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Guest (Male): Having the right kind of expectations. Next on Study the Word.

Pastor Thom Keller: You cannot be pluralistic and be saved. If you doubt that, let me ask you a question. How faithful can you be to your wife if you have three others? How faithful can you be to your wife if you have three other wives? You can't be faithful to Jesus and live in a pluralistic world where there are many ways to God.

We need to be as Peter. When Jesus turned to the twelve and asked, "Are you going to?" Peter said, "Where would we go? No one else has the words that lead to eternal life."

Expectations. We all have them, but are they helping or hurting? It's been said that each of us goes through life either pretending or fighting. We pretend we're not upset when things don't go our way, or we don't pretend we're ready to fight. Well, today's Study the Word will lead us to the sort of expectations we're to have and steer clear of the wrong ones.

Our teacher, Pastor Thom Keller, is in the Old Testament book of Ezra. We join him in chapter three with an expectation that's based in tradition but not in Scripture.

If you've seen the Western Wall where they pray against that wall, the reason they pray against that wall is the Jews believe that when the temple was destroyed, they believe that the Holy Spirit of God who rested on the Ark of the Covenant, they believe that when the temple was destroyed, the Holy Spirit because the ark was taken, the Holy Spirit went and entered into the Western Wall. So that's why they pray there. They think that the Holy Spirit that was at one time in the temple is now in the Western Wall.

But behind that wall, directly behind that wall is this tunnel, and it goes on and on and on. There are caverns, up steps, down steps, lefts, rights, huge arches. The Temple Mount is twenty football fields large. Twenty football fields large. Under the temple, you may think it was built on a mountain, on a hill, so there's a lot of fill necessary to make a twenty-football-field area flat. What they did is they actually built arches and colonnades underneath. In some places, there are three series of arches. Some of the corners are actually as tall as a fifteen-story building.

Imagine how hard. If you picture the Roman arches, there's a Roman arch, a tier of stone, a Roman arch on top of that, a tier of stone, a Roman arch on top of that. That's what's under the Temple Mount. So if you think it's just dirt and gravel under there, it's not. There are all these tunnels. If you see Solomon's Stables, this is under the Temple Mount. This is where Solomon kept his horses. This is where the Knights Templar when they were in power in Jerusalem, where they kept their horses as well.

Could it be that the ark is under there? Well, Jews aren't allowed to go under. The Muslims control the Temple Mount and they're very finicky on this point. There are people that have said they've seen the Ark of the Covenant under there. I don't know. We're going to get to heaven and find out. The significance of the ark is that what was inside the ark was the Ten Commandments written on a tablet of stone, Aaron's rod, he had like a cane that budded, and that's in there, and also a jar or can of manna was in there as well.

The point is that it would appear that from the time of Babylon's conquest on, the Ark of the Covenant has never been seen again. It has certainly not been in any temple since that time of that original ark. The original ark was missing. They're going to rebuild an ark in this one, but it's not the original ark. So the tablet is missing, Aaron's rod is missing, the manna is missing because it was a duplicate.

Going into Ezra 3:3, it says this: "Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar at its own site. Then they began to sacrifice burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord each morning and evening." Now, there was a lamb that was sacrificed in the morning and in the afternoon. In the morning, they don't know what time the morning sacrifice was, but it was prohibited to be at sunrise, so they worked very hard to make sure they did not offer it too early.

The afternoon sacrifice, historians and Josephus say it was 3:00 in the afternoon that this lamb was sacrificed. What time did Jesus cry out, "It is finished"? 3:00. So at the exact same time Jesus was crying out, "It is finished," that exact same time the high priest Caiaphas was in the temple sacrificing that lamb. I think about the fact that for fifteen hundred years before Jesus came, every 3:00, I picture God and Jesus watching that lamb being sacrificed, knowing that in fifteen hundred years, fourteen hundred years, thirteen hundred years, twelve hundred years, it will be you. It will be you.

