Unexpected - Week 2
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Intro
Intro
Recap: If you were with us last Sunday morning, we preached a message entitled “Unexpected.”
We talked about how God, for 400 years was basically silent - And then he begins speaking.
He speaks to an old man and an old woman and tells them they are going to have a son.
He speaks to an unexpected couple, gives them an unexpected promise, and sends their son on an unexpected mission.
We remind ourselves not to get weary in the waiting and not to miss God because he often shows up where we do not expect him.
Opening Story/Illustration: Christmas is often a time of surprises. I remember as a kid trying to figure out what my parents had gotten me. I was a devious little kid - I figured out that my walkie talkies were the right frequency to pick up my parents cordless phone. So I would turn on my walkie talkies and listen in to their conversations in hopes that I could get an idea of what they were getting me. One year they really surprised me. I had just started playing guitar about a year earlier and all I had was a pawn shop special and it was pretty bad. My parents got this box and I opened it and there was a guitar tuner inside and it said I had to search the house for what plugged into it. So I went on this hunt and I finally found a brand new Washburn guitar in my parents bathroom. I was so surprised by this.
Transition to the Text: This is exactly what God does as we continue the story. He continues surprising us. We are too familiar with these stories. We need to read them again with fresh eyes as if we are hearing them for the first time. They are full of unexpected surprises. The angel has shown up to an old man and an old woman, but now about 6months later he shows up to a young girl. A teenage girl.
Text:
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.” 38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Transition to points: Let’s look at this story today continuing our theme of “unexpected.”
Points
Points
An unexpected woman (Luke 1:26-27)
If you and I were picking out the woman to bear God’s son, we would probably have picked someone maybe a little older, with more life experience.
If you and I were picking out the woman to bear God’s son, we would probably have picked someone maybe a little older, with more life experience.
God Picks a girl who they tell us was no more than 15yrs old and likely closer to 13. This was the normal age in her society for betrothal.
This was the normal age in her society for betrothal.
This young woman is pledge to be married to a man named Joseph
Marriage, in her culture, consisted of 2 stages - engagement followed by the marriage itself.
Engagement involved a formal agreement initiated by a father who was seeking a wife for his son.
The bride’s father would be paid for marrying his daughter because he was losing a helper within the family and the groom was gaining one.
After the price was paid, they would put together a written agreement or oath. The groom was agree to it and the couple was engaged.
An engagement was legally binding and any sexual contact by the bride-to-be with another person was considered adultery.
Parties at this time were considered legally husband and wife.
Joseph, the man she is engaged to was probably about 20 years old.
God chooses to work through this young couple who are just starting out in life.
I don’t know about you, but I look back on my younger self quite often and ask - “What was I thinking?”
The older often look at the younger like they don’t have a clue about life - and the charge is sometimes warrented
Yet God chooses two young people who are just starting out to bring his son into the world.
We expect the mighty, but God picks the humble and the lowly.
This means that God can use you - when you’re faithful to him.
Your age, your experience or lack of it does not matter to God.
In the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we see God using the old, in the Story of Mary and Joseph, we see God using the young.
In other words - It’s going to take all of us to bring his son to bear in the world!
What caught God’s attention was faithfulness!
Mary Catches this idea in her song of worship:
46 Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. 49 For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. 50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54 He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”
You see this idea carried out in
1 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. 4 Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.” 6 Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. 7 He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.
John hears about a Lion, but sees a slaughtered lamb
God has a way of using things we do not expect.
A major theme throughout the Bible is that God uses the people we don’t expect him to use.
Illustration: Growing up, one of my best friends in high school was a guy named Johnny Byrd. He wasn’t the type of friend you would expect me to have. I has a pastor’s kid and I never really got into much trouble. Johnny was a genius. When he was in elementary school the teachers tested him and wanted him to skip some grades, but his parents wouldn’t let him. Johnny got really bored in school. Johnny’s step dad ran a roofing company, so at an early age he started roofing with his step dad. And this got him around some pretty unsavory characters. He started using drugs. Then he started dealing drugs. By around 17 he’s been in and out of jail multiple times, in fights, dropped out of school, and basically on his way to prison. In fact, the judge told him if he saw his face again, he was going to prison. But then something happened. Johnny went to church with is mom and he got saved. A little country pentecostal church where they still wore dresses and long sleeves. Johnny’s life changed. Today he pastors a growing church - If you had looked at him in high school he was unlikely - But God has a way of using the unexpected people to do unexpected things.
