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Andy Stanley - What's the Purpose · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi everybody, and marry twenty twenty Christmas. If you're like
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: most Americans, maybe like most humans, not only are you
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: looking forward to Christmas, you're actually looking forward like.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Never before, to New Year.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I think we're all looking forward to looking back on
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty. It's not all been bad, but there was
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: enough bad to leave us scratching our heads and wondering
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: what in the world just happened, and why did it happen?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And why did so much happen all at the same time.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think most of us have an insatiable
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: desire to find meaning or purpose, and even the most
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: random events in life, especially the negative events, the events
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that seem to have no purpose or serve no purpose,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: events that on the surface seem to indicate there is
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: no meaning or purpose.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: To life, that life is well, it's just all.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Random that Richard Dawkins was right when he said that
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: some people are going to get hurt and some people
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: are going to get lucky, and you won't find any
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: rhyme or reason in it. No justice, no design, no evil,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: no good, just pitiless indifference. Merry Christmas, everyone, I mean,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: that's certainly one approach to understanding the why behind what
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: that basically there is no why.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Even when what we see and experience points in the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: direction of random, pointless and purposeless, there's something in us,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: isn't it true? There's something in us that resists surrendering
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to that notion. We find ourselves scrambling to find good
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: into bad, positive in the negative, purpose for our pain.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And I should point out that I don't run into
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: many people who are obsessed with trying to make sense
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: out of the good things in life. I've never met
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: anyone who is wrestling with why their parents didn't divorce,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: why their kids are so healthy, why they didn't lose
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: their job.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, we kind of expect those things.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: We just don't expend much energy looking for meaning and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: purpose in the good things. We consider the good things
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to be normal because, let's be honest, because good things
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: suit our purposes, and that's really all the purpose I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: generally need. I want my life to be good. So
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: when you think that is a means to that end,
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  Speaker 1: I don't have to find meaning for right, it's just good.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: It's obvious good things are well. Good things are a
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  Speaker 1: means to my end. But the exceptions, the hiccups, the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: interruptions of that call from the doctor or maybe from
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: your child's school. Why God, you know, what's the reason
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  Speaker 1: for this?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Is there a God?
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  Speaker 1: Now it's all a little bit hypocritical, but I get
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  Speaker 1: it because I'm certainly not immune from it. And that
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: thing in us, I think, that thing in us that
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: longs to make sense out of life, I think that's
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the image of God stamped on our souls. Or as
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Solomon refers to it when he wrote these words, he says,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it's eternity in our hearts.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Here's what he wrote.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: He said, he God has made everything beautiful in its time,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: he has also set eternity in the human heart. That is,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: there is something in us that knows there's more to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: this life than just this life. Yet no one can
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: fathom what God has done from beginning to end. In
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: other words, we all long for some sort of meta
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: narrative that makes sense of things, a comprehensive explanation for
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: what's going on in the world, but more specifically what's
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: going on in our world. And we long for one
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: because there is one.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: As C. S.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Lewis wrote, if I find in myself, if I find
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  Speaker 1: in myself a desire which no experience in this world
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  Speaker 1: can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: made for another world. We assume, in fact, we almost
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  Speaker 1: can't help but assume there's a plan, And when things
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  Speaker 1: go off the rails from our perspective, that's when we're
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  Speaker 1: most interested in knowing what the plan is.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: That's when we look for reassurances that God is still
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  Speaker 1: in control, that God is still up to something. So,
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  Speaker 1: of course we ask why, because we're made in the
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  Speaker 1: image of a purposeful God who created a purpose filled world.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Think about the phrases we've coined around this notion. These
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  Speaker 1: aren't religious, These just kind of flow out of the
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  Speaker 1: image of God nature in all of us. We say
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  Speaker 1: things like this, everything happens for a reason. I don't
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: believe in coincidence. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
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  Speaker 1: I guess her time had come. I mean, this is
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  Speaker 1: so ingrained in us it is virtually impossible to live
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  Speaker 1: any other way. We just want events suffering in particular,
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  Speaker 1: to connect to something, to connect to something purposeful.
