Sermon Tone Analysis

I love Christmas!

The gifts, the parties, the celebrating.

Christmas trees and lights and stockings and cookies and cocoa.

Watching our favorite Christmas movies.

With all the wonderful things that come with Christmas, the traditions, the overeating and overspending.

Christmas is all about Jesus.

God with us, demonstrating HIS love, Jesus is still the light in our darkness so we are here celebrating the real reason for the season, Jesus.

However, the Christmas story as we know it is familiar to most people, believers or non-believers, we so often romanticize the events of the Nativity.

The nostalgic Christmas songs, the giving and receiving Christmas cards, the Christmas plays, the caroling.

Sometimes the Christmas story can appear to be something perfect, and orderly, well planned and organized, beautiful and colorful.

But as we look at the very first Christmas, we see that God’s plan was revealed at an inconvenient and messy time.

We like to think of it as beautiful and well packaged but the real history says otherwise.

A teenage girl with a wonderful future, rocked by scandal.

A newlywed couple, uprooted from their home because of God’s timing and this baby.

Their family… their support system was taken from them during a very difficult season their lives.

Life is full of setbacks, even during the most wonderful time of the year.

Even in the season where everyone is generous, and joyful… the season of peace… where good will toward others is expected.

The lights of Christmas may still shine but some of us live in darkness and despair.

Loved ones aren’t with us… having to be around difficult family members… my paycheck is stretched thinner than it used to… I couldn’t give my kids what they wanted.

The “magic of the season” doesn’t live up to what it use to be.

In your life, you may encountering some setbacks, but the very first Christmas was filled with plenty of setbacks.

But, those setbacks were setups that drew them closer to the Lord.

Yet, on the other side of that setback, a great miracle happened.

God was setup to be that peace in the midst of chaos, powerful influence to the humble, and ultimately the gift of salvation for all humanity.

So Just because it's Christmas it’s the most wonderful time of the year… these setbacks are great setups to worship the Lord, to demonstrate out trust in the Lord, and to bless others with encouragement.

Our Setbacks are our Setup for Worship

I remember one Christmas in the 80’s we got a Commodore 64 computer.

I opened up a computer keyboard, my brother Ryan opened up a big box and it was a monitor, and my younger brother opened his gift and it was the floppy disk hard drive.

Since money was tight, we got a family gift.

We were happy, I was happy until I came back to school after Christmas break and compared what I got to what my friends got.

They did so much more then I did.

Transformers, Ghetto Blasters, an Atari, bicycles.

When I compared what I got to what my friends got, then I was disappointed.

In the moment I was bummed out because I did not get what my friends got but as I got older, when those things became obsolete, sold in garage sales, because eventually, just like our commodore 64, it’s just a bunch of worthless junk.

In the very first Christmas story, we see a young girl’s expectations for her life, shattered by something God did.

Mary, a young teenage girl, about 13 to 16 years old, engaged to be married and with her whole life ahead of her.

Then God's plan was revealed to Mary in an amazing way, through an angel Gabriel.

When an angel comes to show favor to a nobody, bringing news that the long awaited Messiah is coming to earth and... by the way… I’m using you to make that happen.

Mary, a teenage girl, pledged to be married, saved herself for her husband Joseph.

God uses a virgin to enter humanity’s domain.

Mary was inconvenienced by this news but she did not respond like one who is frustrated.

Even though her whole world was turned upside down, she responded with “I am the Lord’s servant.”

She responded with complete obedience!

Even though her life was forever changed.

Her future, her relational status, her reputation, everything is now hanging in the balance because she said yes to God’s plan.

She might have even gone through Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then finally acceptance, the five stages of grief as she faced this inconvenience situation which was God’s plan.

Denial: how could that even happen?

How can a virgin become pregnant much less with the son of God?

Anger: Why did she have to be cursed with an abnormal pregnancy?

Bargaining with God: Can you find someone else to do this?

It's a bit inconvenient since I'm engaged to be married right now… Maybe after the wedding?

Maybe someone who doesn't have anything going on right now in their life?

Depression over everything that she lost.

A scandalous marriage… a honeymoon season so she can enjoy her husband without a screaming toddler running around their house.

But then we see her acceptance of the circumstances.

She not only accepted it, she added faith to her acceptance.

She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Mary had no fear, no doubt, God was walking with her through it all.

Mary’s response was worship.

In Luke 1:46-55, we see her song of worship to God.

That's the set up as we let God speak into the painful areas of our heart.

We worship by giving to others… Praising God… Loving the unlovable.

By focusing on God instead of ourselves.

Our Setbacks offer a chance to get closer to God.

The greatest work God wants to do in our world often happens through people’s proper response to setbacks.

When we choose to worship instead of complain, we get to be part of God’s great plan God.

Instead of wallowing in our setback we can choose to Worship.

Instead of focusing on our loss we can choose to give to others.

Instead of being the victim of terrible circumstances, we can accept God’s plan and choose to worship.

God wants to used our Setbacks to setup our worship.

Our Setbacks are setups for genuine Faith.

Tried true tested faith… As God was speaking to Mary, God was preparing Joseph at the same time.

It didn’t look good to Joseph, Mary being pregnant.

People will start talking and for Mary, she would be killed for cheating on her future husband so God had to clear the air but Joseph had to trust in the Lord.

Joseph loved Mary but after discovering his fiancé was pregnant, the only rational explanation was that she had been with another man.

He had lived a pure and Godly life up to that point.

Things were looking good.

But this news seemed to derail the wedding plans.

The easy thing for him to do was to break off the engagement.

Even God spoke to Joseph and explained the situation, it didn’t change the outside situation.

People will see is his pregnant fiancé… the questions… the rumors… the impossible explanation.

According to the outside situation, everything that he waited for was no longer possible.

All progress in his life seemed lost.

Yet he chose to trust... To trust God and the trust his future wife.

Joseph might have felt like all his progress toward a godly marriage was gone.

From an outsider’s perspective, maybe it looked this way.

But it wasn’t.

It takes genuine faith to be able to trust God’s plan for our life.

Don’t buy into the outside pressure of what our lives are supposed to look like.

We can choose to model our life after God’s plan.

Then, even if it feels like we’re losing progress, God is still moving us forward regardless of appearances.

Setbacks are Set-ups for Encouragement.

Mary just had a bomb go off that had the potential to ruin her life.

Even through she trusted the Lord, she felt drawn to go to Judea and spend time with her relative Elizabeth.

In vs. 39-45 we see 2 or more people gathered who are chosen by God to fulfill HIS amazing promise.

After Gabriel gave Mary the news about being pregnant as a virgin and about Elizebeth being pregnant in her old age, she left Nazareth and headed to the hill country of Judea.

When she entered the house and greeted Elizabeth, John leaped in her womb and John’s mom was filled with he Holy Spirit.

As we read the story of Mary visiting her cousin, Elizabeth, it’s easy to believe she left home to hide out until her pregnancy was over.

But based on geography... Nazareth to Judea was a 30 hour walk, and travel back in this period of time, it’s unlikely Mary was very far along in her pregnancy when this happened.

I believe that Mary went to visit her cousin because she was experiencing something similar.