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Advent Series I:Christmas Unscripted (Luke 2:1-19)By Pastor Michael Ngui

Every good story requires an equally engaging back-story in order to give the necessary depth to the characters involved in that story. This same principle applies, be it in scripting a DUMC youth media production, or when reporting the breaking news of a tragedy unfolding on the other side of the world.

The Christmas story is often depicted on storefronts and posters simply as the Nativity scene, complete with scale models of a manger filled with hay, with baby Jesus surrounded by Mary, Joseph, along with several shepherds and their sheep.

However, this typical picture of the Nativity scene conveys no depth, and the Christmas story would be far less meaningful and poignant if we did not stop to explore the back-story of Christmas.

The Birth of Jesus Foretold (Luke 1:26-38)26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38 NIV)

When Life Goes Off-Script…In a live show, it is extremely unnerving for the producer when actors go off-script and begin doing the unexpected. The producer has lost control and does not know what is going to happen.

In real life, when our lives go “off-script” as it were, it is extremely scary. For some of us, it’s almost as if the wheels have fallen off our lives, as we begin to go in directions we never anticipated or expected, much less even desired.

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In the back-story of Christmas, we have seen that Mary’s life, on that fateful day when the angel appeared to her, really went completely and dramatically off-script.

She was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph – and in all likelihood, she had dreamt no further than of living out a quiet provincial life in the countryside together with her husband. However, Mary, a virgin, was now being told by the angel that she was with child. Coming as she did from a highly traditional clan with a rich Jewish heritage and in a time where the culture was deeply conservative and religious, we can only imagine what she must have felt and thought, to be told that she would have a child who would be, for all intents and purposes, arising out of wedlock.

Her life was turned upside down, and went very much off-script.

However, Mary’s response teaches us 5 things about how we can deal with life when it goes off-script.

But Mary was very startled by what the angel said and wondered what this greeting might mean. (Luke 1:29 NCV)This verse does not only apply to the time of her conversation with the angel but probably encapsulated her entire life – as she thought about the words that the angel said to her that day, carrying them in her heart and pondering over them constantly. She thought about God’s Word, given to her through an angel.

When our own lives take an unexpected turn, instead of asking the question “Why?”, perhaps we should ask the question “What?”. “What, Lord, are you doing that I need to learn here?”. As the title of John Piper’s book (“Don’t Waste Your Cancer”, 2010) reminds us, God doesn’t waste any hurt in our lives, but takes everything that happens and uses it for His glory.Mary was shaken and troubled, but she did not protest – she merely accepted it and pondered it. Likewise when the wheels start to come off in life and our own life goes off-script, it is good for us to ponder on God’s Word and hold on to the prophecies and promises that God has given to us.

I think about all the things you did and consider your deeds. God, your ways are holy. No god is as great as our God. (Psalm 77:12-13 NCV)As God has been in the past, so shall He be in the future. Therefore, for us to know who God is, we need to look back, and think about what He has already done, because He is the same God. Mary knew that her God and His Word could be trusted – and so she took God’s Word as it was, even though she may not have understood all that it meant.

Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and

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http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/books/dont-waste-your-cancer

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pure and beautiful and respected. (Philippians 4:8 NCV)

Therefore, as Mary teaches us through her life, rather than worry, we should instead think about things that are good and worthy of praise, true and honourable, right and pure, beautiful and respected.

Secondly, Mary teaches us to recognise God’s will – to accept it, to acknowledge it and to perceive it.

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:31-33 NLT)Mary, who was just a simple 13 year old Jewish girl, was told some extremely profound truths. Even though Mary may not have understood it, she recognised that it was God’s will. Likewise, we can know God’s will even when we don’t understand it. It could be in a situation that we can’t make sense of, yet we have a deep assurance of God’s presence and leading.

The best way to picture this is to visualise life as a tapestry. The front of a tapestry is beautiful with different colours and intricate interweaving designs. However, the reverse side of the tapestry is a messy tangle of threads. Our view of life is from the reverse side of the tapestry with all the messiness and tangles, but we need to understand that God is the Master Weaver who knows exactly what colours go where and when – we need to recognise God’s will in the tapestry of our lives.

And it is at those times when our lives are seemingly in a complete mess, that we need to continue doing what is right and expected of us as believers and followers of Jesus Christ. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5 NIV)And when the situation is perplexing and we lack the ability to discern and to act, we need to ask God.We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all. (1 Corinthians 8:3 MSG)To recognise God’s will, we need to simply trust Him and his Word.

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” (Luke 1:34 NLT)Thirdly, we need also to understand God’s overall purpose in our lives. Mary knew the right questions to ask, “How can I have a baby? I’m a virgin”. Essentially, she was asking, “How am I going to do this?”

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We always need to ask God what He wants from us in every situation – not only recognising His will but also understanding our part in it.

In Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, he lays out the five purposes in every human being’s life which all Christians should set out to fulfil:

1. Worship – to treasure God above everything else in life.2. Discipleship – we were created to be like Christ3. Fellowship – we were formed for God’s family4. Ministry – we were made for ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ5. Mission – we were made for a mission in this world

And everything that God does in our lives, even when our lives go off-script, fits into one of these five purposes.

Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. (Ephesians 5:17 MSG)This is one of the most important truths we can learn – we are servants of God. It is our privilege to serve God and participate in His grand plan in this world, where each of us has a unique part to play.

The most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. (1 Corinthians 4:2 LB)

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38 NIV)Mary’s words reflected her commitment and her complete and emphatic surrender – and this is one of the hardest lessons for us to learn. We have to surrender ourselves to God and learn to pray, “Lord, not my will, but Yours be done”. In order to be a follower of Jesus Christ, we must surrender to His will.

