No Weapon Formed Against You Shall Prosper
12/20/98 Christmas Sunday Luke 1:26-38 Matt. 1:18-25, 2:13-18
Have you ever had the experience of planning to make something absolutely wonderful and at the last moment something went wrong and messed it all up? Have you ever played in a game, and it looked for certain that your team was definitely going to win, and somehow things started to go wrong and you just could not believe you lost? Have you ever met a person and you knew deep inside, this was the person you really wanted and you were hoping to spend your life with, but somewhere the relationship went sour and came to a painful end? Life is full of situations that come into our lives and alter our plans for the future. Sometimes we make bad decisions and are forced to deal with things we do not like.
Sometimes though, difficult and painful circumstances can come into our lives simply from us making a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. I want you to meet a young lady who was alive and well during the first century. Her family had gotten together with the family down the street and they had arranged for her to marry the other family’s son. She and her fiancee was in what was called a betrothal.
Now a betrothal was like an engagement only it was a much more committed relationship. A couple would be in a period of a betrothal for a year. During that entire year they were to remain sexually pure and not be involved having sex with each other. The young woman would continue to live with her family, and the man would live with his family. Even though they still lived apart, to break off a betrothal, one would have to go through the process of getting a divorce.
If either party had sex with another person during this period, they would be guilty of adultery and could be subject to stoning. At the end of the one year period, the groom would lead a party of men through the streets, making known his intention to go and claim his bride. Once the bride was picked up at the house, they would march through the streets to the cheers of the people and head to his house for a wedding feast. It was a very festive and glorious occasion.
Well this young lady was looking forward to the completion of her betrothal when she would march through the streets and have the people cheering her on. She would be such a lovely and beautiful bride. It was all she could spend her free moments thinking about.
While she was thinking about all of this, God was looking over every baby, every boy, every girl, every woman, and every man from time in the past, to the present, and even into the future. God saw that all of them were out of relationship with Him. Without being right with God, they were all headed for judgment. Without a savior to help them, they would all pay for their sins and the only punishment for sin was death. God saw the world racing toward hell and destruction.
The real meaning of Christmas is that God wanted to stop people from going to hell and bring them into a relationship with him. For the Bible tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son
So God called forth the mighty angel Gabriel and said "Gabriel, get ready to go to Nazareth. I’ve got a message for you to deliver to a young woman who’s making some wedding plans." Gabriel hurled out of heaven in the blinking of an eye and was standing in front of Mary. He said, "What’s Up, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you!"
Now when Mary saw and heard this angel she was greatly troubled at His words and wondered what exactly did he mean. First of all, how could she be highly favored by God. After all, she lived in Nazereth which was a poor city despised by the Jews and the Gentiles. 30 years later, people were still asking the question, can anything good come out of Nazareth. So Mary sort of lived in the hood of the hoods, yet God knew where she was and how to reach her. You see when God has a plan for your live, you don’t have to have all the right credentials.
Mary did not expect to be singled out by God and she was scared of this angelic being. So Gabriel told her, " Don’t be afraid Mary. You have found God’s favor. You will soon be pregnant, and you will have a son. You are to call him Jesus. He will be called the Son of the most high. He will be a king over the throne of David and He will rule forever and ever. His kingdom will never end.
Now this sounded like a pretty good deal. What mother would not want to hear the news directly from an angel, that her child is going to be a great and powerful King who will be known as the Son of God. But Mary had a question.
"She said look, how will all of this happen. I can’t be pregnant because I am a virgin. Even though Joseph and I are betrothed to each other, we still have some time to go before our year is up. So what am I suppose to do to have all this happen."
The angel Gabriel told her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the one born to you will be called the Son of God." In other words, all you have to do is be willing for God to use you. Your pregnancy will be caused by God, because what is being created in you, is coming directly from God. For nothing is impossible with God.
It was necessary for Jesus to be born without human sperm, because all sperm carries with it the human nature to sin and to be in rebellion against God. Jesus had to be sinless from birth, in order to be sinless when He died. Yet it was also necessary for Jesus to be born of a woman, so that he could experience joy and sorrow just like any other person. God had promised Eve her offspring would crush Satan’s head. God became human in the form of Jesus Christ.
Mary considered it a tremendous gift to be used by God, and she told Gabriel, "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as your have said." No sooner than she had stated her willingness to be used, Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and Gabriel had returned back to heaven. In less than five minutes, Mary’s life was forever changed by a promise from God and a willingness to say yes.
