SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Father, as we stand here together as your sons and daughters, we submit ourselves once again to your word and to this season where we prepare our hearts once again for your arrival.
SPEAKER_01: Not just as a babe, but as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask God that you would do the work in us that you want to do today, that you would strip away those things that are keeping us from the life that you have for us.
SPEAKER_01: And we just invite you by your spirit to do a deep work in us today, that you would bring healing and hope, and that you would spark joy in us in ways we never dreamed before.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you again for being a part of a church family, for these families, these kids who are up here, just learning about who you are and the life you have for them.
SPEAKER_01: We just ask, God, that your spirit would rest in them and they would just experience your presence in a way they they never even thought about.
SPEAKER_01: So come and have your way here among us today.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in your name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to Grand Park Way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Rick.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh how many's ever been to a wedding?
SPEAKER_01: A few, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I've officiated dozens of weddings.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been in about a dozen weddings.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I got married once myself, and one of the common threads that I have discovered about weddings along the way is there always seemed to be one kind of memorable mishap that happens in a wedding.
SPEAKER_01: You guys notice that?
SPEAKER_01: Something always kind of goes wrong, and the more noticeable the better sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Um, like when my daughter got married, it was this outdoor wedding all elaborate and this gazebo and all these things.
SPEAKER_01: And then um that morning when we woke up, it was a torrential downpour.
SPEAKER_01: So we spent two hours in the rain pulling everything set up outside, inside to a barn.
SPEAKER_01: And um, by the time I actually got to officiate the ceremony, I had it was it was so crazy that I didn't even know, wasn't even thinking about what this day was.
SPEAKER_01: And then I walk her down the aisle and then and then I get up to talk and I can't, which if you those of you who know me, that's a miracle in and of itself, is that I can't talk.
SPEAKER_01: For like three minutes, my glasses fog up, and it was just kind of like one of those meltdowns.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it gets more more than emotional.
SPEAKER_01: I I remember one of Michelle's friends in college, Michelle was in her wedding, and when they went to go blow out the Unity candle, her veil was still over her face, and she blew it straight into the candle and her veil caught on fire.
SPEAKER_01: And her husband is going trying to blow out her veil right in front of her face.
SPEAKER_01: Um on our wedding, I remember the the candle obras were right below the air conditioning vents, so they had flowers wrapped around all the candles, so they burned down really fast, and all the flowers around the candles caught on fire.
SPEAKER_01: Um so when it came time for us to do our unity candle, um also we we tried it and it was near the vent, so we did it, and when we went to go light it, the the the candle completely blew out, and so there was no unity.
SPEAKER_01: Um, the unity candle at our wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I I remember in fishing in officiating weddings, I I've forgotten to have readers read, I've called people the wrong names, I've seen attendants faint, I've seen mothers forget to stand.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time, it's fathers of the bride who have no idea what they're doing there.
SPEAKER_01: Um I've I've heard good music, I've heard not so good music, and then of course you throw in all the ring bearers and flower girls, and it gets to be quite an adventure, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, but of all the wedding mishaps that I've ever heard of, there's one that Robert Fuljum wrote about that I think takes the cake.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: This is how he described it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Ah, the bride.
SPEAKER_01: She had been dressed for hours, if not days.
SPEAKER_01: No adrenaline was left in her body.
SPEAKER_01: Left alone with her father in the reception hall while the march of the maidens went on and on.
SPEAKER_01: She walked along the tables laden with gourmet goodies and absent-mindedly sampled first the little pink and yellow and green mints.
SPEAKER_01: Then she picked through the silver bowls of mixed nuts and ate the pecans, followed by a cheese ball, a deuce of olives, a handful of glazed almonds, a little sausage with a frilly toothpick stuck in it, a couple shrimps, blanketed and bacon, and a crackler piled with liver pate.
SPEAKER_01: And to wash this all down, a glass of pink champagne.
SPEAKER_01: Her father gave it to her to calm her nerves.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you noticed as the do as the bride stood in the doorway was not her dress, but her face.
SPEAKER_01: It was white.
SPEAKER_01: For what was coming down the aisle was a living grenade with the pin pulled.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, the bride threw up just as she walked by her mother.
SPEAKER_01: And by threw up, I don't mean a polite little lady-like herp into her handkerchief.
SPEAKER_01: She puked.
SPEAKER_01: There's no nice word for it.
SPEAKER_01: She hosed the front of the chancel, hitting two bridesmaids, the groom, a ring bearer, and me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm quite sure of the details.
