God Promised Love

Intro

Today is the last Sunday before Christmas. We will wrap up our series The Promise next Sunday. We have been exploring the themes of Advent each week leading up to Christmas. The first week, we discovered that God’s promised hope came in the form of a person. Jesus meets our deepest longings and is the hope for our present and our future. The second week, we looked at the promise of peace that was given to the lowly shepherds. There would be a new government that would come that would bring peace to the world. Last week, we discovered deep joy in the promise that the Savior of the world was coming. It is a joy to receive and a joy to share.

Today we will consider God’s promise of love that was born into the world in the form of a baby in a manger. We saw how Jesus’ advent affected the lives of Simeon, the shepherd, Zacharias, and today we will consider how Mary’s life was changed forever.

How has Jesus affected your life? Have you met the Savior, personally?

PRAY

How many of us have a nativity scene set up in the living room or on the mantle of the fireplace. Ours is on a radiator cover in the Dining Room. What is a nativity? And what does that word even mean?

Our word nativitycomes from the Latin word nativitas which means “birth.” In Ireland they called a nativity “The Creche.” And when we took Will to church, the nursery was also called the Creche. The nativity scene that we set out each year is a depiction of the birth of the God of the universe into the world. Surrounded by his mother Mary and earthly father Joseph, barnyard animals, shepherds, and angels. All eyes of the nativity are fixed on the baby Jesus because it is all about His birth. We have a beautiful life-sized nativity out on the front lawn of the church reminding everyone who drives by of the meaning of Christmas. Thank you Len Czyzewski and J.C. Emmot!

📷You’ve probably noticed a new event for many pregnant couples. After announcing the arrival of a new baby, there is often a special event - the gender reveal party. Some elaborate gender reveal events are now costing $10,000! Couples have pink or blue cakes baked that give away their secret when they are sliced. Some couples fill balloons with pink or blue powder or use colored Tannerite and shoot them with guns. Other couples have boxes full of pink or blue balloons and release them to rounds of applause. You name it, and it has probably happened.

Here is Will and Alyssa’s announcement of our new grandson with blue streamers. He’s due to arrive next May. You can see the excitement on faces. We were there through video chat. Wow. I must be officially in Pop mode. That’s two Sundays in a row I talked about grandkids! Forgive me!

Today I have four points to share about God’s promise of Love. If you like taking notes, you can fill in the blanks and jot some personal thoughts on the insert in the bulletin.

1: We Prepare for the Birth of Something New

The reason the nativity, the birth of Jesus, is so significant is not because this birth happened one night long ago, but because God’s desire for each of us is for Christ to be born within us even today. And for the love of God to be revealed to the world by the way we live. What would happen if each of us, full of expectation that God could birth something new within us this season, began to prepare ourselves for all that God desires to do?

There is another promise given in the Old Testament that is fulfilled in this nativity scene that we are so familiar with. Again we hear from Isaiah.

READ Isaiah 7:14.

There would be a sign given to God’s people that they had not been forgotten in their sinful and broken states, but instead, when they see a virgin gives birth to a child, they would see the tangible love of God coming into the world to rescue us all. The instruction given in Isaiah is to be prepared. Be ready for this revelation. Live your life with expectancy that God would come to us. Make space in our lives. Make room for the birth of a work of God within us right now, even before the arrival comes.

In the New Testament Gospels, we have two different accounts of the nativity, this birth. Matthew and Luke each give an explanation of the way in which God came to us in the middle of our mess to be with us because of His love. Luke captured a bit more backstory within the nativity narrative. It begins with an angel called Gabriel, speaking to a young teenage girl named Mary.

READ Luke 1:26–33.

The message brought by the angel is that Mary would conceive a child within her womb whose name would be Jesus. Don’t miss the key to the story here. It’s truly a miracle. Mary is a virgin. Mary is engaged. She has not yet been married to Joseph, so this announcement must have been a difficult thing to process. What? What do you mean I am going to become pregnant? What do you mean this child, Jesus, will be the Sonof the Most High, a king who will rule over all things? When God is ready to do something new, it almost always is a disruption. In a world that is broken and marked by sin, the arrival of love is disruptive.

How many of you like disruption? Change? We usually fight pretty hard against it, don’t we?

2: When God Shows Up, Our Lives Are Disrupted

Mary’s life is taking a turn here that she could have never expected. As far as she knew, she was about to marry this nice Jewish boy Joseph, when suddenly she has been chosen to give birth to the Savior of the world. This was a major disruption. For Joseph, your fiancée suddenly becomes pregnant, and it’s not your baby. How do you explain this to all your friends and your family? I know that Mary says an angeltold her that this baby is not from another man, but how do I know for sure? For Joseph, this was a disruption. For the political power of that day, King Herod was in control of all of Israel. For this baby to come into the world and the Son of God, being called the King of kings, this meant that all the old kings would have to go. This was a disruption.

This disruption comes because of the promise that God loves His people so much that He would come to dwell with them through this humble young girl.

We have two choices disruption comes: avoid it or embrace it. I believe that when God is trying to birth something new within us, it will always feel like something confusing, something hard, something exciting, something inexplicable, something uncontrollable. When this happens . . . what will you do? Avoid it or embrace it?

