Finding Peace in God's Unexpected Plan - December 22, 2024

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

I want to tell you about something spectacular, something incredible.

Something even amazing that all points back to Jesus being born over 2,000 years ago.

But this event was so amazing because it's something that was unexpected.

And come Tuesday night, it'll be 110 years since this took place.

And it has never, and to my knowledge, happened again.

The incredible thing of which I speak is, it was prompted by just a simple song.

A song that we've already sung this season, but we'll sing again.

And it's a song that you all know. It's not a song I'm going to lead you in by any means today.

Someone can shout hallelujah, but you all drowned me out anyway.

It's the song Silent Night. And it's interesting. You know, 110 years ago, World War I was raging.

World War I was called the war to end all wars. I wish that were true.

But it was ugly. There was mustard gas.

There was trench warfare, which is awful. An awful kind of war.

Any kind of war is awful, but I mean, just ugly.

And it's in the midst of this war that we find a beautiful story that happened.

There's a little video I want to show you that kind of illustrates,

and this is a commercial.

You're not asked to buy anything this morning, but it's a commercial that was

made about 10 years ago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this,

and it gives you a little glimpse into how one song celebrating a silent night

because of the giving of our Savior can even at least try to change the course of a war,

but at least bring peace to the battlefield. Watch this video.

Peace. Peace during World War I, even if just for an evening,

even just for a part of Christmas Day.

How valuable is that? The ugly atrocities of war on both sides.

Here are the Germans and the British fighting, again in this ugliness of a battlefield,

because of one song that the Germans just began to sing, Stille Nacht.

And the English began to sing the same song to find that common language.

To find peace, a peace that was brought to a battlefield. It's a powerful story.

I would encourage you to go and look up some more and read some more about it.

And considering our text today and thinking about the main person involved in

it, a young maiden, a young lady named Mary.

Who in a lot of accounts was kind of fighting her own war, even within her cell.

This young lady, some say she was a teenager, even as young as 14,

15, maybe 16 years old, being visited by an angel saying that she is to be found

with child, the child of the Holy Spirit.

And the scandal that this would bring upon her family, the scandal that would

be rushing through the gossip channels

of her little town, and really the disgrace that would be brought.

Not so much the disgrace, but even the threat to Mary's own life,

to be betrothed to a man and then to be found with a child that was not his.

He had every right to have her put to death. He had every right to have her

life taken away, which would include the life of a young child as well.

Though we haven't explored Joseph's story during this Christmas,

this Advent season, I want you to know that Joseph is a righteous man,

and he chooses not to have that done.

He chooses not to have Mary put away.

But as the scene unfolds in the Scripture today, we see that Mary goes and she

visits her cousin, Elizabeth.

She goes to visit her and no doubt to find respite, to find a little bit of

peace from all that is raging around her with all the questions,

with all the questions she has even within herself.

And as she comes, she comes, of course, to Elizabeth's house,

and we talked about Zechariah not long ago, and of course, that's Elizabeth's husband.

And as soon as Mary comes in, Elizabeth's baby, which we know as John the Baptist,

leaps within her own womb.

And there's a great exchange that happens between Mary and Elizabeth,

these cousins, just a fantastic thing that would just foreshadow a lot of great

events that John the Baptist and Jesus would be a part of.

And of course, all this says, Mary is being blessed.

By Elizabeth, and being told all these things, she is just overwhelmed so much

that she breaks out into song.

It'll be the fourth song that we look at during this Advent season.

We've got one more coming up next week, and that's after Advent,

but should still be exciting.

We think about what has going on in the scene here. We see a young lady who's

needing some peace in her life.

We see a nation, Israel, who is needing peace, who has been through the ups

and downs of following God, more downs probably than ups, and then a silent

period where they didn't hear anything that God was going to be doing.

A very scary time for the people of God.

But then we come to this scene, and Mary has agreed to what God has proposed

to her, that she would carry the Messiah, that she would carry the Savior of

the world, the Savior of really all mankind, all humanity.

And it's within this scene that we see a woman that is just blessed,

beyond blessed, and begins to sing out a song.

And that comes from the book of Luke this morning, chapter 1, verses 46 through 45.

Hear the word of the Lord, also known as Mary's song today.

And Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me.

Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud

in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones. He has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things, but sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and

his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.

And in verse 56, it says, Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for Mary's song here.

Lord, a song which teaches us how we can find peace in you, God,

even in the midst of great things that are happening, the hope and the joy and the love that we find.

