It’s December! And in our continuing effort to provide really practical, helpful information, I found a top 10 list that you may need over the next 3 weeks. Here it is, Top Ten Things To Say About the Gifts You Don’t Really Like.
10. "Well, well, well, now, there’s a gift!"
9. "No, with all the hostile takeovers this year, I missed the big Ronco/K-Tel/Ginsu merger. Would you just look at that! What will they think of next?!"
8. "Hey, as long as I don’t have to feed it, or clean up after it, or put batteries in it, I’m happy!"
7. "No, really, I didn’t know that there was a Chia Pet tie! Oh, wow! It’s a clip-on too!"
6. "You know, I always wanted one of these! Jog my memory — what’s it called again?"
5. "You know what? — I’m going to find a special place to put this!"
4. "Boy, you don’t see craftsmanship like that every day!"
3. "And it’s such an interesting color too!"
2. "You say that was the last one? Am I sure glad that you snapped that baby up!"
1. "You shouldn’t have! I mean it, you really shouldn’t have!"
Maybe that will prove helpful this Christmas when the gift is from your in-laws or something! But what do you say when the One giving you the gift is God? How do you say to God, “Thanks, Lord, but I really didn’t ask for this!”? What do you say when God brings you something you just really don’t want or think you can use? This morning, I’m thinking especially about the gift of Changed Plans.
You’ve probably seen the saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” I’ve always thought that was funny. Then, I found out that’s an adaptation of a verse…
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
In other words, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans!
James 4:13-15
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that."
This whole year we’ve been focusing on the way that when people have a close encounter with the Lord their lives are forever changed. For the month of December, we’re going to look at people associated with the Christmas story and the way they were forever changed, because one after another there are stories of peoples’ plans being turned on their ears right around the time that Jesus was born. One of the most obvious is Mary…
Luke 1:26-33
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
We don’t know a thing about Mary before she appears here in Lk 1. It’s a short scene, but it also started the forever change in her life. We don’t have any record of her life before that day, so I can’t tell you anything about it. But, I can tell you this for sure: starting with this passage we’re looking at today, her life was never the same.
That can be a good thing, or a not good thing. Either way, having our plans changed can be challenging. What do we do? When that’s the gift God gives us, how do we handle it? Let’s find some answers in this first scene we have from Mary’s life. First,
I. Remember God has Plans
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
1. Scary plans
Sometimes, God’s plans can be scary, because we know they’ll be hard. Maybe you know that because you’ve read your Bible – you’ve read about Job, about Jonah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Moses, about the Apostles. God used each them for special service, and every one of them paid for dearly it in one way or another.
Don’t be surprised as you read in the text, “Mary was greatly troubled at his words…” Mary knew those stories. Mary knew that an encounter with God is serious thing. She’s listening. She’s thinking, and it’s frightening.
Have you ever had someone step into your day and with just a few words, you know what they’re going to tell you is going to change your whole day…or your whole life? In crisis intervention training, we’re taught to just come right out and say it – and the life-changing sentence will usually start with something like this, “I’m sorry. There’s just no easy way to say this…” Been there. Done that. Bought the T-shirt.
Now, that’s all about bad news. Why is it that we assume radical changes in life are all bad news? Gabriel’s message wasn’t about bad news at all. Scary though it may have been, God’s plans for you are also a privilege.
(2. Plans that are a privilege to you)
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
I know that it’s a verse often taken out of context. God was speaking to Judah, and how He was going to use them after their time in exile. But the application is useful for us too, because God’s ultimate plans for His faithful people are always for good. Where we run into problems is when we fail to believe His promises, or we’re just failing to see how our tough experience will work out for good.
Mary, chosen by God to be pregnant out of wedlock, was able to consider the situation and say,
Luke 1:48b-49
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.
She understood – to have God look at you and use you to carry out His plans is a privilege. Have you ever thought about that? God has this incredible plan, and really, He doesn’t have to involve you or me in it at all! But He chooses to use us – as ambassadors of His message, as illustrations of His power and His grace, as the only way that this generation of souls is going to know life in Jesus Christ. So, when God comes knocking on your door to tell you that you’ve been selected for special operations, remember that’s a privilege, not a curse.
3. Plans that are greater than our own
Every good parent has high hopes and expectations for their kids. That’s part of our job as parents, isn’t it? Do you dream for them? Did you used to dream for them, if they’re grown now? What was the greatest thing you dare to hope for your children? To be some great discoverer, a scientist, a doctor – maybe President of the United States? Then, time passes, they grow up, and your dreams are modified a bit.
There’s no question, that when God tells Mary His plans for her and her surrogate Son, those plans are greater than any she would’ve dared to even imagine!
Luke 1:32
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.
God’s plans for us are consistently bigger than our own plans! We need to learn to see our changed plans in light of the better things God has in mind to do with us.
Here are some examples of what I mean. For some of you, these are real close to home. If so, I want to challenge you to consider your plans for life may have been changed by God’s even better plans for your life. Whether these things came about by something awful happening, or something good, think about what God is doing here.
Maybe you have some kind of physical problem. Joni Ericson Tada broke her neck in a swimming accident in 1967. She’s a quadriplegic for the rest of her life now. But you’ll never hear her speaking about her injury as a curse. It certainly changed her plans for the rest of her life, but I doubt that without that accident she would have accomplished all the things she has done in the name of Jesus to this day.
