God's Promises vs. Our Expectations

The following text is the raw, unedited transcript from a sermon given on May 14th, 2023 at Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Olympia, WA. You can also listen to the audio. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast! :-)

In uh today's collect, we find another good sort of parallel built into it that I had to stop and think about and think what does this have to do with the season we're in of Easter? What does I mean? Yes, it's a good, you know, general theme of, of love for God and God's promises for us like you could talk about that, think about that any time of the year. Well, why now it's, I think for a couple of reasons, um the gospel of John certainly uh connects those two ideas with Jesus being the vine and us being the branches and abiding in him and his love abiding in us. Um But there is a connection when you look at the season we're in, but I don't wanna get ahead of myself in the call collect. We see that God has promises that surpass our understanding that exceed what we desire there. These promises are, I don't, I don't get how you did that or why you did that. But thank you for that promise or things that exceed what we desire. I don't even like I haven't, I know what I desire but I don't know what's beyond that. So I guess that's why I don't understand it. That's very smart, I guess. Um these promises are prepared for those who love God. Now, lest we make that oversimplified. Sometimes we can turn scripture into formulas. If I love God, then God will give me promise. Ok? Like that's it. You can't be that simplistic, but there is a truth to that and that this is relationship with God, isn't it? That's what the disciples have. That's what we are supposed to have. Um These promises are prepared for those who love God. They are obtained by those who love God in all things and above all things. So not only does this love seem or the promises seem conditional. There's the almost like these extra conditions of I have to love God in everything. And in fact, I have to love Him above everything and I like how it's not one or the other. It's both. We should love God in everything like Paul says, be thankful in all things, which is not an easy thing to do, but also love God above all things. Um And the 10 commandments, you shall have no other gods before me. Like that's I'm the first one. You shouldn't have any other gods, period. But if you're gonna have, if you're gonna be obsessed with anything, be obsessed with me first and everything else after that. But because God wants to give us these promises, we need to as we read earlier, love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, all of our soul, with all of our mind. And Jesus says, he makes a comment and he says, with all of our strength, with all, all that we have all, all of our life, everything that we are. That's what, that's what those three things are there. We love Him with all of those things and more than that, we can ask Him to fill our hearts to overflowing with love for him, win, win our love for God. God's promises for us and God's love for us. It's very cyclical. It's very relational. It's something that we learn and something that we grow into. Um This is a purpose and a manifestation I believe of the Holy Spirit. I, I think if you wanna reduce a sign that designates whether the Holy Spirit has done something or not, it is love. It's not anything that draws attention to the person. It's something that draws attention from the person to God. We're gonna see that when we get to Pentecost that they, they all spoke in tongues and everyone thought what's going on here and then they appointed them straight to God, not to the gift and not to the expression. But when we pray God, I want more of your love, the way He answers that is He fills us even more with his Holy Spirit to then show that love to other people. But sometimes these promises, I don't know if you've seen this in scripture. Sometimes there's promises that maybe we don't want. At least in the moment it's like God, I need this but you're promising me that God, you're promising me patience, but I need this. Now. Come on. It's a joke. You can, it's a um sometimes we, you know, sometimes we don't know what we want. Sometimes these promises, they're promises we don't care about or think are dumb until we know that we need them. The God, I didn't know I needed that from you until just now earlier. I thought that was kind of dumb. But now I get why you promised me that. So thank you for giving me that promise. In this, this timeline in this season we're in God is fulfilling promises that they weren't expecting that they didn't know that they should be looking for. Um They got a suffering Messiah. They didn't want a suffering Messiah. They probably thought it was kind of dumb. I thought you were gonna come and conquer Rome and, and make us AAA nation again. They didn't understand or want a suffering Messiah, but that's what they got. They also got a resurrection which they didn't believe even after it happened nor did they expect it. They were hiding. They thought they're the, you know, the man is going to come and find us and arrest us and have us killed. Um They weren't expecting this resurrection. What's coming up soon for us in our, in our timeline is the ascension at which they were still asking for another fulfillment of promise like Jesus is ascending. And they're saying, are you now going to restore the kingdom of Israel? And Jesus does another one of these. Yeah. No, but I am gonna do this and it's gonna be much better. Um It was the right promise. It was just the wrong time sometimes. That's how God promises go. And then after still after that, when Pentecost comes, it's the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from Joel and from other places. And there's still some more promises to go. Probably the biggest one that we read and recite every week is uh the second coming in the kingdom and it's been a couple 1000 years and some of us are like, where are you? When is this gonna happen? Some people think it's already happened. It's like there's all kinds of fun arguments about that, but that is still a promise we are waiting for now. These are, these are high level big, you know, scale promises. Um But what about the here and now this is where this is for me where it's like, ok, great. But what about like, I, I need maybe you, I need a job. I need healing. I need restoration of this. I need, I need God, I need and you're gonna, you're the