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  Speaker 2: And when it's not apparent how it connects, what do
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  Speaker 2: we do? We go looking?
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  Speaker 1: In fact, this dynamic, or this tension, It actually may
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: explain you're on ramp to faith. Perhaps you came to
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  Speaker 1: faith after trying to make the narrative of life all
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: about you. I mean, that's easy to do when we're young,
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  Speaker 1: we all do that. But eventually, in this true eventually
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  Speaker 1: you begin asking that question that well, everybody eventually asked
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  Speaker 1: what's going on here? You know, why am I here?
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  Speaker 1: And if you were really dialed in, you may have added,
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  Speaker 1: and why do I even care? And why am I
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  Speaker 1: even asking this question? Because there was like a purpose
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  Speaker 1: pebble in your shoe, right, And after a while you
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: just couldn't ignore it any longer. So you paused, you
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  Speaker 1: look up, and the next thing you knew you believed
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in God. But the same dynamic, the same question of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: why did this happen? Why did this happen to me?
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Why did this happen to my wife, to my son,
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  Speaker 1: to my career? The seeming randomness of life may have
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: signaled the end of faith for you as well. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: like most people, you never doubted God when things were good, right,
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  Speaker 1: you never went searching for a purpose for your happiness.
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  Speaker 1: But when you got that call, when he left, when
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  Speaker 1: she didn't recover. Your faith never recovered either, And one
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  Speaker 1: day it dawned on you, I don't believe anymore.
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  Speaker 2: I just don't believe it anymore.
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  Speaker 1: You're not even sure exactly why, and you're not sure
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  Speaker 1: exactly when. But perhaps you remember that afternoon or that
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: evening when it dawned on you. I don't believe anymore,
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  Speaker 1: which is understandable. But and maybe this will help, the
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  Speaker 1: fact that you lost faith when life didn't make any
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  Speaker 1: sense actually underscores or highlights or serves as a reminder
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  Speaker 1: that there is something in you that longs for an
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  Speaker 1: ordered world, a purposeful world.
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  Speaker 2: It's what you expected.
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  Speaker 1: And when the world as you expected it to be
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  Speaker 1: fell apart, your faith in the God who was supposed
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  Speaker 1: to sustain a well ordered world fell apart with it.
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  Speaker 1: But don't miss this, that longing in you, that desire,
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  Speaker 1: as C. S. Lewis refers to it, your resistance to
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  Speaker 1: the notion of a meaningless existence. It's still there, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: And it came from somewhere or possibly from someone. Even
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  Speaker 1: without faith, even without belief in some sort of transcendent being,
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  Speaker 1: you continue to look for meaning and purpose. A point
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  Speaker 1: to all of this even without faith, you can't bring
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  Speaker 1: yourself to embrace a worldview that only offers imaginary purpose,
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  Speaker 1: pitiless indifference. And perhaps you can't embrace that kind of
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  Speaker 1: worldview because it's not the world you live in. Your
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: soul insists there's more. Maybe eternity resides in your heart.
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  Speaker 1: And so imagine this. Imagine for just a moment that
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  Speaker 1: there is more to this life than meets the eye,
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  Speaker 1: that thing in you that is not simply a residual
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  Speaker 1: byproduct of evolution. Imagine for a moment there really is
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  Speaker 1: a transcendent God who has his own purpose, his own
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  Speaker 1: plan for humanity, and that once in a while that
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  Speaker 1: plan intersects with your life. And what if that plan
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  Speaker 1: required a disruption in your plan from time to time?
