← ArchiveSunday, December 13, 2015DateDecember 13, 2015Speaker—TextRomans 8Passages in this sermonRomans 89:56Psalms 8114:39Luke 516:32Jeremiah 2918:421 Corinthians 220:22John 1322:57Matthew 624:47Hebrews 1125:02Psalms 13826:25TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Thank you. Thank you, Jessica. Thank you, Noah. You brought your Bible. Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 1. I'm going to kind of pick up from where we left off last week with our kids' ministry when they led us to launch into this beautiful Christmas season.0:27I was thinking just the other day, really, I really was thinking about how creative this was, and I thought about some events that took place in my life a few years ago. It was one of those times. Have you ever just felt like there's been times that you just really should have stayed in bed? You just probably just didn't need to get up. You probably should have locked yourself into your room and not gotten up. How many of y'all have been that way?0:57Am I the only person on the planet that's been that way? Well, this happened to be one of those days several years ago. I started thinking about what all took place that day. It was one of those times where I had a lot of events taking place, a lot of busyness on one particular day, and I kind of not gotten myself prepared for that. I had a sermon to get ready for the church that I was serving at the time, and I was late getting the outline in for the printing so that the bulletin or the handout would be there1:25and the PowerPoint people could get it done. And I was late, and so I knew that I had a deadline by 9 o'clock the next morning. Also on that particular next morning, I had a corporate Bible study at lunch that I had to teach, and I had not written that, and so I was kind of behind the eight ball on that a little bit. And also later on that day, I had to do a funeral of a gentleman from one of the companies that I served as the corporate chaplain,1:51and I really didn't even know the guy, but they invited me, asked me to be because he didn't have a pastor or he wasn't connected to a local church, and so they wanted a pastor to come do the service. And so I was preparing a funeral for somebody that I didn't even know. And so I realized I had three or four major writing projects to finish by 7, 38 o'clock in the morning2:14to get it emailed and get it all distributed out. And so I did what normal guys do. I pulled an all-nighter. Now, how many of y'all have done that back in college where you knew that you had, come on, those of you that went to school back in the day, where you knew good and well you had that, and you pulled an all-nighter, and boy, it just wears you out. Well, I did that. I pulled the all-nighter, and so the next morning, I just felt just wiped out.2:44So I'm on my way, got all the information where I needed to. On my way, I was hit in the rear end at a stop sign and a stoplight. That's why I don't like red lights, because you have this opportunity for somebody to rear-end you. And so, but on the way to do that, I was just expended. I just worn out. And so I stopped by one of these coffee places, and I went in there,3:12and I saw them mixing something in a blender, so I walked over to it, and I said, well, that looks good. And all of a sudden, the blender just exploded, and all the stuff went all over me. Well, I'm behind the time on this. I've got to get to my first event. And so I've got mixture of stuff all over me, and I'm wiping it off. And so then I get to the, I get to the, before I get rear-ended, I'm on my way,3:36and I've stopped on Highway 280 by the waterworks, and I get rear-ended before I get down to Homewood to the funeral chapel, and I do the funeral, and everything is over with. And by the time we're done, and I'm standing there, and I thought I did pretty good for a funeral of somebody I didn't know, somebody came up to me from the family, said, I didn't like what you said about this service. I didn't charge them for the service.4:07I mean, they got it for free. So I started thinking about it. That one day, I was extended, I got blended, I got rear-ended, and on top of that, I got offended. How many of you have gone through those kind of scenarios, and especially this time of year when everything is moving and all the parts are going on? You know, sometimes God just changes our plans, does He not? Sometimes He just kind of messes up our plans, and we have all these wonderful plans laid out.4:36The Christmas story is really about everybody getting their plans messed up. Their plans got changed. I started thinking about all the characters in the Christmas story. You can read any of the versions in the Gospels, and these characters pop out. You got Mary and Joseph. Obviously, they are main characters. Obviously, Jesus is the main character.5:04But here's Mary and Joseph. They're engaged to be married, and they're settled down having a home and getting ready to have all of their stuff, and a quiet, peaceful night. And in the middle of all this preparation of getting ready