Hi, thank you for looking at this sermon. I hope it helps. Please do not say the sermon did not help you just because you did not like the style or could not use the entire message for your own needs. I have discovered a few souls automatically hit the ’did not help me’ button if the message they read was not what they were looking for. Please only hit that button if you think God’s people would not be blessed by the message below. Thank you.
Text: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
Title: Everything According To His Design!
Date: December 30th, 2001
Well! Here we are at the end of another year. Each of you in 2001 went through quite a lot of trials. Do you think you could have predicted those trials or the outcome? Or for the most part did you just wait, and thus prayed on various issues hoping that answers would come soon. And quite often, no matter how strong you thought your faith really was during those moments, it did not always manifest itself when you were struggling for answers. What did manifest itself were things like worry, impatience, doubt, hopelessness and despair. For those of you who had to visit hospitals this year, while you were lying in that hospital bed, you most likely had no idea how long of a stay you would have, and sometimes that can be very frightening. For those of you who struggled at home with illness or finances, I bet there were times when you wondered how you would be able to make it through another day. Even with day to day life, all of us can admit from time to time, that when we go to bed, we wish we could just wake up in paradise because at least there, we would not have these pressures, commitments and duties to stress us out even more. With everything said, we have all the more reason to continue to rest on God, since He will always have the strength to get us through the day.
Throughout the year, we have heard God say to us, in many and various ways that He is in control, that He is present with us, that He is comes to us in the Word itself. We have heard our Lord tell us that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and when we hear those truths, although the trials do not immediately vanish, our stress and hopeless anticipation’s might. So, as we find ourselves only moments away from an entirely new year, where anything can be possible, we also find ourselves wondering what is next? What does life have in store for us now? And maybe, just maybe, as we are looking toward the New Year, we are also wondering what God will be doing within us, and through us and for us in the year 2002.
Would you all like to know exactly what our Lord will be doing in our lives in 2002? I can you tell you if you would like to know. But what I have to tell you is not a prediction, nor is it just one of many possibilities. And it certainly is not just an opinion. Although, we are able to surmise from time to time just what God is trying to do in our lives. For example it does not take a rocket scientist to know that there are many professed Christians in this world that do not pray regularly, so after September 11th, we were able to surmise that God allowed the terrorist attacks possibly to bring our nation together in prayer.
But what about all those times when one of our Family at Trinity has been hurting, what do we think God is doing during those moments? I truly believe that one person’s hurt is another person’s opportunity to serve. As Christians if we know a person is suffering and needs our help, we are going to see to that person’s needs as best we can, and who knows, maybe the results of our responding to other peoples needs was the entire reason why God allowed that person to get sick in the first place. There have been many times when God has used pastors and Christians to come and minister to the sick and only by doing so was that sick person made well; maybe not always physically but often spiritually.
God has also given us the blessed ability to see many of His plans completely run its course. This enables us to speculate how God works with even greater accuracy. For example On Christmas day, we celebrated the birth of our Savior. We looked into the manger, and we saw the face of our Lord. We rejoiced that with Jesus, our salvation was now at hand. And even though we know that this Child, in less than 35 years from His birth, was to be crucified, we are still able to rejoice. We rejoice because we know that God had a plan. And that plan was to allow His Son to live as we live, and for Him to have time to teach, direct and guide us so completely that our entire lives can be changed just by hearing His Holy Word. God’s plan was to bring us into His Kingdom, as adopted sons and God’s plan was also to allow His Son to suffer more than we ever could. And in looking back and seeing how God worked things out we can see the logic, we can even see the plan. And we even agree with it! We know that only by way of the shedding of perfect and innocent blood, could we have ever been redeemed. But, Joseph and Mary did not have the benefit of knowing all the historic details that surrounded the life, death and resurrection of their baby boy and that is why we will now look into their lives, because they are wondering what is next, just like you and I.