SPEAKER_01: We have it all on video, three cameras worth.
SPEAKER_01: And the mother of the bride had thought of everything.
SPEAKER_01: So the bride, having disgorged her hors d'oeuvres, champagne to the last of her dignity, went limp in her father's arms while the groom sat down on the floor where he had been standing too stunned to function.
SPEAKER_01: And the mother of the bride faded, slumping over in a ragdoll disarray.
SPEAKER_01: And then we had a fire drill, then we then had a fire drill, and there at the front of the church that only the Marx brothers could have topped.
SPEAKER_01: Groomsmen rushed heroically, many princess flower girls squalled, bridesmaids sobbed, and people with weak stomachs headed for the exits.
SPEAKER_01: All the while, unaware, the orchestra played on.
SPEAKER_01: The bride had not only come, she was gone into some other state of consciousness, and only two people were seen smiling.
SPEAKER_01: One was the mother of the groom, and the other was the father of the bride.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, that's a story that you'll never forget, right?
SPEAKER_01: Especially if they actually, if you I re if you read the rest of this chapter, um, every year on their anniversary, they actually watch the video together.
SPEAKER_01: See, the point is this you can plan all you want, but inevitably, something beyond our control always seems to interrupt regularly scheduled programming, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Always.
SPEAKER_01: And then what?
SPEAKER_01: Then what?
SPEAKER_01: Well, today on this third Sunday of Advent, I think we're going to see this supernatural reality of joy that actually can transcend our circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: That's not dependent upon our circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: It's a joy that's only possible because God is with us, and not only is he with us, he is at work in and around us, especially in life's inevitable detours, interruptions, and problems.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, turn to Luke chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we're gonna see this, and it's a very familiar story.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big part of the Christmas story.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke chapter 1, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go for a few verses here.
SPEAKER_01: In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
SPEAKER_01: And the virgin's name was Mary.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?
SPEAKER_01: And the angel said to her, answered her, The Lord's spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her, who is called Baron.
SPEAKER_01: For nothing will be impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let it be to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel departed from her.
SPEAKER_01: Then in those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to the town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit fruit of your womb.
SPEAKER_01: And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
SPEAKER_01: For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my loom leaped for joy.
SPEAKER_01: And blessed is she who believes that there would be a fulfill fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
SPEAKER_01: This was the song the kids just sang for us.
SPEAKER_01: For he has looked on the humble state estate of your his servant, for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
SPEAKER_01: For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_01: He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in thoughts of their hearts, and has he has brought down the mighty from the thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
SPEAKER_01: He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
SPEAKER_01: He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about this passage because I think we get a really good insight into what it looks like to experience joy when things don't go as planned.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: So let's just think about this encounter Mary has with the angel Gabriel.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really familiar to most of us.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we see it on Charlie Brown Christmas every year, right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's one of those, you don't even have to be in church to have heard this story.
SPEAKER_01: So it's really easy to hydroplane over it.
SPEAKER_01: But let's think about Mary for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: What do we know about Mary?
SPEAKER_01: Well, for starters, Mary is a teenager who's engaged to be married.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: But for Mary, there was no cake tasting, there were no wedding planners, there wasn't a whole line of hors d'oeuvres being prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Most New Testament scholars believe that Mary was one of a group of people called the Anawim, A-N-A-A-W-I-M, which simply means the poor ones.
SPEAKER_01: The poor ones, or the pious poor, or the faithful poor.
SPEAKER_01: They were poor because they were orphaned or they were sick or they were disabled or for some reason they couldn't provide for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: So they had to depend on God, period.
SPEAKER_01: And many scholars think that Mary was from this group in part because there is no mention of her parents anywhere in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_01: Some believe they may have died, and she couldn't afford a lamb for Jesus' dedication, for the baby's dedication.
SPEAKER_01: And in her prayers, she prays in verse 48, for he, for God, has looked upon the humble estate of his servant.
SPEAKER_01: So that's code language for the Anawim.
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, Mary really knows about humble state.
SPEAKER_01: She knows about depending on God.
SPEAKER_01: That was her life.
SPEAKER_01: She couldn't survive any other way up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: But finally, something good happens to Mary.
SPEAKER_01: She gets engaged.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for a young Anoim girl, this can mean a brand new life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, Joseph isn't like the most eligible bachelor in Israel or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: He isn't rich, but he's respectable, right?
SPEAKER_01: He has a steady job as a carpenter.
SPEAKER_01: But all this means that for the first time in Mary's life, her circumstances are looking up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for the first time in a long time.