to get married, an angel appears to them and saying, by the way, by the way, God has a new plan for you, Mary. It's a three-part plan. It's never been done before. That's part number one.5:33Number two, it's a miracle, and the miracle is you're with child, and you're still a virgin. So God kind of just messed up her plans right there. As she's preparing, as betrothed, the Bible says, she's engaged, having not consummated the marriage vows and the marriage bed. All of a sudden, she's found with child, not to mention, this is not just any ordinary kid. This is not just an ordinary child.6:04The angel says, oh, by the way, Mary, it's God that's inside you. Oh, really? God messes up your plans sometimes along the way, right? King Herod, another character in this whole story. King Herod, the king of Judah, he was a freak. He was a whack job, to be quite honest with you. He was so paranoid that he had his wife, his mother, his brother-in-law, and two sons killed.6:30That's how paranoid this guy was. I mean, how do you become a king, and then all of a sudden, you get the opportunity to kill all these people, especially your family members? He was so whacked out. He was a nutcase, to be honest with you. He heard the king of the Jews was being born in Bethlehem, and so he sent out. He went berserk, and he said, I make this declaration that all the children under two years old are to be killed.6:53What a whack job, right? God messed up his plans as well, didn't he not? Mary, Joseph's plans were messed up. King Herod's plans were messed up. The religious leaders. Now, these are some interesting people. They wanted a messiah to overthrow the Roman Empire. They did not want a peaceful messiah. They didn't want a savior. They wanted a soldier savior instead of a spiritual savior.7:21And here comes along Jesus talking about loving your enemy, doing good to those that despise you, pray for those who persecute you, return good for evil, love your neighbor as yourself. What kind of messiah is this? And that's exactly who God sent. God messed up their plans as well. The innkeeper, another interesting character, he booked his whole hotel out. All the rooms were booked, and all of a sudden, Mary, Joseph shows up, and what does he do?7:51Instead of finding them other accommodations, he says, I've got another place for you. It's called the stable. And so he takes Jesus, he takes Mary and Joseph, and he puts them in a stable. God messed up his plans as well. Then the shepherds, those are an interesting breed of animal, aren't they? The shepherd, they're out there minding their own sheep, you know? They're just bedded down for the night.8:20They're going to enjoy a nice evening camping out under the stars. And all of a sudden, a great thunder and lightning and all kind of lights shine down, and the angel of the Lord appears to them and said, hey, guys, I paraphrase, you better get to Bethlehem because the Savior of the world has been born. You see, God messes up our plans, doesn't he? Sometimes we have all these plans.8:49So I started thinking about this question. It begs my heart today. What about your plans? Has 2015 been the kind of year you'd hope for? I mean, if there was an election going on, did you got the person that you voted for if you went through an election period? You know, we got one coming up next year, and we got a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts there. I mean, for my Auburn friends out there.9:17I mean, really, did we really want a 6-6 season? And did we really want Alabama in another championship? Are you kidding me? I mean, you know, sometimes we just need to realize not everything happens is God's plan. I know you Alabama fans think different. But, you know, folks, let me tell you something. Not everything happens is the will of the Lord. You say, wait a minute. Time out, Dan. We believe in God, the sovereign God of the universe. Well, let me ask you this.9:47Not all the world's problems are God's problems. Not all the world's problems did he cause. He allows things to happen. We know what Romans 8, 28 says. God causes all things to work together. He allows all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But rape, molestation, child abuse, I don't know. I think that's man's evil sin in his life. I don't think God blesses that, does he?10:16No, he does not. Cancer, Alzheimer's, man, no. Evil things, it happens in the world. Racial prejudice, we still have racial prejudice in this world. I mean, you think, well, here we are in the deep south. We fought racial prejudice, and we've overcome it and done a great job. But many places in the world, it is still prevalent today. This is why we should continue to pray. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.10:44Because everything in heaven is perfect, and everything on earth is not. So we should pray, Lord, thy will be done. We have a free will, and frequently we choose to go against God's divine plans, do we not? So we want to blame things on God, don't we? We want to blame things on God. We want to say that's God's problem. He did that. Well, folks, let me tell you something. We need to quit blaming things on God. We need to take responsibility for our own lives a lot of times.11:13We need to confess our sin to the Lord Jesus and take responsibility for our lives. And so, wow, this is not a very encouraging Christmas message, Dan. Well, it's going to get good in just a second. So hang on. I want to persecute you a little bit more just for a second. You see, in 2016, we have all these massive plans and talks and things going on. And some of those plans are for his purpose, and some of them are, to be honest with you, for our purpose. Sometimes we make them for us.11:44The Christmas story reveals three incredible purposes for our lives. So now I want to ask you the question, when God messes up the plans, are you going to let him give him the glory? Are you going to take glory for fixing it? Now I want you to look with me in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1. This is a beautiful passage. I started it last week, and I'm going to continue it today. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1. The story goes like this in verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.12:13When his mother had been betrothed or engaged to Joseph, before they had come together, she found, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he considered this, behold, the angel, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.12:43Now, that is an incredible line, is it not? The child that's in her is of the Holy Spirit. You did not consummate the marriage vows. You had nothing to do with it, Joseph. You're just along for the ride. You're going to get to raise this son. You're going to get to be involved in his life. But you had absolutely nothing to do with it. It's been conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.13:12For he will save his people from their sins. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophets. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear his son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph woke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son,13:39and called his name Jesus. The book of Proverbs gives us a beautiful verse. It says about our plans, many of the plans in a man's heart, but the Lord's purpose shall prevail. We can make all the plans we want to make, but if we believe in the sovereign God of the universe, he who will save his people from their sins,14:09God, Emmanuel, God with us, He will prevail each and every time. I want to give you three things, and then we're going to have the Lord's Supper. Three things. When God changes your plans, he may be trying to get your attention. When God changes your plans, he may just be getting your attention. Psalms 81 gives us a beautiful verse.14:39It says, I wish my people would listen to me. Now, I've had the privilege of raising a fairly decent young man, and, you know, many of y'all know that I office at my home. I have my whole career. I have a study down in my basement, and it's a daylight basement, so I'm not down in a dungeon, but I love my study. And when my son was small, he would come down there and, like your kids, when he wanted to get your attention, sometimes he would just persistently say your name.15:07Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad. How many parents can say that? How many know your kids? Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom. I mean, he was just like, goodness! Slow down. Just on and on and on and on. And then when I would just kind of ag it on just a little bit. I know that shock show that I would ag something on a little bit. So I'd ag it on. I'd just pretend like he wasn't there. I would just kind of tune him out. Then all of a sudden, he'd grab my face, and he would pull my face towards him and say, Dad, Dad, listen, listen. That's exactly what the Word's saying.15:36That's what God is saying. When I change your plans, I'm trying to get your attention. When God changes our plans, he's trying to get our attention. So let's listen to him. That's why it's so important that we spend that adequate time alone with God. If you think that you're going to come and get the feast on Sunday morning, this is a feast. Yes, hallelujah. We hope the message is great. We hope the music is spectacular. We hope the Sunday school lesson or the life group lesson is awesome and adequate16:05and gives you what you need. But, folks, if you're just only doing it on Sunday morning, folks, let me tell you something. It's like having a major feast on Sunday and fasting the rest of the week and not eating. You need to have that time alone. And the way you do that, students, the way you do that is that you spend adequate time alone listening to the Word of God. If you remember the first sermon I ever preached here, it was out of Luke chapter 5.16:32You probably don't remember it, but I won't preach it again this morning. I'd love to, but I'm not going to. But Luke chapter 5, the great story of calling out the disciples, there are 11 verses in that. And the first