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Handling Disappointment - The Missing Peace Series
35 Plays1 month ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about handling disappointment when God's plans diverge from our own expectations. He explored historical and biblical contexts, such as the wedding traditions in Hebrew culture and the nativity story, to illustrate the importance of trusting in God's purpose even when it contradicts personal desires. Reflecting on the feelings of frustration and the common sentiment among believers when prayers seem unanswered, Barron emphasizes that disappointments may be divine appointments in disguise. By sharing personal anecdotes and the experiences of Mary and Joseph, he encourages listeners to find peace in God's presence and plan, no matter the uncertainties and challenges faced.
Transcripts:
00:00 Peace is possible and promised by Jesus.
03:17 Finding peace when disappointed with God's timing.
07:00 Dad gently woke me; sisters weren't gentle.
10:41 Story of Mary and Joseph facing betrayal.
16:42 Joseph's emotions: Disappointment, disbelief, confusion, righteousness.
19:18 Betrothal equated marriage; secret divorce showed compassion.
21:20 Feeling distant from God, facing life's challenges.
26:41 Struggles led to lasting happiness and marriage.
29:20 Bethlehem overcrowded from decree, contributing to chaos.
33:07 God's purpose unfolds through unexpected events.
37:42 Seeking peace through surrender and faith.
38:29 Help us define and fearlessly pursue peace.
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Transcript
Finding Peace Amidst Chaos
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning.
00:00:04
Speaker
Truthfully, how many of you right now are feeling peace? Or how many of you have ventured out to Cool Springs in the madness that is the holiday season? Or maybe you're racing around that last minute gift idea or Maybe you're not willing to admit it. That family member you forgot was gonna be there at Christmas Day. You gotta go buy him something. and you know We've been in this series about peace. and I wanna go back and kinda re-tap where we were and bring us up to speed, especially for those of you who weren't there.
Understanding True Peace
00:00:40
Speaker
We started off week one asking the question, is peace even possible?
00:00:46
Speaker
Is peace even possible? And the conclusion we came to is not only is it possible, it's actually promised. Promised and guaranteed by Jesus, ah who told his disciples right before his passing on the cross, before his death on the cross, he said to his disciples, I'm gonna come and give you a peace, a peace that passes every bit of understanding that man can conceive.
00:01:10
Speaker
So peace is not only promised, it's guaranteed by the arrival of Jesus in our lives. And what we learned that Sunday was that peace is not the absence of conflict, it's not the absence of chaos, it is instead the presence that God guarantees himself in the midst of those seasons.
Peace in Relationships
00:01:28
Speaker
His presence in our lives, the promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us, is what gives us the the hope, the promise of peace.
00:01:37
Speaker
The next week we jumped into, can I have peace in relationships? Relationships, and we all know that's difficult, right? We've all got those relationships that strain us, that test us, the ones that we know challenge our hearts the most.
00:01:54
Speaker
But Paul encouraged us in Romans, he said, you know what, as long as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. And what he was reminding us is that the importance of relationships is not what we can get out of the other person, it's what we give to the relationship.
00:02:08
Speaker
As much as it depends on us, it's our responsibility to love those who don't love us, to pray for those who persecute us, to extend love to those who are
Growth Through Waiting
00:02:17
Speaker
strangers. So much so, such an importance to Jesus that he would say to his disciples, there's a new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you. He raised the bar for every one of us. But again, he said, it's about how much you can give to the relationship. It's not your responsibility to control people's responses to you.
00:02:38
Speaker
It's a big relief to many of us because we spend much of our time trying to control everybody else's emotions and trying to make sure that they all fit together in the right places and that everybody's on the same page. And that's never the guarantee of Scripture. We're not always going to agree on things, but we can love one another in spite of those things. Then last week we talked a little bit about this question, how to have peace in the waiting.
00:03:00
Speaker
in the waiting. Many times God says to us in our journey with him, hold on for a second, and we hate that. That word patience, man, it strikes at the core of our being, and we're like, oh no, yeah you're putting me on pause? I needed an answer yesterday or or last week, and here I am having to wait? What what could possibly be benefited from that?