SPEAKER_01: She's getting married, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then this huge curveball, her plan, her life gets interrupted.
SPEAKER_01: The angel Gabriel appears before Mary and says, Greetings, oh favored one.
SPEAKER_01: He's buttering her up already, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice what Mary's response is, the very next verse.
SPEAKER_01: What does Mary say Mary is?
SPEAKER_01: She's greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Not just troubled, she's greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you read through scripture, this is precisely the sort of greeting an angel would bring to someone who's going to be given a very difficult assignment.
SPEAKER_01: The angel never shows up to people in the Bible and interrupts them and says, The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just here to tell you your life is going to get a whole lot easier and much more comfortable than it's been.
SPEAKER_01: That never happens.
SPEAKER_01: See, there was going to be a challenge that comes with this greeting.
SPEAKER_01: The angel is saying, Mary, you're not going to have the safe, secure, quiet little life you've been dreaming of.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to go on an adventure beyond what any Annoine girl would ever dare dream.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you're going to experience an adventure with God that no one's ever experienced to this point in human history.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be the first.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, as we see, Mary experienced supernatural joy in the midst of this, despite things completely going off the rails according to her plans.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens to your joy level when things don't go as planned?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Christmas always brings this out in me.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen this year, but it's just a normal occurrence.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it happened last year.
SPEAKER_01: This year, as a family, we always go out and pick out a Christmas tree and we cut it down.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know really now where to do that here.
SPEAKER_01: We just went to a lot this year, so it solved this problem.
SPEAKER_01: But our family, we'd always go to this place in Michigan and we'd buy, pick out the perfect tree and cut it down and bring it home.
SPEAKER_01: And so we got it home and everything was set up and we go to put the tree in the stand and it doesn't fit.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden you're like, uh-oh, this is a problem because it's not like just a little bit of a trimming, it's like major sawing off branches and trimming down the whole trunk.
SPEAKER_01: We just got this too big of a tree.
SPEAKER_01: And or you go get a different kind of stand.
SPEAKER_01: So immediately in that moment, what I do is I go into general mode.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of kick in and start giving directions one way or another.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I tell my one son, you go get the saws, you go get the pruning shears.
SPEAKER_01: Now you get down here and they're just doing exactly what I tell them to do.
SPEAKER_01: And because they did it exactly as I told them to do, everything looked beautiful in the end, which is like a metaphor.
SPEAKER_01: If they would just do things exactly as I tell them how to do it, their lives would be perfect, right?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It fit beautifully.
SPEAKER_01: Now the problem is I've often made the mistake, however, of treating people and their struggles like they were that Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You come to me with a problem, and especially it's with my kids, I've learned over the years, and instead of just kind of listening to a man, what is God doing?
SPEAKER_01: My immediate response is, well, you know what you need to do.
SPEAKER_01: You need to do this, you need to trim this, you need to turn this screw, and your problem will be solved.
SPEAKER_01: Detour over, back on path.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you so glad I'm in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Their problem is simply an obstacle to overcome so that I can resume regularly scheduled programming because your problem is interrupting my life.
SPEAKER_01: So, my response when things don't go as planned is I'm just gonna take control.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes others of us in this room, maybe you go to the opposite end, instead of being control freaks when the plans break down, what they do is go into escape mode.
SPEAKER_01: That means just give me the remote control, right?
SPEAKER_01: Or let's binge watch this, or or I'm gonna lose myself in another book, or some other form of escape, which probably does a lot more destruction in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we hope that by ignoring the problem, trying to escape from the problem, it will self-correct.
SPEAKER_01: And when I come re-engage, everything will be fine.
SPEAKER_01: When actually what we've done is just kind of swept it under the rug, and then we just keep tripping over it.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we all would agree, neither escape nor control really solves anything when things don't go as planned, does it?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should consider that things not going as planned is actually a way to be a part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should consider that things not going as planned is a way to actually be a part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe God is using our detours and interruptions and problems to get our attention, to draw us to himself, where he can then infuse us with the joy that evades us when we're trying to control our life or escape from our life.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not suggesting that God is sending trouble your way, but scripture is really clear.
SPEAKER_01: God can use trouble for our good and for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: See, God's agenda is not for you and me to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: That might burst someone's bubble today.
SPEAKER_01: But his agenda is for us to be holy, to be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's when our agenda is just our own personal happiness that I believe joy always remains elusive, just beyond our reach.
