Main Idea: When God speaks to us the response he desires from us is our surrender.

Christmas is about God speaking. In this Advent season we have been discovering once again how God spoke to particular people inviting them to join him in the marvelous drama of the appearance of his Son Jesus. He spoke to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, surprising him with an announcement about his son. He spoke to Joseph, the husband of Mary, inviting him to share in doing the unexpected. This morning we will hear him speak to Mary, the mother of Jesus, telling her of his plan to use her to be the one through whom the Hope of all the world would be born. What he wanted ultimately from Mary was her surrender. What I want us to see today is that when God speaks to us the response he desires from us is our surrender to all that he says. Christmas is about God speaking. The question is: Are we listening?

If I am honest with you, I am always amazed when I discover that God has spoken to people outside of my very narrow understanding of whom God would speak to and what he would say. One such person is contemporary novelist Anne Rice. Anne Rice is known for her novels regarding the occult. Her books of that theme have made her successful in every way. However, in the late 1990’s things began to change in her life. Through a series of crises in her life and family she said, "The Lord came looking for me." In that search she began to read extensively books from her Catholic background. She came to the belief that the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead were real events into which she could place her faith.

Out of that experience she had an encounter with God in church in 2002 where she said to God, "I want everything I do to be for you…It will be all for you. All of it. Every word." Anne Rice made a choice that she would only write novels about Jesus Christ. So this fall her first, in what she says will be a series on the life of Jesus, was released called Christ the Lord, which tells mainly the story of Jesus growing up in Egypt. What Anne Rice was not prepared for was the price that her decision would cost her both personally and professionally. During the time of writing Christ the Lord her husband Stan, of 41 years, died of a brain tumor. She has been viciously attacked by critics who exalted her writing about vampires but are disgusted with her writing about Jesus. She has been criticized by Christians who disagree with the theology she portrays.

Yet, in spite of it all, she has surrendered to what she believes God wants her to do. She said, "I would never go back, not even if they say, ‘You will be financially ruined; you’ve got to write another vampire book.’ I would say no. I have no choice. I would be a fool for all eternity to turn my back on God like that." As to where this will take her, she says, "I’ve had wonderful experiences as a writer. I’ve stepped out of limos in New York City to crowds wanting autographs and embracing me. There are no words for that. But this is the biggest adventure of my life. Thrilling beyond everything." (Christianity Today, December 2005, p. 50-53)

Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that I agree with all that Anne Rice believes and haven’t read her book yet. What I am saying is that God’s speaking to Anne Rice is the only explanation to account for her change in life. She said God came looking for her and when she listened, she surrendered saying, "All of it is for you." God still speaks. He is not mute. His voice is not silent. He still breaks through to people whose lives are so far from him that we can’t imagine they would ever listen. God speaks and when he speaks the response he desires from us is just what Anne Rice did and that was surrender.

Two thousand years ago God came looking for another woman this time in the village of Nazareth in a forgotten country called Palestine. The woman’s name was Mary. Oh, we call her a woman but she could have been between 12-15 years old. She had become engaged to a man named Joseph, a carpenter by trade. Joseph probably didn’t have much to offer Mary except his love and his heritage as a Jew that could be traced back to the great king of Israel, David. For a young girl to be engaged and then married was the one single expectation of her life. All that Mary’s future could hold would be the joy of a loving husband, the security that marriage would provide and eventually the blessing of children. That was the dream of every Jewish girl. It was all they knew. It was all she would ever dream of wanting.

While we don’t have a record of Mary’s synagogue attendance or her temple contribution record, we have reason to believe she was a woman of great spiritual devotion. I believe that Joseph’s spiritual life and hers were an equal match. Life for Mary was set—spiritual connection with God, and a husband-to-be. A future that was clear and secure. Then God spoke and when God spoke Mary’s expectations, dreams, security and future were all at risk. God spoke and Mary’s universe was thrown into chaos.

