“Faith-Full Living: Keeping God Around”
Lk. 1: 26-38 (Gen. 22:1-19)
Perhaps you recall the story. It was one of those innocent questions children raise. “Mommy, if the stork brings babies, if Santa Claus brings our presents, if the Lord gives us our daily bread and Uncle Sam our Social Security, why do we keep daddy around?” Since we live in the midst of so much abundance I sometimes fear that we have begun to believe that we do not need to keep God around. Yet, to live faith-full lives, we must. Let’s consider Luke’s teaching.
After his brief introduction, Luke lifts up SOME IMPORTANT TRUTHS. When Mary questions how in the world she, as a young virgin, could ever bear a child – let alone the Son of God – she is told by the angel (35-37): “"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. 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."” What a statement! Nothing – no thing – is impossible with God. In our collective wisdom and experience here this morning there is nothing we can think of or point to that God cannot do. God is sovereign – in control of everything. God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He is the Lord who rules the world. He is all-powerful. Can you think of one thing He cannot do? Certainly there are some things God will not do – but He is able to do them. THERE IS NOTHING – NO THING – GOD CANNOT DO.
Consider the experience of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 3). God wanted to prove his might, power, and control so he said to Elisha: “You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle, and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; He will also hand Moab over to you.” God was saying, “Providing water without rain may seem impossible to you, Elisha, but it’s very simple for me. In fact, if you think this is tough, how will you handle the fact that you will defeat Moab? Now that’s a toughie!” And what happened? “The next morning…there it was – water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.” God can provide water from nothing. NOTHING – NO THING – IS TOO HARD FOR THE LORD.
Remember Sarah, Abraham’s wife. After waiting for many years God finally spoke to Sarah, when she was well advanced in years, and told her she would, in fact, bear a son. She laughed (Gen. 18:12) and thought to herself, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” In response, God spoke to Abraham, saying, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” From that impossible promise, Isaac was born. God can provide life – even in barren places and empty wombs. Nothing – no thing – is too hard for the Lord.
And then there’s Abraham and this promised son Isaac. As we just recollected God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But just as Abraham raised his arm to strike the fatal blow, God stopped him. “Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by his horns...So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’” God will provide the Lamb – God will provide for our salvation. Nothing – no thing – is too hard for the Lord.
So Luke chose to introduce Jesus by writing that he had done a very careful investigation of all the claims, he had interviewed eye witnesses, and he concluded that Jesus being born in a miraculous way was true – even if unbelievable. It’s not a matter of logic or understanding for Luke – it’s a matter of belief. With God, nothing is impossible. He did, in Jesus Christ, provide the Lamb for our salvation. With God, nothing – no thing – is impossible. Nothing – no thing – is too hard for the Lord.
Following His transfiguration on the mountain, Jesus and His three friends came down to the valley below and found the disciples frustrated that they could not heal a young boy possessed by a demon. They asked Jesus why they could not drive it out. “He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU.”
Chisel it into your minds; emblazon it upon your hearts. If a child can be born without a human father, if a virgin can bear the Son of God, if God could crowd Himself into a human body, if the limitless God can limit Himself to the flesh, then there is nothing – no thing – God cannot do! And nothing will be impossible for you!
Perhaps you feel like your life so far has drawn a blank – God can give you a reason for living. Maybe you’re in a blind alley with your faith – God can show you the way. It might be that your faith is dead – God can bring the dead to life. Or are you facing something you’ve deemed impossible? God can do the impossible. Do you feel trapped? God can part the waters before you. Are you facing giants in your future? God has prepared the sling and the stone – you can win. Someone aptly wrote, “WHEN GOD IS GOING TO DO SOMETHING WONDERFUL, HE BEGINS WITH A DIFFICULTY. IF IT IS GOING TO BE SOMETHING VERY WONDERFUL, HE BEGINS WITH AN IMPOSSIBILITY!” The truth is, with God, nothing – no thing – is impossible. Nothing – no thing – is too hard for the Lord.
And this important truth leads to SOME ACTION STEPS. If you want to experience the limitless power of God, there are four things you can do. First, BELIEVE. Think about the 3 young men in the book of Daniel – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Ordered by the King to bow down to him alone, they refused. Threatened with death in the fiery furnace, they calmly replied, “If we are thrown in to the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Be confident that, no matter what your circumstance, no matter how high the mountain before you, no matter how hot the furnace that is threatening to burn you, God can take care of you. So often we sing, “HE IS ABLE, MORE THAN ABLE to accomplish what concerns me today; He is able, more than able to handle anything that comes my way. He is able, more than able to do much more than I could ever dream, He is able, more than able, to make me what He wants me to be.” Believe.