00:03:21
Speaker
And one of the things we learned is that many times as we are waiting on God, it's because He is waiting on us. Waiting on us to respond, waiting on us to listen, waiting to us to get to a place of submission that will do what He asked of us. And many times, waiting on Him to work in us, to do away with some sin or some issue that's come between us and Him.
Facing Disappointment with God
00:03:44
Speaker
Today, the last sermon in this series, we're going to ask this question. How do we have peace when we are disappointed with God? We are disappointed with God. Now, ah earlier this week, as I share what the title is going to be with some people, people are going, wait a minute, disappointed with God? Are we even allowed to say that? Well, you may not feel comfortable saying it, but God already knows you have it.
00:04:07
Speaker
Okay, he already knows that there are moments where you ask the question, God, why? God, where? God, when? And there is this disappointment because God isn't working according to your plan and he's not doing things like you asked him to do. And many times the problem is we feel like we're doing everything right and maybe doing everything he asked us to do, but yet we don't find any movement towards his will, towards seeing it fulfilled.
00:04:35
Speaker
You've been praying that prayer and you you just know with all your heart that God wants you to have a child. But here you are 10, 12, 15 years into your marriage and no child yet. And so you're disappointed with why God hasn't done anything yet. Or you've been praying, God, if you could just get me to this place in my career or this place in our savings, we could do more. and we could We could do this with the house or we could do this for the kids. We could do this for the church. Surely God wants us to do something for the church with all that.
00:05:06
Speaker
And yet, here we are, still in that holding pattern, which causes us to feel those feelings of disappointment. You are not alone. You're not the first. And there's nothing heretical about saying I'm disappointed. So this morning, I want you to embrace that disappointment. I want you to face that disappointment.
The Shepherds and Jesus' Birth
00:05:28
Speaker
But I also want to kind of give you some hints from a very, very familiar story about what you can do with that disappointment.
00:05:35
Speaker
of what we can grow from out of that discipline. Luke chapter two, going back to the story of Christmas itself, we'll be reading from various portions of the Christmas story this morning.
00:05:47
Speaker
Luke 2 or starting in verse 8 it says, in the same region shepherds were staying out in the fields and and keeping watch at night over their flock. Most likely, we don't know for certain, most likely these shepherds were on the hillside of Bethlehem which is right outside of Jerusalem watching the sheep that would be used for the temple sacrifice. This is why they would have been out there in that proximity.
00:06:08
Speaker
says an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. I don't think we can comprehend what this might have felt like that night because here in 21st century America we don't know what real darkness is like.
00:06:23
Speaker
Even in our bedrooms at night when we're sleeping, we have the glow of an alarm clock or the glow of some detector on the side of the wall. Our phones are plugged in and there's a little green glow coming off of that. There's all kinds of light. You go outside and try to see the stars and there's street lights and security lights and parking lights and cars riding down the road. and So we don't know what real, real darkness is. But on that hillside that night, probably the only light was maybe a few stars, maybe if it was a clear night, the moon.
Mary and Joseph's Journey
00:06:51
Speaker
and the light that was coming from campfires. And I was trying to think of some really good illustration that I helped you kind of capture what that moment might have felt like. When I was a kid, my dad used to come in and very kindly, very nicely, he would flip the hallway light on outside of my bedroom so there was not, you know, this bright light. And he would come in and he would lay out or sit down on the edge of the bed and he would begin to scratch my back, and hey buddy, it's time to get up.
00:07:16
Speaker
But on days when he had to go to work early, or days when he had something to do before going to work, my mom would be in the kitchen, she would be getting breakfast ready before we all headed off to school, and she would say to one of my older sisters, hey, go look wake your brother up. And what would ensue is terrifying. Because lying there in a peaceful sleep, dark of the morning, they would come on and flip on the light and go, out of the bed! It's loud in the microphone. This is probably what it was like that night.
00:07:46
Speaker
These guys sitting there. Now, something else too. It says an angel appeared to them. Guys, this isn't a cherub. This isn't the little puffy little things you see in Valentine's Day where you just wanna go but little cheese and They're not the ones with the little bitty wings that fly like this. I mean, would you have been scared of that? No, an angel, when I picture an angel in that moment, I picture like a guy like Donnie Morris who has like arms this big around.
