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All right, amen. Proverbs chapter 19, real quickly, look at verse number 21. The Bible says, there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. Now you can keep your place there because we're going to come back to it here in a little bit, but turn to second, I'm sorry, first Timothy chapter number three, first Timothy chapter number three. So what we're going to talk about this evening are expectations I didn't sign up for, expectations I didn't sign up for, and by I, I don't mean me personally, necessarily, I mean all of us. Okay. We're going to talk about expectations. Now let me just say a couple of things about expectations right off the bat. Expectations can be a very good thing. Okay. Nobody's denying that. Nobody's saying that. Nobody's saying that, you know, Oh, this is a sermon against all expectations. That would be foolish. That's absolutely ridiculous. Okay. So what we're talking about today, this evening are expectations that we mindlessly, subconsciously follow that we didn't sign up for. What I've seen in my life, especially as being a pastor is a big reason that people are depressed, angry, sad, mad, whatever you want to call it, unhappy is because of unmet expectations. What I've seen is a lot of times in life, we'll get really bummed out. We'll get, you know, just, just be down in the dumps. We're reacting to life events in a certain way. And when you really look at it, it's not that we're reacting to life events, we're reacting to expectations that we had about those life events. What I want to say about that before we even get started is that, you know, nine times out of 10, most of the time, these expectations that are unmet, we didn't even set them. We didn't evaluate them. We didn't audit them and we certainly didn't sign up for them, but because of human nature and because of what I'm going to call this evening, the expectation executioners, okay. Or as Paul puts it, they would be of the number, okay, because of these people and how they operate. And you're going to see this unfold and unpack tonight because of them. We have a tendency sometimes to follow things that we didn't even agree to. And so a lot of times you're going to find people bummed out and just in this state of depression solely because they're trying to meet expectations that aren't even biblical, that they didn't even sign up for. And that is a real problem. That's a bigger problem than you might imagine. Now what inspired the sermon as I was talking to a new evangelical pastor, he didn't step down, but he reassigned himself. He went from lead pastor to like the carwash pastor. Now I don't know if there's a carwash pastor, but if there is, I wouldn't put it past half these churches around here. But I was doing some work for him and he was like, oh, you know, I heard, you know, you know that you are, you're a pastor. And so immediately, you know, I just try to spin it right back on him and I want to talk about where or what. And he's like, ah, and I can see your work. And so yeah, it's gotta be difficult and you must be struggling and this and that. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So why did you quit being the lead pastor? Well, what happened? He goes, let me tell you what happened, okay. As the lead pastor, you're expected to be the CEO. You're expected to grow the budget every year by a certain percentage. You're expected to grow the church by a certain percentage every year. You're expected to put on a podcast. You're expected to be an author. You're expected to be a celebrity. And he just kept going on and on and on and on. And I'm sitting here thinking, wow, these new evangelicals really have it worse than I thought. You know, it is much more difficult to be a new evangelical pastor than it is to be a independent, fundamental Bible believing preacher. It's way harder. I, you know, I had never thought about it that way. And I agreed with him. I was like, wow, I guess you're right. And I said, so what happened? If you don't mind me asking, tell me what happened. And he just said, I just couldn't do it. He's like, the pressure was aging me. I was losing my hair. I was losing my health. My blood pressure shot through the roof. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking this is a sermon. This is one coming here because the Bible doesn't say anything about any of that. And I'm like, man, if you would just believe the Bible, just read and follow the Bible, you wouldn't have any of that pressure on you at all. And you would still be able to serve God and so on and so forth. But you know, it makes sense when you understand the fact that most of these people believe in an I type gospel to, well, I must do this. I must do that. I must earn. Okay. Yeah. It makes sense. You know, and he's just like, oh, also don't forget. You know, you gotta be their counselor. You gotta be their friend. You gotta be, and he's just going on and on and I'm like, where is that in the Bible? Where is any of that in the Bible? And of course they could try to insert and twist and prod and things like that. I heard a, I didn't hear, I read a statement in a private group probably about three or four years ago that we were in. Still into this day, but it was a pastor and he'd made this