Embracing God's Plan: Trusting the Miraculous Journey

God and his promises are the same. It's the continued unfolding story of God's plan. It's a continuing revelation of who God is and how he calls us to respond. For those who've been here in person, Sunday mornings we've been having a Bible study on the lineage of Jesus as shared. Matthew chapter 1. And we've studied these last three weeks as Jesus' family tree. It's evident that God had a plan. God had a plan generation after generation. God continued to reveal his plan and purposes through these people. [00:01:05]

I find it fascinating how God chooses to work with and through people who have no experience. People who don't earn their way to be included into God's plan of redemption and renewal. Like Abraham, and the people of Israel, others that came before him, and before Mary. She is blessed not because of what she did. Life is blessed not because of the things that have occurred, but because of what is already done…王 to get to that place, but she's blessed because God has chosen her, not what she's done to impress God. [00:03:09]

God had a thousand years, right? This lineage, these revelations, these prophets, these predictions, this unveiling of his plan, and here it comes to the plans to roll back sin, to bring good news to the poor, to bring freedom to the captive, to bring sight to the blind. And the key player here at this point of the story is to fulfill this plan through a virgin, someone who has no experience with anything, a teenage girl. [00:05:13]

But as the angel Gabriel reminds us, a reminder that we might need today, that you might have to hold on to in verse 37, for nothing will be impossible with God. That means that even though it looks like this kind of legacy, this heir of David, rests on the shoulders of a teenage girl, that God has done the hard, impossible work that rests on God's shoulders, that he's been working this plan through generations. Generation and generation, through century after century. He's been faithful. He's been keeping his promises. [00:06:23]

And I know there are some hymns and songs that say Mary was meek and mild, but she was just not meek and mild. She was a spunky participant in God's plan, right? She asked the angel, came and told her she would be with child, and she had some logistical questions she needed to figure out. Like, how can I be a mom if I am a virgin? That's a good question, Mary, right? Still, us today, we ponder. We don't fully understand how this all came to be. But in the end, after hearing this, after being reminded of God's limitless possibilities, she says yes. She says yes to God's yes. [00:07:43]

She had to put aside her 2,000-year-old Middle Eastern version of the American dream to embrace God's plan, because she would be at risk. Not only taboo to be pregnant to someone who you're not married to, but it was, there were some consequences, social consequences, even maybe punishments, maybe end of life. She was pregnant by someone who's not her fiance, not her husband. So she traded her plans as a young woman who is engaged, would have these plans, these dreams, these ideas of what that life would look like. She had to push that aside. [00:09:10]

God does the impossible work of doing the miracle, of leading the transformation. And Mary, and us who are called to be like her, do the miraculous work of trusting, of believing, of believing God, believing God's plans, even though God's ways are not our ways. Even though God's dream for us differs from what our dream is. We trust that God's ways are best. We don't know how they will take us. We don't know what that will look like. Mary said, yes, to be obedient in that season, but had no idea what the days would follow. [00:10:38]

Because God seems sometimes to use unqualified people to do his work. It's that way that we can be sure that it's God doing the work. A virgin giving birth, we can be sure that God was involved in that. An unqualified person doing amazing things, we can be sure that God was leading and blessing and providing. That's why God sometimes uses, those things of people that are unqualified. The foolish things of the world. [00:12:02]

I love it that Mary asked the question, how her virginity would disqualify her from God. How would God disqualify her from being a mom, from being part of God's plan? But then she recognized, has the question, you have questions too, we have some reservations. But at the end of the day, she accepts the plan. She accepts her role in God's plan. And the angel says, blessed is she who believes. Blessed is she who trusts in God. She doesn't know the whole situation. She doesn't know the whole story. She doesn't know what will come of this. [00:13:24]

It's okay to wonder about your role. It's okay to have some doubts of the things that God is asking you to do. The doubt, maybe you wonder and you say, hey, am I the right person for this God? Hey, I don't feel qualified. But can God do it? Yes. Can God do it with your baggage? Can God do it with your backstory? Can God do it with your age? Can God do it with your experience? God can do it. You are not an obstacle to what God can do through you. [00:14:39]

To say yes to God. Mary had to say no to a normal life. A normal life with Joseph that would have not had Jesus, would have had other kids, but not Jesus. She had to say yes to a supernatural life that included Jesus as the Savior. And also included Joseph. The call to the Christian life is saying yes. Saying yes like Mary said yes. Yes, we'll have the King of the Most High dwell inside of us. Yes, we believe that God can do the impossible. Yes, we believe that God is faithful and will keep his promise. [00:16:59]

We can believe and trust in the amazing possible things for God because nothing is impossible with God. Yes, we believe that God can do the impossible. keep his promise. Yes, we believe that God can work even through us. Having Jesus dwell in us is a miracle. It's something only God can do. It changes our life. It changes our direction. Having the Holy Spirit overshadow us and empower us and embolden us and gift us. It's an amazing thing only God can do. [00:19:56]