I hope that I can talk about him this morning without embarrassing him by drawing attention to him, but I think you ought to know that one of the reasons John Matters is seeking to serve as an elder again is because of a back injury. You see, John has retired a little earlier than he planned because his back decided it was time to retire. That has given John some time he didn’t have before, and what does he say about it? “Maybe God is using this so that I can do more for the church.” I don’t mean to embarrass John, but I think that’s exactly how we need to learn to look at our plans getting changed.
Maybe you had a difficult childhood. Michael Reagan, the adopted son of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, details in his book Twice Adopted the way he not only was from a broken home, but also molested as a child. Every day of his life he deals with the hurt of his past, and he’s pretty open to say so. But he also speaks about the way God has helped him through it, and how he has been able to help so many others now because of what he has made it through.
Maybe you’re single, and that’s not what you would choose if it was all just up to you. You need to hear what God says through a single man – the Apostle Paul, in:
1 Corinthians 7:7-9
I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
I have to tell you that I’m glad v9 is in there! But do you see what v8 says? Singleness is good! It’s even a gift to some, and it’s good, if you can handle it. A gift? Gee, thanks!
Carl Hilton was one of those 30 something guys in the church in Colorado Springs who had never married. Now, that meant Carl didn’t have the plusses of being married, but Carl also used his singleness for good. Carl was freer to fish and hunt and to run off to the mountains once in a while. You can’t do that as often when you have a family to care for. But sometimes, Carl would gather up some of us teenage boys and take us with him too. He could do that then, because he was single. Those trips were good experiences
So, if you’re single, the good news is that God doesn’t require singleness from every person. The other good news is to remember that God’s plan for you may be singleness so that you’ll be more freed up to devote time to His work without the obligations of a family.
Before you say this is all crazy talk, let’s look at one more example of God’s plans versus what we would plan for ourselves.
Philippians 1:29
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,
Paul’s writing from prison, so he knows about suffering for Jesus’ sake. No one would plan that for himself. No one would plan to take a beating, or have your family abused, or to have your house taken away from you, or just to be ostracized. No one in their right mind tries to get that to happen to himself. But Paul says, if it does, that has been granted to you. God has made plans you didn’t. He has made the effort to make something of you. Maybe He’s encouraging someone else whose faith is wavering. Maybe He’s reaching the heart of the very person who’s persecuting you. Somehow, through the suffering of faithful Christians, God has grown His Church over the centuries, and He still is today.
OK, where were we? Oh, yeah, there was this young lady named Mary whose whole life was radically changed by her encounter with God as He changed her plans. No doubt, it created some pretty challenging times for her. Her own heart would be broken as Jesus suffered and died, but God was doing something wonderful through her. Remember that God has plans – plans to do good through you and me.
II. Remember God has Resources
It may be that you’re convinced now, or already were, and the real pressing issue isn’t figuring out God’s plans or coming to grips with what He’s trying to accomplish through you. Maybe the question that you have is like the one Mary asked: “How will this be?”
She’s not the first one to ask that. She’s been told that God has a plan, that He wants to use her to bring it about, but there’s a problem: How?
Now, in Mary’s case, it was the obvious question of how she could bear a son while she was a virgin. That’s a fair question.
It’s not unlike the questions that pop up in our heads:
Where will we get the money?
How will we find the time?
Where will we get enough workers?
How can we find the space we need?
How will I be able to learn what I need to know?
I think we find an answer to questions like that in vv34-35:
Luke 1:34-35
"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Here’s the answer to your questions. It started in v28 when Gabriel told Mary, in his greeting, “The Lord is with you…”
1. Not by man’s favor
She had found favor in God’s sight. God was going to “gift” her. The reason this was going to be possible was because it was going to be a “God thing.” How can this happen? The HS! The power of the Most High. This will happen because God will make it happen. This is God’s plan, and God is supplying the resources to accomplish it.
Take your big “How?” question and see if this can’t help answer it. Take your big situation, where God has allowed your plans to be changed, and see if God is unwilling to supply what you need in order to get it done.
I’m a firm believer in this principle – that God will provide exactly what you need in order to accomplish what He wants.
That’s one reason the virgin birth of Jesus is such an important fact. This wasn’t being accomplished by man. It was completely a God-accomplishment.
2. Not to man’s credit
Now, when that’s how it works, here’s the outcome: “So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Some would mistake Jesus as the son of Joseph later, but the fact is Jesus could only rightly be called the son of God. Had this happened after Mary and Joseph were married, that would have always been in question. Instead, the birth of Jesus into the world defies what man could do on his own. It was a miracle that points to God.
It seems to me that God works that way by design, on purpose, when He changes our plans. We plan man-sized stuff. We dream finite dreams. God is bigger. When God changes our plans, He points us in directions that are far greater than what we could plan or do on our own. So, when it’s done, we don’t get the credit. God does.
At the end of the day, when your life accomplishments are all drawing to a conclusion, which would you rather have – man-sized accomplishments that are a credit to yourself, or God-sized accomplishments, which couldn’t possibly have come from yourself?
Conclusion
Now, the last part of this is what we’re supposed to do about it – our response. Let’s look at Mary’s
Luke 1:36-38
Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
I must tell you this morning that God has plans for you – good plans which He has prepared in advance so that you should walk in them, and another plan. He started this plan before creation was even made. He knew that you would learn right from wrong, but that you would sometimes choose what’s wrong. He knew that you and I would need Savior. He knew that you’d be here this morning, and that you’d be hearing about Jesus from the Bible. So, He has plans for your life right now.
1 Timothy 2:4
…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
God’s plan for you is to have your sins forgiven, completely, and to give you a gift you didn’t ask for. He wants you to have eternal life. That may not be in your plans until right now. Isn’t it time to let God have His way? Time to say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” ?