SPEAKER_01: See, God wants us to be more like Jesus because he knows the more we become like Jesus, the more we're filled with his joy.
SPEAKER_01: If we seek joy, it's crazy, we don't really find it.
SPEAKER_01: But if we seek Jesus, we always find joy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why joy is a fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at the nine fruit of the Spirit, these are clearly, by definition, not things we can make happen on our own.
SPEAKER_01: These are byproducts of us be immersed in our lives in life with the Spirit and letting the Spirit work in us, and as we do, these things are produced.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the fruit is.
SPEAKER_01: And one of those is joy.
SPEAKER_01: See, if we can see life's detours, interruptions, and problems as actually God's, as opportunities to be with God, then we have the opportunity to become more like his son Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the more we live in proximity to Jesus, we have access to joy no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_01: Now I get for some of us this is a major paradigm shift because most of us, starting with me, have been raised to see detours and problems and interruptions as just an obstacle to overcome or to fix or to be dealt with quickly and decisively so we can get on with the real part of life.
SPEAKER_01: But what if the real part of life is actually found in the detours, interruptions, and problems?
SPEAKER_01: Now, not perfectly smooth life, which I think is the problem.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_01: But rich, deep, meaningful life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I experienced that this week, just visiting someone in the hospital who had cancer surgery.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody probab promises that, but I can tell you that the depth of relationship that was happening in that room was much greater than it was before there was a cancer diagnosis.
SPEAKER_01: You don't wish that on anyone.
SPEAKER_01: But when you meet God in the middle of it, something magic happens.
SPEAKER_01: What if the detours and interruptions and problems of life are actually God's invitation to join him in what he's doing so that we can experience the abundant life that comes the more that we become like Jesus by hanging out with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: What if the detours and interruptions and problems of our lives are actually a gateway to joy that can transcend our circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to Mary here for a moment and her response.
SPEAKER_01: What if Mary had said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not up for this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm finally getting married, and this is going to completely blow that up.
SPEAKER_01: Find someone else.
SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming she could have said no, right?
SPEAKER_01: We never really consider that, but I think she probably could have said no, and God would have found some other girl to use.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of life with God would Mary had missed?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine the regret.
SPEAKER_01: But she didn't.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't say no.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, she chose the detour, she chose the interruption, she chose a very big problem for a single teenage girl that produced joy in her that transcend her circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Because in a girl in that day, if you got pregnant as a teenage girl, that was a death sentence.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't like a slight embarrassment to the family.
SPEAKER_01: You were, if you, if you weren't stoned to death, you were at very at the very least ostracized and excommunicated from the community.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to her response.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 1, verse 37.
SPEAKER_01: Um now, for some of us, I think this is what God wants to imprint on our hearts and minds today.
SPEAKER_01: She says this this is a response.
SPEAKER_01: For nothing will be impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God, whatever you ask me to do, I trust that you're going to empower me to do it.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you ask me to do, I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is impossible for God.
SPEAKER_01: And then she says, But for me, and then I would say for me, the next verse is even more powerful in verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: And then she says, I am the servant of the Lord, of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let it be to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: So she expresses this deep trust, and then she says, And I surrender.
SPEAKER_01: You can have your way.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's something in us that we Which I can't fully explain that happens when we come to a place of total trust and surrender in God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a freedom and there's a joy and there's a power in trust and surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is impossible with you, God, and I am your servant.
SPEAKER_01: The word that Mary uses for servant literally means slave here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the Lord's slave.
SPEAKER_01: May it be to me as you have said.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not in control, God.
SPEAKER_01: You're the one that's in control.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't want to be passive either.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want, I choose to want what you want, to join you in what you're already doing.
SPEAKER_01: To me, that's a huge yes.
SPEAKER_01: That's not like, well, whatever, we'll see how this goes.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: What do you need me to do?
SPEAKER_01: And then from this posture of surrender and trust, Mary launches into this beautiful prayer that the kids sang for us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer of wonder and joy and adoration.
SPEAKER_01: And we know it as the magnificat.
SPEAKER_01: And it begins with, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
SPEAKER_01: So the angel Gabriel interrupts Mary to lead her on the detour of a lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: And after initial fear, understandably, she was greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Mary's response is to express total trust and complete surrender to God.
SPEAKER_01: And when she does, what that leads to her happening to her is this thing that percolates up in her is wonder and joy and adoration.
SPEAKER_01: I think the same can happen in you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting and surrendering to God, I get it.
SPEAKER_01: It can be really scary at times.
