Mary – God’s Plans are Accompanied by His Presence

As we continue with our Christmas Series, we will continue to look at the person of Mary. Mary of course one of the centerpieces of the nativity, and an important part of the Christmas Story. As we start today, we see that not only was Mary an ordinary girl, and not only did she put God’s plans over hers, but she was also accompanied by the presence of God, as she moved forward in His will.

How do I know these things; well the Bible flat out tells us in Luke 1:28 - And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

When God calls us to do His will, He will come along with us. As we look back at the passage, we find it’s actually the second thing the angel said to her. The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored, and the Lord is with her. Although God had changed Mary’s plans, although things would be difficult for her, although everything in her life was upside down, God would be with her.

It is important that we understand though, that Mary was not the first person God was with, nor was she the last. God is actually with each of us if we have put our trust in Him. And guess what - Scripture confirms that as well.

Joshua 1:9 - Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Matthew 28:20 - Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

In these passages, like so many others, God promises to be there with us. If we are in Christ, Christ will be with us.

Mary was called to open her heart to God’s plan, and she had a promise that God was with her for that journey. Today we also need to be open to God’s plan, and God will also be with us, as ordinary people, when we place a priority on His plans over ours.

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!

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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.

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