00:08:15
Speaker
and he's like seven foot tall and he's got massive wings and he's got like this really cut jawline and when he appears he has to say don't be afraid because these grown men are afraid of what they see says the angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone round them and they were terrified But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. For look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today, in the city of David, a Savior was born for you who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth.
00:08:57
Speaker
and lying in a manger. If you were here last week, you'll remember that between the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and the beginning of the New Testament, there were 400 years of silence. 400 years with not one word from one prophet of God, not an appearance of an angel that we know of that is recorded anywhere in Scripture, 400 years of dead silence, and now this.
00:09:25
Speaker
Talk about flipping the switch on quickly. Suddenly there are angels. Suddenly there are announcements. Suddenly, as we're going to see, there's a choir singing and pronouncing, glory to God in the highest. Why this miracle? Why here in this place? Why a baby born like this?
00:09:44
Speaker
If we had needed more information, God would have sent us an educator, a professor, a teacher of some kind. If we had needed better laws, then there's a good chance that the Lord would have sent us a great politician who could have established so kind some kind of government reform and change to think for us. If we just simply needed advice, he probably would have sent us a great counselor.
00:10:05
Speaker
But the truth is that humanity needed forgiveness, it needed hope, it needed something beyond what it could do for itself. So God did the only thing that God knew to do in that moment and that was send us a savior. Not a king, not a mighty warrior, not a great philosopher. God sent a baby born to a virgin.
Joseph's Dilemma
00:10:28
Speaker
In verse 13 it says, suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly hosts with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people he favors. Glory, honesty, honor, majesty, power to the lamb who was born only for one purpose and that was to be slain. So what do you do when everything you think you're doing is right?
00:10:58
Speaker
and all you feel is disappointment with God. I want you to go back and revisit the story with me, but I'm going to do what I do every year and encourage you to try to forget some of the things you've been taught. Try to just push them all to the side and kind of hear the story again for the first time, maybe in a different way, maybe some things that will be pointed out to you that are slightly different. This is a story of a young couple.
00:11:22
Speaker
A young couple that's going to feel what it feels like to be betrayed and maybe even deceived a little bit, at least in their minds.
00:11:31
Speaker
They're a real couple with real hopes and dreams, real ideas about what their future is going to look like. Mary and Joseph will be unfairly criticized and unfairly shamed by people who would know them.
00:11:44
Speaker
And just as their dream is coming true, just as everything's coming together and the pieces are falling into place, it's gonna turn into what might be categorized as a nightmare. All of this came to pass simply because they were trying to do what God had asked them to do. Now, if we were writing this story, we would write it different, right? Joseph and Mary would have spotted each other across a crowded marketplace and their eyes would have met and instantly it would have been love.
00:12:14
Speaker
And Joseph would have done this really cool proposal out on a hillside on the outside of Nazareth as the sun was going down and Mary would have instantly put it on Instagram. Hashtag blessed. And it would have made it all over Israel that we are engaged. But that's not at all what happened.
00:12:37
Speaker
You see, we believe, we know, at least from the culture, that probably Joseph and Mary were arranged marriages, just like most of the marriages of that day and age. Mary's family probably said, hey, Joseph's a good boy. He's a good carpenter. He'll make a good living for our daughter. Joseph's family might have looked at Mary and said, you know, she comes from good stock. They're a good family. They've been in the in the in the region for years. We know who they are. This will work out well.
00:13:04
Speaker
that they're incredibly excited about their future as any young couple would be, even
Cultural Context of Marriage
00:13:08
Speaker
to this day. The plan would probably have been to live with Joseph's parents, get on their feet, Joseph would continue to grow his carpentry business, they would do well. And once they were established, just like any other family of that day and age, they would have instantly begun working on a family because family was important, the size of family displayed blessing, and it also was economically.
00:13:33
Speaker
Important to have a big family children were valuable So they make their plans Do all the things they're supposed to do there's a fiance and a a couple would do and Then God enters the picture and God comes up with one of the most inconvenient plans that possibly could have come An angel appears to marry Most scholars believe that Mary was probably around 15 years of age, which would have been normal that day and time. But I want you to see the response that Mary gives back up to chapter 1, Luke chapter 1 verse 28.
