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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Keala Thompson

But Deliver Us from Evil Expectations

The last sermon I want to present is entitled, But Deliver Us From Evil Expectations.

I invite you to turn with me to our opening text this afternoon to 2 Corinthians 3, verse 17.

Contrary to popular belief, freedom is not free, but instead it has a cost.

And if you don't believe me, then just ask the parents who lost their only son fighting for our freedom.

Just ask the little boy whose mommy's not coming anymore home from war.

Just ask the young newlywed who just got a military visit at her front door, the high cost of freedom.

And I'm almost certain if you would, you would see how expensive freedom really is.

And the freedom in this spiritual world is far more expensive for to be able to follow the dictates of one's own conscience, 1 must continually be fighting for one's freedom.

For the freedom we experience is really our picture of God and the freedom he gives to you and me.

So as we look at the high cost of spiritual freedom, May we remember that the bath was the Lord's and that it is he that will fight for us.

Father, Lord, as the word is open, and once again, we do humbly ask for your Holy Spirit to teach us, to guide us, to lead us.

And may our eyes and ears be open, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is what?

In other words wherever the Spirit of God is there liberty.

In other words wherever there is liberty allowed that was the whole reason for the Puritans coming to the United States.

They wanted the freedom, the liberty to follow the dictates of one's own conscience.

Wherever that is allowed, then God's presence, His Spirit is poured out upon God's people.

Wherever there is liberty, there's freedom, the Holy Spirit is poured out.

But when man gets in the way, God's Holy Spirit cannot be poured out, not because he's not doing it, but because we ourselves are hindering the Holy Spirit from being poured out upon God's people.

Whether it be ourselves or whether it be us hindering from being poured out upon another person.

Wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, there is liberty.

And there's 1 thing called religious liberty that we've promoted as a church, that we need to believe and we need to practice within God's remnant church, I believe, in these last days.

Where there is liberty, there is the Spirit.

But Satan has spread the lies about the government of God that it is too restricted to be a Christian.

And so this false doctrine is being taught, but beloved God has given us a truth of his word to reveal to us.

Now I invite you to turn to me to Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3.

How was Jesus treated when he was on this earth?

Now we learn that the final Babylon in Revelation 13, we studied this morning, is gonna cause, in other words, they're gonna force you to do what they want you to do.

They're gonna try and control your actions.

They're gonna try and control it by expecting you to do what they want you to do, right?

They're gonna control what you do by expectations.

They're gonna make you do what they want you to do by what they expect of you.

Whenever we give in to the expectations of others, That's the title, but deliver us from evil expectations.

But God wants us to be free, beloved, from the bondage of always trying to live up to the expectations of others.

Free from the manipulation of others, pressuring us to do what they want us to do.

Free from the slavery of always being a people pleaser, and always wanting to make everybody happy.

See, beloved, there is something called conviction.

There's something that comes into your Holy Spirit, convicts you off, giving the dictation of your own mind what you need to do.

But people come along and they have expectations of what they expect you to do.

And therefore, we give in to societal pressures of expectations, and thus we give up the dictates of our own conscience to follow what people are pressuring us and manipulating us to do.

And thus it would be in the last days, expectations.

And the reason why God wants us to be free, 2 things, is so that number 1, we can obey the dictates of our own conscience, and number 2, we will have enough time to do what God is really calling us to do.

I realized in my ministry that I was doing what everyone else wanted me to do, Because I wanted to make everyone happy, make sure that the church is going well, that everyone's getting along.

And I was doing what everyone else expected me to do.

But I realized that by doing what everyone else, and making everyone happy, I realized that I had not enough time to do what God was really calling me to do.

And Satan uses expectations of other people to get you so busy that the ministry and calling that God has called you to is not fulfilling your life because you're too busy to do what God is calling you to do.

And you know, when you don't follow people's expectations, there's a subtle power in expectations.

People can get you to do what they want you to do.

Because they're not happy when you don't fulfill their expectations, is that not true?

And beloved, by the way, how you are preparing yourself today will determine to a large extent how you will react in the last days.

If you are giving in to expectations today, In the last days, there will come a time where you will give in to the expectations to worship on Sunday.

Look at this, Isaiah chapter 53, verse 3, the Bible says, talking about Jesus, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

Now why was Jesus despised and rejected by everyone, is my question.

Look at the 1 that was just handed out to you.

This is taken from Testimonies to Ministers, page 64.

Because he did not come in accordance with their expectations.

He did not fulfill the requirements or the pressures of other people, the expectations of other people.

Now look at the steps, I've kind of laid it out for you what happened here.

The 4 steps, it says here, the people, first of all, they had expectations of Jesus, right?

We learn in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy quote.

Number 2, Jesus did not fulfill their expectations.

And then we also learn, Number 3, they said because the people then rejected and despised Jesus because he would not fulfill their expectations.

And number 4, Jesus experienced sorrow and grief because of this rejection.

In other words, there is a high cost for spiritual freedom, beloved, as a Christian.

He paid the ultimate cost, the cross of Calvary, to gain that freedom.

Now I want you to know something, that even though Jesus had done many miracles, mighty miracles, this was not enough for the people.

Even though he had raised up the dead, this was not enough for the people.

Even though he had brought a revival to the church, this was not enough for the people.

Even though He had raised up the dead this was not enough for the people.

Even though He had brought a revival to the church this was not enough for the people.

Even though He had preached powerful sermons This was not enough for the people.

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But Deliver Us from Evil Expectations

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