We go then into verses four to six. It says they celebrated the Festival of Shelters as prescribed in the Law of Moses, sacrificing the burnt offerings specified for each day of the festival. They also offered their regular burnt offerings and the offerings required for the new moon celebrations and the other annual festivals to the Lord. Freewill offerings were also sacrificed to the Lord by the people.

Fifteen days before the Festival of Shelters began, the priests had begun to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. This was also before they had started to lay the foundation of the Lord's temple. Now, it mentions here this Festival of Shelters. What is that? In Leviticus 23, it says this, again, Moses writing, during the time of Moses, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. This is a celebration Jews still celebrate today. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival will last for seven days, one week.'"

And then verse 42, "For seven days, you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters. This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.'"

And so this today is Sukkot, S-U-K-K-U-H. In Israel, if you go to Israel in the orthodox sections, you'll see things like this. They'll build a little pole building, and they'll put, they're commanded in Moses's instructions to put boughs of trees over the top of them, and they will eat dinner in there, some will sleep in them during this seven-week period. They just live in these shelters for that week. So this is what they're talking about.

I thought isn't it pretty significant? They had been prosperous in Israel for a long time, David, Solomon, and had their homes. They've been cast out. Now they come back. Isn't it pretty fitting that they would be celebrating this Festival of Shelters at a time where they really don't have permanent homes yet? They didn't need much of a reminder of the fact that there was a time when they were without homes when they left Israel. They're in the same boat now. It's a flashback.

Going on to verse seven, it says, "Then they hired masons and carpenters and brought cedar logs from the people of Tyre and Sidon, paying with food, wine, and olive oil. The logs were brought down from the Lebanon mountains and floated down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Joppa or Jaffa today, for King Cyrus had given permission for this." Sidon and Tyre, they were known for trees, and so they cut them, float them down the water and then bring them in. You can see Jaffa there. From Jaffa, they transported them across ground to Jerusalem.

Ezra 8 and 9 says, "The construction of the temple of God began in mid-spring during the second year after their arrival in Jerusalem. The workforce was made up of everyone who had returned from exile, including Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and his fellow priests and all the Levites. The Levites who were twenty years old or older were put in charge of rebuilding the Lord's temple. They worked at the temple of God, were supervised by Jeshua and his sons and relatives and Kadmiel and his sons, all descendants of Hodaviah. They were helped in this task by the tribes of the family of Henadad."

It says that they started in the second month, which was the same month Solomon began building his temple. They're probably, you'll see through this, they're trying to duplicate a lot of what Solomon did. Going on to verse ten, it says, "When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord's temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow the trumpets. Remember, the foundation's there and the altar, that's it."

The priests put on their robes and took their places to blow the trumpets, and the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had prescribed. With praises and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord. Listen to this carefully. It says, "He is so good, his faithful love for Israel endures forever. His faithful love for Israel endures forever."

They are really mimicking what King David did when he celebrated the instructions that were for how it was to be celebrated, Solomon. But if you look at Solomon, back in 2 Chronicles, Solomon says this just a little different, and I think this is worth noting. "Indeed, it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking God, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, they praised the Lord saying," here's what they said, "For He is good, for His mercy endures forever."

What they say is that the mercy of God endures forever, but what they said here in Ezra is that His faithful love for Israel continues forever. In the original temple, Solomon did not say that His mercy continues toward the Israelites. It just says His mercy continues forever. What I think this might be is just a little bit telling is that the Jews have become a little bit inclusive at this point. In other words, it's more about us. His mercy is toward us, not all peoples.

In the Bible, it's clear that when God gave the law to the Jews, it was designed that they would be a light to the nations. That was the original intent. By the time Jesus came, which we're not far from this, and this same concept is starting to take place, is that the Jews started to feel that God's blessings were just for them and the Gentiles were dogs and not spoken highly of at all by the Jews. So it makes sense that here when they pray this prayer, that they would include His mercy is toward Israel. It's just a little distinction.

Going on to verse eleven to the end, it says, "Then the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord's temple had been laid. Many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders remembered the first temple." Remember it was only seventy years ago that it had been destroyed, so some of them were around to have seen Solomon's temple.