00:14:15
Speaker
So as the angel came to her and said, greetings favored woman, the Lord is with you. I wanna stop there for just a second. I want you to see something and and comprehend something. It says greetings favored woman, the Lord is with you. That's a statement of fact. The angel is telling her you are favored by God and he is with you. But you today have the same exact standing before God that Mary does.
00:14:38
Speaker
Because of what Jesus did on the cross, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you have surrendered your life to Him, you are favored by God and He is with you. This is the place where I feel like the Catholic Church has misled us because here's the truth. There's Jesus and there's everybody else. There is Savior and there are saved. There is no hierarchy in God's kingdom. We are all lost and dead at the foot of the cross until Jesus redeems us.
00:15:04
Speaker
And your salvation is no different from your salvation is no different from your salvation. All of us as followers of Christ stand in the same blessed place that Mary stood. You are favored by God and he is with you. Just going to read it says, but she was deeply troubled by the statement wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her, do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God.
00:15:28
Speaker
Now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary asked the angel, how can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?
00:15:51
Speaker
The angel replied to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And then Mary makes this amazing confession, very simple but amazing confession of submission. She says in verse 38, I am the Lord's servant. May it happen to me as you have said. Can you imagine? 15 years old,
00:16:21
Speaker
And now the man she was looking forward to marrying, she is afraid of because she's got to give him this incredibly shocking news. He will be devastated, hurt. Can you imagine your fiance coming up to you and saying, hey, babe, I'm pregnant. And oh, by the way, it's by the Holy Spirit.
00:16:42
Speaker
His emotions are probably all over the board. There is the sense of disappointment, the feeling that he's been deceived somehow, and probably a little bit of, Mary, you've lost your mind. All these plans that they have put together, how are you gonna feel? What emotions are gonna go through your mind in that moment, surely amongst all of them, disappointment might have been one.
00:17:08
Speaker
So let's go back to the book of Matthew and see what's going on with Joseph in all this time. Matthew 1, 18, it says, the birth of Jesus Christ came about this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
00:17:34
Speaker
Now, if you're not familiar with this story, you may be asking the question, why in the world divorce? They're just, they're just fiancees. They're just engaged. Well, Hebrew weddings in that day and age had three different steps to it. First of all, there was the engagement. This was the point where mom and dad on one side met with mom and dad on the other side and said, Hey, we want our kids to get married. It was the arranged part of the marriage.
Trusting God's Purpose
00:17:55
Speaker
And instantly, once that was agreed upon, they would enter into the betrothal period.
00:18:00
Speaker
The betrothal period would usually last about a year long, and during that time, one of the primary responsibilities of the man was that he was adding on a room to the house of his parents. That day and age, you lived near your parents, with your parents, again, for safety because of relationships were really important back then. Economically, it was more feasible. So he would be building on this room so that he could go and receive his wife when the time came for the marriage.
00:18:26
Speaker
This is where we get that imagery in the book of John where Jesus says, Behold, I go to prepare a place for you, and when I'm done, I will come for you. That imagery of the groom coming to get his bride. When the time would come for the actual ceremony, it was a big throw down.
00:18:44
Speaker
It was a lot of joy in that place. The little villages all over Israel, they would they would they everybody in the village would come to these incredible ceremonies that would last a week long. Remember the first miracle of Jesus at the wedding in Cana? Gallons and gallons of wine, what could go wrong with that? But people are having a great time, they're celebrating this moment. This is a true celebration of all that God has done to bless this young couple.
00:19:14
Speaker
but they weren't there yet. They were still in the betrothal stage. And in the betrothal stage in the Hebrew culture, it was like being married. If a man were to die during this stage, the woman would be considered a widow in the culture she lived in. And so when he says, or he the Bible says that he thought about divorcing her secretly, this was the kindest, most compassionate thing he could do for her because If kind the culture, the community were to find out that she was pregnant without a husband, it could mean instant death. The Mosaic law commanded that adulterers were put to death by stoning. Worse than all this might be the public humiliation. People looking at her, judging her, judging him for not being a better man. He had trusted Mary, now she cheated, now what? What do they do? What are their parents gonna do?
00:20:14
Speaker
Think about poor Mary, a young teenager who has done absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, she's done everything God asked, and now Joseph is considering divorced. She will be shamed, she will be looked down on in society. There's a good chance that left to her own protections, she might turn out having to be a prostitute in order to make a life.
