One of the things looking at ideas of what we
expect is oftentimes for me when I think about
who I was trying to be when I grew up. When I
was a kid, I was thinking, what am I going to
do whenever I grow up? And in my mind, my future
job was doing math on a chalkboard and drawing.
I had no idea what job that was going to be,
but it was going to be doing math on a chalkboard
and drawing. I still haven't quite figured that
one out yet, but who knows? Maybe when I retire,
I'll get to do that. But with my dad growing
up being a machinist, the thing that he was always
asking was, if you're so good at math, why don't
you become an engineer? And so that would come
up from time to time and I was originally going
to go over to Houston Baptist now Houston Christian
and get a math major but I was told that maybe
A &M would be a better place to go and maybe
go get an architecture major and I went and it
was like this isn't quite the right fit so what
would I end up doing well I thought sure I'll
fall back on an easy degree and I got an engineering
degree so there we go but then after all of this
realizing is in my mind was this thought growing
up of, how in the world am I going to be this
engineer? And I'm so clumsy. I'm not mechanically
minded. And even more than that, as I was at
school and I did all the classes and I'm thinking,
how am I going to do this the rest of my life?
And then I ended up going to seminary. And I
guess God didn't need me to make a chemical plant
for him. But in thinking about all this was still
in the back of my mind this question of Is this
really what my dad expected of me? Is this something
that my dad would have actually been happy about?
And in thinking about that is, you know, whenever
I would then talk to him is always this thought
in the back of my mind. Are you still happy about
the direction that I went in? And this idea of
what it is that we think is going to happen,
the direction we're going to go, whenever it
doesn't happen, how often is it that that ends
up creating in us a feeling disappointment this
sense of being disoriented the idea that you
think you know where you're going and then all
of a sudden everything gets thrown all up in
the air and you feel a bit discombobulated which
I think is an awesome word but don't ask me how
to spell it you know we end up seeing at these
times that when the path we thought we were going
to go is not what turns out well we see what
it is that God may be doing beyond what we expected
that it may turn out that the times whenever
we see that the disciples are confused about
what Jesus is trying to say or Paul ends up finding
one of his first converts in the most unexpected
way or we end up seeing a vision of heaven that
may be different from what we expected we still
end up seeing that God's work while it's not
what we expect it ends up giving us more than
we could have ever asked for And so what we want
to do then is we want to be able to see how is
it that we understand better how God is doing
much more than we could have ever imagined. And
one of those is when we think about the story
of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, a German monk,
have you heard of him? Okay, thank you. When
we're trying to understand a bit about what it
is that he was doing, you've got to understand
that he also was struggling with whether or not
he was living up to what his father had wanted.
He was supposed to be a lawyer, and then because
of a crazy thunderstorm, he ended up going to
become a monk, and then later became a professor
at a seminary that was there in Wittenberg. Well,
the difficulty then is that as much as Luther
was such a good monk, the problem was is that
the Word of God just kept getting at him. And
he kept reading more and more from Galatians
and Romans and trying to understand more about
what God was truly saying about grace. And what
he began to realize is that all this fear that
he had about whether or not he had done enough
or confessed enough and seeing how terrible of
a sinner he was on the inside, which apparently,
according to his confessor, was nowhere near
as bad as the other monks, is that he continued
then to hear from God and to see that grace was
something freely given, that it was a gift from
God. And he began to speak and to teach and to
write about this. But in his mind, what he expected
was that the church, once they understood what
he was saying, they were going to agree with
him completely and help him to revise and reform
and fix everything that he saw as an abuse in
the church. But then the problem is, they didn't
see him as the one telling them what to do. You
know that thing whenever the kid is going off
to the principal's office? And walking over there
because the principal's calling them in, and
the principal already knows that what the kid
has done is wrong and needs to make sure that
they're corrected. And so the kid is not going
to sit there and try to explain to the principal,
well, this is why I did all these things. Don't
you understand why it was that I'm in the right?
All the principal expects is, I'm sorry, and
I won't do it again. That's it. That's all that
you get. And that's... what Luther was being
called to when he went to the Diet of Worms,
is that he was coming there to basically say,
I'm sorry, I won't do this again. And he's standing
there having all of his writings spread out on
a table, and he's trying to figure out, what
did I say that was so wrong? Oh my goodness.
And they said, we just want you to recant. Just
say you were wrong and never do this again. And
he said, I need to think about it. And so he
came back after a night of praying and thinking,
very little sleep. But what he kept praying to
God was that he would stand on the gospel and
that nothing could cause his faith to waver.
And the truth is that he was pretty convinced
that he was going to end up being taken off and
martyred for the gospel. by the very church he
was trying to help reform. But instead, after
he had said, here I stand, I can do no other,
or something along those lines, he was taken
off and hidden away, where he ended up translating
all of scripture into German, which quite a bit
to ask of one single person. I'm just trying
to make sure I get a sermon written every week.