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  Speaker 1: What if his plan requires a disruption and our assumptions
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  Speaker 1: about how things should be? If God is who God
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  Speaker 1: says he is and has our best interests at heart,
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  Speaker 1: what would it look like if that good God interrupted
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  Speaker 1: the natural world as we know it to make himself
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  Speaker 1: known in order to give us something to which we
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  Speaker 1: could connect our quest for purpose. A hook to hang
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  Speaker 1: things on, a wall to lean things against, or a
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  Speaker 1: dot to connect things to as it turns out a
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  Speaker 1: handful of first century Judeans and Galileans were convinced that
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  Speaker 1: that is exactly what God did. In fact, they were
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  Speaker 1: so convinced they spent and risked their lives to ensure
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  Speaker 1: that special moment in time when God intersected with humanity,
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  Speaker 1: that that special moment in time would be recorded for
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  Speaker 1: all time, because the person and the message of Jesus was,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, for all time. The narrative surrounding the birth
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus is actually a reminder that the thing in
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  Speaker 1: us that wants the dots to connect is not to
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  Speaker 1: be ignored.
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  Speaker 2: It's a reminder.
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  Speaker 1: It's a reminder that the world is not as random
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  Speaker 1: at times as it appears. It's a reminder that there
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  Speaker 1: really is an overarching narrative into which we have been
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  Speaker 1: invited and we have been included, a narrative that provides
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  Speaker 1: us with the context for our entire lives. That there
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  Speaker 1: is a story, but that we are not the main
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  Speaker 1: characters in the story. It reminds us that from time
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  Speaker 1: to time, the author's purpose of the story runs counter
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  Speaker 1: to what we want, and runs counter.
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  Speaker 2: To what we expect.
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  Speaker 1: But in those seemingly random moments, those unexpected interruptions. God
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  Speaker 1: is at work. The dots do, in fact connect. There
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  Speaker 1: is a divine story. At Christmas, we actually celebrate the
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  Speaker 1: moment and time when the author showed up in his
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  Speaker 1: own story, but doing so created an interruption of well
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  Speaker 1: of epic and divine proportion. Christmas is a reminder that
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  Speaker 1: from time to time God chooses to interrupt our stories
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  Speaker 1: as well, and that it's okay to look up and
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  Speaker 1: ask why, what's going on?
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  Speaker 2: Why now?
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  Speaker 1: Where do I go from here? How do I fit in?
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  Speaker 1: Wasn't there another way? And those questions, those questions actually
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  Speaker 1: reflect the fact of your faith, not a lack of faith.
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  Speaker 2: This is so important. There is a difference.
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  Speaker 1: There is a difference between questioning God and asking God
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  Speaker 1: a question. Luke, the gospel writer. Luke provides us with
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  Speaker 1: one of two birth narratives found in the New Testament.
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  Speaker 1: You probably knew that Luke actually talked to everyone he
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  Speaker 1: could find to make sure he got the story right.
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  Speaker 2: But he knew if he.
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  Speaker 1: Told the entire story as it was told to him
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  Speaker 1: that many people would find it difficult to believe. So
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  Speaker 1: he begins his gospel by assuring us that he's not
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  Speaker 1: making this stuff up, and he's not the only person
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  Speaker 1: tried to piece this story together. Here's how he begins
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  Speaker 1: his gospel, he says, he writes this many, not just me.
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  Speaker 1: Luke says, many have undertaken to draw up an account
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  Speaker 1: of what has been fulfilled, or what has happened right
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  Speaker 1: here among us, the implication being I'm not the only
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  Speaker 1: person who has discovered and come to believe the story
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  Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you. He goes on, and he writes,
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  Speaker 1: with this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated
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  Speaker 1: everything from the beginning, I too, decided to write an
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  Speaker 1: orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilists, so that you
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  Speaker 1: may know the certainty of the things that you have
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  Speaker 1: been taught. Now now best we can tell. Theophilis was
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a first century Christian who had heard stories about Jesus,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: but he wanted to know the entire story of Jesus,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the entire story in order. So Luke pieces it together
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  Speaker 1: for him. And here's how he begins the story. In
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the sixth month, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was a relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly what their connection was, the King James version of
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the Bible says they were cousins, and that could be
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  Speaker 1: the case. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God
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  Speaker 1: sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
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  Speaker 1: to a virgin pledged to be married to a man
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  Speaker 1: named Joseph, a descendant of David. Just another random arranged
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  Speaker 1: marriage that was about to experience a massive interruption that
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  Speaker 1: would disrupt everything. And then Luke says, the virgin's name
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  Speaker 1: was Mary, and you knew that already, which really is
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  Speaker 1: amazing in and of itself. Now, we don't know anything
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  Speaker 1: about Mary before the Angel Gabriel interrupted her life. All
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  Speaker 1: we know is that she was planning to marry Joseph
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  Speaker 1: the carpenter and lead a quiet life like her mother
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and her mother's mother, And she would probably live and
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  Speaker 1: die in the same Galilean.