00:20:45
Speaker
She's probably thinking, God, where are you? I said yes to you. I did exactly what you asked me to do. And then she uttered the words that millions of people have said in the last 2000 years since, this is not fair.
00:21:06
Speaker
Some of you have had similar experiences in your life.
00:21:11
Speaker
those moments, those seasons where you thought, man, I am doing everything God tells me to do. I'm in the Word. I'm going to church. I'm serving the church. I'm praying about things. I feel like God's leading me in a particular way. And it seems like I'm just further from Him than ever before. I don't know i don't know where He is. I don't know why He doesn't answer me.
00:21:31
Speaker
You didn't plan on losing your job at this time of year. You didn't plan on having a marriage that was on the rocks and constantly needing your attention. You didn't have the conception issues that you thought you were gonna, I mean, that that you didn't know were gonna come. They are there and you're dealing with them on a constant basis. Every time you go to church or the grocery store or school or whatever, you're seeing things that other people have and you're going, why don't I have these things?
00:21:57
Speaker
Well, today, as I said, I wanna share a couple truths from the story that hopefully will help you understand a little bit more what happens when we feel frustration and disappointment with God. Number one, you don't have to understand the plan to trust that God has a purpose. You don't have to understand the plan to trust that God has a purpose. In Proverbs 19, we read where the the Proverbs writer says, many plans are in a person's heart, but the Lord's decree will prevail.
00:22:26
Speaker
You see, God has a purpose for everything and everyone in this life. People can't stop His purposes with their opinions. The latest opinion poll, the latest discussion out in the community, the latest editorial writer, the latest podcaster, none of those things affect God's will. When God's will is ready to be performed, as we said last week, when it's ready to come to fruition, nothing can stop it.
Divine Appointments in Disappointments
00:22:50
Speaker
Nothing can stand in its way.
00:22:52
Speaker
Mary and Joseph's plans, all of those dreams as a young couple, have been completely wrecked in this moment. They're disappointed, but God has a purpose. Back to Matthew chapter 1, verse 20. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
00:23:13
Speaker
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Can I just stop there for just a second? This is now the third time in the story of Jesus's birth that we've heard the phrase, do not be afraid. Follower of Christ this morning, you have the assurance that if you are following God, you have nothing to fear.
00:23:35
Speaker
It may look dark, it may look chaotic, you may feel overwhelmed, but in the presence of God in your life, there is the assurance that nothing can touch you that should cause you fear, nothing.
00:23:49
Speaker
Hang on to that promise. He says, do not fear, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The angel was saying to Joseph, look, I know this doesn't look like it's right and it doesn't look like it's making sense, but I promise you God is doing something in the middle of your disappointment.
00:24:13
Speaker
God is doing something in in the middle of your pain and your anguish. There's still purpose even though you don't understand it yet. Second thing I would say to you is your disappointment with God might be a divine appointment with God. It might be a divine appointment with God. Sometimes you wonder where God is. Make all your plans, got you a little checklist of things that you want to see happen and you start to go through that checklist and suddenly everything falls apart.
00:24:45
Speaker
Some of you have heard a little bit of my story when I was in high school. My dream was to go play college sports and to be an architect. And by the time March of my senior year, 1985, came around, um I had received scholarship offers to play some ball baseball or football, but all of them were at small colleges and I really just wasn't that interested. And then one March day, I went to the mailbox and I received an invitation from Georgia Tech University in Atlanta to walk on and play baseball and go good study up there. And man, I was fired up. There it is. Another thing off my list.
00:25:16
Speaker
I was dating a girl, I had been dating for three years. Beautiful little girl, her father and mother I liked, which was a good sign. My father and mother, she liked. That was a good sign. We got along great. We had such a wonderful relationship. Things were good. She was a church believer go where I was too. I mean, everything's just right, right? Everything's going well. And then one may morning Sunday morning, I still remember the spot in the church where I attended. I'm sitting over there with my mom and dad and God had tapped me on the shoulder.
00:25:51
Speaker
And he said, I'm calling you. And everything in me wanted to just shut it out. Just no way. i don't I don't want anything to do with this. But he wouldn't let it go and I couldn't not listen.