comment. He's no longer a pastor today, but he basically said, you know what? I'm just sick and tired of, you know, I've already been doing this for two years. I'm sick and tired of having to be everyone's father, everyone's mother, cousin, aunt, uncle, you know, it just kept going on just like this guy. And I told Jessica when she read that statement to me, I said, he's going to quit. He's already done because he has subscribed up. He's signed up for a job that doesn't exist, that isn't there. You know, and what this other guy was telling me, he's like, you know, you can't afford to have a bad day. You can't afford to stutter. You can't afford to miss a beat. You can't afford any of this stuff. And I was like, says who? Have you ever heard of the apostle Paul? Have you ever read second Corinthians chapter 10? Have you ever read first Corinthians chapters one through four? Of course I didn't say this to this guy, but this is what I'm thinking. And then I realized, wow, you know, if he struggled with this, if, and I started auditing my own life and I'm like, wow, you know, I'm actually, there's certain areas of my life where I'm trying to meet expectations that other people have set for me. And I'm like, whoa, wait a second. I'm going to stop doing that. You know, especially at work because, you know, I'll just throw this out there. One of the weak areas that I have at my job is that sometimes I'll run into like these intermittent issues. Like somebody will be like, hey, well this machine is doing this intermittently, okay? And I'm trying to be a hero because I've been going to school for five years to learn how to do this. And I think I'm pretty good. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to find this out. Right? And so then I start seeing things and I'm like, well, this is it. And it turns out I'm wrong because I didn't actually witness the machine at its fault state. And then I realized, you know, as I'm putting the sermon together, like this is why I'm failing because I'm trying to meet someone else's expectations. If I would just go back and review some of the lessons that I've had over the years where they tell you it is impossible to diagnose a machine that ain't broke. And if I'm standing in front of it and it isn't broke, I can't help you, okay? So that's an area and it's kind of, you know, worldly or whatever, silly. But hey, you know, if that's going to help me, then I believe that this can definitely help you. But let me just go back to, you know, these pastors that are like, oh, they expect me to do this and people please and this and this. You know, here's why I don't worry about any of that stuff. First Timothy chapter number three. Let's get started here this evening. Look at verse number one. So here's what the apostle Paul tells Timothy, the elder Timothy, the bishop, the pastor. He says this, this is now I want you to look at these next two words, okay? This is a true saying. This is a true saying. So what are we supposed to be interested first and foremost as believers? The truth. So this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work, right? If that's your desire, hey, that is a good work. That is a good desire to have. I believe that God put that desire there for you. Now here are the expectations. Here are the standards. Verse two, a bishop then must be blameless. Doesn't say sinless. Doesn't say people pleaser, okay? Says blameless. We could do a whole night on this word blameless here, but obviously we know it's that the pastor has to believe the word of God, be living according to the word of God, you know, be a Christian, be doing things that are good and not, you know, being in trouble all the time with the community and the list goes on and on and on and look what it says next. The husband of one wife. That's pretty clear. Okay. I think that's very clear. Vigilant. Okay. What does that mean? Having your eyes open, being aware, understanding what's going on around you, situational awareness, things of that nature. Sober. We talked about that on Sunday. Of good behavior. Given to hospitality, apt to teach. Now see that word there, hospitality, people say, well, see, the Bible says you're a servant or you're a minister. So therefore you're going to do what I want you to do. You're here to serve me. That's how a lot of Christian people, Christian people with quotes actually think. When I first moved here, there was an individual who actually thought that, who actually thought, well, you're here as a minister, you're a servant of the people. Yes, this is true, but I am not here to do whatever you tell me to do. I am not here to run your family. I am not here to preach about conspiracies every other service. That is not what this is talking about at all. Now thank God we don't have these problems here today, but these things do happen. Look at verse number three. Not given to wine, no striker. So you could be a grappler, but you can't, no, I'm just kidding. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, but patient, but patient. You've got to have some level of patience if you want this office, meaning when somebody comes to you with an idea or somebody comes to you with a problem, you can't be like, man, get out of here. I'm sick of it. I don't have, I'm done with you, okay? You don't want to be like that. You want to have patience, not a brawler, not covetous, verse four, one that rules his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity, right? Four verses deep, where's the CEO? Where does it say I have to raise the budget? Where does it say I have to bring in more people every single year? Where does it say I have to expand the building? Where does it say I have to, you know, do anything like that? Where does it say that? Where does it say I have to be an author? I have to be a podcaster. I have to do this. I have to make documentaries. It's not in there, is it? So why do we hold ourselves to these types of expectations is the real question. Verse five, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Verse six, not a novice being lifted up with pride, or less being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Okay, now you see novices all the time. In fact, really what you see are people that aren't even saved being pastors. But you know, honestly, in what we call the old IFB, you'll run into novice people. You'll run into people that aren't even married being pastors in some circles of the old IFB. That's true. Verse seven, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Right? So as a mature believer, and by the way, these are good expectations. These are good standards that all of us should follow if we can. You know, there's definitely nothing wrong with that. Now you can leave your place there and go to Deuteronomy chapter number 19. But seven verses deep, then he's gonna get into the deacons, okay? Nothing about the CEO, or adding pastoral positions, or adding this, or having a media pastor, a carwash pastor, a connections pastor, okay? Nothing in the Bible speaks of any of that, okay? So why do we subject ourselves to pressures from expectations from people when we haven't even sat down and thought about these things? We haven't even sat down and audited these things. But because we have this innate desire in ourselves to wanna please people, we do these things oftentimes without even thinking about them. Now, of course, that's just the example of being a pastor, something to have some experience with. But you could apply these things in any area of your life. You know? And let me just stop right here and say this too. Sometimes your boss, you guys' bosses at work, they're gonna have expectations that seem impossible to meet. I have a different message for that, okay? I have a different sermon for that. Obviously, we should try to meet those if possible. And I'll just give you a quick example. I can remember one time when I was in the military, myself and a few other people got woken up by our squad leader at two o'clock in the morning in the middle of the woods. He said, go get a haircut. Go get a haircut right now. Hurry up. You've got 20 minutes. Go get a haircut in the middle of the woods. You know? What was that guy thinking, you know? Now, we met that expectation. We found somebody that had packed, you know, those razors with like the three, you know, circular blades on them and the back's got like a little flip up thing so you can like trim your sideburns. I should have brought one as an example. But just imagine that, okay? I wound up getting a haircut with that at two o'clock in the morning. And then, of course, later on down the road, thank God, you know, when people saw what we actually look like, they're like, what is this? That guy actually got in trouble. But we attempted to meet that expectation. Sometimes, you know, that stuff can drive you nuts. It can cause you to just have mental breakdown and overload, okay? I got a different sermon for that type of behavior. But really what we're talking about today is these expectations that other people put on us that we didn't sign up for, okay? So what you need to be thinking is you need to be thinking about this exact thing. Is someone trying to get me, whether they realize it or not, are they trying to put me in a box? Are they trying to put me in an area that I didn't sign up for? Okay? If you're dealing with stress, anxiety, and things of this nature, that could be the cause. That could be the reason for that. So we want to watch out for that. Now let me show you the problem with doing this, especially in the Christian community. There is a big problem, and I want to show you how God views this behavior when he sees it go on. Deuteronomy 19, look at verse number 14. So the Bible says this, Deuteronomy 19, verse 14, thou shall not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. So obviously here, Deuteronomy chapter 19, the children of Israel are about to go into the promised land. Moses is about to go to be with the Lord, and so God is giving him final instructions to give to the children of Israel. And one of the commands that he was going to give them is that, hey, when you guys get into the promised land, make sure that everybody knows this, okay? Each family is going to get a landmark, meaning a boundary. Each family is going to get a boundary. That boundary came from God. That boundary came from the Lord. That landmark came from the Lord. And if you look at the verse, he says, thou shall not remove thy neighbor's landmark. So here's the deal. What happens if you do move that landmark? You're probably not going to move it to