When God Messes with Your Plans
Series: Christmas 2020
Chuck Sligh
November 29, 2020
NOTE: PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives
TEXT: Matthew 1:18-25 – “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”
INTRODUCTION
Today I want to speak about Joseph and Mary. The title of my sermon is “When God Messes with Your Plans!” In our text, we see two godly young people making plans for their lives, and then…God messes with their plans.
Illus. – Men, can you remember the days of your engagement? You had fallen in love with the girl of your dreams! And she seemed to be pretty fond of you too! There came that time when you made up your mind to ask her to marry you. And wonder of wonders—SHE AGREED! Boy what a dupe she was!
Well, engagements were handled differently in Bible days than they are now. Marriages were pre-arranged by the parents in what are called betrothals, although usually the desires and concerns of the bride-to-be were taken into consideration. When they were betrothed, they would make their plans, and their future marriage was just as anticipated as it is to engaged couples today.
I can imagine young JOSEPH— The wedding date is approaching and he’s making preparations. All he thinks, eats and breathes is Mary, Mary, Mary.
I can also picture MARY— The event every girl dreams of is almost here! She’s so excited as she and her parents make the wedding plans. She and Joseph have such wonderful dreams for their lives together.
But then [PAUSE] GOD MESSED WITH THEIR PLANS! It was never in their plans for Mary to become pregnant before their wedding night! And certainly, the idea of becoming pregnant MIRACULOUSLY and giving birth to the MESSIAH was about the LAST thing they expected.
Their reactions were oh, so normal:
Mary’s response to the news was one of perplexity. She asks in Luke 1:34b – “How can this be, seeing that I am a virgin?” As a flood of thoughts raced through her mind, she was naturally bewildered. “Oh me, how do I explain THIS to Mom and Dad? Will Joseph still want me as his wife now? Will he believe my story of how I became pregnant? Will ANYONE believe THIS story?” No doubt, the whole thing must have been very frightening to her—and yet somehow exciting to know that in her womb was the long-awaited Messiah!
Joseph’s reaction was a little different and more pragmatic. He had an important decision to make: Should he believe that Mary had remained a virgin and that she had miraculously become pregnant with the Messiah? I mean, come on—that’s a little far-fetched, and he knew how girls got pregnant, and HE was not the father, THAT’S for sure! Maybe I should just break off the engagement, he thought What was the right thing to do?
Well, you know the rest of the story—an angel confirmed to Joseph that Mary’s story was true; they DID marry; Mary DID give birth to the Messiah; and the rest is history! Today I’d like to share three observations from our text that I think would be helpful:
I. FIRST, NOTE THAT GOD DIDN’T ASK JOSEPH AND MARY—HE TOLD THEM!
This suddenly hit me one day. There’s no scripture where the angel ASKS Mary or Joseph if this was okay with them! God didn’t seek their approval before proceeding with His will for their lives. He simply INFORMED them through an angel—and their lives were FOREVER altered after that.
Now think back to your own life: How many of you are doing what you planned to do when you were a kid? How many of you are even doing what you thought you would do when you graduated from high school?
It’s interesting—I’m not even doing what I went four years of university to train for. I’ve found that the majority of the plans I had as a young person are different from what actually came to pass. Some of them have changed because I’ve changed my desires and focus in life. But others were changed because of circumstances beyond my control: GOD got involved and messed with my plans! And God’s never asked me for permission in any of those situations in my life!
Illus. – For instance, I never planned to have cancer in 1979—But God did! And He never asked my permission to allow me to experience a surgery, a painful recovery, and a treatment that was sometimes worse than the disease. But God knew what I didn’t know—that I would learn some valuable lessons through those experiences that would better prepare me to serve Him.
Illus. – I’ll tell you something else—I never planned to become a pastor! I earned a college degree and teacher’s certificate to be a high school teacher. I taught school one full year—and loved every minute of it too. But while teaching, I also accepted a part-time position as an assistant pastor. And there I found my true calling! I left teaching school after my second year and never taught school again, and since then I’ve served in full-time ministry in some capacity or another. You see, I had made certain plans for me and my family—but God had other plans for me instead.
Listen, God has a plan for your life too. And He has no intention of asking your permission to proceed with His plan! But you can trust God to know exactly what He’s doing.
II. NOTE SECOND THAT GOD’S PLAN FOR MARY AND JOSEPH WAS NOT EASY.
Sometimes we think that if we’re in the will of God, somehow we’ll be exempt from the ordinary struggles and trials of life, but that’s just not true. That certainly wasn’t the case for Joseph and Mary.