Lord, lends itself to this peace that Mary was proclaiming in all of these beautiful words here.

Lord, bless the reading of your word to our lives today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning, I want to talk briefly about how to find peace in God's unexpected plan.

For Mary, there was definitely something unexpected that was going on.

She was betrothed to a man named Joseph, a carpenter.

And so her mind and her plans were on the betrothal, was upon the engagement,

if you will, preparing herself for this great and lasting marriage that she looked forward to.

And then an angel came and turned the world upside down. It's the same angel

that we talked about that went and visited Zechariah, Elizabeth's husband. It was Gabriel.

And in all this, her world's just upside down with all of these things that

she is going to be faced with.

Not just the questions, not just the comments under people's breath, but even in her own self.

How am I going to care for the Son of God?

How am I going to care for this little baby? so her plans were turned upside down.

Now, I know sometimes that happens to us.

Perhaps it's happened this Christmas season as you went to shop for the perfect

gift, and as soon as you get there, it's gone.

It's not something you can order off of Amazon or off of eBay.

It's not something you can find at another store, but it was just at that specialty

store, and it's gone, and it won't be in stock until after Christmas.

I don't know if you were alive in the 80s. Do you remember this,

but do you remember this certain toy that was called a Cabbage Patch doll?

Do you remember the fights that perhaps ensued over the Cabbage Patch doll?

I heard recently that a lot of people saved them because they thought they would

be worth something someday.

I'm told they're not worth very much today, if anything, other than sentimental value.

True, some people's worlds have been turned upside down as these unexpected things have happened.

When we think about Mary's song here, I've just broken it down into three different sections.

Three sections that will teach us how we can have peace when our plans get turned upside down.

How we can have peace in the midst of the turmoil that's going on.

And you don't even need a chocolate bar for this to happen.

Thanks be to God. Although it's not bad to have a chocolate bar now and again.

You see, the first thing that we see from verses 46 through 49, as Mary proclaims.

In this song of praise, we see that Mary recognizes God's greatness.

A first step in seeing God come through and giving you peace when your plans

are all topsy-turvy, when your life is turned around, is to recognize how great God is.

Because sometimes we look to the problem, sometimes we look to our circumstances,

and it seems like the circumstances are too great to overcome.

It seems like our problems are too complex for us to get through.

Sometimes our grief is too much to bear, and we can't see anything beyond what

is right in front of us, what is affecting us in the moment.

Hear Mary in reaction to Elizabeth's praise and Elizabeth's shout and blessing.

Mary says, my soul doth glorify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

Her response to this great news, which was also troubling news for her,

but exciting at the same time, was to proclaim that God is my Savior,

that God is a personal Savior, that God comes through for not just the nation,

not just a group of people, but that God comes through for the person.

And I want you to know this morning that God will come through for you.

No matter what your circumstance, no matter what your problem,

no matter how your life is getting turned upside down, I want you to know that

God is still for you, that God is still your personal Savior,

that God considers you personally as one that he loves.

And for Mary, she was carrying the one who would become her personal Savior,

but will become the personal Savior for all those who had placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

We've got to recognize God's greatness. Here's what Mary said about God being her Savior.

She said, he has considered my low estate.

He thought about me. I'm just a girl. I'm not in a palace somewhere.

I'm not of royalty per se, but yet he chose me to carry the Christ child.

He chose me to carry this precious baby that would save the whole world.

He looked down upon me. I'm nobody.

Have you ever felt like that? Well, I'm nobody.

Well, people care about me. Well, maybe people don't care about you, but God does.

And God sees you right where you're at with whatever you bring or don't bring to the table.

God will use you if you are available.

The old cliche says, the greatest ability is availability.

And I don't know about you this morning, but are you available to God?

Mary was available to God. God was her personal Savior. And Mary also proclaims,

God causes her to be remembered.

Generations will call me blessed. Not because anything she did,

but because she was chosen by God. She was special to God.

Folks, we might think in history books, no one's going to remember me,

but I'm going to guarantee you even the most insignificant among us that we

perhaps get that feeling we're not very significant, you'll be remembered.

Someone will think of you.

Someone will remember how you love them. Someone will remember how you prayed for them.

Someone will remember the nice smile that you gave them when everyone else was

chewing them out because the price at the register was not the right price.

It was not on sale and it was supposed to be on sale.

I mean, they'll remember when you bring love to certain situations like that.