give your neighbor more property. You're probably going to move it to make your own property bigger, okay? That's what's going on here. So what does that mean? Well, that means you're stealing from your neighbor. You're stealing from your brother. That is theft. That is defrauding a brother. Hey, we are going to go over this verse here on Sunday, so I'm not going to have you turn to it, but 1 Corinthians 6, 8 says, nay. This is Paul dealing with the Corinthians. He says, nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Now obviously it's wrong to defraud anyone, but especially a brother or sister in Christ. We are not supposed to defraud one another. And so when we put expectations on people, okay, that they didn't sign up for and they don't meet our expectations, we are stealing. We are removing their landmark. We are defrauding our brother because then we all, I'm going to look down on Matt because he or she didn't do this and do that, okay? You know, when you feel like that, you need to check yourself. You know, are you putting these expectations on a brother or sister or did they actually agree and sign up for this? Now go back to Proverbs 19 where we first started and we're going to break down verse 21 before we move on. So here's another thing, right? When we, as husbands and wives, put unrealistic expectations on the other spouse, guess what? We're robbing them. We're defrauding them, okay? And we're not supposed to do that. First Corinthians chapter seven talks about that. It's obviously referring to something else, which we'll deal with in a couple of weeks. But again, you know, there can come a mental state, like a husband could be like, wow, you know, just got done learning about this and my wife should be doing this, this, this, and this, right? You don't have this in this conversation. You just expect her to do all of these things. She doesn't do them. You get upset. The next thing you know, the house is on fire, okay? Why is that lack of communications? It's because you're expecting your spouse to meet these things that she didn't sign up for. Okay? There needs to be communication is what I'm saying here. Otherwise if there isn't, we're defrauding one another. We got to be careful with that. So Proverbs 19, look at verse number 21. So again, the Bible says, there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless, the council of the Lord that shall stand. So what are devices? Well, devices, a plan, a ploy, a trick, a tool, something of that nature. It's a broad term, okay? We've all, you know, looked at something before and said, what's that device, okay? So this verse could really apply in a lot of different situations, but one device that obviously is in all of our hearts are expectations, okay? Definitely would be expectations. Again, nothing wrong with expectations, but what's wrong is when we place them on other people, okay? And they didn't agree to them. They didn't sign up for them. Or we take them on ourselves and we didn't evaluate them. We didn't agree to them. We didn't audit them. We didn't say, you know what? These are some things I think I can meet. I think I can do these, okay? Again, nothing wrong with going the extra mile. Again, we're going to talk about that in the future. Definitely nothing wrong with that. Devices can be good when you study these through the Bible, or they can be bad. We're told that the devil has many devices. We're not ignorant of his devices. Now, let's take a look at an example of this and how Paul deals with this here. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10, 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10, we're going to pick this up here in verse 10. So obviously this is Paul's follow-up letter to 1 Corinthians, and I want to start reading here in verse number 10, and you're going to see right off the bat here that Paul is dealing with this very issue here, and I think the way that he describes this is absolutely perfect and will apply to everybody in here. Look at verse 10. It says this, for his letter, so this is Paul speaking, okay, and he's kind of speaking sarcastically here. He says this, for his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible, okay? His speech contemptible. So what Paul's hearing, okay, from the Corinthians, the rumors, the feedback that he's getting is that when he writes a letter to them, you know, it's powerful, it's weighty, it's heavy. There are a lot of things that are hard to be understood in his letters, and so therefore he's got to be smart, and he definitely was. So he gets that feedback, but when he goes and speaks to people, okay, you know what they say? Oh, his bodily presence is weak. He's not a large statute, man. He's not buff, okay? He isn't hitting the trend. He's not on gear. He's not lifting weights. He's not following the right guy. He's not doing any of these things. His bodily presence is weak, okay, so they're mistaking his humility is what I think is probably for weakness, but then he says this, and his speech is contemptible. So the way that he talked, they said, was contemptible, or basically what that means is a strong dislike, or they had like a disrespect. They didn't like the way that he talked, okay? So you've got to ask yourself, how did they like the way people talk? Well, they liked