God chose to speak to Mary through the angel Gabriel. The angel broke into Mary’s world and told her that God was aware of her devotion to him and that his presence surrounded her. Of course Mary was as confused and troubled by this as anyone. The angel sought to comfort her and proclaimed to her God’s desire was to bless her with a son whose name would be Jesus. He continued to explain to her that this would be no ordinary child but that the child would be " He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!" (v. 32-33)

With all of this spinning in Mary’s heart, she blurts out the obvious question, "But how can I have a baby? I don’t have a husband!" It was at this point that the angel unfolds for Mary the most amazing and mysterious part of the story. The angel says, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God." (1:35) Then he adds, " For nothing is impossible with God." (1:37)

We do not know all that Mary was thinking at this moment. We don’t know how many minutes went by between Gabriel’s last words and Mary’s response. What we do know is what God was asking her to surrender by inviting her to allow her womb to be the entry point of God himself. She was being asked to release the approval of others that she came to depend upon. Here she was a very young spiritual woman being asked to surrender the cultural standard of morality that she had kept sacred all her life. She was a virgin! Now she was being asked to become involved with God doing what will be unexplainable to everyone—especially Joseph. She would immediately be misunderstood and become the subject of rejection, gossip, slander, and very possibly death for such a claim. From the human side Mary had everything to lose.

There was something else that Mary was being asked to give up and that was she was being challenged to surrender what she had always believed was God’s plan not just for her but also for her people. The Jews believed then and now that the Messiah, the Christ, would come. They were convinced that when he came that his appearance would be unmistakable and his power undeniable. Her faith had taught her that God’s plan for entering the world and changing the world was going to be done in dramatic fashion and by force. Now all that is different for what she is told is that God’s entrance into this world would be through herself and his plan for changing the world would be accomplished by a baby. To accept this as God’s plan was more than a subtle change; it was a revolution.

Mary’s response is one of those places of breathtaking beauty in Scripture. Its simplicity is stunning. Its depth is profound. Mary says, "I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true" (1:38). Listen to Mary’s voice again, "I am willing to accept whatever he wants." That’s it! That’s what God wanted her to say. All else from this point on is merely the detail. God spoke to Mary and the response he desired was her surrender – "I am willing to accept whatever he wants."

After the angel left, Mary had time to reflect and wait. She reflected on what she had been told and what she had surrendered. She waited—waited for the moment of God’s surrounding her and enclosing her in his presence. When that moment occurred we do not know for the next place we see Mary is her going to her cousin’s house to tell her the news that perhaps she could not speak to anyone—maybe not even Joseph. When she greets Elizabeth, there is recognition between them that God has done more than speak but he has acted. Mary at last has something to say. And what she says describes a world that Mary had never seen.

Mary draws from deep within her soul the words that picture God’s activity in a world turned upside down. (Luke 1: 46-55) Her words portray God’s tearing down the world’s arrogant systems and its leaders and replacing them with people of magnificent character. She paints a future of God filling the lives of desperate people and dispatching those who once held them with greed and power. None of this was real in Mary’s world! All she knew and all her people had known were raw human power, brute force, unrivaled greed, oppression and poverty. Yet God gave her a voice to describe a world of grace, faith, mercy and peace. It was a vision of a reality that would only be known by faith and only be established by the tiny baby that fluttered so gently inside her.

God came looking for Anne Rice and she said, "I want everything I do to be for you…All of it." God came looking for Mary and she said, "I am willing to accept whatever he wants." God spoke and when he spoke the response he desired was surrender.

When God speaks to us the response he desires from us is surrender. We are each like Mary, living our lives out in quiet routine or chaotic confusion. We never really dream that God would care enough or be interested enough to say something to us that would engage us in his will for our lives. Yet something has happened in your life where the inner silence of your soul has suddenly been alarmed that just maybe there is another voice, a voice that paralyzes you with fear, yet so compels you that you can’t resist. The voice may be the voice of an event in your life. The voice may be the sound of the words calling out to you from the Bible. The voice may be the voice of the Spirit of God leading and prompting you. The voice may be the sound of prayer, or the presence of another Christian. Yet you know that in it all there is The Voice calling to you. God has come not just looking but speaking and the response he desires is your surrender.

When he speaks what does he ask us to surrender? One thing I believe God asks us to surrender is for us to surrender what we have come to expect from our future. (Luke 1:27-28). Mary’s future was one that she expected as rightfully hers as a soon to be wife and mother. God’s voice changed all that.

What do you expect from your future? You see we come to expect certain things to be ours as part of our future—a home, a job, a career, a family, dreams, goals. There are a lot of things that we can expect from our future as rightly ours. Then God speaks and he speaks in such a way that suddenly the future we painted for ourselves is no longer the future he has planned. We know that to respond to His voice will require surrender, the surrender of a future that is now out of our control.