Mary was proclaiming God's greatness. How great is God? How incredible that

he would choose me. I can't believe it.

So the truth I want you to know this morning is that in times when things are

unexpected, when you're looking for peace and there's just turmoil going on,

you can recognize that God's greatness helps each one of us to trust his plan.

Because God is great. He's got a purpose in mind because God is great.

We know that he's working something bigger than just what we can see at the moment.

In the scripture in Psalms, it says, Psalm 48, 10, Be still and know that I

am God. I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth.

When those topsy-turvy, tumultuous times come, we just need to do what the psalmist says.

Be still. Take a time out.

Catch your breath. be still and know that God is still God.

Be still and know that God will be exalted even in the midst of ugly circumstances.

If you look through the Old Testament, you can see that time and time again

how God redeemed some pretty unredeemable people.

God brought about some great things through them, even in the New Testament.

But trust that God's greatness will help us.

Trust in his plan, that he's got something at work.

In Romans 8, 28, we've heard this many, many times, and we know that in all

things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

If we're trusting God's plan, we know he's going to work even the ugly things out to our good.

Even if we can't understand or can't see, God is putting it together.

And then Philippians 1, 6, I think I put 1, 9 in the bulletin, I apologize.

But the Apostle Paul tells the church at Philippi, being confident of this,

that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

I love that verse because it says if God started something, he's going to finish it. Woo!

You've got to be excited about that.

If God started this whole plan of redemption, he's included you in it.

No matter how ugly the world's circumstances get, you know God's going to finish

it out. he's the greatest closer that there is he's going to finish it out and

to the best for everybody that's involved.

Trust God in his word. You trust God in his word. If you recognize God's greatness,

we can have peace because of that, that God will bring everything back into the working order.

God will put everything back into the way it's supposed to be.

God has the final word.

Mary also says this in verses 50 through 53, his mercy extends to those who

fear him from generation to generation.

If we're going to have peace in unexpected plans and situations,

then not only do we recognize God's greatness, but we have to grasp the power of God's mercy,

God's loving kindness, God's chesed.

We've got to grasp the mercy of God.

Sometimes we have difficulty with mercy, but God didn't.

A lot of people, especially as they start reading their Bible in a year,

which I'm sure some of you will, and by the time you get to Leviticus or Numbers

or Deuteronomy, you're going to tap out. Don't tap out.

Hey, don't start in Genesis or use a combination of Old Testament and New Testament.

When we get back there and we get stuck back there, we get stuck in the idea

that God is just this judging God. He's ready to throw lightning bolts out if you sneeze wrong.

But what we fail to grasp, especially as we consider the Bible as a whole is

the mercy of God, that loving kindness of God.

God's mercy extends to those who fear Him.

God's mercy extends as He lifts up the humble, especially as Mary said, consider my low estate.

Who am I that God would use me? God's mercy is available to those who fear Him

from generation to generation.

There's the kind of fear where you're like, no, don't hurt me.

And a lot of people come to God like that.

A lot of people come to God just broken, and they fear God because they love God. They respect him.

They trust him, and they're broken. They have no other option but to come to him.

Some just choose to come to him and say, Lord, this is my life.

This is who I am. I'm supposed to follow you, supposed to be with you.

I don't want to tell you, for all those circumstances, God's mercy extends to each and every one.

God's mercy extends to you today, because I believe you are,

if you fear the Lord from generation to generation, we're some kind of generation in here.

And so because of that, we can grasp the power of God's mercy.

God's loving kindness turns the world upside down.

You know that brief armistice, that brief peace at Christmas,

a whole bunch of chaplains really pushed for that, and the upper military guy

said, no, we've got to fight this through. There will be no peace on Christmas.

Well, there was peace, at least for a moment, on that battlefield.

You know, there's peace today in spite of people and their quest for power,

their lust for wanting to control things and to control people.

But here, Mary, again, proclaiming the greatness of God, proclaiming God's mercy,

talks about how God scatters the proud, those that think they know everything.

God humbles them. He scatters them. Mary says, God dethrones the mighty and

He exalts the humble, that He fills the hungry and He empties the rich.

God's faithfulness, I got to tell you, is something that we could rely on.

God's faithfulness, it's always going to be there. It's consistent.

It's reliable. It's something you can bank on. God will come through,

even in your circumstance, even in your situation, even when plans go unexpected.

Lamentations is a great verse here, Lamentations 3, 22 and 23.

Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. That would make a good song, I think.

Long as somebody else sings it, I think it might be in one of those hymn books in your seat there.

