Life on Planet Earth on Expectations

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How We Wait

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Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Habakkuk 2:3, James 5:7-8, 2 Peter 3:8-9, Psalm 27:13-14

Part of our experience of waiting is cultural, and how time elapses while we wait can vary from person to person and context to context. We wait differently and we have different expectations that are...

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Author

Bill Watterson

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I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations.

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Author

Ronald Heifetz

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Leadership is often a matter of failing people’s expectations at a rate they can stand.

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Author

A. B. Simpson

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Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.

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I'm not Your Mother

Author

Luke Norsworthy

Keywords

Their first night home after their honeymoon, Paul set his alarm clock, turned off the lamp, fell onto the pillow, and said to his wife of six days, Rachel, “I’ve got to leave for work at six, so can ...

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Winner and Loser Lane

Author

Tom Hughes

Keywords

Back in 1958, a baby boy was born into the Lane family. The father, a man named Robert, chose to name his boy Winner. How could the young man fell to succeed with a name like Winner Lane? Several yea...

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Author

William Carey

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Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.

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Author

Charlotte Brontë

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Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not match the expectation.

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Author

Andrew M. Davis

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But what seems to happen in our lived practice of worship is that we don’t simply enjoy the stimulation; we expect it from God. We don’t just value “positive” emotions, but in our lived experience and...

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Author

Hannah Whitall Smith

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No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disa...

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Author

Ernest Hemingway

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You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would a...

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The Construction of Utopias

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 16:10, Acts 17:26-27, Zechariah 4:10, Matthew 25:21, Colossians 3:23-24

One of the seductions that continues to bedevil Christian obedience is the construction of utopias, whether in fact or fantasy, ideal places where we can live the good and blessed and righteous life w...

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Lamont Butler or Bubba Watson?

Author

Dave Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:3, Luke 24:1-12, Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:1-10, John 11:25-26, John 20:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Is Easter a Lamont Butler kind of day or a Bubba Watson sort of day? On April 1, 2023, Lamont Butler buried the miracle buzzer-beater that advanced San Diego State to the NCAA national championship g...

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Stories We Tell Ourselves

Author

The Cruzman

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:1-2, John 7:24, Proverbs 3:5, Ecclesiastes 7:9

A man named Jack was driving on a dark country road one night when he got a flat tire. He saw a cabin in the woods and began to walk towards it. He told himself that the person who answered the door w...

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The Perfect (Mythical) Woman

Author

Richella J. Parham

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 6:4-5, 2 Corinthians 10:12, Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Psalm 139:14, Romans 12:4-5, Philippians 4:11-13

In her excellent little book (Mythical Me), Richella Parham begins by describing a single event that led to a personal journey into addressing her struggles with comparison. Having recently moved to a...

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Who Didn't Make it Out?

Author

Jim Collins

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Proverbs 13:12, Numbers 14:, James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great , interviewed Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking officer in the Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Regarding the ...

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Giving a Glimpse of God

Author

Bob Goff

Keywords

If you’ve ever run a business or led a team of people, you know what it’s like to send someone in your place. You know they’re going to interact with a person who might not know you, and that person w...

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A Surprise Performance

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 4:10-12, Isaiah 61:1-3 , Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalm 40:2-3

One summer, the composer Edvard Grieg stayed at a small Norwegian hotel. A restless child also resided there, constantly annoying the guests by attempting to play the piano, producing nothing but disc...

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Giotto’s Children

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, Proverbs 31:30, 1 Peter 3:3-4, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 139:13-14

When the renowned writer and poet Dante Alighieri first saw the painter Giotto’s children, he was startled by their ugliness. “My friend,” Dante remarked, “you create such lovely figures in your art—w...

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The Dart-Board

Author

Joan Chittister

Keywords

The Benedictine nun Joan Chittister recounts a story she once heard by a communications professor, which she said fundamentally changed the way she thought about success and failure: A young boy was...

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Almighty God, you have surprised us

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 13:44, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 139:7-10, 1 John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Luke 2:1-20, John 4:7-26, John 21:1-14, Luke 24:13-35, Matthew 17:1-8, Luke 2:25-38, Luke 1:35-38, Hebrews 13:2, Isaiah 43:19

Almighty God, you have surprised us with your presence in unexpected ways. In the expectations of our routine, we have missed the treasure that you place before us. We come to worship you in community...

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Mother's Day Sermon Ideas: Four Verses That Find Motherhood in the Heart of God

Author

Ryan Bundrick

Keywords

Mother’s Day is complicated for a pastor. Among the happy families that are celebrating, there are children who were abused by mothers, mothers who lost lost a child, and women suffering from inferti...

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Fostering Shame in a Little Girl

Author

Sandra D. Wilson

Keywords

I was standing in line in a crowded public rest room engaged in one of my favorite hobbies, people watching, when I observed a brief interaction between a mother and daughter. Mother looked harried an...

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Everyday Pain

Author

Alan Noble

Keywords

Scripture

Job 2:11-13, Ecclesiastes 9:11-12, Lamentations 3:19-26, Luke 16:19-31, James 1:2-4, Psalm 34:17-18

I’ve known a lot of people who have lived painful, tragic lives. When I was young, I assumed these people were abnormal. Their suffering was the exception that proved the rule that a well-lived life i...

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Almighty God, we confess our need of

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Almighty God, we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance. We each have our hopes and expectations for what lies ahead, but only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we need. In life...

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Gracious God, we've gathered this

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Gracious God, we've gathered this morning seeking forgiveness for the sins we've committed in our lives and to hear Your words of pardon and grace. We've fallen short of Your expectations ...

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Gracious God, in six days you created

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Gracious God, in six days you created all things. On the seventh day you finished your work by resting. You also blessed and hallowed the seventh day, setting it aside as a day of rest. Teach me, Lord...

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Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Romans 12:2, Matthew 1:23, John 11:25-26, Hebrews 13:3

Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t wait! Some of us can’t wait for Christmas to come, while (honestly) some others of us can’t wait for it to be over. We’re not proud of it—but that’s just the way it is ...

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Author

A. W. Tozer

Keywords

The true Church has never sounded out public expectations before launching her mission. Her leaders heard from God, they knew their Lord's will and did it. Their people followed them - sometimes t...

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The Mess Serves a Purpose

Author

Matthew Kelly

Keywords

The Gospel doesn't reveal to us that life isn't messy. In fact, God, in the Incarnation, joins us in the mess. Consider this illustration to highlight how the Incarnation transforms our expe...

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