Mary – God’s Plans Take Precedence Over Ours

Today, we continue our look at the Christmas story and more specifically the person of Mary. One remarkable thing about Mary was her willingness to put aside what she wanted out of life and to do exactly what God wanted. We find in Luke 1:27 that being the mother to the Savior wasn't originally in Mary’s plans. But God’s plans took precedence over hers.

Verse 27 - To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

Many of us have been reading the Christmas story from our earliest memories. We have seen the movies, we have nativities in our homes, and we’ve done Christmas plays in our churches decked out in our parent’s robes and towels. The Christmas story has been so ingrained in our life that it’s just how it should be. Of course the angels came, of course Joseph understood, of course they had a baby in the stable because there was no room in the inn. However, if we put ourselves in Mary’s place, we quickly see Mary was not planning on getting pregnant out of wed-lock, Mary was not planning giving birth in a stable, and Mary was not planning being the mother of God. Yet God’s plans come first over what we want. And it’s obvious because when we find Mary, she has a number of plans of her own.

Mary was getting ready to get married. She probably had plans of moving into her own home, plans of becoming Mrs. Joseph Carpenter. Although her plans may have included being a mom, I’m sure she was planning on mothering her husband’s children.

Mary was a young women with all her own plans, but when Gabriel showed up, they all changed. When God called her, Mary was willing to drop what she wanted and do what God wanted.

This is something we see throughout Scripture. When the Lord called, Abraham probably had plans. But when God called him to pack up and go, he went. Peter may have been spending his money in his head after such a great fishing trip, but when he was called, he dropped his nets, left his fish, and followed Jesus.

Everyone has plans. When I was a kid, I planned on being really rich. I told people I wanted a big fence to keep out poor relatives. By the time I hit college, I knew I would be both rich and famous. I would hit it big in radio or television. But God had other plans. We could probably all look at our lives and think of the plans we have. But when God comes calling, we need to make sure His plans and ultimately His will comes before our own.

Mary – God Uses Ordinary People in His Plans

As we enter this holiday season, I would like to take a closer look at some of the faces we see in the Christmas story. As we start this week, we will be looking at the person of Mary. God had a plan for Mary, and she was willing to jump on board and one of the most extraordinary things about that is that there was nothing extraordinary about Mary.

Luke 1:26 - And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

As we enter the Christmas Story, we find a truth that God likes to use ordinary people. Just look at Mary. Mary was not a queen, not a princess, she didn't even have important parents. She was just a poor peasant girl, betrothed to an older carpenter. Even her name wasn't special, she may not be the most memorable Mary in the New Testament. But the ordinary continues, Joseph a simple Carpenter, not a king, not a ruler, but a simple man. Bethlehem, the town of Christ’s birth, a simple city, not Jerusalem or one of the “important” cities of the Bible. Even the shepherds who spread the news, simple, poor, and common, not royal messengers.

Beyond that what about Nazareth? Living in Pittsford MI, I know about little unimportant towns, but Nazareth was worse than just not important, it seems to be the butt of jokes. Just look at Nathanael’s response when he hears Christ was from Nazareth.

John 1:46 - And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Mary was simply a common girl from a very common town. Yet God chose to use her. And we see the same thing throughout the scriptures. Samuel, born of simple heritage, a servant in the temple, before God elevated him chief priest and prophet. David the youngest son, and a shepherd before God made him king. Even Elisha, having a double portion of the spirit, was first found working the fields. The very disciples included many fisherman, and a tax collector. God used ordinary, imperfect, and unprepared people, but He knew their potential and promise.

As we remember God is unchanging, we see He uses the same types of people today. It’s easy to think that we can’t serve God, perhaps we don’t have the right education, maybe we don’t have any influence in the community. We are just common people doing common things. If that’s the case, we should ready our hearts, because we are exactly the kind of people God likes to work with!

People in Need

Why Church

Self Control

We live in a day where it’s all about “me”, and one thing that comes along with that is flared tempers. We see more and more people fly off the handle whenever things don’t go just like they want it to. In the Scriptures, we can find an example of this happening in Esther 3 with Haman.

Haman was second in command of the kingdom of Persia. And there was a royal decree which stated whenever Haman came into the palace, everyone had to bow before him. And this exactly what happened, everyone bowed before him, except for one man, a Jew named Mordecai. Although we do not know why Mordecai refused to bow, his refusal caused Haman to lose his temper. You could say he flew off the handle. Because one man refused to give him what he wanted, he decided to kill all the Jews living in Persia. 

As Christians, God wants us not to follow the example of Haman. Not only should we not kill all the Jews in Persia, but we should also control our temper. The Bible talks a lot about controlling one’s temper, the term used is often temperance or self-control. Self-control is often spoken about by Paul as a requirement for Pastors and Elders, in 1 Timothy 3:2, and Titus 1:8. But when Peter spoke about it, he was speaking to all Christians.

2 Peter 1:5-9 - 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

As Christians, we are called to be people of self-control. As Christians, we are to be pictures of self-control. When we see self-control here it’s speaking of course to self-control over all things, but most specifically it’s speaking to a control of our anger. As a child, my family had an interesting way of controlling our anger. We would all be in the car fighting and shouting in the car on the way to church, full of anger towards each other, then we would open that door to walk into church and everyone was all smiles. The thought was look, of course we can control our anger.

But that’s not what self-control is all about. Instead of being able to go in and out of our anger quickly, most of the time we shouldn’t even go in to it. Sure, we can control it when we are in front of people at school or at church, but do we have the ability to control our temper with our spouses, or our kid? Do we have the ability to control our temper with our neighbors? Do we have the ability to control our temper with people on the road when we get cut off, or with a waitress or cashier when they mess up our order for the third time? Do we truly have control of our temper?

Peter used some tough words when speaking of self-control. He says if we have these qualities, including self-control, then we will be effective and fruitful in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, but if we lack those qualities, including self-control, then we are short sighted and forgetting what God has done for us.

I guess the question though is not if we have perfect self-control or not, but if we are growing in these qualities. Remember, as we close our thoughts on self-control, that it is also a fruit of the spirit. That means if we have Christ in us, we should always be growing in self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23 - 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Are we a Hospital or a Museum

As Good as it Gets

It was a rough week this past week, as my church experienced we some vandalism on our church sign, although I didn’t see it, it was a four letter F – word against God and some pot propaganda. Beyond that, just down the street, they wrote that same 4 letter word on a handicap accessible van, belonging to a church member. It broke my heart, not only because they wrote on those awful things on my church, or the van; but because we live is a world where someone would want to write those things on a church, or someone would be ok to write those things in what is obviously a van for a disabled person.

It seems like things in this world just keep getting worse; and as my wife and I look to have child number 4 this winter, I have to wonder if we are even doing the right thing bringing more innocence into a world that is fallen, sinful, and rotting.

A few weeks back I preached on the topic of hope, and not the hope that we put into the things of this world, because I can’t say if things of this world will ever get any better. I hope they do, and I will continually fight for change to make to make a better world for my kids to grow up in. But to quote Jack Nicholson “What if this is as good as it gets?” This world may not get any better, but we can still put our hope into the future, because our hope is not found in this world.

This world gives us things like graffiti, it gives us hate, it gives us addictions. It gives us war and natural disasters, and the very best things we can get in this world are here today and gone tomorrow. Yet Peter tells us we do not have to put our hope into these things.

1 Peter 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.

Peter tells us something all Christians need to remember:  even if this corrupted, sinful world is as good as it gets here on earth, something much better is waiting for us in heaven.  For us today if we are in Christ, then this is not as good as it gets!