Think about how great God is. Those compassions, his love for you,

his faithfulness, it's renewed every morning.

And a couple of Christmases ago, I think, or maybe longer, I forgot to pay the internet bill.

And guess when it conked out? Christmas when you want to watch all those cartoons

and holiday specials, and yes, Hallmark movies. I know.

After that, guess what we did? We put it on auto-renew so that every time it came due, it was paid.

I have to remember to send a check or to go and put my card in.

The thing about God's love, God's mercy, God's loving kindness, it's renewed every day.

It's renewed every day for you. It's renewed every day in every way so that

you can be the person God wants you to be, so you can experience the peace of

God so you can have all these things working out in your life the way that God wants it to.

We can have peace because of that loving kindness of God.

The third thing this morning on how we can find peace in God's unexpected plan

is to embrace God's plan with humility and faith.

Not only was Mary just proclaiming and exclaiming the greatness of God and how

God turns the world upside down.

And sometimes the kingdom of God is called the upside-down kingdom because God

takes those that don't seem to the world to be much and exalts them.

God took Mary, a young girl, and chose her for a very special purpose.

This God, she said, helps Israel. God kept a promise, several promises,

several covenants to Israel.

God always came through. He remembered his promise to Abraham,

and he was unfolding really the ultimate promise that he had made in that covenant.

He remembered his mercy to help Israel, and he remembered his promise to send the Messiah.

And in Mary's womb was that child, that beautiful child.

We can trust God in His plans because they're rooted in His promise,

in all of His promises and in His faithfulness.

If God says something, it's going to come true. Do you know that?

If God says something, He's going to keep His word. And He's always going to be faithful in that.

And God's plans, if they're rooted in His promises and faithfulness, we can have peace.

Because even in the midst of a storm, We know God's got a plan in that.

Because even when we had a plan, and we were executing that plan,

and something unexpected happened, and all of our contingency plans went out

the window, and now we're like, what now?

It's a beautiful time when God

says, just trust me. But I need to know how we get from A to B to C to D.

And God says, just trust me. And if you have the same mindset that I do, that drives me bananas.

But that's something we call faith. Right?

Trusting God, even if we don't know how it's all going to work out,

but just knowing that it is going to work out.

Trusting in God's faithfulness because He's promised us.

Of course, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean

not unto your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight,

where Zion memorizes as a child, he will direct your paths.

Folks, if you're in a time when your plan has been knocked over,

if you're in the midst of something unexpected that happened,

I want you to find peace that comes through God.

You know, peace, we talk a lot about the Old Testament, Shalom,

and the New Testament, Irene, means the same thing.

It's talking about everything working as it should, everything in the right

order, everything working together for the common goal of what God wants.

So I want you to trust God this morning, and I want you to find peace in the

unexpected plans that God has for you.

I want you to find peace in the fact that God has not given up on you,

that He still is not only the Savior of the world, but He's your Savior.

God is working ultimately for the good of all those who love him,

for all those who are called according to his purpose.

Recognize that God is great. Grasp the power of God's mercy and humbly embrace

his plan that he's got for you.

I'll leave you with these words and then a brief prayer.

Jesus said in John 14, 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

This morning, I want you to know that you can trust God, that you can trust his plans.

This morning, as we close with another number from our Christmas choir,

I want you to know you can come and you can pray and you can seek that peace

of God and he will give that to you.

Your life may not feel like a battle zone, but it might.

I just want to encourage you, trust God.

Trust in his plan that he has for you. He's not going to fail you and he's got

your best interest at heart.

Let's pray together as the choir comes.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come before you, humbling ourself,

God, as Mary humbled herself and proclaimed, may it be so to me as you have said.

Lord, as we consider Mary and this great song of praise and what it speaks to

us about the peace that you bring, Lord, we pray for peace in our world.

Lord, war is ugly. We don't want anyone to be part of the wars that break out.

And Lord, we look forward to the day when there will be peace,

there will be eternal peace, and Jesus will rule on the throne.

God, we pray this morning as we conclude our worship time together before we

say the Lord's Prayer and after we enjoy this beautiful number.

God, that you'll be glorified, that you will help us in this time to find peace.

It might not be peace and quiet, Lord, but help us to at least find that peace

that passes all understanding, the peace, God, that Jesus promised to us when

he said, I leave you with my peace.

Father, we dedicate this time

to you. May your word have its way in our heart. In Jesus' name, amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.