Planned For The Future

      Planned For The Future      

Intro.: How long in advanced do you make plans in advance for a major activity?

1. For example – right after Christmas we will be traveling to the United Methodist Congress on Evangelism – like we have done the last five or six years.

2. Our planning started almost a year ago – as we left last years congress when they offered a reduced price on registration on the very last day.

3. And then we had to decide whether to attend – after all we are no longer part of a United Methodist church. Once we decided to go – then we had to make hotel reservations and we had to choose four workshops each.

4. Now we still need to make our travel plans – three days down, three days back – driving route, plans for overnights, gas, food.

5. Then, just before we leave, Sandra will take most of the responsibility for packing – for 10 or 11 days. We don't want to forget our medications – or our toiletries. And we need to make arrangements for BoDandy – his vet has great facilities for him, they allow our son to visit, the allow him to be their office dog while he is there. And one of his long time friends from here at Royal Gardens works there. But we have to make those reservations!

6. We make all those plans for a 10 or 11 day trip –

Read: Isaiah 9:6-7 Pray Trans: God made plans for his Son starting back in eternity –

1. The first reference to a coming Messiah was in Genesis 3 – right after Adam and Eve's fall

2. We start speaking of Christ with His birth

3. But God doesn't – He knew the role that Jesus would play in the life of His people before day one – and then God created all that we have.

T.S. When I think of the Messiah pictured in the Old Testament, two authors come to mind.

1. Now before I mention those two authors, I want to be careful to remind each of us – myself included – that virtually every OT book has some reference to the coming Messiah. There is no doubt that the OT authors in scripture looked for God to send his servant to show men how they ought to live.

2. But when I think of those promises, two authors come to mind – he first is not only one of my favorite OT characters, but also he has a special place in the heart of the Jews. Of course I am speaking of David – the King of Israel that brought the nation together. Rather than being a group of twelve families, it was now one country under one King. Not something God wanted, but something that the Jews wanted.

3. The other was the first of the major prophets – Isaiah. Important to remember that the “major prophets” get their name because they were more important, but because the five major prophets had more of their thoughts and teaching recorded than the twelve minor prophets. There are several of the minor prophets that I enjoy reading and studying – but none of their books are as long as those of the major prophets.

4. But when I think of the OT presentation of the coming Messiah, I find myself coming back to the Psalms (most of which was written by David) and the book of Isaiah.

T.S. In the next few minutes I want to look at the two book contributed by David and Isaiah – and give a brief glimpse of what told their people about the coming Messiah.

1. The Messiah will be both God and Man

   1. If there is anything to be gained from Isaiah's description in Isaiah 9:6-7 it is this.

   2. Of course this is a basic truth of our faith – Jesus was totally God and totally man.

   3. But this is not the only lesson that we might get from Isaiah – Listen to the some what we learn from Isaiah:

      1. Isaiah 7 reminds us that Jesus will be born of a virgin

      2. Isaiah 40 foretells the role that John the Baptist will have in introducing Jesus' ministry to his world.

      3. Isaiah 50 will foretell some of the persecution Jesus will experience during his life.

(Appl.) At times it may seem like discussions such as these are purely academic – not of much interest to the average believer. But it was during one of the darkest times of my life passages like the ones mentioned here kept me hanging onto my faith. I could not ignore the fact that in passages written 750 years before Christ proclaimed a great deal about his life. Passages over which he could have no control, still gave details about events would take place nearly 800 years after they were written.

1. I don't know how Isaiah could have known these things – He was not there to know Jesus. But my understanding of inspiration is that God so prepared the hearts, minds, and souls of the scriptures that what they wrote was what God intended. Did Isaiah understand it all – I do not know. Brian Edwards put it this way, “The inspiration of Scripture is a harmony of the active mind of the writer and the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit to produce God’s inerrant and infallible Word to mankind.”

2. David also knew a great deal about God coming Messiah

   1. I am glad I am not God.

   2. You see, if I used a normal human standard for determining who I would use to communicate a picture of the Messiah, I would not use David. Why?

      1. Here was a man who was so afraid and had so little trust in God, he had to hid in caves for a great deal of his life. He knew That Saul was out to get him – and though his best friend was the kings son, he knew that would not save him. I probably could forgive him for this – I would hide too, but when combined with his other sins, no way would I choose him to tell my world about my Messiah.

      2. He was a murderer – oh, he would not admit it at first, but when one of God's prophets confronted him, he knew it was true. Uriah had not chance given the assignment that David gave him – he would surely die.

      3. And to top it off, David was an adulterer.

   3. We set our standards so high – really no one could really serve God, by our standards.

   4. It isn't that God's standards are less than ours – no not less than our, but they are different.

   5. You see, to paraphrase Lee Venden, God accepts you just the way you are, but he loves you way too much to leave you the way you are.ⁱⁱ

   6. David found this out – even as Elisha confronted him about his sin, he confessed his sin. The same book that points us toward the Messiah contains David's personal confession of sin. Listen to David's confession – Psalm 51:1-12

      1. It takes a man of real faith to get to that point. Recognizing our sin is tough. Oh, we know it is there, but to confess it and acknowledge it before God is hard – but it is what God asks of us.