But more than that, is to realize that his struggle
would continue and that he would be blamed for
so many things that would happen throughout the
church for centuries to come. What Luther thought
was going to happen was nowhere near what actually
came to be. I'm sure Martin Luther did not expect
his future wife to come along in a smoked fish
barrel. True story. Look it up. But even more
than that, he also didn't know what God was going
to do through him, not just whether or not his
life might be taken away. But the same thing
ends up happening with what Jesus speaks to his
disciples, as we look in John 16. The disciples
are wanting Jesus to speak plainly, and Jesus
keeps saying, you can go to the Father and you
can ask Him for anything. and that you don't
just have to then speak to me hoping the Father
will hear you. The Father hears you because He
loves you. And then they finally start saying,
well, okay, now we understand you, now it's plain.
And you know that moment where you're like, you
really don't understand what I'm trying to say.
And Jesus has one of those moments, but still
says, you're gonna all abandon me, and yet, there
is still grace for you. That feeling that sense
of knowing that the path that you may expect
it's not going to go the direction you thought
disciples But rather this path is going to have
to go To the cross and more than that not just
for Christ himself and what he's going to do
for our sin, but also for the disciples themselves
Because they will also have to suffer for all
that is going to happen in his name That's the
thing about what we end up seeing though is that
as much as we might think we know what God is
going to give us There is so much more that it
entails But it may very well be a path of struggle
and turmoil that we may face It's not a path
that then we think somehow we've lost track of
what God wanted How many times must Luther have
wondered as he's there in that cell awaiting
the verdict the next day? whether or not he had
made a misstep, and how often do we wonder whether
or not God has somehow had a path that we missed
out on. But you know, we've talked about that
before. More than that, though, is that the gospel
isn't just that our paths don't always go where
we expect, but also that the gospel itself doesn't
just go where we planned. See, the gospel goes
wherever the spirit will. And one of those people
that it ended up going to was named Augustine.
Augustine had lived in the fourth century. Augustine
had been trained in rhetoric and philosophy.
He was a teacher and he loved to argue. And he
loved the idea of himself being able to argue
and garner everyone's attention and the status
that he wanted with it. But more than that, Augustine
was actually a little bit of a womanizer, and
there were a lot of things that he was not willing
to let go of with all the things that he pursued,
the immorality that he wanted. In his mind, the
Bible was way too simple, and faith in Jesus
was way too restrictive. There were too many
things that he wanted. But the thing about it
is that as much as we might see him and realize
Oh my goodness, what a terrible person he may
truly be. Is that he still had a mother praying
for him. Monica, who was continuing to remember
him in prayer over and over and speaking to him
every chance that she had. But there was also
Bishop Ambrose, who was preaching. You know how
there are those times whenever someone is speaking
and you're not quite paying total attention and
and Yet something that they said kind of stood
out to you. You can't quite shake it I mean not
me everybody listens to every single word I've
ever said but other people and Oftentimes exactly
You realize is that as much as he might have
been arguing is that that word kept getting in
But more than that his feeling of emptiness Kept
growing and he couldn't shake it until one day
he heard a voice Calling him to open his Bible
and as he's reading Romans 13 and it speaks of
leaving your sin and to pursue Christ He realized
it was time and at the age of 31 came to know
Jesus and would eventually come to become the
bishop of Hippo and one of the most influential
writers in the Christian church, which of course
goes to show you for all those wondering about
kids in their 20s and if they fall away, there
is still hope for them in their 30s. But the
same thing though ends up happening with Paul.
Paul had an idea in his mind of who it was that
he was supposed to pursue, not who it was necessarily.
who God had in mind to call. See, Paul was going
to go off to Asia and to proclaim the gospel,
but time and time again, the Spirit stopped him.
We don't know how. We don't know if it was just
the dreams that he had that said, don't go, or
maybe there was an angel standing there with
a giant sword saying, don't go this way, Paul.
Or even if maybe it was just circumstances, time
and time again. Every time you think that you're
supposed to go somewhere, and you can't seem
to get there. There were times whenever I would
wonder about that in my own life, because I wanted
to live up to my father's reputation, but my
father's legacy and his expectations. And then
three times that I tried to do like him and to
enlist in the Army, and three times the military
said no. until finally realizing there are just
some times when the spirit's working and you
just have to listen. Because so many times what
we may feel as us failing oftentimes is just
God saying, I have something else in mind for
you. Because the thing is, is that as much as
Paul couldn't go to Asia, God said, go to Macedonia.
And as he went, instead of the man that he saw
in his dream. Instead, as he's walking by the
riverside, he sees a woman named Lydia, who was
ready to hear the gospel and became the first
convert in that European area. See, Lydia became
a person of peace, a person who was open to the
gospel, a person who was not only ready, but
who would then call others to her side, others
who would then come to know the gospel as well.