00:26:15
Speaker
Four months later, I would be at Mercy University, a small Baptist college in middle Georgia. completely walked away from sports, no longer with a girlfriend because she said she didn't want to be married to a pastor.
00:26:32
Speaker
And I was probably three weeks into my freshman year. And I remember I was across the hall in a friend's room that I had just met a couple of weeks before and I was standing at his window one day looking out onto a rainy day. And I remember just crying, standing there going, God, none of this makes any sense. This is not where I expected to be. I even remember saying out loud to him, to the window like it was gonna answer me. Guy, is there any way I can just skip this whole college thing and just get on with my life?
00:27:05
Speaker
Since that time, there's been a lot of disappointment, a lot of hurt, a lot of frustration.
00:27:12
Speaker
Many things that didn't go according to plan. Nobody ever plans bearing their wife and their son.
00:27:21
Speaker
But without every bit of that hurt, that disappointment, that anguish, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Jesus' Birth: Fulfillment of Purpose
00:27:30
Speaker
I wouldn't be here married to my best friend for 17 years. I wouldn't have four incredible kids and five even better grandkids.
00:27:43
Speaker
I wouldn't be sharing this moment with you and I wouldn't be able to call you my family. The great philosopher Garth Brooks put it this way.
00:27:55
Speaker
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers. Remember when you're talking with the man upstairs and just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he doesn't care because some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. We all have things that haven't gone the way we planned.
00:28:13
Speaker
And some of you are sitting right here in the midst of it going, man, it's such a beautiful drawing of what I've got in my mind of where I want to be. And it just seems like God won't get me there. But your disappointment with God might be a divine appointment with God. As Mary and Joseph are starting to put things together to get that wedding put together, Caesar issues this very inconvenient decree, and suddenly they've got to go to Bethlehem.
00:28:39
Speaker
Now again, forget all the images you have from the Hallmark postcards. okay It's not j mo moses Joseph and Mary on a donkey having this sweet little like trip to Bethlehem for the weekend. okay um We're not even sure that there was a donkey that belonged to them because back in that day donkeys were like high dollar items. Your family had to be rich and we know for a fact that Joseph and Mary were a poor couple.
00:29:06
Speaker
The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have taken 10 to 12 days and they would have gone through very harsh territory that not only because of weather conditions but also the threat of robbers and thieves would require them to travel in a large group of people from Nazareth who were going down to Bethlehem. It wouldn't have just been the two of them, there would have been a lot of people.
00:29:24
Speaker
By the time they would have arrived at Bethlehem, the town that probably, according to scholars, was no more than a couple of hundred people at that time, would have swelled to a much larger number because of everybody who's going to obey the decree. And by the time they arrive at that poor innkeeper who gets a bum rap in my mind for this whole thing, there's a good chance that innkeeper might have even been one of their family members who just simply said, look, I'd love to help you out, but man, the aunts, the uncles, everybody's here in town.
00:29:51
Speaker
And they got here before you did, but I do have this one room over here where I've been keeping the animals. And man, you're more than welcome to try to make something out of it.
00:30:03
Speaker
Can you imagine the emotions, the mindset of a 15-year-old girl? First you're told you're going to have the Savior, then suddenly shepherds show up from out of nowhere. And there's angels singing and stories about a pronouncement and all those crazy things. And just as Joseph and Mary are getting ready to go back to Nazareth, Herod enters the picture. And now your brand new beautiful baby boy is being threatened with death.
00:30:35
Speaker
And instead of heading north to Nazareth to be back home with your family and get settled, you're heading south to Egypt for two years. running from people who want to put your son to death for no reason. At this point, I'm not Joseph, but I got to believe that peace on earth sounds more like hell on earth.
00:30:58
Speaker
And again, I'm going, I'm just trying to follow your will, God. I'm just trying to be obedient to what you called me to do. And nobody else seems to be on board with this plan, except for Mary.
00:31:16
Speaker
Well, talk about not being part of your plans. Fast forward 33 years.
00:31:25
Speaker
The simple girl from Nazareth who said yes to God and said whatever you desire without asking any real questions, without knowing any details, is now standing on a hillside outside of Jerusalem while they crucify his son. The one who's never disobeyed his father is now naked beaten senseless, disfigured from the punches and blows of Roman soldiers. She looks at Jesus, her firstborn, her flesh and blood, her child. And while the creation mocks the creator, he simply looks it to heaven and says, God forgive them because they don't have a clue what they're doing.
