Gospel in the Change (Unexpected)

Intro

Read our text Matthew 1:18-25

Our service this week is to focus on Love. For God so loved the world, He showed it to us in this way, that He sent His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life.

It is love that had to be present in the midst of everyone involved for this to work. God had to love the world, Mary had to love God, Joseph had to love God and love Mary, there is a self-sacrifice that is taking place for this all to come together. When some things don’t make sense, love is that lamp that guides are feet one step at a time. It covers our steps and hems us in when we are unsure.

I want to share a story that we have captured on video that parallels our story in Matthew’s gospel. Father Rob Steinbach from Shalom Anglican. We have been with Father Rob from his time at Seaside to planting Shalom Anglican in Silverdale. Father Rob shares with us a little bit of his story in the unexpected, in the change that God did in his life.

After we hear from Father Rob, I’ll come back up and share a few thoughts and then we’ll finish out our service.

Watch Video

Some thoughts:

In first-century Jewish culture, betrothal was a formal engagement period where couples remained separate for one year to demonstrate the bride's purity. When Mary became pregnant during this time, Joseph faced a heart-wrenching decision. Rather than publicly exposing her apparent unfaithfulness, which could have led to her death by stoning, he chose to divorce her quietly—demonstrating both his love and his character in a moment of personal crisis.

What began as a devastating disruption to Joseph's well-laid plans—from simple carpenter to seemingly scandalized fiancé—became a pivotal moment in divine history. His willingness to trust beyond his initial heartbreak transformed him from a small-town craftsman to the earthly father of the Messiah. This story powerfully illustrates how God often works through our deepest uncertainties, turning moments of crisis into gateways of purpose. Like Joseph, we may find that our greatest challenges and unexpected detours aren't derailments of our story, but rather the very paths through which God's deeper purposes unfold.

Like Joseph's dramatic shift from carpenter to stepfather of the Messiah, God leads faithful hearts down unexpected paths, proving that our greatest uncertainties often become the doorways to His deepest purposes.

Love for God and love for others sets us up for these unexpected changes and shifts to be navigated well. God is faithful to bring what we need when we need it. He brought an angel of the Lord to appear to Joseph in a dream. God has brought trusted adults, friends, pastors, mentors, strangers even to bring me those right words that are spoken at the right time, at the right place, and in a way that I was able to hear them.

When life veers from our carefully plotted course, it's natural to feel lost or mistaken. We often clutch tightly to our own vision of how things "should be," treating any deviation as a flaw in the plan rather than part of a greater design. But God's wisdom operates on a scale far beyond our limited perspective. He isn't constrained by our planning or bound by our expectations—instead, He weaves even our uncertainties and missteps into His greater purpose.

Sometimes we may find ourselves tangled in situations of our own making, led astray by what we thought was wisdom. Yet even then, God's sovereignty isn't diminished. He specializes in working through our uncertainties, our mistakes, and yes, even our messes, to accomplish His unchangeable purposes. Like a master artist who can incorporate an apparent mistake into the beauty of the final work, God's plans remain unshakeable, using every unexpected turn and seeming setback to craft something far more magnificent than we could have imagined on our own.

Just as Joseph's story began with confusion and heartache, yet led to an integral role in God's redemptive plan, our own unexpected journeys carry purpose beyond our present understanding. Whether through divine intervention, like Joseph's angelic dream, or through the wisdom of those God places in our path, He provides the guidance we need exactly when we need it. The question isn't whether our plans will be disrupted—they will be. The question is whether we'll have the courage, like Joseph, to remain faithful when they are.

In the end, our greatest comfort isn't in having control over our circumstances, but in knowing who controls them. The same God who transformed a simple carpenter's shattered dreams into a pivotal chapter of salvation history continues to work in our lives today. When we find ourselves at these crossroads of trust, may we remember that God's unexpected paths, though often challenging, lead to purposes far greater than we could have planned for ourselves. For in His hands, our uncertainties become opportunities, our detours become destinations, and our greatest challenges become channels for His most profound work in and through us.