      2. And when we do, God can give us great responsibility. He gave David the privilege of telling the world about the coming Messiah.

Conclusion: God's plan had its roots in eternity Pray

iWater, M. (2000). The new encyclopedia of Christian quotations (921). Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd.

iiWater, Mark. The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations. Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2000.

Advent 2007 (II): Mary and Her Relative Watch the Video

Mary and Her Relative¹

Intro.: I have a funny habit – a habit that irritates my kids, but one that my wife loves.

1. I sing songs to her.

2. I make up little ditties that express my love and commitment to her as we drive along in the car.

3. She likes it – especially when I come up with some words that makes sense.

4. My kids don't like it – they feel the need to tell me I can't sing.

5. And that is what Mary is doing for God in today's passage.

Read: Luke 1:39-56

Pray

Trans:I want to begin by making a few observations

1. Mary had remarkable knowledge of scripture.

2. In the ten verses of the Magnificat, she quotes no less than 15 OT passages.

3. Mary's trip from Nazareth to Judea would have taken 3 to 5 days, depending on where Elizabeth lived in Judea. We are never told – only that it was a “town in the hill country of Judea”

4. According to Gabriel in verse 37, Elizabeth was already six months pregnant. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months – meaning she probably stayed long enough to help Elizabeth for a short time after her baby was born.

5. Though we will only look at one of them, there were actually three responses to Mary's arrival in Elizabeth's home

   a. Elizabeth's baby, John the Baptist, leaped in her

   b. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

   c. Mary shared the scripture we will be studying today.

6. Mary's song had long been known as the Magnificat – which comes from the Latin for “Magnify” - the first word in the Latin Bible.

T.S. I want to look at the three stanzas of the Magnificas it leads us to praise God for all he has done.

1. The Magnificat reminds us that God cared for Mary

   1. I will sometimes fall into the trap of feeling sorry for myself – afterall, some pastors have bigger churches, some believers have better cars, some people seem to have it together better than I do. In fact, if I were Mary, I think I might be tempted to fall into that trap.

   2. If I were a 13 year old girl, I would not be very happy to find out that I was pregnant. Yet, at what could have been the most horrible time of her life, she does not. Instead, she begins to focus on what God has done for her:

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.

3. Even as Mary found herself in what could have been one horrendous predicament, she continues to look to God.

(Ill.) Howard Rutledge found himself in a predicament too. As a pilot during the Vietnam war, he was shot down. He was able to parachute to the ground safely, but immediately captured and imprisoned. In his book, In The Presence of Mine Enemies, he describes how he and his fellow prisoners of war survived. Part of what they did was to go back to the lessons they had learned in Sunday School – the stories, the scriptures, the songs. For example, they remembered the song

Showers of blessings,

Showers of blessings we need!

Mercy drops round us are falling,

But for the showers we plead

He also tells that every soldier seemed to remember Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer. But he goes on to recount that the most often quoted passage was neither of these, but John 3:16 - “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”¹

(Appl.) You see, whether it was Mary or a Prisoner of war or you and me, when life gets tough, we can turn to God's word as a source of strength.

2. The Magnificat reminds us that God cares for us

   1. Mary begins by reminding us that God cared for her, but she continues by reminding us that God's care goes beyond just her:

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

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

2. Five times in these ten verses Mary uses the words “He has ...” to mean that “God has ...”

3. She acknowledges that God is at work what ever may come.

(Ill.) In 1620, the Pilgrims came to America to find religious freedom.² One of messages that they brought with them to New England was that “God was at work behind every catastrophe, and that He still spoke not only by the still, small voice but also by the thunder, the snow, the hail, the absence of rain, and if necessary even by death.”³

(Appl.) Mary, even her most confused moments, did not forget what God had done. Neither can we.

3. The Magnificat reminds us that God cares for His people

   1. Mary begins by looking at how God has been with her. She continue by exploring how God has worked in the world around her. She finishes by looking at God's work among His people:

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

even as he said to our fathers.

2. We are not merely gathered here because of what we have done. We are here, because there have been lots of people that have come before us. They provided a building, they nurtured us. Some of you are here because of this church has done, some of you are here because of the blessing you have received from other churches. But none of us are just because of this group.

(Ill.) I am reminded of a song I heard several years ago by an artist by the name of Ray Boltz, “I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb.” The words can be found at

3. Saints gave their lives so that we could hear the gospel message today. May we never forget that our faith came because of the work of others – and may we do the work that will leave a legacy for those to come after us.

Conclusion: Let me conclude by suggesting this. I said earlier that Mary composed her Magnificat by choosing 15 verses to be her testimony. They were her testimony, but they were God's words.

1. As you come through this holiday season, take time to think about your testimony.

2. What verses would you choose to build your Magnificat?

3. Then share you song with someone – your spouse, your co-worker, a friend.

Pray

1Much of this sermon is based on marterial discovered during my family's study of Beth Moore's book Jesus: 90 Days with One And Only

1Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed.) (58). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims

3AMG Bible Illustrations. 2000 (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Bible Illustrations Series. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers.