THE POINT: Even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
ME
Part of what makes the Christmas season so meaningful for many of us is the familiarity.
We like things to be the same way every year… We are FAMILIAR with the story. We are FAMILIAR with the decorations. We are FAMILIAR with the way our family or our church or our town celebrates Christmas. We are FAMILIAR with the music.
For example… I’ll start the first line of the song and you finish it…
Rudolph…(have them finish the line)… the red nosed reign deer
Silent night… (have them finish the line)… holy night, all is calm all is bright
Joy… (have them finish the line)… to the world the Lord is come
Grandma got…(have them finish the line)… run over by a reindeer
Okay, so that last one doesn’t really count as a Christmas song – but most of you were still familiar with it so you helped me make my point.
We, usually, like and are comfortable with that with which we are familiar…
WE
A part of what makes the Christmas season so meaningful for most of us is that familiarity.
We have practices and traditions that bring us comfort because they are so familiar, and when something unfamiliar is introduced into the picture, its tough to swallow.
I had a good friend in college who grew up in South Africa. – Geography lesson – Does anyone know if SOUTH Africa is north or SOUTH of the equator…?
SOUTH…
Does anyone know what the weather is like SOUTH of the equator relative to weather here, NORTH of the equator… It’s the opposite!
So, Val, growing up in South Africa would talk about Christmas around the swimming pool and having a cook-out. And I had the hardest time wrapping my mind around that. I don’t like winter, but the idea of it being 85 or 90 degrees, with swimming and tanning and a picnic for Christmas was so unfamiliar to me that I just couldn’t grasp it. It didn’t make sense… so much so that I refused to think about the possibility…
It wasn’t familiar to me and since it wasn’t familiar it was uncomfortable and since it was uncomfortable I chose to avoid thinking about it…
…We like the familiar – don’t we?
And our love for the familiar isn’t limited to Christmas
…I can pretty much tell you who’s not at church on a Sunday by which seats are empty – you like the familiarity of “your spot.”
…most of you park in the same parking place (generally) each week.
…you drink the same brand of coffee on the way to work.
…you shop in the same stores because you are familiar with the layout (ever try shopping at a different store? Find it frustrating?)
We like it when things are familiar… we are comfortable when things are familiar…
In fact, we like the familiar so much… we are so desirous of the comfort we get from the familiar that we will invent FAMILIARITY where it doesn’t exist…
EXAMPLES…
• We’re at a conference for work or a social gathering and we don’t know anyone, but we see that one guy who lived in the same dorm we did in college… WE HAVE SOMETHING FAMILIAR… and so for the next two hours he’s your new best friend…
• We pack pictures of the family or take a favorite pillow or item of clothing on out of town trips…
• We’re in another state and we see the ONE gas station that’s of the same brand we use at home, so we get our gas there because we’re familiar with it…
But maybe we shouldn’t be so afraid of the UNfamiliar. Maybe, instead of fearing and running from what is UNfamiliar, we should look for the hand of God in the midst of the UNfamiliar… Because even when life is confusing and everything around us seems to be UNfamiliar, God is still at work…
And that’s the point… Even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
That’s the ONE THING I want you to walk out of here with today… that even when everything seems unfamiliar, God is at work. Even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
Open you Bibles to Luke 2:1-7. If you don’t have a Bible with you this morning, raise your hands and our ushers will make sure you get one so you can follow along.
[Ushers hand out Bibles to those who need them]
This is a VERY FAMILIAR passage of scripture. At least, it’s familiar to us. In Luke 2:1-7 we find the biblical account of the birth of Jesus. It’s story that we’ve all heard hundreds of times. It’s a story that we can quote – almost verbatim. It’s so familiar to us that we just assume we know the story… But it WASN’T familiar to Mary or Joseph. It wasn’t familiar to those who lived through it. In fact, it was completely UNfamiliar – completely foreign – to them.
This morning, I’m not going to read the text… This morning, our text is a part of the video clip we’re using. Watch the clip and follow along in your Bibles as we start to look at the UNFAMILIAR aspect of that first Christmas.
It’s awesome, it’s exciting when God calls us to join the story… to join him in HIS STORY… the story of OUR REDEMPTION…
…but when we choose to walk with Him, when we choose to join Him in that story, we need to be aware that we are going to find ourselves in some VERY UNfamiliar places…
GOD
[Video Clip]
1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)
6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
While they were in Bethlehem… they weren’t in their home town, they were a four day trip from home… they were surrounded by UNfamiliar people… they were in an UNfamiliar setting… They didn’t even have a bed – at least not a normal bed to stay in…
[we’re familiar with the idea of Jesus being born in a stable or a barn out all alone, but that’s probably not how it happened… they were probably in a crowed house on the lower level where the animals stayed because the rest of the house – the guest rooms – were all filled with others who had come for the census…]
I’m going to guess that the birth of Jesus, didn’t happen the way Mary was expecting… If she was like most young girls… if she was like most women expecting their first child she had envisioned how it would be… she had become familiar with her expectations and now… now she’s enduring something very UNfamiliar…
• Was this really what God wanted the birth of her first child to be like? In a stable, on the hay, with animals and flies crowding in on the scene?
• Was this REALLY what God had in mind for the birth of His Messiah?
• Was this really what God had in mind for the birth of His Son?
“I mean, God, there must be some mistake… This is confusing, this is UNfamiliar… this must not be from GOD… I just can’t picture God choosing to do things like this…”
…Often that’s where we go, isn’t it? When we find ourselves in a confusing and UNfamiliar place… I mean, we chose to obey God. We followed what we were certain was His calling. We did what we believed God wanted us to do. This should all be working out great – right? There should be success… There should be great clarity… There should be obvious signs and wonders…
But instead there is pain… there is – what appears to be – a lack of success… there is confusion… And now that the shadows of doubt begin to move in and things seem kind of murky… now that OUR EXPECTATIONS haven’t been met… now that we find ourselves in an UNfamiliar place..
Maybe geographically
Maybe socially
Maybe financially
Maybe emotionally…
Now that we find ourselves in an UNfamiliar place, we think… this can’t be from God. Either he has abandoned me – or I just got it wrong from the start… But this is just too UNfamiliar and too confusing…
In those times… when we are in an UNfamiliar place… we MUST remember that… Even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
I can only guess… we don’t read it in scripture… we don’t KNOW, but if Mary was in ANY WAY a normal young woman who has now found herself giving birth in an UNfamiliar town, surrounded by UNfamiliar people… surrounded by ANIMALS in a stable!
She must have wondered if she’d gotten it right. She must have wondered if this is really what GOD had in mind for the birth of the MESSIAH…
But this was EXACTLY what God had in mind. It was UNfamiliar to Mary and to Joseph but it was very much a part of God’s plan…
God chose to use the humble, the weak, the simple, the lowly in order to bring his plan of redemption about so that NO MAN… could lay claim to the plan – because no man in his right mind would chose the illegitimate son of a carpenter, born in a barn to save the entire human race…
The Apostle Paul puts it like this…
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
I Corinthians 1:27-31(NIV)
God, in his wisdom… knowing us so well, knowing us better than we can even know ourselves… chose to do things in a way that doesn’t make sense to the world… the “lowly things,” the “despised things,” so that we have nothing to brag about except for JESUS!
In the midst of the UNfamiliar, even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
God chose what, to us, appears to be UNfamiliar and confusing to bring redemption to a lost and dying world…
It was UNfamiliar to Mary and to Joseph, but it was exactly what God planned…
In fact, this is God’s M.O. Frequently God uses the UNfamiliar because he knows that we don’t pay attention, we don’t notice the familiar…
How many of you have things in your home that are so familiar you don’t even notice them… but a guest – someone UNFAMILIAR with your home sees it right away?
Leaky faucet
Creaky door
Window that sticks
That weird bump under the carpet in the back room…
Cousin Eddy…
The UNfamiliar is certainly Uncomfortable, but I think that’s exactly what God wants… what God needs sometimes to grow us… that’s what WE need so that God can use us in this story of redemption that he has invited us to join Him in.
When nothing makes sense… I certainly don’t believe it made sense to Mary and to Joseph to be so far from home, to have no place to stay, to be in such uncomfortable – UNFAMILIAR surroundings and then to have to deliver their first child… this special child – the MESSIAH! It was UNfamiliar and Uncomfortable… But even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
SO WHAT?
YOU
So let’s bring this home… make it personal now.
How about you… your life… do you find yourself in an UNfamiliar place? It’s uncomfortable, it’s confusing, it’s even painful…
You chose to follow God. You’ve said you would join Him in this story… the journey of redemption… but it isn’t turning out like you thought it would…
• there’s pain in the journey
• it doesn’t seem like a success to you
• it isn’t what you THOUGHT it would be
• You’re wondering if maybe you didn’t hear God right… maybe you missed it
• Some of you – in your more honest moments – will admit that you sometimes wonder if God has just forgotten about you – if maybe he’s abandoned you…
Some of you are in UNfamiliar places that I know about… and they hurt, they’re confusing, they leave you wondering WHAT IS GOD DOING?
Others of you are in UNfamiliar places that I can’t even imagine… and they hurt, they’re confusing, they leave you wondering WHAT IS GOD DOING?
Let me be brutally honest… I DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING THAT GOD IS DOING…
In your UNfamiliar place, I don’t know everything God is doing, everything God has planned… but I do know this.
Even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
And while I can’t pretend to know everything God is up to, I do know this… whatever ELSE God may be doing in your life… Whatever ELSE God may be working on… I DO KNOW THIS…
That in the midst of your UNfamiliar and confusing situation, GOD IS AT WORK REMAKING YOU, RESHAPING YOU INTO HIS IMAGE…
He has invited you into His story. He has called you to join Him in the story of redemption… your redemption and the redemption of humanity. And if you accept the invitation He will begin to work on you, to reshape you to rebuild you into a new creation – into the image of His Son, Jesus.
But to do that… to get where He desires you to be… you’ll have to face the UNfamiliar, but don’t be discouraged, don’t lose hope, don’t give up… EVEN IF THE ROAD IS LONG AND CONFUSING AND PAINFUL… because even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
WE
God has called ALL OF US to join Him in the story – the adventure of redemption… It’s his desire to remake ALL of us into the image of HIS SON, JESUS!
He won’t work on all of us at the same time or in the same way. Some of you are in very UNFAMILIAR places today… others, you have been there and you are in a place to offer comfort, peace and encouragement to those who are in the crucible right now…
WE need to come along side one another in prayer and with words of encouragement, reminding each other that even in the most confusing and unfamiliar ways…GOD is at work!
Let me encourage you… let me challenge you… BE THERE – BE A COMFORT to those who are in UNfamiliar places…
Don’t smother… don’t intrude… don’t try to FIX anything… just be there…
Because a little familiarity in the midst of the UNfamiliar can be VERY comforting…
CLOSE WITH PRAYER & COMMUNION