SPEAKER_01: But in my experience, it never leads to misery.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes we get, we have that kind of something in our brains like, man, if I trust God, it's gonna make my life miserable.
SPEAKER_01: It might make it harder, but it doesn't always make it miserable.
SPEAKER_01: See, anytime God interrupts and someone says yes, sooner or later, it leads to joy.
SPEAKER_01: That's the story of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And what's so striking to me about Mary's response to this divine interruption is her expression of wonder and joy and adoration.
SPEAKER_01: It comes before, before she knows how any of this is gonna play out.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: She faces again being a single unwed teenage mother in a culture who stones to death single unwed teenage mothers.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't know how her fiancé is going to respond to this.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't know that an angel's talk to Joseph, too.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't know what kind of scandal this will cause in her village.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't realize yet that Herod's going to get wind of this and he's going to kill every child under the age of two that was born in and around that area.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't know that she and her little family are going to have to flee to Egypt as exiles.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't know that she's headed for some of the steepest challenges anyone could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: She has no idea how this is going to turn out.
SPEAKER_01: Yet she's rejoicing because she trusts God and she surrenders to God.
SPEAKER_01: See, Mary learned to count it all joy before her son James ever pinned those words.
SPEAKER_01: I think not only did James pick that up from his brother Jesus, but he got that from his mom.
SPEAKER_01: So how is this response even possible?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what the question I was asking is as I looked at this text.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, she's Mary.
SPEAKER_01: An angel had to talk to her.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that might push me in that direction too, but I mean, seriously, how how do we do this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I believe wonder and joy and awe where Mary's response is because she believed in two things.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Bible uses the word believe, it literally believe literally means live like it was true.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just an intellectual thing.
SPEAKER_01: She lived like this is true.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is this she believed that God was with her.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she really believed that.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, she believed that nothing is impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01: God is with her and nothing is impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I get that's not brand, that's not breaking news to a lot of us in this room.
SPEAKER_01: These are things that we have heard a lot, but hearing them and actually living like they're true are completely different things.
SPEAKER_01: And the difference in her was she actually lived like that was true.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just something reserved to check a box on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just kind of this ethereal kind of idea that's out there somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: It was her bedrock reality.
SPEAKER_01: If God is with me, she thought, she said, then he can do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And at the very least, he can keep me in the middle of this mess.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was a mess.
SPEAKER_01: Mary really believed that God was with her and that he really could do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, this circumstance would have just ratcheted up her fear and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: It would never have produced joy.
SPEAKER_01: See, joy is not happiness about my circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be really clear about this.
SPEAKER_01: It's not happiness about my circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is the sense that it is well with my soul, regardless of the circumstance I find myself in.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is only possible as we truly believe that God is with us, and with him nothing is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen this throughout my life in many people, but the one that I think embodied this the most was my dad.
SPEAKER_01: I've not been here yet a year, so you guys don't know my entire story, but the one that was my dad right after he got out of the Navy in the mid-60s, and then this was him about two years before he died.
SPEAKER_01: My dad, when he was 22 years old, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
SPEAKER_01: Um, he had a young wife.
SPEAKER_01: I was on the way, he'd just been discharged from the Navy, and for the first 10 years of his this disease, his life was absolute misery.
SPEAKER_01: He was miserable, he was making everybody around him miserable.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, he was he didn't really know what it was or how to deal with it, so he was drinking to deal with it.
SPEAKER_01: So drinking too much with MS is a bad combination.
SPEAKER_01: Um, there was lots of money difficulties for them.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was going to night school to try and get a college degree on top of everything.
SPEAKER_01: Their marriage was hanging on by a thread.
SPEAKER_01: And I know we've been to weddings where we always say in sickness and in health, but we don't plan on this three years out.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Top it all off.
SPEAKER_01: Um when I was 10 years old, my youngest brother um fell out of a moving car.
SPEAKER_01: My mom was driving.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was in another hospital having brain surgery.
SPEAKER_01: They're doing experimental brain surgery that they thought they could fix his MS.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't work.
SPEAKER_01: And so we had a loner car.
SPEAKER_01: This is before car sheets and seatbelt laws and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And my youngest brother was three, he's sitting in the front seat, and my mom's pulling out of our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he's rolling down the window, he opens the car door and falls out.
SPEAKER_01: And she drags him down the street in the gutter until she can get the car stopped.
SPEAKER_01: Rushes him to the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: Turns out he's got three multiple compound fractures, half of his leg's just been scraped off, staph infection sets in, and um, it's really he's in ICU for six weeks, it's touch and go.