The ones that remembered it, they wept aloud when they saw the new temple's foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. Joyful shouting, can you picture this, can you hear this, the joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud commotion that could be heard far in the distance. Far in the distance.

What happens here is many of the older priests and Levites remembered the first temple. And they wept because they had served in that temple. Remember too a Levite, the temple was kind of their second home. They were called to serve, to protect, to serve in the temple. And when they saw that, when the ones that remembered the Solomon's temple, they wept because this, the glory of this temple was going to be so far short of the glory of Solomon's temple.

To give you an example, they did a study of how much silver and gold by weight was included in Solomon's temple because those measurements are given. We know how much that is. And it was two hundred billion dollars. That's the amount of gold and silver at today's prices was given to Solomon's temple, two hundred billion dollars.

We know from Ezra chapter two that the amount that they spent on this temple was thirty-four million. Thirty-four million is a lot of dollars, but it's nothing compared to two hundred billion. The difference is thirty-four million as compared to two hundred billion is .017 percent. .017 percent, not 1.7 percent, .017 percent. Or said another way, they spent 5,800 times more money on Solomon's temple than this temple. 5,800 times more.

So can you see why, although it wasn't built, they knew where this was headed, that the glory of this temple was not going to compare to the glory of the second temple. And so you have this very strange sound, these people that have come together with one purpose, one call, one mission. They gather as one person to build this temple. And when it's completed, when the altar's in place, the foundation is set up, you have this very strange celebration where some of the people are crying, weeping loudly, and the rest of the people are loudly rejoicing. That's what it says, "The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance."

How does this apply to me? Well, both groups worked on the same project. Both witnessed the same events as they built it, yet one group wept with a loud voice while the other group shouted aloud for joy. Why? Why was one group filled with sorrow and the other overflowing with joy? The reason is because the one group entered into this project with expectations. They had expectations based upon the past, based upon the old temple.

The newer group, the younger group, did not have these expectations. The older people who remembered the former glory of Solomon's temple wept, whereas those who had never seen Solomon's temple were filled with joy at the thought of any true temple of God finally being started, being rebuilt, because they came with no expectations.

Here's our lesson today. If you face Monday mornings with expectations of how other people should treat you, of how your day should go, of what your friends or family should do or not do, then you are headed for a disappointing day and maybe even depression.

We all have expectations that can be the driving force behind our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Expectations are what you think should happen in your life. We all have "should-ofs" in our lives. "My husband should pick up his clothes from beside the bed. Our children should speak in love to one another. My son should call me once a week. My wife should be at my beck and call."

Expectations set ourselves up for failure and disappointments. Most expect life to turn out better than it's going to, better than possible. Most think your day is going to turn out different than you think, but it's a trap. If I expect perfection from another person, then I've set us both up for disappointment.

Some examples. You're getting ready to go to work and you think to yourself, "I hope," a lot of times we say the word hope, we're really saying "I expect." "I hope today goes well. I hope nothing goes wrong today." Here, "I expect nothing to go wrong today." And in saying that, you're setting yourself up for a bad day. Why? Because the first thing that goes wrong, you get upset. You're disappointed or maybe even angry.

Driving a car, this one hits me. "I hope," here "expect," "I hope that guy doesn't pull out in front of me." And if the other driver doesn't meet my expectations, I'm upset. I'm angry because what I hoped, what I expected, didn't happen.

Or in vacation, "I hope we have nice weather," here "expect." And if it rains, disappointment, bad attitude, grumpy. "I hope my son will call me this week." And if he doesn't call, resentment, you take on an offense. It is expressed in your voice as you speak to him the next time.

What's the answer? When it comes to your expectations about other people, give them to God. Give your expectations to God. On my prayer list, I wrote many years ago, every day, "God, I give my expectations to you." Give them to Him. Don't have expectations. Doesn't mean you can't believe the best in people, just don't be shocked if it doesn't happen.

What does this look like? A husband, true story, husband was chronically late for dinner. His wife went to a minister and said, "I can't handle this. It's driving me to distraction. He comes home later and later. He comes home and the food is cold and I'm hot." And the minister said, "You know, your problem is you have expectations. You expect him to come home at a certain time."