00:32:15
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And then he utters his final words, Father, I did exactly what you asked me to do. It's finished. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. And in that moment, the mother of Jesus watches her son die.
00:32:34
Speaker
You see, when you know God and you have faith in God, when you trust God and trust his character and realize just how much he loves you, and that he has a plan and a purpose for your life that's not an accident and it's not there by chance, you begin to understand that his plan leads to his purpose. And you don't have to understand his plan in order to know he has a purpose. We have to believe that some of our greatest disappointments are actually exactly what God had in mind.
00:33:04
Speaker
They're not a surprise to him on the road trip. They're not a surprise to him on the journey. He knew you would be in that place, but he knew that if you trusted him, you could get through that place and get to where you needed to be, the fulfillment of his purpose. Your disappointments might be an appointment with God. And this is what the Christmas story looks like. Not a one of us, if we were given the pen to write this story, would plan that Jesus would be conceived by the Holy Spirit,
00:33:34
Speaker
would be born in a manger, would be given gifts, birth gifts that actually predicted that he would die.
00:33:44
Speaker
We all have plans, but God has a purpose. And the good news, the gospel for you and I is this. We are part of his purpose. We are part of his purpose. It's why he sent Jesus to die for us. In Luke 2, 21,
00:34:04
Speaker
The Gospel writer said this, when the eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived. Jesus was not an unusual name. In fact, it was a very popular name in that day and age. Even in a small village like Nazareth, there might have been more than two or three boys named Jesus. There was only one Jesus, Messiah. Only one Jesus, Christ.
00:34:31
Speaker
Only one born of a virgin and only one destined to die for you and I. Why? Because what we needed was not an educator or a warrior or a king or a politician. What we needed was forgiveness. What we needed was healing. What we needed was hope. And that's why God sent a savior. He's the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice, the one who never sinned and the one who now reigns from his throne in heaven above.
00:35:01
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He gave his life in our place so we could be made right with God.
Finding Peace Through Surrender
00:35:05
Speaker
Even when life doesn't go exactly like you want, even when you are living in a place of disappointment before God, you can know there is peace. His name is Jesus. Will you pray with me?
00:35:38
Speaker
The songs tell us it's the happiest time of the year.
00:35:46
Speaker
But somehow I'd see in the eyes of some of us that we aren't there. The Bible story tells us that there's joy and peace on earth. But if we search our hearts, we're having a hard time finding it.
00:36:06
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Because just like every other year, Lord, we we get sidetracked by so many things. We get overwhelmed by life. We get disappointed by plans that are unrealized.
00:36:28
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but Father, your word says that peace is promised. Peace can be found. It can be had.
00:36:38
Speaker
but it's only in you. So first we want to thank you for opening the door to peace for us.
00:36:48
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For giving us an opportunity to know what it's like to have contentment to be completed. Our contentment doesn't depend on how people treat us. It doesn't depend on how many goals we get checked off of our list.
00:37:04
Speaker
It doesn't depend on our finances. It doesn't depend on our advancement towards our dreams, Lord. Our peace depends on you and your presence in our lives. Because by your presence, we can know calm in the midst of all the chaos. That's what we need.
00:37:28
Speaker
Bottom line, that's what we desire, is to know peace and contentment in the midst of it all. This morning, if there's someone here who doesn't have a relationship with you, that's exactly what they're looking for. It's exactly what they're desiring. The truth is the whole world needs peace. The problem is that most of us just don't know where to look for it.
00:37:51
Speaker
praise god this morning we've been put here in the presence of your word yet again and that word reminds us that in you is the promise of peace maybe there's somebody here who says you know what i've got three days left to try to find that that contentment this christmas season before i let one more year go by without it so maybe today is the day that we give ourselves up that we Utter the words that Mary uttered 2,000 years ago, Lord, if it's what you desire, I am your servant. Do with me as you wish, because it's in giving in to you that we are given all that we need. So Father, help us to find it, to attain it today, to be unafraid to grab for it, be unafraid to pursue it, unafraid to surrender our lives to it.
00:38:49
Speaker
so that we might know peace on earth the way you describe. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. morning