people that were very smooth with the words, that had words of wisdom, right? That's what you see in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians. Paul keeps bringing this up, hey, we preach the gospel to you, not of any words of wisdom, which we ourselves learn, but with the power of God and the Holy Ghost. That's how you preach the gospel, okay? So Paul shows up here. He's written these fantastic letters, and when he goes and talks to these people, they're like, it's not what we expected. We thought you'd be bigger. We thought you'd be taller, and because you're not, well, guess what? Your speech sucks. It's contemptible. We don't like it. We thought that you were going to thunder forth like a Joel Osteen or a TD Jakes or a Steven Furtick, you know, a mega pastor kind of sermon. We thought you were going to be a TED Talk-level speaker, thought you were going to be gifted in speech, okay? That's how they expected him to be, but he just taught them the word of God. He spoke how he spoke. You know, Paul said in another place that, yes, I am rude in speech. He doesn't mean rude like I'm being rude to people, meaning rude as in sometimes the way he talked, people just were like, hmm, that's a very difficult saying, or maybe, you know, the way his words flowed weren't as good as Apollos or somebody else, and so people disrespected him for that, and that's what these guys are doing. They place these expectations on him, and guess what? He didn't sign up for any of these, so how does he deal with it? Let's take a look. Look at verse 11. Just write what he says, right off the bat, verse 11. Let such an one think this. So what does that mean for you? What does that mean for me? That means when somebody has unrealistic expectations for us, guess what? Hey, let them think it. You know, I've got all kinds of stories on this. Yeah, I've had people say, you know, I don't know if you know this, I don't know if you're aware of this, but new-life pastors typically wear a suit jacket on Wednesdays. I say, really? Here's what I hear. I volunteer, Pastor Jones, to take your suit coats to the dry cleaners and pay for it myself and bring it back to you before Sunday. That's what I hear. That's what I hear. You know why? Because I work a full-time job. I work 50, 60, probably 70 hours a week this time of year. Aside from doing this, the only day I can take my jackets to the dry cleaners is on Wednesdays, right before church. So guess what I hear? That's what you're going to do. And they're always like, well, I'm not doing that. Then shut your mouth. How about that? Yeah, I can get a little testy with this type of stuff because I don't like people trying to control me. Okay, maybe it has something to do with the military. You know, when I speak about these types of situations, you will hear the old vet come out of me, okay? And he's not always pleasant to deal with. But a lot of times that guy can be right, okay? I'm just saying. So what do we do? Let such and one think this, okay? He's like, I don't care. Think all you want. Why does Paul have this confidence? How can he not let these things bother him? How did he get to this level? Well, let's take a look. That such as we are in word by letters, when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. So again, what are we supposed to do? We need to be aware and ask ourselves, are we mindlessly, are we blindly following unset expectations? Things that we didn't even agree to, okay? Did we evaluate these? Did we audit them? Did we accept them? Okay, and Paul's like, hey, basically the proof is in the pudding. When we show up, we're going to show you what true workmanship is, okay? Look at verse 12. This verse I've often spoke of kind of like not fully correct and I want to make it correct tonight. Verse 12, for we, okay, for we dare. There's your vigilance, okay? There's your sobriety. For we dare not, okay? So this is something that Paul's like, hey, I'm on the lookout for this type of behavior. For we dare not make ourselves, and here it is, of the number, okay? These three words, of the number. That is a group name. That is a certain group of people. That is the group of people that's like, oh, you're weak, oh, you're this, oh, you're that. Oh, don't you know that you're supposed to have X number of subscribers by five years? Don't you know you're supposed to have this many people by five years? Hey, don't you know you're supposed to drive this if you're a real pastor? Don't you know you're supposed to own your own house if you're a real pastor? How are you supposed to set an example if you run, okay? That's garbage, okay? Those people that do stuff like that, they are this group right here. Three words, of the number. So let's see what of the number is. I like to call them the expectation executioners because these people like to execute people or kill people mentally, physically, spiritually based off of their expectations that they created. And half the time, they don't even create these things for their own selves. They sit around and, oh, these are the standards, these are the expectations that we believe people should hold. And if they don't hold them, guess what? We're gonna kill them. We're gonna let everybody, we're gonna reprobate them. We're gonna let them know, okay? Again, verse 