But oftentimes we don't expect that the gospel
is going to go wherever God decides. We don't
realize that. But more than that, we also don't
realize what it is that the gospel is doing even
as it reaches each and every person. See, one
of the things that we end up seeing in our scripture
reading as we look at Revelation is the life
of the world that is to come. See, What we see
in Revelation ends up helping us to understand
a bit more about how God is reaching to all people,
and how God's vision for his kingdom is bigger
and more beautiful than anything we had imagined.
But you see, we don't always have that in our
mind. There were so long where the vision of
Americans, or what I should say is white Americans,
was a very specific idea of what heaven would
be like. And even whenever we got to a point
of finally getting past slavery is that even
though we saw black Americans having faith, how
long it was that the white mainstream could not
imagine that their idea of heaven included those
people. And that's the thing about this is that
Christians could spend so long taking scripture
and telling themselves, all throughout slavery
and even afterward that what they were looking
at and doing was God's idea. How often is it
that we can take things that are clearly not
what Jesus would have wanted but somehow tell
ourselves it's exactly what we're supposed to
do. But you see, the black church didn't end
up just giving up, just when the mainstream church
didn't want them. Even whenever whites didn't
want the blacks sitting next to them, they end
up creating their own churches, their own bishops,
their own pastors, their own preachers, those
who could be deacons in their community. Whenever
we wonder why there are so many different denominations
that have the same root word but teach the same
thing and yet they're separated and we realize
that many of them started because of this. Because
of people just not wanting to sit next to somebody
else. But how often is it that we do that because
we think of ourselves as the ones worthy and
we wonder how God lets all those other people
in. This idea of realizing that it's not about
the Christians but rather about the Christ. Whenever
the missionaries would go to different foreign
lands and the indigenous populations would have
to realize the missionaries are not the same
as the Christ they proclaim. Even so, the image
of heaven ends up showing something deeper and
more beautiful than what we could have imagined.
Because all the different stones throughout the
wall, and to realize that they are all part of
this one pearl stone, this one unified foundation,
that heaven's gates are wide open in a place
with no temple, no sun, and open gates. Because
instead of seeing Jesus present in this one spot
is to realize when God is walking among you,
living with you, breathing with you, you don't
have to go to this one other place to find Him.
He's there, right there with you, speaking to
you, walking with you. showing you what He always
desired, what God's expectations truly are, not
just what we thought they would be. Or even further,
you don't need a sun whenever the light of the
world is already there, lighting your path showing
you where it is to go and what it is that we
do. But more than that, how is heaven so beautiful
and so perfect when the gates are wide open.
See, it speaks twice in that chapter about the
sinners and all the terrible people who have
no place in heaven and yet the gates are wide
open. Why is that? How do they make that possible?
Because it's not the good people that find their
way to get in. It's that all people need to be
cleansed and purified before they enter. Because
when Christ Jesus is the gate, He is the door,
then through Him all people have grace and hope.
It's that only through Him is anyone made right
in God's eyes. So that as we come to know Him,
all the things that we've struggled with are
transformed by His glory. Our idea of what it
is that we're looking for, it's not about what
we're trying to bring to God, but rather is coming
to God and saying, God, what is it that you have
for me? See, when we look at all these pieces,
when we look at what it is, how our expectations
limit what it is that God is doing, but we realize
that God's plan is so unlimited. When we realized
that the disciples thought that they needed to
control what they were coming to God with But
Jesus came to give them peace Or when Paul thought
that he had a strategy for where he was gonna
go and who he was gonna reach and then not only
did the Gentiles come to know Jesus But now he
was going off to the women folk Not realizing
how much they needed them to spread the gospel
And then imagining ourselves to somehow be worthy
of the reward of heaven, only to have God show
that it's only through Christ that any of us
have been made worthy. Not just the ones that
we think belong there, but for all people in
Christ. Then we realize that God is the one to
transform our expectations and what we think
we want. Not to something different. but to something
better. Because our expectations of what we look
for limits what God does. And that's why so often
God is so happy to disappoint us. Because so
often whenever we see that what we wanted does
not pan out, then we realize that that's when
God can start doing what he had in mind in the
first place. because what God has in mind goes
beyond anything that we could imagine. So the
good part is that when I finally did break down
and pause and go to my dad and say, dad, do you
actually feel proud of me? I didn't become an
engineer. I went to a different church than the
one I grew up in and I don't have the mechanical
mind that you do. He said, son, You follow Jesus,
you take Him everywhere you go, and you're fully
capable of whatever He puts in front of you.
I couldn't be more proud. Because the thing that
God is looking for is what He has in mind. So
may we continue to pursue what the Father has
in mind for us, not what we think He wanted for
us, but rather what He has truly given us in
Christ Jesus. by His salvation and by His grace.
Thanks be to God.