provider. So let's, let's see some of that provision. What about the here and now? Well, it's, sometimes it's not about that. God answers a promise. It's more about the way he answers a promise. So if you just want the answer in here and then just, we'll move on, God. Thanks for that and now I'll take it from here. God's like, no, I'm gonna, we're gonna do something through this. I'm gonna fulfill a promise, but I want to teach you something through it, which if you are impatient is very frustrating anybody else. Ok. Well, let's look at how God fulfills some of his promises or even what those promises are rooted in, uh through our readings today in acts. Um It's sort of a, a classic, wonderful story about Paul waiting for his companions to come back and pick him up and he's in the city of Athens, which is a very, uh, you know, Greek Roman, not Jewish city at all. Um, pick Seattle, pick Portland, pick, you know, pick one and while he's there waiting, he's looking, he does what he does. He goes to the synagogues and talks to them and he goes to those who gentiles but believe in God and he talks to them and some follow him and some don't as we have seen this pattern. Um He then while he's sharing, some people come to him and say we want to hear more about what you're talking about and they're part of this little club who meet in this particular place called the Aus or Mars Hill. And, uh they, they just, they love talking about the latest idea, the latest philosophy and they thought he was teaching two new gods, Jesus, one called Jesus and one called a resurrection because there's a language barrier there. So they just heard the words and they didn't think it was like an actual resurrection. They thought it was the name of some God. So what does Paul do? He goes there knowing that this is not a Jewish biblically based audience. He takes a very different approach. He does. He takes, he says, I saw an, a statue to an unknown God that was you guys, you have so many gods, you had one just to cover what you didn't know. So I wanna talk about him and his name is God and he created the world. And Paul goes through this, this process of describing who God is and what God did and how he made mankind. And we're all descended from that one mankind. And then he got into the gospel. He got into talking about Jesus in a, in a very non religious way, I guess. But as soon as he mentions resurrection that they're like, well, people back from the dead, I don't think so. Um And that's, that was the reaction. But the, the thing he delivers them is not prosperity, it's not ease of life. It's you guys worship everything, but there is a God who loves you and sent his son to die for you and the sun rose from the dead and they said no, thank you. And so Paul moved on. Interestingly, some people criticize this event as like we Paul never did that again because he didn't get many converts. That. I'm sorry. That's a stupid thing to say because it doesn't document, it's not like a journal of, of Paul's hit record. It's, it's a document of his journey, of his travels. Maybe he did do it again. We don't know. But I just, it's like, so I don't know. It's just really dumb how people try to formulate even sharing the gospel or church planting and don't do what Paul did. Well, I think what he did worked pretty well. So I'm gonna do what he did. But I digress the promise of the gospel. That's the promise. That's what he delivers to them in Psalm 1 48. It's this, it's this beautiful, this just praising God. It's pure, pure worship purely from the heart. But right at the end, uh it, it says that you, you have given us this horn. It's this horn. The horn is a symbol of strength. It's a symbol of security. Uh It's one way to describe the Messiah you have given like, yes, you are worthy and here's why and all the stars, praise you and all the animals, praise you and you have given us this strength. And so we, we praise you even more for that God's promise in this strength in this messiah. And we, when we find ourselves praising God, if we, we need to include praising him for the Lord, don't we? It's not without that. In First Peter, we see these promises, uh this promise of love, but as He is walking them through what it looks like. He says, what's what, what credit to you again? He says that to you. If you just are good to nice people, that's great. But you might also suffer for being a good person. And when people see that they won't have anything to blame you with because of God because of the way you're living out your life. Um He says, um oh, there it is verse 13. Now who is there? Who is there to harm you? If you are zealous for what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness, righteous sake, you will be blessed, have no fear of them nor be troubled. But in your honor, in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as Holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason of the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect. Um A lot of apologetics organizations use this verse which is a fine verse as a, as a support for the need to defend the faith. And yes, we do. But I, I really like, it's sometimes it's a rather harsh usage of that verse, like be ready to defend the gospel. It's like, well, ok, but why, because there is a hope in you, it's not just go around with a gospel two by four and clock people on the head and say it's real. Can't you feel it? Not what he wants? It's as we are living our lives as there is a hope that is in us that shines out of us and people see it, they go, what is that? What is that in you and then be ready to give an answer about that for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect a thing that can be missing with overly aggressive gospel presenters. Um Where did it go for? It is better to suffer for doing good than it should be. If that should be God's will, then for doing evil, for Christ also suffered once, for sins, the righteous, for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. So this the connection that I'm seeing is this as we live out our lives for God, as we live with a hope that is visible and a love that is visible. There can be and indeed there will be a kind of pressing the kind of pressure. And interestingly, I believe when those things are done from love. That love under stress can often squeeze out the love needed to see the fulfilled promise. I'll say it again. Love under stress, persecution, pressure need, whatever often squeezes out of the person from the person. A love needed to see