Sermon Tone Analysis
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CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
Have you ever been in a situation in your life where you felt the timing of something was terrible?
I wonder how Mary, a young teenage girl, felt when the angel Gabriel appeared to her with news of her impending pregnancy.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
News of pregnancy alone is overwhelming, especially when it's unplanned.
Mary, like most women, longed to be a mother, just not now.
Gabriel's news, although glorious, could not have come at a worse time relationally.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
How could she convince her soon to be husband Joseph that she had remained faithful and that her pregnancy was of supernatural origin?
News of her pregnancy could not have come at a worse time culturally.
Out of wedlock, pregnancy has at various times and degrees been frowned upon by most cultures.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
However, Mary lived in a time and culture where such a situation was scandalous.
Mary's great news did not produce great joy.
Her pregnancy's poor timing intensified when Caesar Augustus decreed that everyone should return to their hometown for a census.
Could he not have made this decree in her first trimester and not during the final month of her last trimester?
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
Imagine a 60 mile journey without any motor powered means.
It is possible she journeyed by donkey.
This possibility did not make the journey for this 9 month pregnant mother any easier.
If we focus the camera just on her, the timing of Mary's pregnancy seems terrible.
She doesn't complain, but things look awful.
However, from God's perspective, the timing was perfect.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
What does the expression "fullness of time" mean?
In simple laymen's terms, it means; when the time was ripe or when the time was perfect.
Throughout history, God had been whispering, promising, and suggesting that he would send a Savior.
This promise of salvation is recorded in the Lord's first post-fall conversation with our first parents, in Genesis 3.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
During his conversation, he promised that a Savior would come to earth through the seed of a woman?
Now that's mysterious.
Only men possess seed!
If you are going to live by faith you will need to make room, lots of room, for mystery.
The sovereign Lord of the universe does not operate in predictable patterns.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AT CHRISTMAS
His works may seem random.
No rhyme, or reason to his method yet he is conducting a symphonic masterpiece which will be sung for all of eternity; “Salvation belongs to our God”.
Throughout the Old Testament, God promises a Savior, and Paul says in the fullness of time, in the perfect time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.
Christ's coming was at the right time for many reasons.
It was the right time politically for Jesus to be born.
When Jesus was born, the Roman Empire, in many ways, was at its zenith, and one of its virtues was that it tended to be tolerant toward religions.
Rome said,
You can exercise your religion with freedom as long as you proclaim that Caesar is god.
That worked wonderfully for all groups except for one: the Jewish people.
The Jews were adamant about not worshipping any god except Yahweh, the living God.
Resistance to this law brought persecution and even death.
It was the right time politically for Jesus to be born.
Over time the pragmatic Roman leaders soften this law concerning the Jewish people.
This provision made it possible for Christianity to come into existence as Roman leadership considered Christianity a part of Judaism.
It was the right time politically for Jesus to be born.
Until the year 70 AD, those practicing Christianity had pretty much complete freedom to proclaim their message, and it was the right time for Christ's good news to be proclaimed.
It was the right time politically for Jesus to be born.
It was the right time politically because it was a time of relative peace.
The assassination of Julius Caesar ignited a civil war, however in 25 BCE, Caesar Augustus ascended to the throne and began a reign of peace that lasted 200 years.
It was the right time politically for Jesus to be born.
During this time of peace, Rome built roads that enabled the good news about Jesus to travel easily.
It was the right time politically for Christ to be born.
It was also the right time culturally for Christ to be born.
Alexander the Great had conquered the world into which Jesus had come, and with Alexander's victory Greek culture and Greek language spread throughout the world.
It was also the right time culturally for Christ to be born.
More people in Jesus' world had learned to read than ever before in history.
The Greek language was exact, and it is this common tongue language in which Scripture was written.
It was also the right time culturally for Christ to be born.
This the good news of Jesus to spread much more quickly than it would have otherwise.
So it was the right time politically and culturally, and
It was also the right time spiritually.
Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had done an excellent job raising questions about the meaning of life.
Someone said
The Greek philosophers plowed the fields of the human heart, and Christ and his followers then sowed the seeds of meaning.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing.
It was the perfect time for Christ to be born politically, culturally, and spiritually .
and yet it was terrible timing for Mary personally.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
Though the Lord’s timing for Mary was terrible she obeyed.
She did not let mystery cause her to wonder if God cares but to worship in spite of her circumstances.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
Skal Labissiere arrived in Portland, knowing that his playing time would be minimal at best.
Yet, reflecting on his path to the NBA, he was not filled with anxiety, but gratitude.
He knows that he’ll probably just play a few “garbage time” minutes during a blowout, a far cry from the 20 minutes per game he played for his last team.
But here’s his perspective:
“Things like this? Playing time?
Yeah, it’s frustrating at times, but … after what I’ve been through, believe me, I’m good.
God got me to this point, and I still have a ways to go.
I’m excited about what’s ahead here.”
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
Labissiere was alluding to the tragic earthquake in his native Haiti that he experienced as a 13-year-old.
The quake caught him unaware on the third floor of his home.
He eventually had a wall crash onto his back as he protected his mother from the shifting rubble.
It left him unable to walk for weeks.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
His family all survived, but they knew his dream of playing NBA basketball would be difficult if he remained in Port-Au-Prince, so his father found a nonprofit that might help a young man with Labissiere’s potential.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
Eight months later, he flew to the US to live with local resident Gerald Hamilton and his family in Memphis, Tennessee.
The love and support from the Hamiltons gave him the foundation he needed to pursue high school basketball, then college hoops at Kentucky, and eventually the NBA.
God uses difficult circumstances to accomplish great good in his timing
Labissiere said the earthquake was an awful event, but he added, “But for me, God used that experience to open doors.”
God uses our choices for his perfect purpose.
Throughout Scripture, we see that God taking people’s choices, even evil ones, and choreographing them for his purposes.
God uses our choices for his perfect purpose.
Scripture is replete with stories that substantiate this truth.
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