God has plans for you
Notes
Transcript
[Location 1]
Today, We are begin the final week of Advent. It has just flown by, hasn’t it? Time seemed to drag on so much this year, but it seems like this season has been moving at the speed of light. I hope you have got all your shopping done and that you are ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus in whatever way you can this year.
Because of the busy-ness that Christmas can be, I want to just take this moment to remind you to drop off your reverse advent box at the House of Blessing before noon on Christmas eve. If you can’t make it that day because of work or whatever, I’ll be at North Park Stratford on December 23 from 9:00am until 5:30pm so you can drop it off here and I will take it the next day to House of Blessing for you and take all the credit for being super generous.
For our teaching series this advent, we are looking at each of the four angelic encounters that are within the Christmas narrative. The common thread of each of these encounters is that in all four instances, the angels say, “Do not be afraid” to the person or people they are talking to, which is why I named this series, “Don’t Be Afraid.”
Most of us operated out of fear instead of faith in some area of our lives. For some, they may be super focussed on saving and hoarding all their money because they are afraid they won’t have enough. Some might spend all the money they have and some money they don’t on things because they are afraid of missing out on something.
Some might overeat because they are afraid they can’t live up to the expectations placed on them while others may undereat because they are afraid of gaining 5 pounds and becoming less than ideal in their mind.
Some people are afraid they will lose their job and others may be afraid they will be stuck at their job forever. Most of us have fear in our lives and that fear drives our behaviour.
In my time as a pastor, if there is one fear that seems to be present in almost everyone I meet, especially Christians, is the the fear of being rejected. Rejected by a community, rejected by the opposite sex, rejected by an employer or even your employees.
Almost everyone is afraid of this in some way and that fear drives our behaviour. It dictates how we dress, how we talk to people, what we eat or don’t eat. It influences many of our choices and it affects our lives.
It can lead us into sexual temptation and sin, into overworking, into allowing others to manipulate and abuse us.
It can also lead us to be silent when we should speak up, to keeping our faith hidden when it is meant to be shared, and to faking our way through life so we are accepted.
But there is another way. - a better way. We can exchange our fear for faith, just as the people in the Christmas narrative have done.
Zechariah traded his fear for faith that God would send Israel a prophet.
Mary traded her fear for faith that God would fulfill his promise and provide a King.
And today, we will see that Joseph will trade his fear for faith that God has a plan and that plan, was to save us from our sins.
So let’s read from the book of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18-25.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Pray.
[LOCATION 2]
God’s Plan is Messy
God’s Plan is Messy
How “ok” are you with messy? I’m “so-so” with it. I can be flexible and I can let some stuff go, but I do appreciate it when everything is neat, organized and clean. When my kids were little, I was more frustated at general untidyness but, slowly, over time, I started to let go of a “perfectly” clean home and allow some (although not much) mess. That said, give me a day to clean and organize and I will feel a deep sense of purpose and accomplishment.
When I read this passage, one of the things that jumps out at me is that God’s plan is messy.
Our passage describes Joseph as a good man. Matthew, the author, actually gives him the title of “righteous,” which means Joseph was a man who desired to obey God’s law as much as possible and made the appropriate sacrifices for when he didn’t. He was someone who always did his best to do the right thing.
And being like that brought Joseph into a moral dilemma.
Joseph and Mary were engaged to be married. Engagement in that culture meant you were legally married, but you didn’t live together or consummate your relationship for a full year, while the husband built a home.
Then Joseph finds out one day that Mary is pregnant. And he knows, it’s not his. Talk about messy. And because he knows he is not the father, he as a choice to make:
Report her to the village elders. They would brand her an adultress and she would, at best, never be able to marry, which would mean poverty or prostitution. At worst, they could execute her under the Mosaic Law by stoning her to death.
Divorce her quietly and distance himself from her.
The thing is, both of these options would be, according the law, the righteous thing to do. But the second option, the one Joseoph chooses, is also the merciful choice. To be truly righteous person means that you not only emulate God in justice, but also in mercy.
And that is a word to some of you. Some of you feel very strongly about justice, about others “getting what’s coming to them” - “getting what they deserve” -and you have forgotten the mercy that God has shown you when he took all your sins upon himself and forgave you. That mercy he showed you - he calls you to it show others.
Outside of the major things like killing people, cheating on your spouse, embezzelling money for example, what you and I see as right and wrong may differ. For some people, drinking alcohol is very wrong but for others, it’s not. For some people, driving 10 km over the speed limit is fine, but for some, and I have driven behind you, you must see it as the unforgivable sin.
I would contend that there are more issues that are a matter of personal conscience than there are of universal right and wrong but sometimes we Christians confuse the two and make choices into universal laws - and that’s how legalism creeps into the church, perverting the gospel into a bunch of rules that need to be followed instead of a living relationship to be pursued and all relationships, including a relatioship with God are messy.
Joseph was caught in a tough place. Righteousness in the eyes of the religious law meant that he had to divorce Mary. But then God steps in and through the angel in a dream, tells him to do the “unrighteous” thing: take Mary home as his wife. And in that moment he has to decide whether to hold to the religious traditions that he has always known, or obey God’s call to him in a dream. Joseph chooses obedience to God’s call.
God called a righteous man to do an unrighteous thing so that Jesus would have a human father to help guide him. God’s plan is messy sometimes and I wonder if some of us have become so locked in to “how things are supposed to be” that we are actually afraid of the messiness of God’s plan. Maybe God wants to disrupt the peace and quiet in your life and invite you to engage with something, or maybe someone, that is messy so that He could work through you, just like he worked through Joseph.
[Location 3]
God’s Plan is Uncomfortable
God’s Plan is Uncomfortable
Something else that Joseph’s narrative teaches us is that God’s plan is uncomfortable.