principle that I gave you, if we will listen to His Word, He will teach you His will for your life. And so if we're going to listen to the Word of God, that means we've got to spend time not talking. And that's a hard thing for me to say because I make my living talking.16:57So sometimes we all just need to be quiet. I often remind myself, God gave me two ears and one mouth. Double listening, single talking. Sometimes we need to do more listening. So if you want to see God do something uniquely special in your life this year, coming up on 2016, if He does not come back for the church, He's saying, I want you to listen to me. When He messes up our plans, when He changes our plans, He may be just trying to get our attention.17:27If we'll listen to His Word, He will teach you His will. When we do what He says, He'll show us His power. And when we humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God, He will raise us up, fill us with that power, and He will use us mightily in His service. You see, that's what He said. He sent the angel. He said, David, son of David, Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife.17:53I'm going to mess up your plans. Friends, I want you to listen to me because what you have in your midst is going to radically change the universe. It is God with us, Emmanuel. When we, when God changes our plans, He may be trying to get our attention. Number two, when God changes our plans, it also means God has a better plan.18:16He never changes our plans and gives us a second-rate plan. He never gives us plan B. He always gives us plan AA. He does not say, I'm going to give you the second best after I change your plans. He said, no, I got something better for you. I love what Jeremiah 29, 11 says, I know that what I am planning for you, says the Lord.18:42I have good plans, not bad plans, but good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you a hope and a good future. When God changes our plans, it also means He has a better plan. God's plan for our lives always is bigger. Maybe not in size, but always in scope. He may always give it to us in scope. He always gives it to us in scope bigger.19:11God's plans always have a reward to them. He always blesses those who are obedient. God honors excellence, but He blesses obedience. Now, I want you to look at this worship center. Does it not look beautiful? I don't know who did all this, but I was told if I move one, just a fraction of an inch, one of these plants, somebody's going to hurt me. I don't know who she is, but Pam, I promise you, I'm not going to move them.19:38I promise, Miss Pam, I'm not moving these. These trees are spectacular, the generous donations from someone gave. We got brand new screens. Can you notice? You notice the new screens? Aren't they brighter and sharper and clearer? And you can, these beautiful lighting and stuff, just a warm atmosphere in this worship room. Folks, let me tell you something. God's plans for your life are always bigger, sometimes not in size, but always in scope.20:04And God always blesses obedience. He honors excellence, but He blesses obedience. Be obedient to the Lord. I have great plans for you, says the Lord of hosts. I love what 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9 says, No one has ever seen or heard or imagined what wonderful things God has prepared for those who love Him. God's plan is always more rewarding.20:33God's plans are, sometimes they're hard to go through. No pain, no gain. Amen? We've talked about there, there's growing pains. And every time you have growing pains, it hurts a little bit, but the reward is so much better. I know I bored y'all with this story more and more times than y'all need to hear it. But tomorrow, hopefully in the morning, 8.30, my life is going to be so much better. Tomorrow morning, they have some kind of concoction at the doctor's office awaiting for me.21:00And the doctor told me, it's going to hurt for a short while, but you're going to feel a whole lot better. I've had some real, real joint issues lately. It's arthritic, and that's what it is. There's no tears or no damages. But they're going to stick a needle in this knee right here and on this side, and they're going to shoot something in there. And I pray, I pray. Blue cross and blue shield says, yes, go for it. I pray that it is going to help.21:29And it's going to be painful. She said, oh, I said, is this going to be painful? She said, I'm not going to tell you a lie. It's going to hurt. I said, really? She said, no, no. It's, I'm going to hurt you. I said, so should I come drunk or something? I don't drink anymore, so take that off the tape. He said, should I have some kind of pain reliever before I get there? She said, no, we're going to kind of numb it up. When they got to numb it up to hit you with another pin, it's going to hurt.21:57But the pain is worth the short while for the gain of being able to get up out of bed and not fall down half the time. Amen? So when God changes our plans, it could hurt for a little bit. You say, why are you telling us that, Dan? This is not very encouraging. No, it's not. But it's a reality. We are going to have some pains in 2016.22:25Get ready for it. But if we keep trusting the Lord, he's got to gain for us. Amen? God's plan may be difficult, but the plan always comes with a promise. Jesus said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, right? 