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  Speaker 2: Community she grew up in, and she would just.
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  Speaker 1: Be another nameless, faithless person whose life came and went
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  Speaker 1: that left no mark, no memorial, no record.
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  Speaker 2: No evidence that she'd ever lived.
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  Speaker 1: But the time had come for another chapter in the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: story of the redemption of the human race, a chapter
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  Speaker 1: that would intersect and interrupt. And Rea have it with
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  Speaker 1: the stories of the people that God chose to further
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: his story. The Angel went to her and said, greetings, you,
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  Speaker 1: who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. And
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  Speaker 1: of course Mary was greatly troubled at his words and
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  Speaker 1: wondered what kind of greeting this might be. She didn't
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  Speaker 1: know if this was good news or bad news. But
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  Speaker 1: the Angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary,
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  Speaker 1: for you have found favor with God. You have been
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  Speaker 1: singled out for a purpose that God is showing up
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  Speaker 1: in the story.
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  Speaker 2: Mary.
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  Speaker 1: But this will require a severe interruption in your story,
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  Speaker 1: your story. Is you imagined that it would play out.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what will happen, Mary. You will conceive and give
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  Speaker 1: birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: and he will be great, and he will be called
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  Speaker 1: the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God
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  Speaker 1: will give him the throne of his father David, and
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  Speaker 1: he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever, and his kingdom.
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  Speaker 2: Will never end, which is not exactly what Mary had planned.
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  Speaker 2: Was it a king a kingdom?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there hadn't been an independent Jewish kingdom for
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: like five hundred years. Of course, Mary wasn't really concerned
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  Speaker 1: with Israel's story. At this point, she was most worried
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  Speaker 1: about and concerned about her own story. So, without questioning,
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  Speaker 1: she asked a question, if all this will be, how.
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  Speaker 2: Will this be?
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  Speaker 1: Mary asked the angel, since I a virgin, and the
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  Speaker 1: Angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and
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  Speaker 1: the power of the Most High will overshadow You. Imagine
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  Speaker 1: how terrifying that must have sounded. You're sure that I'm
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  Speaker 1: highly favored with God. You're sure I shouldn't be afraid,
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  Speaker 1: The angel continues, So the Holy One to be born
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  Speaker 1: will be called the Son of God. And sure enough,
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  Speaker 1: that's what we call him, the Son of God. Now
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  Speaker 1: this all sounded so definite, as if Mary had little
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  Speaker 1: choice in the matter. The angel continues, Even Elizabeth, even Elizabeth,
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  Speaker 1: your relative is going to have a child in her
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  Speaker 1: old age, and she who was said to be unable
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  Speaker 1: to conceive, is in her sixth month. For no word
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  Speaker 1: from God will ever fail. The Greek text here reads
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit like Yoda speak. Here's what the Greek
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: text says. For not impossible with God? Is anything possible?
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: With God? Is anything? Perhaps not?
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  Speaker 1: But from Mary's perspective, everything just got a lot more complicated.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing in her life would be as she expected it
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  Speaker 2: to be, and as you know, God had his way.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph married Mary as quickly as it could be ranged,
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  Speaker 1: but there were still rumors. For months she had to
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  Speaker 1: navigate the sideways glances in her tiny village, the hush
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  Speaker 1: tones when she walked by. And then a month or
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  Speaker 1: so before the baby was due, Caesar Augustus further complicated
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  Speaker 1: things by announcing a census had to be taken for
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  Speaker 1: the entire Roman world, and that Joseph, her husband, would
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  Speaker 1: have to travel to Bethlehem to register for the census.