God does not call everyone to give birth to the Son of God, for the simple reason, only one Savior was needed to get the job done. But God does call everyone to give birth to something in the use of their lives. There is a calling of God upon your life today. Some of you have dreams inside of you, that you push away. Let them come to the forefront of your lives.
Some of you have plans for what you would like to be, don’t keep saying it will never happen. Some of you see yourselves living in different circumstances than you are now. It may be that’s what God’s calling you out of and into. For the Scriptures, say "commit your ways to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Mary had a desire to see God’s calling completed in her life. But it was going to cost her something to receive it. First of all, she would have to give up her dream of the perfect wedding. When Joseph came with the wedding party to escort her and to dance down the street, how would that look if she were already six months pregnant. People certainly would not be saying how well they controlled themselves sexually during the betrothal period. As a matter fact people might have even started to make jokes about the situation. Not only would people talk about her, they might talk about her family as well.
Once you make a decision to do what God wants you to do, the devil is going to attack you with his arsenal of weapons. He is going to hit you with the weapon of self doubt and make you want to stop before you even get started good. As Mary thought about what she was giving up, she probably wondered, "wait a minute, did I really hear from God or did I make this all up. Was I talking to an angel or to myself.
I don’t look any different and I don’t feel any different. Well come to think of it, it does sound kind of dumb to think I could get pregnant without having sex. Mary could have said, "yeah right. I must have been temporarily out of my mind. I’m not going to eat any more that soup. It really played with my mind." Too many people miss the call of God, because they start to second guess God, because of the cost that is involved. You can’t have God’s will for you tomorrow, without being willing to give up something today. Every dream costs something to make it a reality. The better the dream, the greater the cost. If you keep your faith in the Living God who gave you your promise, the devil’s weapon of doubt will not prosper over you.
Mary’s meeting with the angel may have only lasted a few minutes, but Mary knew she had met with God. She immediately ran to one of the most godly women she knew which was Elizabeth, the future mother of John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel had told Mary, "Elizabeth, your relative who is way up in years is now six months pregnant."
The moment Elizabeth saw Mary, the little boy inside Elizabeth’s womb jumped up and down because He could sense the presence of Jesus in Mary’s womb. So the Bible tells us that for the next three months, Mary stayed with Elizabeth. Jesus and John the Baptist were living together under the same roof for 3 months.
At the end of three months, Mary went back home to the town of Nazareth. She could not wait to tell Joseph the good news. "Joseph you’ll never believe what has happened to me." (Truer words were never spoken) Mary went on, "three months ago an angel appeared to me. He said I would have a son who would be the next king on the throne of David. His kingdom will never end and He will be the Son of the Most High. Well after he told me this, I went and spent three months with my family in the hills. Well, I don’t know what you want to do as far as our wedding date is concerned, because we may want to see if we can get our family to move the date up. The angel told me the Holy Spirit would come upon me and I would get pregnant. No sooner than I said, be it done to me it happened. Now I’m three months pregnant. Can you believe it? So what do you think we ought to do for our child.
I can imagine Joseph saying, "Wait a Minute. Time Out! You’ve been gone for three months. You and I have never had sex. You tell me an angel visited you. You are now pregnant by the Holy Spirit. You want to move up the wedding date to make everything look okay. You’re telling me this is our child, when I have had nothing to do with it. And you want to know what I think we should do.
I can imagine Mary saying. "What you don’t believe me? Then what do you think happen? How dare you think that I would go and sin against you and against God? What kind of woman do you think I am? I committed myself to you and to God and I have never gone back on either commitment. I’m telling you the truth. Why are you walking away from me? Joseph, I still love you. Don’t leave me like this.
The next weapon Satan hurled at Mary was giving up someone who was very close to her. When we say yes to the will of God for God’s call upon our lives, we do not know who we may lose along the way. Sometimes there is a danger of us trying to force God’s will in situations where God really did not have anything to do with it. Suppose if after hearing from the angel, Mary would have ran to Joseph and tried to get him to have sex with her, just so he would think the child was his.
How often have we manipulated our way into a job or a promotion and said look how the Lord has blessed me, when we did all the cheating and back stabbing possible to get the job? Or we say the Lord really blessed me with this car, when all we did was took our tithes and paid for it. Or we say God has given me this husband, when we seduced this person time and time again to keep them with us. God is saying, don’t give me the glory in those kind of situations. I had nothing to do with it.
When Mary’s relationship with Joseph went to pieces, she still had her integrity and her commitment to the Lord intact. God was going to be able to complete His will and His purpose for her life. You see, it’s a lie to believe that everything which happens to you was God’s will for your life. There a lot of things we miss out on, because we are not obedient to God. Sometimes it takes years to reap what we sow, but we will reap it.