An unexpected pregnancy (Luke 1:28-33)
One of the leaders in this movement was a young man from Canada, Charles Templeton, born in 1915. He was generally acknowledged to be the most versatile of the new young evangelists. Templeton soon rose to prominence, even surpassing another dynamic young preacher, Billy Graham. In 1946, he was listed among those best used of God by the National Association of Evangelicals.4
An unexpected pregnancy
We expect God’s plan to be easy - but God’s plan is often messy and painful.
This angel comes to Mary and tells her that she is going to conceive and have a son.
This comes at an awkward time - She is not married, she is engaged.
If she had been married, at least the community would think it belonged to her husband.
If she hadn’t been engaged, at least she wouldn’t have had to tell her fiance she was pregnant.
An expected pregnancy is complicated - How much more an unexpected one.
We expect God’s plan to be easy - but God’s plan is often messy and painful.
When a woman gets pregnant, everything changes.
After the baby is born, life is never, ever the same again.
Illustration: Getting married is a life changer for sure - But nothing changes your life more than having kids. Marriage is small potatoes compared to having Children. Before kids you can go out, you can kind of do what you want to do. Once you have children, everything changes. Late nights, messy diapers, fits in the grocery store - a new human being that is 100 percent dependent on you 24/7. Having kids changes you, it changes your spouse, it changes the way you think and the way you live in ways that are beautiful and incredible as well as complicated, messy, and painful.
We expect God’s plan to be easy - but God’s plan is often messy and painful.
God’s work often complicates our lives
Think about Mary as she has to tell her family that she’s pregnant. What would they think?
Think about the conversation she has to have with Joseph.
Think about the stares and the ridicule as she starts to show.
Think about how the town thought of her and of Jesus even as he was growing up.
Think about the pain of childbirth
Think about the responsibility of raising a child - God’s son.
There’s a popular American Gospel that says follow Jesus and you’re life will be easier
But if you read the Bible, you will see, obedience to God often makes your life more complicated.
We often hear the first point we made - God can use you - and get really excited - until we begin to hear about the ways God’s plan is going to be difficult.
This is why many don’t make it.
Many are looking for God to make their lives easier - and sometimes obedience to him actually complicates life.
God is not interested in easy, he is interested in developing you and me into a people who look like Jesus.
He’s interested in forming us and shaping us into the image of His son.
God’s work may complicate our lives, but it also makes them full, beautiful, and adventurous. And through it all, God is with us. (See )
28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
An unexpected process ()
We would expect a man and a women to have a baby - not a virgin
Mary is equally puzzled by this -
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
We would expect a man and a women to have a baby - not a virgin
She is unsure how God is going to full-fill his promise
She is told it will be a work of the Holy Spirit.
She is reminded of her cousin - Elizabeth - as a testimony that God can do anything.
God will sometimes use some strange methods to accomplish his purposes
The children of Israel walking around the walls of Jericho waiting for them to fall
A young boy with a sling shot expecting to take down a giant
Leading his people through the dessert for 40 years instead of taking them straight into the promise land
With God, what we think is the most efficient and effective method is not the method he chooses.
We expect God to move in our box - But God often moves in unexpected ways
God’s often works in unconventional ways
The American Church often creates an idol out of effectiveness. We want success and we are sure we’ve got the best method to get their figured out - But God’s ways are often quite different.
The work of The Spirit is often mysterious and unexpected
As people of the Spirit, we must be open to his moving - and sometimes this means we put aside our preconceived ideas about who He will use and how he will move.
I’m not saying we get crazy - But I am saying is that some us want to control God. We want him to show up when we want him, how we want him, the way we want him.
The theologically sound people missed Jesus. The pharisees and the religious leaders of his day missed him because they thought they knew how God worked and moved.
You and I will miss God if we always think we have things figured out.
God will sometimes use some strange means to get to his end.
Other traditions look at us as Pentecostals
Think about it:
Illustration: I remember as a kid I grew up Assembly of God. I noticed something that we often had a sort of I’m better than the church down the street mentality because we have the Holy Spirit. I moved to a town when I was 17 that was predominantly Baptist and I noticed the opposite - There were kids who weren’t allowed to come to our VBS because we were into weird things. But what if the Spirit is moving in both places? What if the Spirit can move through hymns? What if he can also move through worship songs? What if the spirit can move in the quiet and what if he can move through the loud and exciting? And what if he moves in both spontaneity and in planning? - And what if God put us here to learn from each other so that we could better appreciate the mysterious, powerful, life changing ways in which the spirit wants to move? What if your Christian life feels stagnant and boring because you’ve put the Spirit in a box?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Main Idea: God works though unexpected people in unexpected ways
So what? This week, where are you missing God? Where are you putting a burden on him to show up in a certain way? Where are you avoiding his plan because you know it’s going to be difficult?
Now What?