12. For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves, okay? This is where oftentimes I'll be like, okay, I'm not supposed to compare myself, okay? It's not what he's saying. Let's look at the verse. Or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. So this group here, three letters of the number, okay? The expectation executioners. What they do is they commend themselves because they sat around and determined the standard for everyone else. They sat around, they're like the Pharisees or the Sadducees, right? They conjure up these rules and what people should wear and what people should sound like and how tall people should be and how much they should weigh and all of these crazy things. And they say, this is it. And they pat themselves on the back and they commend themselves and they congratulate themselves, okay? And Paul says, no, no, no. For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. So how did Paul get the confidence to respond the way that he did? Because of this wisdom right here. Because he says, you know what? I know something about you. There's something that is gonna be revealed about you, okay? So we dare not, he says, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves and here it is, are not wise. So this group of people here of the number, the expectation executioners are not wise. So how do you get wise? How do you overcome this? How do you break through when people are placing unrealistic, impossible expectations on you that you didn't sign up for? You resist. That's how you do it. You resist. And I'll show you how to do that here in a minute. But look at verse 14. So Paul says, for we, meaning him, Apollos, the apostles, those that are actually not unwise, that these people are wise, he says, for we stretch not ourselves beyond, look at these next two words. Our measure. What does he say? For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure. How many of us stretch ourselves beyond what we are capable of, beyond what we understand solely because we mindlessly blindly follow expectations that we did not sign up for? Paul says, uh-uh, that's not how we do it. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reached not unto you. For we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. That was the mission. Preach the gospel of Christ, all of it. Teach these guys what they need to know. Give them as much truth as possible and exhort them to continue on. That was the mission. But what they wanted is they wanted a celebrity. They wanted their Steven Furtick. They wanted their guy to reach heights of stature beyond what the world has. Really what they're hoping for is an idol. That's what they're hoping for. That's what they're trusting in. It's worldly, it's fleshly, it's devilish. It's the wisdom of this world. It's not the wisdom from above that James talks about. Look at verse 15. Not, so this is the group that you want to be in. Not boasting of things without our measure. So Paul's like, hey, we don't boast about things that we have not done. Verse 15, not boasting of things without or outside of our measure. That is of other men's labors. You want to spot somebody who's unwise. You want to spot somebody who's immature. It is this group of people right here. The expectation executioners or the group that is called of the number. Because what they do is they glory in other men's labors, they don't labor themselves. So that's what he says is wrong here. And then he says, but having hope when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. So here's the thing. Notice how Paul still demonstrates his love and care for these people, even though they're doing this to him. That's how we need to be as well. Now I could be a little aggressive sometimes when I feel like someone's trying to control me. I don't like it. I hate it with a passion. Part of that's because of the military. Part of that's because maybe my grappling background and competing and understanding that whoever's controlling you is gaining points. And sometimes I look at life like that and I'm like, is that person trying to take me down and control me? I'm going to sprawl. I'm going to do this. And that's how my mind works. But at the end of the day, sometimes people do this and they just don't know. They just think this is how it's supposed to be. And so therefore it's our job to be the wise ones, to be mature and say, hey, hold on, man. Let me take you to the Bible real quick. Let's demonstrate what truth is. Let me show you what God expects of me and how I'm working to meet that, okay? And then let me get some feedback after that. Because if you're trying to go outside of that, you're trying to add all this other stuff. Now, okay, one of us is wrong. And I want that person to see who it is. And that's what Paul wants. Look at verse 16. He says, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. So again, Paul's like, hey, look, we're going to show you by our measure, by what God has given us. And we're going to go, we're going to preach to the people that live beyond you. And then you're going to know, hey, how we write is how we operate. That's how we communicate. You might not like the way that we talk. You might not like how we put sentences together. That's okay. You're going to see by my deeds, the proof is in the pudding. Verse 17, but he that gloriest, let him glory in the Lord. This is what we need to remember every single day, okay? When we have the desire to glory, we need to recognize who actually gave us the possibility to even achieve anything glorious. And understand it comes from God. Verse 18, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth, okay? Now we're done right there. You can go to John chapter eight, and we're going to finish this up here. So Paul leaves them on that note right here and says, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. So if you ever feel like you're down in the dumps, like maybe you don't measure up to other people, okay? You need to ask yourself, hey, does this group of people that I'm comparing myself to, are they actually commending themselves? Are they commending themselves and standards that they've set for themselves and for me and other people? If so, disregard. Try to help if you can. If you can't, you walk away. You get away from them because they will cause you grief. You adopt this attitude here. Let them think that. Let them have their thoughts. That's okay because you didn't sign up for that. The Bible says to study, to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That's what it says in second Timothy two. So I'm going to leave you here with the last little bit of application from John chapter eight. We're going to start reading in verse 31. Now I don't have time to break this down. This is a long, difficult chapter to get through, but what you have to understand as you're reading these next few verses, okay? Jesus is talking to a mixed multitude of people. There are people in the crowd that hate him. There are people that just got saved and there are people that are hanging in the balances, okay? So just keep that in mind as we go through this. And this is basically going to confirm the application that we've already been talking about, okay? Am I depressed because of unmet expectations that are unsaid, that I didn't even set, that I did not even agree to, okay? That's what we need to be asking ourselves. John chapter eight, look at verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. Remember, he's talking to a crowd. Some believed on him. Obviously he knows who they are, okay? And he's speaking to them in this crowd. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed? He doesn't say if you continue in my word, then are you saved indeed? There's a big difference between being saved and being a disciple. A disciple is someone who continues, okay? Study this out on your own time. A person that is a disciple, saved, right? That's obviously step one. That's step number one, you gotta be saved, okay? But then you have to continue in word, learning the word of God but also applying the word of God. If you're not applying, you're what? Dying spiritually, that's the fact, that is what it is. So he says if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, okay? So continuing to study the word of God provides you with what? It provides you with awareness of what God expects from you. If you don't do this, that means you're going to be ignorant of what God expects of you and something is going to fill that void. And I can guarantee you what it's gonna be. It's gonna be the people around you. It's gonna be the people that you're looking at. It's gonna be the will of man or the flesh and that's gonna creep in and that's gonna wreak havoc on your life. So he continues on here in verse 32. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. What is he talking about here? Okay, well, what he just said. If you continue in his word, then you shall know and understand the truth and that truth is what makes you free. How was Paul able to be free from the people trying to remove his landmark, the people defrauding him, placing unrealistic expectations on him and placing expectations on him that he did not sign up for? How was he so confident? How was he able to do it? Because of this right here. Obviously he continued in the word. Obviously he's an apostle, okay? He's the ultimate applicator. I mean, very mature in Christ, obviously. I mean, Paul literally did so many things. It's unbelievable, okay? And Jesus says, hey, if you know the truth, that equals freedom. So again, ignorance of the truth equals bondage. It's the exact opposite, okay? You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And now obviously being saved makes you free. We get that, we understand that. But Jesus is talking to those who just believed on him, who just got saved. And he says, hey, I don't want you to just take the grace and run. I don't want you to just get saved and quit. I want you to continue in my word because then you will be free. Then you will be happy. Then you will understand. Okay, verse 33. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye be made free? Now that don't make sense if you just read it like this, because you'd be thinking like, wait a minute, didn't these guys get saved? Why are they now all of a sudden accusing him? Mixed multitude. He's talking to people that hate him in the crowd. He's talking to those who just got saved. And he is also addressing people that are in the balances. So obviously these Jews who did not receive what he said, they hear what he says to those who are saved and they pipe up and say, we be Abraham's seed. That's real popular today. We're Abraham's seed. And the Bible says that we ought to not have a ceasefire. You need to worship the Jew. I gotta, I have to. We be Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Meaning what? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everybody is a sinner. Everyone needs a savior. Verse 35, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever. Why is that statement so important? Look at verse 36. If the son therefore shall make you free. Notice that, okay? It's impossible that he's talking about works here because he says, if the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Okay, so that proves that he's talking to a mixed multitude of people. So the Jews that believed, he's got a word of exhortation for him. And he says, hey, continue in my word. Why is that so important? Well, think about the time you're dealing with here. You've got Jesus on the scene here. He's training his disciples. He's preaching what sounds foreign to a bunch of Jews. Some of them believe on it. And then you've got these other Jews that have a whole nother world of expectations. Their leaders are clean. Their leaders tithe off of everything. Their leaders wear the pretty garments, the long flowy robes. Their leaders trim their beards just right. Their leaders have the perfect hat. Their leaders all meet together and they sit in the uppermost rooms at feast, okay? And Jesus says, hey, this is what you guys are gonna face. Now that you're saved, you're gonna be an outcast from that crowd. And I don't want you to get destroyed by their expectations. And the way you get free from that is by learning what God expects of you and not worrying about what man expects of you. But telling these clowns here, he says, if the sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Look what he says in verse 37. This is what he would tell modern day Israel today, by the way. I know that you're Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. And actually you might omit the first part there because a lot of these so-called Jews that are in Israel today are just religious converts, okay? It's like the saying goes, they left brown and came back white. You know, how does that make sense? But anyways, again, I got a sermon for another day. We're almost done, okay? Look at verse 38. It says, I speak that which I have, and look at this word, seen with my father. Seen with my father. Have you seen the word of God? Have you internalized the word of God? Do you understand the expectations that God has for you, for your marriage, for your life? Because that's all that matters, and that's what provides freedom. So he says, I speak that which I have seen with my father and ye, look at this, ye do that which you have seen with your father. Well, who was their father to this part of the crowd? The devil. The father of lies, the murderer from the beginning is who that is there, okay? So again, we're done right here, okay? Really quick, I just wanna recap this. I just think this is so important. I think it's so easy for us sometimes to just fall into this trap to where we're trying to meet expectations that we didn't sign up for, that we didn't agree to, we haven't evaluated, we haven't even looked at, and next thing you know, man, we're in the dumps, we're just down and out, and we don't know why. A lot of times, it's because of this. It's because we haven't accepted these things, and we're trying to meet them, or we're trying to be people-pleasers, okay? So there's that, okay? Again, most people feel depressed because they have failed to meet some expectations that they did not even set for themselves, and as long as we can become aware of what God's expectations are for us, right? Continue in his word. Why? Because that is what brings truth, and if you have truth, you have freedom, okay? So if you're sitting here today, and you're like, man, I feel like I'm failing in this area of my life, and I'm failing in this area, you know, maybe I'm failing as a husband, as a wife, as a mother, as a, you know, whatever, okay? As a child, or whatever. Hey, what you need to do is learn what God expects of you, then become fully persuaded, follow that, work on that, because then you know, then you're gonna get that confidence that Paul had, right? And you're gonna be able to say, you know what? Let them think whatever they want, because we don't compare ourselves to they which be of the number, or the expectation executioners, okay? You need to watch out for these people, because they will try to take you down. The whole point of a lot of these people is to control you, and we don't like that, right? We are free in Christ, that's what Jesus teaches, and we need to remain free in Christ, and the way you do that is by continuously studying the word of God, and that, my friend, will definitely make you free, so we're gonna stop right there, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for your truth, and for everything that you do for us, and I just pray that you'd bless the rest of the night that we have together, Lord, bless the fellowship. Keep us safe, Lord, and I just pray that you'd bring us back again safely this weekend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.