7,000 promises in the Word of God thereabout, depending on your translation of God's Word. I believe we've got enough promises in the Word of God for us to lock into.22:53Amen? John 13, verse 7, you don't understand now what I'm doing, but you will understand later. You don't have a clue what's about to happen, but you will understand later if you are obedient. God blesses, honors, He blesses, He blesses our obedience. He honors our obedience. He blesses excellence. Folks, let me tell you something. God's plans are always bigger in scope.23:22They're more rewarding. They are sometimes hard, and they are, they're always attached with a promise. Number three, and I'm done. When God changes your plans, He is saying, I want you to trust me fully. When He changes the course, I want you to trust me. We began this journey 14, 16 months ago almost now. When we started that journey, you were faithfully served for 21 plus years by a wonderful man of God and his family.23:51Faithfully served. And we knew that there needed to be some changes, and there needed to be some tweaks. And He admitted that in Himself. It just, there needed to be some changes, and it was, you know, we needed to make some, and we didn't. And, and, but my time is done, and, and I'm gone to a new assignment for the Lord. And so, God sent this crazy guy from Shelby County over here as your interim, and, and we made some adjustments.24:16And all the while, everything was forward focused. Everything was forward focused. But we had to trust one another. And I want to thank you for the most part. You trusted me. I want to thank you for stepping out in faith. You see, when God changes our plans, He's saying, I want us, I want you to trust me. To trust God, we got to seek Him first.24:44Amen. Matthew 6, 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto Him. Matthew 6, 7, 7 says, and I, and, and, and, and I will be asked, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find it. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Hebrews 11, that great heroes of the faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, when we trust God, we got to trust Him by faith. When Dr. Josh shows up here in January, should the Lord tarry, and he shows up here to be your pastor.25:12I hope he is, because he's bought a house here. But anyway, he may not have to pay for it if the Lord calls him home. I hope his theology is correct. But anyway, we, we, we, we, I could tell you that you are going to go through some pain. But guess what? The gain is greater than the pain. You got to trust it by faith. Step out there. Knock, and seek, and find the Lord, and watch God work.25:41Knock. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. To trust God, we must seek God first with all our hearts. Number two, and I'm done. Trusting God, we must believe in faith completely. That's where it takes us to one of the most revered passages of Scripture in all the Word of God. When Romans chapter 8 rings that bell, when Paul wrote to the church at Rome the declaration of Christ's freedom,26:06he said in Romans 8, 28, and when God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, the psalmist wrote in Psalms 138, that the Lord will work out his plans for my life, for his faithful love endures forever.26:29His love endures forever. So when God changes your plans, he's trying to get our attention. When God changes our plans, it means he's got a better one. When God changes our plans, he's saying, I want you to trust me for every aspect of your life. Maybe you're here today and you've never truly trusted Christ for your personal salvation.26:59Maybe you have trusted him with a religious belief, but you've never truly, fully trusted him for salvation. Today is a day of salvation for you. Maybe today you need to start with that step, that step of faith. By faith, trust him for salvation. Maybe that might be that faith journey you need to be on right now. Today is a day of salvation for someone in this room. I believe beyond a shadow of doubt with this size of an audience today,27:29I believe there's someone here that has religious belief but doesn't have a relationship with Jesus. So I'm going to extend to you, as I did Thursday afternoon at ServPro in Pelham, eight people out of that company prayed to receive Christ because of a Christmas party we had, had festivities and gave away a lot of stuff. And then I got up and preached the gospel and gave an invitation, eight people came to faith in Christ in a business setting.27:54I believe in this setting, there's some here in this room that need to take that step of faith. Today, trusting him by faith. Would you bow your heads in closure? Would you bow your heads in closure?More sermons on Romans →