When Cindi and I answered God’s call to ministry – there was major disruption - things started to change. We planned to go to Galway Ireland as missionaries and that meant selling our house and cars. Quitting my corporate marketing career with a good salary and benefits. Leaving behind family and friends. Bringing our 2- and 5-year-old boys to a foreign country. Learning a new culture and a new way of doing church, ministry, and life. Talk about disruption! But we absolutely loved it. We embraced the change. And while we missed family and comforts of home, we celebrated a fresh view of ministry and connecting with people much more personally. We allowed God to do something amazing in our lives and we are so thankful He did.

Maybe this morning, as you came to church, you were wrestling with a disruption in your life. Maybe it is a new job you are not sure what to do about. Maybe it’s a loss of some kind that is painful. Maybe it is a sin that has finally found you out. Maybe it is a relationship that seems to have hit a dead end. Maybe it is a need that you see around you that you can’t get off your mind. Disruption. This may be God’s grace and His love bringing about something new in your life.

Some of us may have spent years avoiding a disruption that God has been trying to use to birth something new. My prayer today would be that all across this room and with our online viewers too there would be people who would stop avoiding the disruptions that God can use to help us experience Him and start embracing the work that God wants to do within us through His great love.

Like Mary and Joseph in this story, God is wanting to do something through our lives that will change the world. But we choose how we will respond. Accept God’s gift of His Son and allow Him to starting shaking up your world.

Let’s see how Mary responds.

READ Luke 1:34–37.

Mary asks a fair question: “How will this be?” She was a virgin. There is no natural way that God could bring about what has been promised. You see, within her mind there can be no new birth because it does not seem humanly possible. She is right; it is not humanly possible. This is a work of God. Mary had new-birth excuses.

3: We All Have New-Birth Excuses

We all have reasons why we think God cannotdo a new work with us. I want to speak to those excuses for a moment. I have heard them from people in the church and not in church. “Thereis no way God can save mymarriage; it’s too far gone.” “There is no way God could love me; I have made too many mistakes.” “I will never see the relationship with my son or daughter restored; there has been too much damage done.” “I will never be able to get on top of my bills; I am destined to be in debt the rest of my life.” “I will never be able to get clean and stay sober; the temptation is just too strong.” “I can’t get free from porn – it keeps pulling me back in.” These are all excuses for why we can’t experience new birth. Like Mary, we point out how, from a human perspective, it does not make sense for God to be able to do a work in and through us. But look how the angel responded to her excuse.

The angel says, “The Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Essentially, he was saying, “Listen Mary, what is impossible with man is possible with God.” This is not a work of mere men; this is a work of God. All of our excuses may be correct and valid about why this Christmas should not be a fresh start and a new birth. In and of ourselves, it is impossible, but through the love of God, expressed in the miraculous birth of Jesus, anything is possible.

The nativity, this birth, changed the world two thousand years ago. And Jesus’ birth is still changing the world today because the same Spirit of God that came upon Mary is the same Most High that can overshadow us today. God wants to birth something new within you today. And it is not about your ability, your effort, your qualifications, your track record, or your status. It is simply about seeing that whatever disruption God has allowed or brought into your life is an act of love and is something to be embraced rather than avoided.

I think we need to pay closer attention to Mary’s response to the fulfilled promise.

READ Luke 1:38.

Mary’s response is complete surrender and trust in God. She opens herself up to whatever God wants to do within her life. All of her questions are not answered yet. There is plenty yet to be revealed, but she is willing and she rests in God’s love for her and God’s love for the world. She says, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

4: When We Submit to God, His Promises Can Be Fulfilled in and Through Us

What if this were the kind of attitude we committed to this Christmas season? How would our lives be different? Our submission to God has everything to do with what we perceive to be our greatest need.

Author and Pastor, Max Lucado said, “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; if our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; if our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; if our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; but our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.”

The world’s greatest need was forgiveness of our sin. Only the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and peace with God. So, Mary was willing to take on the disruption that giving birth to the Savior of the world would require.

Here is another question: If this is the attitude we choose this Christmas season, how might God use us to birth something new in someone else’s life?

I like this because the message of this birth was not intended to change only Mary and Joseph’s life. This message of a baby named Jesus is also meant to usher in a new kingdom that is the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom does not look like the kingdom we have grown accustomed to. This kingdom is dedicated to turning the world on its head and healing the broken and rescuing the lost. Love is becoming the norm in this kingdom, and it becomes a reality when we receive the love of God for us and offer the love of God to others.

The new work that God wants to do within our lives could be good news for someone else. This Advent season we have an opportunity to join together as a church and allow the birth of Jesus to move us to be a part of new birth within our community. Consider the ways you could do something new to give love to others. Maybe it is finding a local family to buy gifts for as an extension of generosity and love. Maybe it is serving at a local shelter during the holiday or donating gloves and hats. Maybe it is inviting a neighbor to share cookies or a meal and developing a deeper relationship. Maybe it is beginning new family traditions and priorities that put Jesus first. Maybe it’s becoming part of community outreach in the new year.

This is what happens to us when we believe the good news of Jesus’s birth as more than just a historical fact, but also as a promise that affects our present. Our lives can be changed, and in so doing we can have an eternal impact on the lives of those around us.

Will you like Mary, say, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” God I want You to do whatever you want in me, God! Embrace the disruption and submit to God’s work in your life.

I hope you will join us for cookies downstairs after the service. Bring someone with you on Christmas Eve for our candlelight service. And join us next Sunday at 10 for a wrap up to The Promise series.