When it comes to sin, I guarantee you, God had another plan in mind than for us to have chosen to be disobedient. The merciful thing about God, is that even when we blow plan A, God is willing to work with us with plan B. Plan B won’t be as good as Plan A, but it will be a whole lot better than any plan we can come up with on our own.
Mary could say, "Joseph may have left me, but this child and I will continue to prosper. God I am believing your Word and no weapon coming against us is going to prosper. Mary did not go begging back to Joseph and pleading with him to come and be her husband. She left that in the hands of God.
Joseph, cared for Mary, but he thought this was just too much to forgive. He decided he was not going to make a big deal out of this and publicly humiliate her. She would have enough problems of her own, once this child was born. People would think her either crazy with that story about the Holy Spirit or that she was trying to protect some other man.
He made up his mind, to get a divorce as quietly as possible. But that night, while he was sleeping, an angle came to him, and told him, "Joseph, you’re not going to find a better wife than Mary. Everything she told you was true. Don’t you mess up by being scared to have her as your wife. The Holy Spirit has done all of this. She is going to have a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sin."
Joseph woke up out of that dream and went straight to Mary’s home. He had to ask her for forgiveness. He said something like, "about that date you wanted to move up. Well if its okay with you, I think today’s date as about as fine a date as any. Who needs a wedding party and a banquet marching in the streets anyways." Mary felt such a sigh of relief.
Her parents were probably so glad to see Joseph and that He was still willing to take her, that they agreed on the spot to have him take her home. But Mary and Joseph made a covenant with each other to not have sex until after Jesus had been born. They kept the vows of the betrothal which they had made with each other.
Once the child was born, Mary probably thought, "thank God, we have done it. God will now watch over us and protect us from harm and danger. After all, this is God’s son." Don’t ever forget, it Satan can’t get you in the beginning of your call from God, he’s got another weapon just when it seems victory is around the corner.
Mary and Joseph were poor people. Can you imagine the joy they felt when the magi arrived bringing Jesus gold, incense and myrrh? Wow, look at all this money. Jesus was now about two years old. They went to bed thinking about the best way to use the money when God intervened again in a dream.
Joseph woke up in a panic, saying "Mary, Mary get up. We have got to get Jesus and get out of here." Mary probably said, "Oh Honey what’s the rush. We can finish making plans for the money tomorrow." Joseph said, "It has nothing to do with the money. We have got to save our son’s life. An angel appeared to me in my dream and told me to get up, and to take you and Jesus and run as quickly as possible into Africa. King Herod is searching for our child in order to kill him." So they got up that night, and under cover of darkness they fled into Egypt in the land of Africa. You see Africa has always been in the Christmas story as a place of safety for Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
King Herod thought he had the perfect weapon to destroy this child king. First he would use the priest and teachers of the law to find out what city Jesus would be born in. Then he would use the wise men to locate and identify Jesus. Then he would send in an assassin to kill Mary, Joseph and Jesus. If need be, he would send in an army to kill every male child two years old and younger in order to get Jesus.
It seemed like a well thought out plan. A cruel but an effective weapon just the same. The only problem was all the scheming and conniving he did, was done under the watchful eye of God. Your enemies can’t come up with a plan against you with telling it to God first.
God has your back. Before Herod could get close to Jesus, God had shipped Jesus first class to Egypt. That’s what they did with that gold, incense and myrrh. God sent people from the East to bring living expenses for Jesus, Joseph and Mary for the approximately seven years they were believed to have stayed in Africa. God is right now working on our behalf to provide the resources we need to make happen what He has called us to do.
Don’t give up your dream because the money seems short. Don’t give up on your dream because the kids are acting up. Don’t give up on your dream, because somebody don’t like you. Don’t give up on your dream ,because the devil is a liar. No weapon that’s formed against you will prosper so long as you stay within the will of God for your life. It’s one thing to say yes to the call of God. It’s another thing to stay faithful as Mary did even when one weapon after another kept on coming.
The first Christmas came at a great price for God who became a human being and for Mary who was willing to be used as a servant of God. Jesus can not enter the life of a person without the person having to make some painful decisions again and again in life in order to go all the way with Him.
Sometimes others will think you’re crazy, sometimes others will leave you when you need them the most, sometimes you will not have done a thing but others will want to see you destroyed. That’s the time to remember our God is a good God, and with Jesus on the inside of me, no weapon, formed against me shall prosper. For God I will live and For God I will die. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