I think it’s fair to say that as a culture, we love our comfort. We love our comfy couches in front of our huge TV’s that bring us comfort when life gets hard. We love our soft beds and our warm blankets that make us feel good. We love the comfort our food brings so much, we created a whole class of cooking for it. We love our comfort. I love comfort. And sometimes I wonder if I, and if we as Christians in Canada, love it too much.
If you have been around the church for a while, or you have read the Old Testament, you may have see this verse:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
This is the verse that people love to give to students when they graduate high school or university. This is the verse that sooo many people have told me is their “life verse.” And I can understand why.
On a first look, it is a verse that is hopeful, that reveals we have a reason to exist - a purpose and that God is going to protect us and guide us into great things. I get why people love this verse. But I wonder how many people know the context of this verse?
In about 587 BC, Babylon invaded Judah and carried out a forced relocation of the people to Babylon, which is modern day Iraq. Jeremiah was a prophet of God who served before and during this exile, which lasted for 70 years.
Now, let’s read the passage again, but this time, let’s start in verse 10 and go to verse 14
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Everyone loves verse 11 but no one remembers that the plans that God had for Israel included 70 years of exile from their homeland so that the people would turn back to God. That’s uncomfortable! And one of the things I have noticed in immature Christians is a tendency to misassociate feeling uncomfortable - of feeling pain and difficulty- with being outside God’s plan. Too many people assume that if life is hard, that means God isn’t blessing you, that he isn’t for you. But that’s not true.
Jesus promised us in this life, we will have difficulty. We will experience trials and those trials are, in actuality, a gift from God. The trials you go through are exactly what you need in order to know Jesus better.
George Mueller was a Christian evangelist and the director of the Ashley Down Orphanage in Bristol, England during the 1800’s. It is figured he helped care for over 10,000 orphans and he established 117 schools that offered Christian education to over 120,000 people. In regards to trials and struggles that we go through, and he went through his share, he says,
“God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith…We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.”
When we reframe our perception of our trials and strugglesand see them as a gift from God, we can do what James, Jesus’ brother, says when he tells us to,
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
God had a plan for Joseph. And it wasn’t a plan to keep Joseph in comfort and safety. It was a plan to use him as an instrument to bring about the salvation of the world through Jesus and that plan would entail struggle, trials and difficulty. It was an uncomfortable plan.
Joseph would most likely have lost respect of his community and his family. It may have been harder to work and to provide for his family because of his tattered reputation in a culture that was all about appearances. It would involve fleeing death in the middle of the night, moving a new, young family to a foreign country and living there for a few years, only to return to the hometown you left.
Joseph was called by God to do something far bigger than his comfort allowed.
Church, we grow through adversity, not ease. So, does God have a plan for you? Yes. It is a plan of ease, of wealth and health - of comfort? No. It’s a plan to help you know Jesus as deeply as possible and that means that sometimes you will be uncomfortable and that’s okay.
[Location 4]
God’s Plan is Purposeful
God’s Plan is Purposeful
When I look at the whole Christmas narrative, I am amazed at the sense of purpose in God’s plan. To fulfill the prophecies in the Old Testament, Jesus had to be from Nazarene but born in Bethlehem so God had the Roman Caesar issue a census so that could happen. For Jesus to fulfill the prophecies regarding his lineage with King David, God brought both Mary and Joseph together because they are both from David’s descendants. In order to fulfill what Isaiah prophecied about the messiah being born of a virgin, God made that happen by overshadowing Mary so that Jesus would be conceived. But so that there would be someone to protect and shape Jesus as a child, God called Joseph, a righteous man, to sacrifice his reputation and raise Jesus as his own. Everything God does is with purpose.
In the Old Testament, it says in the book of proverbs that,
The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.
and in the New Testament, Paul the Apostle says, that
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
So many of us are afraid of God’s plan for our lives. We are afraid he will take us away from our comfort, whether it be financial comfort, emotional comfort, or physical comfort but what we miss is that God’s plan is purposeful and his purpose was not to give us a comfortable life, but save us from our sin.
In Gabriel’s announcement to Joseph, he says,
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Without God’s intervention we are lost in our sins. They rule over us because they are embedded within us. They entrap us in lives that are substandard to God’s will for our lives and they separate us from God himself. Because we couldn’t save ourselves - and still despite all our education, all our technology, all our progress- God needed to send a mediator to save us and restore relationship.
Someone who was perfectly holy and sinless so that he would be an appropriate sacrifice.
Someone who was eternal - to be able to pay for the sins of all mankind for all time
Someone who was fully human - so that the sacrifice would be for those he identified with.
Sound like anyone to you? God plan wasn’t thrown together at the last minute. It was prophecied hundreds of years before Christ was born. John the apostle writes,
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
Jesus was always God’s plan to save us from our sins. God’s plan had a purpose.
God’s plan for you has a purpose as well. God’s plan is for you is first, to repent of your sins and to recieve Christ as Savior.
In Peter’s first sermon in the book of Acts, he says,
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God’s first plan for your life is that you would turn away from all that draws you away from Him and that you would receive his forgiveness and his new life.
And if you want to make that decision today, wherever you are to turn to Jesus and invite him into your life as your Lord and your saviour, then pray and talk to Him and then please email me today at kirk.ehrhart@northpark.ca
Second, his plan for your life is to use you to make disciples of Jesus.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
God doesn’t call us to go to church. He calls us to be the church and to make disciples of Jesus of all nations. And I believe that God has uniquely placed you right where you are, on purpose, so that, like Joseph, God can use you to fulfill his purpose in someone else’s life.
Closing
God’s plan is messy and it’s uncomfortable but it’s also purposeful. So let go of your fears and your need to control and trust in God’s plan for your life.
Pray.