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  Speaker 1: And Joseph does the math, and he realizes he might
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: miss the birth of his child. Apparently, Mary informed Joseph
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  Speaker 1: that he would not miss the birth because she was
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  Speaker 1: coming with him, And if Joseph had voiced any concern
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  Speaker 1: regarding her fragile condition and the fear of a miscarriage
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: due to the hearst traveling conditions, Mary would have assured him, not.
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  Speaker 2: This baby, I will have this baby. And so they went.
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  Speaker 1: And while she was highly favored by God, her circumstances
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  Speaker 1: certainly did not reflect that. Once again, everything seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be so random, so chaotic.
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  Speaker 2: Next thing she knows.
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  Speaker 1: She's riding a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, about one
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  Speaker 1: hundred miles away. If you flew way longer than that
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  Speaker 1: by donkey, she was probably wondering about this time, where
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: is that Angel when I need him? They move so slowly,
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  Speaker 1: as you know, by the time they arrived there are
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  Speaker 1: no guest rooms available. But while they were in Bethlehem,
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  Speaker 1: the city of David, she in fact gave birth to
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  Speaker 1: a son, and they named him Jesus, just as the
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  Speaker 1: Angel instructed them. And then things go from uncomfortable to unsafe.
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  Speaker 1: They get word that King Herod felt so threatened by
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  Speaker 1: rumors of the birth of a future Jewish king that,
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  Speaker 1: in typical Herod style, he unleashes a wave of terror
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  Speaker 1: to ensure the baby king not survive infancy. Where is
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  Speaker 1: that Angel? So Joseph and Mary have to escape to Egypt,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: about two hundred miles further from home, further from family,
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  Speaker 1: further from normal, further from what was planned, what was expected.
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  Speaker 2: And then.
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  Speaker 1: Mary gets the worst news imaginable. Herod's stormtroopers went into
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  Speaker 1: the city of Bethlehem and the region around Bethlehem, and
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  Speaker 1: they slaughtered every Jewish boy two years old and under.
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  Speaker 1: And while I'm sure she felt some relief knowing her
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  Speaker 1: son was safe for the moment, Mary felt the weight
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  Speaker 1: of grief, knowing that well, knowing that it was news
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  Speaker 1: of her son's birth that incided Herod's rage. She would
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: never be able to set foot inside the town of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Bethlehem again, and once again, her highly favored status made
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  Speaker 1: her an outcast. Was their purpose in the needless slaughter
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: of perhaps dozens of baby boys?
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: She'd been warned?
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Why not the other innocent, unsuspecting fathers and mothers. How
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: did that dot somehow connect with the purpose of God?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: She would never know? There's so much we will never
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: know either.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: There are so many dots we will never connect, so many,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: so many puzzle pieces that just don't seem to fit
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: with the box top as we envision it now. Jesus
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: grows to be a toddler, and then a teenager, and
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: finally an adult. And when you read the Gospels. Throughout
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the Gospels, Mary seems a bit confused and concerned by
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: her son's public behavior.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Then again, most people were.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: In fact, at one point you may know the story
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: when Jesus as an adult, she and Jesus brothers actually
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: show up at a public gathering to try to rescue
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Jesus from himself. I mean, they try to pull him
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: away from the crowd because he wasn't winning any friends
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: politically or with the religious establishment, and if something didn't change,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: if some didn't change, things were just not going to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: go well. Or her son turned rabbi turned prophet in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: some whispered Messiah. Eventually, Mary, highly favored of God, received
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the news that her son was in Jerusalem and that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: he'd been arrested, beaten, and taken to Pilot where the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: religious leaders were insisting on his execution. And she stood
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: on the street and wept as she watched him drag
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: his cross to the place where Rome's enemies were crucified.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: She stood in the crowd, and she watched him die.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: She watched her son die. Why what purpose could this
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: possibly serve? How could this possibly be the end of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a story of a life that began so miraculously Think
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: about it. She literally watched the worst possible thing happen
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to the best possible person, who was her son. Now
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that may actually best describe the messy, unexplainable, seemingly pointless
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: middle that you find yourself in right now. Why now
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: we know how Mary's story ended, but she didn't in