Everything that happened to Mary and Joseph was at the very least a challenge to their way of life and yes even to their faith. To this we can most definitely relate! So, we pick up where we left off on Christmas Eve. The babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, Mary and Joseph were surrounded by total strangers who came to worship to adore their tiny infant. They knew they were part of God’s mighty plan. They knew they had God with them. And maybe as a result of that certainty they began making plans like any new parents would. But no sooner did the strangers leave their side, than the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, in the middle of the night, telling them to basically run for their lives.
Imagine what they might have been thinking. “God, didn’t you just say that our Baby was conceived from the Holy Spirit? Didn’t you just convey to me that Jesus will save his people from their sins? Are you not our Lord, and can you not keep us safe wherever we live?” These are our questions as well, especially as we look forward to a new year. So God, in His wisdom, answers us and Mary and Joseph. What God shows us is that EVERYTHING RUNS ACCORDING TO HIS DESIGN!
Let’s see just how true that statement really is. The Prophet Jeremiah warned His people that a day would come when the children of Israel would be no more. God knew long before Herod was even born, that Herod would try to kill His Son and so God also knew that Jesus would already begin His way to the cross even in His infancy because of Herod’s threat. But the death of His Son was going to be by His design, not Herod’s. And so God directs Joseph, to get up in the middle of the night and flee into Egypt. Joseph did not try to argue with God, nor did He try to figure things out, instead he faithfully took his Wife and Child and did as He was told and by his faithfulness, the prophecy of Hosea was fulfilled. Joseph had no idea that His running into Egypt would fulfill a prophecy that would further point to Jesus as the true Messiah. All Joseph did was to trust that everything runs according to God’s design. And this happened several times to this young family. They were in Egypt for a number of years and it would have been easy to think God forgot about them. But we see that God did not forget. He called to them and directed them to go to Israel, and then guided them against Archelaus (Herod’s son), so that they could fulfill another prophecy when they moved to Nazareth. Everything that happened to this family happened for a reason and through it all, God ran everything according to His design.
And so with this evidence, we now know what God is going to do within our lives in the forthcoming year. What He will do is… run everything according to His design. God has a purpose for everything that happens. But also be assured that there is more than purpose in His design, there is also promise.
We can see that God is watching over Mary and Joseph is this special way because they have baby Jesus with them! They were placed in difficult and dare I say scary situations so they could fulfill prophecies which would point the way to Jesus as the Messiah, can we honestly say that we, throughout our life, our trials and our victories, are in the same boat? Most certainly yes!
No matter what trial we are facing, no matter how long that trial might last, we can be assured and can assure others that just like Mary and Joseph, we too carry with us Jesus. We carry Him with us in spirit as we are fed with His Word. We carry Him with us in action, as we live out this new life that Christ has won for us. So then it is not a far stretch to say that someone’s illness may be according to God’s design, because that illness may be the catalyst to bring someone to Christ, or revive in them their call to worship, and when that happens prophecies are fulfilled all over again. Prophecies like the one we find in Isaiah. “He was bruised for our iniquities… and by His stripes we are healed.” Every time we bring the Word of God to others, every time we serve another person, we bring with us Jesus, we show forth God’s Son. We can even represent our Lord, just as Pastor’s do when they forgive sins. When they say, “in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I announce the entire forgiveness of all your sins!” prophecy is again fulfilled. Fulfilled in that we are reminded that Jesus’ blood has won for us complete assurance that all our sins have been wiped away.
It is good for us to be reminded that everything is done according to God’ design. And it brings us joy to know that God uses us to bring about that design. He uses us to serve as well as to be served. And maybe in being reminded of this aspect of God’s design this morning, it may be a bit easier for us to endure or at the very least understand why we might suffer that latest trial. Could it be that God is using you, for His purpose? Oh most certainly, and with that good news we are comforted because we like Mary and Joseph, carry with us the Savior of the World, who by His very presence protects our body, saves our soul and heals our weary spirit.
