Divine Expectations

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Divine Expectations

John 17:18-26

July 30, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • John 17:18–26

Did you know that God has desires that go unfulfilled? While God rules the cosmos in sovereign authority and total dominion, He does not force all of His desires to come to fruition. God desires for all to be saved, but they are not. God desires all Christians to live Spirit-filled lives, but they do not. God desires all churches to glorify Him and advance the Kingdom, but they do not. So then, where can we learn ore about what God desires for individual Christians and for the churches they form? In John 17, Jesus Christ offers a prayer to the Father that reveals four essential components of what it means to be a people who live in a commitment to fulfill the desires of God. Any Christian can do these things. So can every local church. We are being offered an opportunity to rise to the divine expectation contained in Jesus prayer to the Father.

Fixing Your Focus

November 26, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • John 21:15–22

It might sound somewhat simplistic to some, but it really is true that each Christian's life can be summed up with the headline of, "I am a Jesus-follower." As we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ by faith, Heaven's expectation is that we live all our days following Him in trusting obedience. As we all commit to keep our eyes on Jesus, many potential distractions come along that can result in us getting off track. One of the most common and lethal distractions to those who are to follow Jesus is our tendency to fixate upon what is happening with other people. The life of a Jesus-follower requires intense focus on the Lord as He leads us. When we become distracted by how He is leading others, or the degree to which we believe they are faithfully following Him, we become sidetracked as we take our eyes off of Him. No clearer example of this danger is found in Scripture than that of the Apostle Peter. From this pivotal moment in his life, we see how easy it is to get distracted from following Jesus, and how intense Jesus is in His command for us to keep our eyes on Him.

Dangerous Elevations

November 19, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Mark 9:30–35

We should not glamorize or romanticize the early Church - they had major issues just like we do today. If we go back 2,000 years in Church history, you will find there a problem that is still around today. One of these problems is our tendency to divide and fragment the unity of the Body of Christ based on what particular leader (or what type of leader) we think is the best suited to lead us. Jesus first followers had a major problem with envy for positions, leader-worshipping, and faulty awareness of inferior motivations for Kingdom ministry. What is the cure for these types of ills? Remaining centered on the person of Christ, and remaining tenaciously committed to the big-picture of the Kingdom no matter what others might be doing around you. In the end, the words of Jesus and the Apostle Paul empower us today to miss the landmines that the early Church repeatedly stepped on.

We Need A Move

November 12, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Isaiah 64:1–9

If we are walking in the Spirit, then we are always hungry for more from God. We long for more of His presence to manifest. We see the great need for His power to change our own lives and the world around us. We pant after a greater experience of His ways becoming our ways. Yet, we also sense the struggles. We hit the bumps in the discipleship-road. Our flesh (and the flesh of others) hasn’t laid down and fully died. We live in the tension of knowing what God can and will do, versus the sometimes overwhelming reality that we are only experiencing a fraction of what we know is available to us from Him. In the end, we discover like the Prophet Isaiah long ago that we stand in need of a move from Heaven. This message reveals how we can position ourselves to receive and steward a move of God.