SPEAKER_01: Is he going to live?
SPEAKER_01: His fever is like at 106 for three days.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's really, really bad.
SPEAKER_01: So finally they decide the only way that they're gonna save this little boy's life is they're gonna have to amputate his leg.
SPEAKER_01: So uh we had a babysitter, her name was Linda, she was a 16-year-old girl.
SPEAKER_01: Um, she was faithful to visit every day with her mom.
SPEAKER_01: She loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: My parents, we were nominal Catholics at best at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And um, she asked if when she came to visit and found out about the amputation, if she and her friends could come back later that night and pray for him before he went to surgery.
SPEAKER_01: And my mom's like, sure, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: So they did.
SPEAKER_01: 16-year-old girl and a couple of her friends came and prayed for my little brother.
SPEAKER_01: And that next morning, when they went to go take off the dressing to begin the procedure to take his leg, his leg was completely healed.
SPEAKER_01: Not like a little bit healed, completely healed.
SPEAKER_01: Staph infection gone, fracture is fixed.
SPEAKER_01: And to prove to you that it was actually healed, is the doctor took no credit for it.
SPEAKER_01: He actually didn't charge my parents for any of the six surgeries because he's like, I didn't do anything to fix this.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody up there must like you.
SPEAKER_01: I've never seen anything like this ever in my life.
SPEAKER_01: So, Linda, she leads my mom to Jesus right there in the hospital room.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And then a few months later, my dad comes along and kind of goes, God gets a hold of his life and he begins to trust and surrender his life to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I say that because from that point forward, what I saw was not a perfect father, but a father who lived with the deepest conviction that no matter what he faced, and by the way, he was never cured of MS.
SPEAKER_01: He died of MS 11 years ago, and it got really ugly toward the end.
SPEAKER_01: But he really lived like God was with him, and nothing was impossible with God.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: That didn't mean the detours and interruptions and problems stopped coming.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they came by the truckloads of times.
SPEAKER_01: But what I learned from my dad more than anything was it didn't matter what happened.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, that's okay, God's with us, God can fix this, God can do this.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he said all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I'll always remember about him, even to the day that he died, was his joy.
SPEAKER_01: He was the guy in the nursing home that every nurse came by to see.
SPEAKER_01: Because as everyone else would drive him crazy, he'd be the guy that would brighten their day.
SPEAKER_01: And he was really sick.
SPEAKER_01: So whether it be in hospitals or nursing homes or ambulances or on hold with the VA or Social Security or long-term disability claims people, my dad seemed to have this joy that transcended those circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And he lived each day knowing that God was with him and God could still do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: He could heal him if he wanted to.
SPEAKER_01: He believed that God was at work all the time, even in his messes.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, messes he discovered, and what he taught me is where God does his best work.
SPEAKER_01: You ever notice that?
SPEAKER_01: It's in our messes where God does his best work.
SPEAKER_01: See, like Mary, my dad experienced this supernatural reality of joy, one that doesn't depend on your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: It's a joy that's only possible because the God of the impossible is with us and at work, especially when life is not going the way we planned it.
SPEAKER_01: So, what about you?
SPEAKER_01: How do you see the inevitable detours and interruptions and problems that are going to come your way, probably even today or this week?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that God's at work even when things are not going according to your plan?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you just get mad?
SPEAKER_01: See, we can only embrace, believe this if we embrace the reality that God really is with us.
SPEAKER_01: He really is.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this whole Advent thing is.
SPEAKER_01: Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_01: He came to us.
SPEAKER_01: He really is here.
SPEAKER_01: That's not just an idea, that's a reality.
SPEAKER_01: And he still does the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: He still does the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Advent reminds us of.
SPEAKER_01: And if God is with us, then nothing is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And we, if that's true, we can have joy.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what our circumstances are.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we access this kind of joy?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you three quick things and then we'll wrap up.
SPEAKER_01: The first we come we get from this passage, it starts with what Mary did, which is just a prayer of surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Mary simply prays or says, I'm the Lord's servant, let it be to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd have to ask myself, ask you, are you willing to go, okay, God, whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in for it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in for that if that's what you want.
SPEAKER_01: I need to let go of what I'm trying to control or escape so that I can receive what God is up to and join him in it.
SPEAKER_01: So I can see that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think about with a prayer of surrender.
SPEAKER_01: I think so often in our lives when things aren't going as planned, what we tend to do, at least internally, is we start to squeeze really tight, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: And I think what God is asking us to do if we want to access the joy he says is possible, is to do this.