A common misconception that has risen in modern day churches is that believing in Christ is somehow divorced from following Christ. But this is never true – for us to believe in Christ means that we are to follow Christ. And to follow Christ, we have to take up our cross and deny ourselves – Christianity is not

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about getting a free passport into heaven without the commitment of discipleship, this is not the gospel that Christ came to preach. To be a follower of Jesus Christ and a servant, we must surrender to His will.

Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Do not be preoccupied with an evildoer who succeeds in his way when he carries out his schemes. (Psalm 37:7 GW)

As Andrew Murray said, “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him”.

Lastly, we also need to treasure God’s trials – holding them in high regard, valuing, cherishing and appreciating them.but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. (Luke 2:19 NLT)From the time the angel visited Mary, her life was turned upside down – and from a human perspective, it was a huge struggle for her from that point onwards. The Bible doesn’t detail all of the hardships she went through, though we know that she had to move several times, and doubtless also faced continuous misunderstanding over the birth of Jesus. And yet, as the Bible tells us, she quietly treasured these things.

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. (1 Peter 1:6-7 MSG)Mary saw the blessings and she was able to say, “As painful as this unscripted live would be, I’m thankful”. As believers, we can thank God for the position we have been given through Jesus Christ. We know that nothing can separate us from the love of God, as therefore, we need to live our lives with eternity in mind. God is building our faith when he allows crises to happen in our lives – so that our faith may be proved genuine.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4 MSG)Through our challenges, and through our journey of life which meander in unanticipated and unexpected ways, God is helping us to see how weak we are, and how utterly we have to depend on Him.

J.I Packer has this to say about God’s grace, “Grace is God drawing sinners closer and closer to him. How does God in grace fulfil this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstance, nor yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology, but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely.” (Packer, 1986, “Your Father Loves You”).

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ConclusionWhen life goes severely off-script or even ends up becoming completely unscripted, it is incredibly uncomfortable and disconcerting. In these times, we need to learn to think about God’s Word and recognise God’s will – that He is there directing things in the midst of all the inexplicable circumstances which are happening. We need to understand God’s purposes in the midst of our lives, and we have to surrender to God’s plan. Finally, we need to embrace the trials that we are going through and treasure them, because God is working in us to drive us closer to Him.

This is what it means to TRUST in God when the wheels fall off our lives.As Mary has shown us through her life, we can most certainly trust God when life turns upside down.

Perhaps your life is running off-script now? Put your TRUST in God today!

Sermon summary contributed by Stanley LeeJournal and Prayer Points contributed by Ng Phaik May

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* Weekly Reflection *

God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.-- Andrew Murray --



God With UsScripture:

Observation: Joseph, son of David, was informed by an angel not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because she had conceived from the Holy Spirit. Joseph was further informed that Mary would give birth to a son, and they should call him Immanuel. Immanuel means ‘God with us’. This fulfilled what the Lord had said earlier through the prophet.

Application: It is certainly comforting to know that Jesus is the Son of God, who was made flesh and dwelled among us. This promise will empower me to lead a victorious Christian life because if God is with us and is for us, who can be against us?

Response: Lord Jesus, thank You for Your promise that You are always here with us. You have been made flesh and dwelled among us. Please remind us that no matter the circumstances or challenges, You are always with us, upholding us with Your right hand and You are the one and only Mediator between God and us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Result: Exercising our faith regardless of our circumstances or challenges pleases God. Being aware that Jesus is always with us renews our strength to face our daily challenges and empowers us to be a shining testimony for Jesus’ finished work.

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“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel(which means “God with us”).

(Matthew 1:23)



MINISTRIES & EVENTS: Watchnight CelebrationPray:

Good turnout, especially by our pre-believing friends and family members. Holy Spirit to lead us to invite those whose hearts He has prepared to know Him. Spirit of thankfulness as we reflect on how good the Lord has been to us during this past year. As we prepare our hearts and minds to usher in the New Year, may we always put our Lord in

the centre of everything that we do in the coming year. Renew our hearts and minds that in the coming year, many will commit their lives to Christ and

for the Lord to give us wisdom to rock the nation for Him.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)

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SERMON: Advent Series I – Christmas UnscriptedPray:

In the midst of the merry-making, shopping and festivities, people will put Christ above all. People to be reminded of the significance of Christmas – that Christ was born to be the saviour

of mankind, and of what He has done for us. People to prepare their hearts and minds for the second coming of Christ as the King of Kings. Christians to touch the lives of pre-believers in order for them to know Christ before His second

coming.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18)



A TRANSFORMED WORLD: Connecticut ShootingsOn Friday, 14 December 2012, a heavily armed man walked into an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, USA and opened fire, killing 26 people, including children.

Pray: For the victims’ families to seek God at this time for comfort and solace. God’s peace to be upon the lives of all concerned with no motives for revenge, etc. God’s love to touch lives during this period of mourning and that many will find hope and see

God as their tower of refuge and strength. That there would be no more violence on earth.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

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MALAYSIA MY NATION: Protection for Whistleblowers Pray:

Effective implementation of whistleblowers’ protection in Malaysia. There shall be no double standards in enforcing such laws. Sound protection to be afforded as a means to combat corruption or other crimes in Malaysia. Righteousness to prevail in meting out punishments for any wrongdoings.

He who is steadfast in righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) attains to life, but he who pursues evil does it to his own death. (Proverbs 11:19)

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