Look at their experience:
Why didn’t God work it out so Caesar’s taxing would be collected either BEFORE Jesus was born, or AFTER His birth? Now God COULD have done that, couldn’t He? I mean, it wasn’t easy for Mary to travel by foot, camel, or donkey while so pregnant that she just BARELY got to Bethlehem before she had the baby! Surely God could have worked things out better than that—especially since they were carrying out God’s will for their lives and the whole world!
Second, the baby was born in a manger because there was no room in the inn. Again, I can see the young couple’s frustration as, after traveling that far, Mary is exhausted and her water breaks, and they can’t even find a comfortable place for her to have the baby! ¿These two are in God’s will, right? God called them to a special, unique, historic calling and they humbly obeyed God’s will for their lives. And yet—look how difficult things were for them! Why?—Because though they were believers, they were part of the human race, and as humans, as Job said, “As the sparks fly upward, so a man is born unto trouble.”
Third, why were they forced to flee Bethlehem to go to Egypt because of the threat of King Herod? Again, we can see the hand of God at work because He warned them of the danger so they could flee. But why didn’t He just kill Herod so they wouldn’t have to flee at all? Believe me, that wouldn’t have been an easy trip to make! Think about carrying on one donkey a diaper bag, two jumbo bags of Pampers, and all Jesus’s baby clothes, not to mention their own stuff! We think THAT would be a rough trip, but the truth is they didn’t have any those modern conveniences—and it was further complicated by how quickly they had to leave. God told Joseph in a dream to go to Egypt immediately, and Joseph gets Mary up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and tells her they’re moving…TO EGYPT!…RIGHT…NOW! (That’s what I call short PCS orders!)
Then, after all of this, somewhere between when Joseph took his family back to Nazareth and when Jesus was around 30 years old, Joseph died. We don’t know exactly when he died or how, but after Jesus was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem at age twelve and was separated from Joseph and Mary and they found him conversing with the elders in the temple—Joseph walks off the pages of Scripture and we never hear of him again. That meant that Jesus had to become the head of the home and take care of His mother and His half brothers and sisters, a responsibility expected of the eldest brother in that day.
You see brethren, we make a terrible error when we think that God makes life easy just because we’re in His will or that the easy way is God’s way. We don’t follow Jesus or God’s will for our lives because it’s the EASY thing to do—we do it because it’s the RIGHT thing to do!
When we follow God’s way, it’s the BEST way…but it may be a DIFFICULT way:
• MOSES was called to a path that brought him criticism and ungratefulness his whole ministry, and Moses is among the hall of giants in the Bibles.
• DANIEL was called to a path that took him to the lion’s den, and God delivered him and now every child is taught about Daniel’s faith and steadfastness under persecution.
• The THREE HEBREW MEN’s paths led to the fiery furnace, but they too were delivered and are honored today as great men of faith.
• STEPHEN’S led to martyrdom—but today he’s in glory before the throne of God.
• PAUL’S calling led to imprisonment and eventually his execution, but today we have the Christian faith because he spread the Gospel all through Europe.
• CHRIST’S path led to His rejection, suffering and crucifixion, but aren’t you glad that it did, for because of it, you and I can have eternal life.
All these were following God’s plan for them—but His plans were not easy. God doesn’t promise us an easy trip, but He DOES promise to be with us as we follow it!
That’s what God promised in Isaiah 43:2 – “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you.”
III. THE THIRD THING I NOTE IN OUR TEXT IS THIS—THOUGH THINGS WERE DIFFICULT, GOD BLESSED IMMEASURABLY.
Two thoughts stood out to me here about God’s blessing in this story:
First of all, Joseph and Mary were blessed as Jesus grew in their family.
Listen to some verses in Luke 2: Verse 52 says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Oh, can you imagine how WONDERFUL that would be if He were YOUR son?!
Verses 49-51 say, “And he said unto them, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business? And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them, but his mother kept all these things in her heart.”
Wow!—What a cool experience! Imagine YOUR child outshining the elders in the temple! Imagine your child showing such astonishing spiritual insight at such a young age.
Luke 2:40 says, “And the child grew, and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.”
Wouldn’t you hate to have been one of Jesus’ brothers or sisters? Every time you did something wrong, Joseph or Mary would say, “Why do you be more like your brother, Jesus!” Oh man!—You would be up against a perfect standard! But if you were going through difficult trial in life, it would have been Jesus who would have known exactly what to say to comfort you and give you good counsel.
Just those blessings would have been worth all that they endured in following the will of God in their lives.
My second thought about the blessings of God in this story is this: ultimately, Jesus grew up to be a blessing to the whole world!
EVERY child is a blessing from the Lord according to Psalm 127:3. In addition to that, any parent is blessed if their child grows up to be a person of influence and importance in the world. And if their kid grows up to do something good FOR ALL HUMANKIND—WOW!—that’s a blessing beyond belief!