Second, REDUCE YOUR WORRY. The late great evangelist E. Stanley Jones wrote about faith and belief this way (adapted): “I see that I AM INWARDLY FASHIONED FOR FAITH AND NOT FOR FEAR. Fear is not my native land; faith is oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear and doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry my being is grasping for breath…These are not my native airs. A John Hopkins doctor says that we do not know why it is that worriers die sooner that non-worriers, but that is a fact. But I, who am simple of mind, think I know: we are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue and brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. Therefore the need of faith and hope is not something imposed on us dogmatically, but it is written in us intrinsically. We cannot live without it.” Believe! Reduce your worry!
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “"So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life--whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not. "And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! "So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”
Sooner or later we must each make the decision to put Jesus first in our life – in our thinking, our priorities, our decisions, our choices, our motives, and our actions. It may not always make you popular – in fact, it may make you less popular. But you will discover that life will become simpler and, in the true sense, richer and infinitely more worthwhile. (1) Believe! Reduce your worry!
Thirdly, to experience the limitless power, and peace, of God, PRAY. James wrote (4:1-3): “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” WHEN YOU ASK GOD FOR HELP IN DOING HIS WILL, HE WILL NOT, HE CANNOT, REFUSE YOU. In that transfiguration scene I mentioned a few moments ago, when Jesus came down from the mountain, He added one more reason as to why the disciples had been unable to cast out the demon: (9:29) Jesus said, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Years ago, a professor performed a demonstration. His equipment consisted of a board, a big nail, a thick, heavy bottle, and a small fleck of Carborundum – one of the hardest of the solids. He took the thick, heavy bottle in his right hand and used it as a hammer. With a series of powerful strokes of the bottle, he drove the nail into the board. The bottle did not break. Then the professor took the tiny fleck of Carborundum and dropped it into the bottle. Instantly the bottle shattered into many little pieces. It wasn’t size or quantity that did it; it was essence. So it is with the problems and difficulties of life. Suppose you bring all the force and power that you can muster, all the struggling and resisting of which you are capable to bear against your difficulties – but it’s not effective. Then TAKE A MUSTARD SEED PINCH OF FAITH AND DROP IT PRAYERFULLY INTO YOUR PROBLEM. The problem will shatter – it will break apart into tiny pieces. Either the problem will be over, or you will be able to see the tiny pieces of the problem that make up the whole and piece by piece overcome it. Believe. Reduce your worry. Pray.
If you believe, if you reduce your worry, if you pray, then fourthly, you can RELEASE. Certainly Mary had questions about the message of the angel. Certainly she wondered about all the ramifications of being virgin but bearing a child. Certainly she anticipated that people would not understand. But she could not have known the magnitude of her decision or had any inkling of all that being the mother of Jesus would entail and mean. Yet she released everything to God: “Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true."” Can you say with Mary, “I AM WILLING TO ACCEPT WHATEVER HE WANTS?” So be it! Amen! (That’s what ‘Amen’ really means!) Tell God you will be His servant. Tell Him you want Him to use you. Be interested in God’s activities, not yours. What God assigns and allows, so be it! That’s the way to keep God around.
The story is told of Shah Abbis, a Persian monarch who loved his people very much. To know and understand them better, he would, while dressed in various disguises, mingle with his subjects. One day he went as a poor man to the public baths and in a tiny cellar sat beside the fireman who tended the furnace. When it was mealtime the monarch shared the man’s coarse food and talked to his lonely subject as a friend. Again and again he visited the man and grew to love him more and more. One day the Shah revealed his true identity to the fireman, expecting the fireman to ask for some gift from him. But the fireman sat gazing at his ruler with love and wonder, and at last said, “You left your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to eat of my coarse food, to care whether my heart is glad or sorry. On others you may bestow rich presents, but to me you have given yourself, and it only remains for me to pray that you never withdraw the gift of your friendship.” Jesus left the glories of heaven in order to share Himself with us. He will never withdraw Himself, His friendship, His love, His peace. Release yourself to Him. Let it be according to His word and will.
What is the issue for you this morning? What is causing you to lack peace? What’s the burden, the care, the worry, the temptation, the load, the situation, the relationship, or the issue that has become your impossibility? What is the need that you are convinced will never be met? Where and in what have you decided to limit God? To what have you said, “That’s impossible; it will never happen?”
You need to keep God around. Christina Rossetti penned a wonderful little poem, later put to music. It’s called “What Can I Give Him?” What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise-man I would do my part; Yet what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.” What a reflection of and reliance upon Jesus comforting words and promise (Jn. 14:1, 25-27) “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Give Jesus your heart. He’ll give you His peace. It’s what He wants you to have - for there is nothing – no thing – He cannot do. It is God who can provide your every need. Nothing – no thing – is impossible or too hard for God. I invite you now to come the foot of the cross. Bring your impossibility. Believe. Pray. Release it to God. Whatever God does in response, say, “So be it! Amen.” Experience His peace. Let us pray.
(1) From Power Through Constructive Thinking, by Emmet Fox, in ‘A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God’, Upper Room Books, Nashville, TN © 2006 BY Norman Sawchuck and Reuben P. Job