SPEAKER_01: So what is it in your life that you're like gripping on?
SPEAKER_01: And God's saying, you're not gonna find any joy in that.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll just do this, say, okay, God, I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I submit to you.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that you know best and that you can work this out for my good and your glory, and I don't have to script what that is.
SPEAKER_01: If you could do that, that kind of prayer of surrender, I think that begins to access, give us access to a joy that just transcends our circumstances, that isn't dependent on those.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I saw that this week in hospitals, um, where you can't control this stuff, but the joy that was in there and the laughter that was in there, and I know sometimes I grew up in this family too where we would laugh just to, that was our way of escape and not deal with it sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: But it was, but that was genuine.
SPEAKER_01: You can't manufacture that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because, okay, God, you got this, and I trust that, and I really believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I also believe if we're going to access joy, we need help.
SPEAKER_01: You my experience is very seldom do I experience joy in isolation.
SPEAKER_01: I need people around me to experience joy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we value community so deeply here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of our four values.
SPEAKER_01: We want you, you'll see it on the walls around here sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to find your people.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to find your people so that you never have to walk through life's detours by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing worse than getting your life torpedoed and have to deal with it by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's so important.
SPEAKER_01: That's the heart of why we have community groups.
SPEAKER_01: We also offer a couple of spaces here on Tuesday nights where people can walk with you when the unplanned detours and interruptions and problems really seem heavy.
SPEAKER_01: One's been going on for a while and it's gonna restart here at January the 3rd.
SPEAKER_01: It's called Celebrate Recovery.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just for addicts or alcoholics, although the folks that struggle with substances and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's for people like you and me who just are really hurting for whatever reason or another.
SPEAKER_01: Or we just have a bad habit we gotta kick, or we're just kind of hung up on something that happened in our life, and we just gotta get past it.
SPEAKER_01: But you can't just get past it by doing an end-around, you've got to go through it, and you need people to go through it with you.
SPEAKER_01: That's off, we offer that on Tuesday nights.
SPEAKER_01: It's starting at the very beginning on Tuesday, January the 3rd.
SPEAKER_01: We also have a group starting January the 17th for folks who have gone through divorce.
SPEAKER_01: And we live in a world where that's a very, very real and very painful thing, especially as we enter into the holiday seasons.
SPEAKER_01: I know there are a lot of people where that just you think it was settled and you think it's okay, and it percolates back to the surface, and this like it's ripping that band-aid off all over again.
SPEAKER_01: And we have a place where there can be people that walk with you through that that meets for 13 weeks starting on the 17th.
SPEAKER_01: And we want you to know that you're welcome and you're invited, and there's food.
SPEAKER_01: We're a church.
SPEAKER_01: That's always important, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's food there, so you can at least, very at least eat.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's something you're interested in, on your bulletin, there's a connect card.
SPEAKER_01: All you need to do is write in that little, there's a place just to write a prayer request or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I'm interested in divorce care, or I'm interested in celebrate recovery, and we'll get a hold of you and help you find your way there.
SPEAKER_01: Or you could just show up.
SPEAKER_01: You could just show up if that's kind of too big of a step to put your name out there.
SPEAKER_01: It's trust me, when you show up, you'll walk in the room and go, oh man, these people are like me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We all walk with a limp, and we do it best when we don't walk alone.
SPEAKER_01: We need to find our people.
SPEAKER_01: And then the last thing is just honestly a discipline.
SPEAKER_01: It's a discipline that Paul tells us to do, whether our circumstances are good, bad, or ugly.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in Philippians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of the psalmist saying, Bless the Lord, O my soul.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think when they're Paul saying this, which by the way, he writes from a prison cell, or the psalmist says, Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
SPEAKER_01: Um, that they're like in high heaven in a worship service.
SPEAKER_01: I think they're going like pounding their chest, going, Pumon.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta go.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to rejoice, quit wallowing in this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's in control.
SPEAKER_01: We can trust him, he can do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And when we turn our eyes, turn our focus, turn our hearts that direction, something sparks in us where we open ourselves up, we quit doing this, and we go, okay, God, here I am.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I surrender to you.
SPEAKER_01: Not my will but yours be done.
SPEAKER_01: And then the God of impossible brings joy that we just can't explain.
SPEAKER_01: So, this advent, I will just challenge us to surrender and rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because Mary had a baby, and that baby grew up to be a man who is God with us, and he can handle anything that comes our way.