Can you imagine the blessing Mary must have experienced when her firstborn son, Jesus, rose victorious over death and the grave?! Can you imagine what she must have felt as she watched Him ascend into heaven in glory! That was HER son—the one she carried in her own womb, whom she went into labor with; whom she bore in such abject conditions; who suckled from her own breasts; whom she reared and sacrificed for. Can you imagine the excitement in her soul when it dawned upon her, that HER SON had opened the door to heaven for all who would accept Him and believe on Him as their Savior? Wow!—what a blessing all these things must have been.
Beloved, God’s plan for our lives isn’t always an easy one, but it’s a plan that will lead to our being blessed and our being a blessing to others.
Illus. – God used a dreadful loss in the life of H.G. Spafford to inspire him to write one of Christianity’s favorite hymns. Spafford’s wife and four children were on a ship to England, and he was going to join them there in a short time. However, the ship sank with his family on board.
Back home, Spafford awaited news of the fate of his family, and when it finally came, it was a telegram from his wife simply saying, “Saved, Alone.” His wife was had survived, but tragically, all four of their children had died. It was while mourning their deaths that he wrote these beloved words…
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul!”
God didn’t ask Spafford if it was okay for him to lose his children, and Spafford certainly didn’t plan it for himself. But as difficult as God’s plan was, it resulted in a song that has blessed countless numbers of suffering souls since it was written! And Spafford writes of the deep well of comfort God gave him and his wife that helped them get through the most awful time of their lives.
Illus. – God’s plan for the great songwriter Fanny Crosby was to allow a doctor to give her the wrong medicine when she was a baby, resulting in permanent blindness. Rather than being bitter, God used her condition to make her more spiritually sensitive, and she wrote some of the most beautiful hymns of all time, like Blessed Assurance, God Be with You ’Til We Meet Again, I Am Thine, O Lord, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior, Rescue the Perishing, Take the World but Give Me Jesus, Tell Me the Story of Jesus, To God Be the Glory, just to name a few.
God’s plan for her was to bless succeeding generations with her beautiful, soul-stirring songs. But by her own admission, it was her BLINDNESS that gave her such spiritual insight and put such a song in her heart. God didn’t ask her if it was okay to take her sight away. He messed with her plans, but it was for her good and God’s glory.
While you and I may not think our lot is nearly so tragic, nor our influence nearly so great, the truth is that if we’re submissive to God’s plan—no matter how difficult—eternity will record a far-reaching impact for good because of it!
CONCLUSION
Now what can I say to bring this down to where we live down here on earth? I want to mention a couple of thoughts from Romans 8:
First, when God messes with your plans, never forget that God will work all things together for good for you if you are his child.
I cannot say that I can even begin to understand God’s inscrutable ways. But I know God has given this wonderful promise in Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.” God works all things together for good.
Illus. – My wife makes an amazing pot roast dinner. She takes raw meat, sliced potatoes, celery, carrots and onions and throws them into the slow cooker. Six or seven hours later the aroma fills the house, and the first taste is a delight. It’s always to my advantage to wait until the ingredients in the slow cooker “work together” to achieve something each vegetable could not achieve individually
When Paul used the phrase “work together” in the context of suffering, he used the word from which we get our word synergy. He wanted the Romans…and us…to know that God, you might feel like you’ve been sliced and diced and cut and cooked as God changes your plans, but the end result will be God working out His divine plan—for your ultimate good.
My second thought from Romans 8 is this: When God messes with your plans, remember that HE IS FOR YOU.
Just a few verses down from Romans 8:28, Paul says this in verse 31 – “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
“If God be for us.”—What a blessed thought! 4 times in the Bible someone says, “God is for me”; once God says he is for someone and three times we are told “God is for us” or “God is on our side.”
When you’ve been sliced and diced and put in the pot by God’s detours in your life, don’t forget that truth: GOD…IS…FOR…YOU! And knowing that will give you the strength to get through to the other side of your detour.
Illus. - Keith Hartsell of Wheaton, Illinois, was driving around with a friend of his in California, when he noticed that his friend’s cell phone was locked with an unusual password—pro nobis. Keith asked him what pro nobis meant and why he chose that for a password. Keith’s friend told him it was Latin and it meant “For Us,” and then he suddenly started choking up.
Keith thought, Why would those two Latin words cause so much emotion? Then his friend composed himself and explained that after walking through deep personal pain, true healing came when he learned that God is “for us”—or the Latin phrase pro nobis. Keith’s friend said that after his parents' divorce, he assumed that God didn’t care or that God had given up on him. But he finally found hope through those two simple words -- pro nobis (for us).
Never forget these two truths when you’re God messes with your plans. It may not be what you would have wanted, but 1) God will work it all together for good for you and 2) God is for you, and therefore all His working in your life is not only in His great plan, but with your best interests at heart.
