his promised son Isaac on the altar? Was the will of God easy when Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold as a slave, falsely accused of sexual assault and forgotten in prison? Joseph was in the will of God, right? Was the will of God easy when God whittled down Gideons army from 30,000 plus soldiers to 300 the day before the battle? My wife is so good. Let me brag on her. I was very discouraged when some folks left some time ago, precious people and they left the right way. They werent troubled or anything. They called me up. They disagreed with a couple of things to the point where their personal convictions could no longer let them remain. We have lunch with this couple. We are still friends with them, but we don't fellowship here together anymore. And I remember thinking what a great soldier. And I was kind of having a little Elijah party and just kind of pouting and, you know, feeling bad for myself. And Amy just came in and she said, Remember what God did with Gideons army before the victory? Jeff, God didnt make it bigger. God made it smaller. Man, I went in the strength of that meat of 30 days. My lady helped me, because some times God takes people out of your life. Sometimes we lose them.

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Was the will of God easy when Ruth buried a father-in-law, a brother-in-law and a husband and then followed her mother-in-law into a brand new land where she knew nobody? Was that the will of God? It was. Was it easy? No. Was the will of God easy when David was nearly assassinated by Saul later to be hunted down by Saul, had to be come a fugitive from his rightful throne and his beloved city? Was that the will of God for King David? It sure was. Was it easy? No. What about when Elijah endured draught and a famine and a bounty on his head for standing boldly in the faith against Ahab and Jezebel? Was the will of God easy when Jeremiah was mocked and beaten and thrown down into a pit and left to die and never once saw a repentant convert during his entire ministry? Was the will of God easy when Esther was orphaned, forced to spend a night with a pagan king then made by law his wife? Then she discovers a murderous plot against her own people the Jews and then God out of all the people for a time such as this says, Esther, you are going to rescue the people, and she had to hazard her life for the will of God. Was the will of God easy when John the Baptist watch his followers leave for a new rabbi whose name was Jesus? John knew who he was, but he said he had to decrease while Christ increased. Was the will of God easy when that same John the Baptist was in prison for boldly confronting a sinful man and then John struggled with doubt in the prison? I am so glad that it sin my Bible, that a man of God that Jesus said was the greatest man... At that time Jesus said, Dont you worry about John. He is the greatest man born unto woman. And this man was doubting because of lifes difficulties. And eventually the will of God for John was his head being severed. Was the will of God easy when the disciples were mocked and beaten and imprisoned, misunderstood, slandered, robbed and martyred for Christ? And then ultimately lets just go here. Was the will of God easy when Jesus Christ, the most glorious being in existence, suffered mockery, rejection, false accusation, injustice, brutal torture, horrific crucifixion so that the cup of Gods fury could be drunk by him for our sakes? God did not spare his own Son from earths troubles and you know with me, Jesus was always in the will of God. So I ask: What did you expect? That is not to taunt or to confront, but to galvanize your will. Dont be confused any longer about the struggle and the pain and the challenges and the difficulty. Dont despair when things find your family that seem to be impossible and you must think, oh, I must not be in the will of God. You might be exactly where you are supposed to be. And, friends, through this church and I want you to remember this next Sunday morning, for this church the will of God involves difficultly. It is a challenge, not a condemnation. It is a acknowledgement of our surrender to him. It is not a denunciation of our attempts to glorify him. Let us be galvanized around the central purpose that we are the people of
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God in the will of God for the glory of God right here and right now. And lets just wait and see. I want you to bow your head and close your eyes.

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Topical Message

What Did You Expect?

Preached Sunday PM 10/30/11 at MBC

I. Expect Difficulty In Exiting Bondage Israel & The Exodus A. Intensified struggle - Pharaoh and his bricks {Exodus 5} B. Frightening warfare - Moses, Pharaoh & the plagues {Exodus 7-12} C. Impossible obstacles - The Red Sea barrier {Exodus 14}

II. Expect Difficulty In Entering Blessings Israel & Conquering Canaan A. Absolute dependence required - Victorious at Jericho {Joshua 6} B. Casual approaches denied - Defeated at Ai {Joshua 7} C. Every acre will be contested - Battle after battle will come {Joshua 8-12} D. Some will abandon the mission - Numbers 32:6-7 Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them?

III. Expect Difficulty In Fulfilling Your Purpose Pauls Sacrifices For the Gospel Ministry - 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 A. Exhausting labor - Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one - I am talking like a madman - with far greater labors... B. Personal danger - ...far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. C. Renouncing comforts of home - Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. D. Denial of self - In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

IV. Expect Difficulty In Following Jesus A. Jesus promised difficulty to His disciples - John 12:25-26 - Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. B. Paul promised difficulty to the Thessalonians - 1 Thess. 3:3-4 - No one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. C. Paul promised difficulty to all that he could - Acts 14:22 - Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.