SPEAKER_01: And I guarantee you, whatever's going on in your life, God is not stressed about it, he's not worried about it, he was not caught off guard by it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he says, if you'll link up with me in this, your burden can become lighter.
SPEAKER_01: And as we trust and surrender to him, just like Mary did, just like my dad did, as imperfectly as we do that, I can guarantee you one thing.
SPEAKER_01: You're in for a joyous adventure as God's kingdom comes in you and around you and through you, especially in the messes of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invite Clyde to come on back and we're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pray whether Clyde comes back or not.
SPEAKER_01: There he is.
SPEAKER_01: All right, Father, I just ask right now that you would help us to locate those areas in our lives where we're holding on tight and we're trying to control or we're trying to escape.
SPEAKER_01: And in doing that, instead of joy, we have lots of anxiety and fear.
SPEAKER_01: I ask Father that you would help us today to just disavow ourselves of this notion that life is supposed to be smooth and easy all the time.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful for the times that it seems like that.
SPEAKER_01: But give us, God, a mindset that it has an even deeper appreciation for the times when it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's it seems like for me, at least in those times, is when I sense your nearness the most and your power the most.
SPEAKER_01: We're not looking for bad stuff, but we're looking for you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So in this season that can get really hectic, in this season that can kind of bring things to the surface that we've been trying to ignore, we ask that you would meet us here and that your joy would take the place of our anxiety, regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to invite you now to take a minute or so and just think about what the Lord might be saying to you.
SPEAKER_01: Wrestle with this.
SPEAKER_01: Do I really trust and believe that God is can do the impossible?
SPEAKER_01: Am I holding on too tight?
SPEAKER_01: Or what do I need to let go?
SPEAKER_01: Just have a conversation with the Father here for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Father, help us to be a people who can sing that chorus from the depths of our soul.
SPEAKER_01: And may it be true of us that we rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Because Emmanuel is here.
SPEAKER_01: Emmanuel's here.
SPEAKER_01: Do your work in us today.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be a people of joy, help us to be a peculiar people in that way.
SPEAKER_01: People who are thermostats in our world, not just thermometers.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, come and produce your joy and abundance in us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to stand, if you would, please.
SPEAKER_01: We have folks that are available to pray with you before you leave.
SPEAKER_01: And I know some of you, life's great, and that we're we rejoice in that.
SPEAKER_01: We're not looking for you to be miserable, but for some of you, there's stuff that you're not even telling people about that it just keeps you awake at night and you're anxious about.
SPEAKER_01: And we want you to know you don't have to do that by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, doing it by yourself is a bad idea.
SPEAKER_01: So we have some people here to pray with you, elders and small group leaders and pastors that will be here to pray with you and just help you to experience the presence of the Father in the midst of whatever it is you're in right now.
SPEAKER_01: So please don't leave without doing that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're with us for the first time, thanks so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01: Um we would love for you to fill out the connection card that's that tear off part of your bulletin and place it in these brown boxes on the way out.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way we can know you're here, and we can just check in and see if there's any way we can help.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna show up at your door or inundate you with junk mail, but we do want to see if we can help and help you take next steps and get connected around here.
SPEAKER_01: So we'd appreciate you letting us know you're here.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you are a regular part of Grand Parkway and have come to worship God and giving, the brown boxes are where we do that, and we do it with joy, right?
SPEAKER_01: We do it with joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's our privilege to give God the very first fruits of what he gives us.
SPEAKER_01: So we want to encourage you to do that and just be thankful that he provides for you in incredible ways as we give, all right?
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to reiterate circle back.
SPEAKER_01: Don mentioned at the beginning, not everyone was in here.
SPEAKER_01: This Friday night is our family hay ride in Pecan Grove.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you can register out in the lobby for that or online.
SPEAKER_01: That needs to happen today.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there are some needs, some fire pits, too, so you can talk to either Don or Rick or Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we'll help you with all that.
SPEAKER_01: That's Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_01: That's the sign language for Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_01: So, um, all right.
SPEAKER_01: All right, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Just received this this morning.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: May He make his face to shine upon you.
SPEAKER_01: And may you rejoice in the reality that Emmanuel has come and is coming once again.
SPEAKER_01: And you can trust him.
SPEAKER_01: You can trust him enough to surrender to him fully.
SPEAKER_01: So now I charge you to release what you're holding on to and receive from the Father the joy he has for you that transcends your circumstances and be a peculiar people who radiate joy to a world that's not full of joy all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I pray now in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have an awesome week.