the fulfilled promise. Sometimes God is fulfilling a promise, but we're so caught up in our own little bubble of need that we don't see what he's doing. But when we, when we are able to move from that place of anxiety and the pressure is on to see, oh I get it. I see it now. You know, when they, when they make olive oil, they have to press and crush the olives and then the oil comes out. When they, when they make me into a scent, they have to crush it so that the scent comes out and the oil comes out and they can do something with it. These things happen by being crushed, by being pressed by being broken. Jesus on the cross, right? Broken. But what comes out of that pressing is God's love. Not always fun, but it is part of the promise and going through it, going through suffering is not God's punishment. It's just not always, not even probably most of the time. It's God steering us to rely on him in many cases. And John, in the gospel, we see this also sort of a wonderful classical passage about the vine and the branches and you know, the branches that are bearing fruit get pruned ouch like, ok, maybe I don't want to bear fruit. Well, I know you really do because the alternative is worse. Um But when he gets down to verse towards the end, verse nine, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you abide in me, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. That's the key. How do we abide? How do we live in God's love? Jesus tells us himself. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love, abiding in his love. Um Promise fulfillment can be a natural process like fruit on a vine. We again, we see these promises fulfilled as we abide as we obey. Notice as we're active, it's not just kind of sitting back and going. OK. I'm waiting. What are you gonna do? Show me it's no, it's as as we are actively obeying and living out for him, that these promises manifest themselves just like fruit on a tree. And again, how do we abide by doing by obeying his commands? It's funny when I was writing this down, I wrote by doing and then I put a line through it because by doing sounds very me centered. I'm going to do this. Look at me, God. Look what I'm doing. When in fact, it's obeying, obeying implies God speaks. I hear there's relationship and then I go and do so. It's not just doing them, it's actually obeying them um by obeying his commands out of love for Him, which in turn demonstrates God's love for us and for others as they see us being obedient, which goes back to that first Peter passage. It's all tied together, love for God, love from God and being uh receiving these promises. So what, what if I'm in this? What if you're in this spot? I'm in this spot where I really, I feel like I really need God to do something and there are lots of things in my life that I really think God needs to do and I would love it if he would just do them yesterday. But he didn't, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. I don't know. So what do you do until then? I think? And it's, it involves a lot of personal surrender, do what you are responsible for doing. So if you need a job, keep looking for a job. If you are have a broken relationship, do your part to restore that broken relationship, do what you're able and responsible to do, keep doing that. Don't just sit back but let your anxiety and stress about that situation, which is usually what we hang on to the most. Let that rest in him and be converted into a love for him. There is something that can happen and I don't know how to describe it. I don't know how it happens. I just know that it happens. At least as long as you have a lot of this in you that when you're in that moment of stress, if you're able to shift your gaze from yourself and from your situation and shift it upwards, it's not like it all goes away. But the stress and anxiety can, can mutate, can change, can transform into. It's like every place in the Bible where it says but God this and bad and the situation and really bad stuff. But God, it's OK. I'm stressed out, I'm anxious. I can't do anything with that. So I'm just gonna, I'm gonna try to focus this on you and it can be really hard in the moment. It's especially hard when some other Christian comes and gets in your face and says just be happy. I'm gonna just punch you go away. It's no, no, it's, that's a often the bad thing to do. But when you are in that time, when you're in that moment and you can OK, I'm still gonna do what I'm responsible to do and the stuff that I can't do anything with God, I love you. I need you. I've seen what you can do. I'm not gonna hold you to a condition in my life, but you just redirect that upwards and that stress and anxiety gets turned into peace and it gets turned into love and it gets turned into, can get turned into something that people do see and go. How do you get through this? How are you getting through this situation? And the cliche, it's the Lord. That's how that kind of works. So, I don't know what you need or where you're at. I do know where I'm at and what I need. But we can all agree. I think that the answer is to put our trust and our faith in God, but also to direct uh our love toward Him. I don't know what that looks like for you. Um It doesn't look the same for everybody but take some time this week and reread the call because this is the call for the week. By the way, I don't know if you have one of these but get one, use it. We will teach you how to use it if you don't know how and read this call every day and you will, I think start to see it next week. There's a different call, read that every day and you'll begin to see that. Um So I'm gonna close in prayer but I'm just gonna, I'm gonna repay the call. Collect a little bit and then uh close a little bit more. Amen. All right. Oh God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding. Pour into our hearts, such love towards you that we loving you in all things and above all things may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ, our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Lord, help us to do that. I I'm still learning what that looks like. Help us all to uh shift our gaze vertically towards you. We want to be um useful to you in this world just like we read about in scripture. And we realize that that's not always going to be easy, either in our personal private lives or what we live out publicly. Um But I fill us with your love, fill us with your spirit in such a way that it draws not only us to you but those around us to you. Jesus name. Amen.