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: that moment. It was just another senseless, random, purposeless Roman execution,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: another random act of violence. Jesus was just another Galilean
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: who no one would remember, and Mary Mary would just
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: be one more broken hearted Galilean mother who would mourn
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the pointless loss of her son for the rest of
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: her life. But in a turn of events that we
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: rarely enjoy, a turn of events documented to give us hope,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: two and a half days later, the way we measure days,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: she would find herself in the presence of her risen son,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Savior and Lord. Her narrative, her narratives, was compressed in
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: such a way that within days what made no sense
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: made almost almost perfect sense. Turns out there was well,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: there was nothing about the painful events that had just transpired.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Turns out she really was favored among women, and if
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Jesus can be trusted, you too, are highly favored by God.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So at Christmas we're reminded that on occasion, on occasion,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: God interrupts the lives of men and women in order
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to give a push on the flywheel of his plan
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: for the human race. Mary wasn't the first, she wouldn't
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: be the last. Jesus disrupted the lives of some Galileean
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: fishermen to ensure that his stories survived the persecution and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the chaos of the first century. God interrupted the life
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: of the persecutor in chief, Saul of Tarsus, and recruited
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: him to carry the message of Jesus beyond the borders
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: of Judea and Galilee. And there would be others, some
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: we know, some we will never know, men and women
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: whose plans were interrupted so that they too could participate
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: in the story of redemption. But the story of Christmas
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: reminds us of something else as well, and this is
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: so important. It reminds us that perfect faith, perfect faith
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: is not faith that moves God. Perfect faith, perfect faith
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: is faith that moves us to trust God when he
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be moving, or when it doesn't seem
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that he's moving in the right direction, or that he's
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: allowing things to move in the wrong direction. The apostle
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Paul would come along later, and he would state this
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: idea in very theological terms.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Here's what he wrote.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: He wrote, in Him and Christ, we were also chosen,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: having been predestined according to the plan of Him who
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Paul was saying, I'm right at the epicenter of what
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: God is doing in the world right now, and I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: realize there's a plan, and I was invited into it,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and you have been invited into it, and we have
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to cooperate with God and his plan and
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: his purpose for everything.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Mary would say something similar, but she stated it in
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: very personal terms. When the angel delivered the unsettling news
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that her life had been permanently interrupted, Mary simply said this,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I am the Lord's servant.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: I am the Lord's servant. This is not what I planned.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: This is not what I anticipated when I thought about
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: my future as a mother and a wife. None of
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: this was in the picture. But I am the Lord's servant.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So may it be to.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Me as you have said.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Even though it disrupts and interrupts the future as I
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: envisioned it, we can't help it. We were created to
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: look for purpose in the seemingly random and disappointing circumstances
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: of life, and sometimes we find purpose. Sometimes we find
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: it immediately, and sometimes we find it eventually. But sometimes
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: we don't find it at all, And at Christmas we're
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: reminded that life is not as random as it seems,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that there is a story going on, a divine story,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and if we choose, and if we believe.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And if we trust, we can participate.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: So when you find yourself praying to the Mary, God
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: who did not come through for you the way you
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: wanted God to come through for you, the way you
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: expected God to come through for you, when your life
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: is interrupted.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: You're in good company. You're in good company with.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, as a teenage girl,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: modeled the way forward for all of us when she
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: whispered the words, I am the Lord's servant. May it
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: be to me as you have said so this Christmas,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: remember your faith and your trust is not in vain,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: because your faith is not in faith. Your faith, like
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Mary's faith, is in your risen Savior, who came into
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: this world like each of us, to be one of us,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: to save all of us assass