And she said, "Well, shouldn't I?" "Well, is it working? Here's the thing to do. Don't have expectations. Just be glad he's coming home tonight. Some husbands won't come home tonight. Yours is." Just don't have expectations.

So he came home, 7:30. He's expecting something to be thrown at him, and there she is, nice smile, warm food on the table. And he says, "Who are you and what did you do with my wife?" The story goes, true story, he started coming home earlier.

Don't have expectations. You know, an example. I go to work without expectations and five things go wrong. I come home and my wife says, "How was your day?" I say, "It went pretty good. It could've been a lot worse. It could've been a lot worse."

You know, rain in vacation. Don't have expectations. Sue and our 20th anniversary, we went to Germany, and it rained every day. It rained every day. And you know, I have the best memories of walking under an umbrella with her, laughing through these, in October where the leaves were turning, just the best memories. But you know, we could've been grumpy. "Why not? Why wasn't it? It could've been."

It's not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you, and that begins by not having expectations. This is a large piece of how to conquer anxiety and worry. Give your expectations to God.

And when you give your expectations to God, you will walk into this rest that God promises for those who believe, that are willing to get there. Hebrews 4:9, most think Paul wrote Hebrews, "So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors just as God did after creating the world." And the idea is that God has this rest for you, this place where you can just—just—and that begins by not having expectations.

One woman talking about expectations said this. She said, "Do not expect your husband to live up to all your expectations. Instead, give your expectations to God. This will cause you to be grateful for anything and everything he does. Expectations can destroy our relationships."

She says, "When I got married, I had expectations, a lot of expectations from Ken. I expected him to be a romantic. I expected him to help me clean the house, to put the toilet seat down, to say wonderful things to me all the time, to clean up his mess, to not watch much television, to read the Bible and pray with me every day, to let me be right after every argument." Honest woman. A man could say all these same things. "And apologize to me. Other women would tell me that he wasn't a very good husband because he didn't help with the babies much or help clean the house. Then I would get really mad at him, hoping that that would change him into the husband I wanted him to be.

How I wish I hadn't placed all those expectations on him and had just loved him for working hard, for being faithful, for being kind and loving, for being a wonderful father." She says, "Now I clearly see all his wonderful traits and don't even notice his faults. Maybe that is because he's perfect now." No, he's not. But doesn't it feel good as a husband to think your wife thinks you are? Doesn't it feel wonderful as a wife to think your husband thinks you are? But it begins with giving up those expectations.

Some of our homes could use a home makeover. I don't mean by new carpet and paint, but by a makeover of demolishing some expectations, of living in a home where you don't live with expectations, unrealistic expectations. Surrender your expectations to God.

But in closing, there is one expectation that God wants us to have. There is one expectation He really wants us to have, and that is a strong and certain, sure expectation of eternal life, of heaven, because of what Jesus has done.

Guest (Male): You can know the forgiveness of sin and expect to live forever with God by faith in Jesus. Thanks for studying the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. Today we've been in the book of Ezra. You can hear this study again by going to CCLEB.com. Visit CCLEB.com and have a look under Resources. There you'll find our teaching archives. Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862.

And this month, we're pleased to offer you an excellent book by Andrew Murray called *The Blessings of Obedience*. Obedience isn't a popular word these days. We live in a world where people fight for their will and way and consider rules an inconvenience. But obedience to God is much more than just following rules. It's a matter of the heart and a true blessing. Andrew Murray has an eye on God's love behind His commands and the grace the Lord offers us that makes it all possible to obey.

We'll send this to you with our thanks for a gift of any amount to Study the Word. And please remember your contribution makes it possible for us to present Study the Word on this station. Call 717-507-7862. Or you can write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046.

And you're always invited to join us for a worship service here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Turn to CCLEB.com for our service times, church news, directions, and more info. Please introduce yourself to Pastor Thom after the service. He'd love that. And download our free Android app when you get a chance. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. We'll pick up where we left off in Ezra next time on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. And until then, keep studying the Word.