Another thing I believe God asks us to surrender is the approval we feel we need from others. (Luke 1:28-30) Mary was asked to throw away all her perceived reputation of herself and her approval of her family, friends and faith to be involved with God doing the impossible. The security of her life was rooted in the approval of her character. It was likely the only thing of value she truly possessed and now that was being sacrificed.

How much does the approval of others keep you from doing what God wants you to do? We live for the compliments, the affirmation, the security, the approval of our family, friends and culture. We thrive on words and emotions of acceptance. Then God speaks and he speaks in such a way that we are forced to see that the approval of others is not the approval that counts. That it is the affirmation

of God that counts most of all for us. We wrestle with our addiction to the approval of others, knowing that the only way to be free is to surrender and live only for the affirmation and approval of God.

There’s something else we are to surrender and that is we are to surrender what we imagined was God’s plan for working things out. (Luke 1:31-37) When God spoke to Mary all of her conceptions of how God was going to work things out were shattered. No longer was God’s entry into the world going to be majestic. No, instead, his entry was to be normal and plain. No longer was his work to be done by might. Instead, his work was to be done in humility. Accepting that was going to require her surrender.

How do you see God working things out in your life and in our world? Has your theology so boxed you in that you can’t dream of God working out his plan in virtually non-eventful circumstances or quiet humility? God’s voice was once the voice of "shock and awe" and will be again. Yet now that voice and his work are done in simplicity and surprise. When God speaks his voice calls out to us to surrender what we imagine God’s plans to be and instead to accept what they truly are.

When we find ourselves surrendering our future, our need for approval and our ideas of how God works, we discover something else that God says to surrender. He asks, I believe, for us to surrender what we always assumed was real. (Luke 1:46-56) Mary saw the world she lived in and saw it filled with contradictions to the world God determined. In faith she boldly announced a world that was more real than the one everyone else assumed. To speak about that world called for a surrender of all the reality she knew in order to envision a world that was truly real.

Here is where surrender to God brings us. Surrender brings us to a place where we see the world we assumed was real with different eyes. We see a world that is chained and shackled by everything that is a contradiction to the world God desires. The question is: Are we to be silent? Are there not things that this world claims to be reality that you know in your soul are merely a cheap imitation or gross distortion of what is truly reality. Is God speaking to you so deeply that you cannot hold back and you must cry out that what everyone assumes is real is only a fake? Surrender will not silence you. It instead gives you a voice and a message.

Patricia Raybon’s book I Told the Mountain to Move is the story of her personal encounter with God in prayer. As an accomplished writer and college professor she had a life that was pretty well set, filled with awards and achievement. She had faith but that faith was merely another trophy for her mantle rather than a tool for her life. All that changed when her oldest daughter became pregnant and there was no father to claim responsibility. Then her younger daughter totally rejected the faith of her family for the Nation of Islam. Then, at last, her husband Dan, only days after retirement, was stricken with a debilitating spinal disease.

All these events finally left her curled up in a ball on the bed one night, clinging to her husband’s clothes, sobbing uncontrollably until, exhausted, she fell asleep. However at 3 a.m. God spoke, she writes, "In November, of course, the house was dark but also cold. I opened my eyes in the dimness and suddenly sat up straight, shivering. God was talking. That is, God’s Spirit was talking to my spirit and I recognized the voice. Not an out-loud voice, of course. But I could hear the words in my head—or in my heart?—as if they were spoken aloud. That is, my spirit could hear the words. They were as plain as plywood. Simple and even and plain, and there were four of them: Stop crying. Start praying.

"Stop crying? Start praying? I yanked the covers back and sat still in the dark. I heard it again. Stop crying. Start praying. I had not been shaken by the shoulders or drenched in cold water. But these words penetrated my heart as if I’d been thrown headfirst into a cold, deep lake. And I can’t swim.

"I was wide-awake. I switched on the lamp on the nightstand next to the bed…Jesus,’ I said out loud. My husband needed prayer. Real prayer. His side of the bed was empty, and it would stay empty if I didn’t get up right now, wipe my tears, and get to work. God was ordering me to get moving, to start praying, and to believe that he would hear and that he would answer. Not only that, God was ordering me to be the big and good and substantial person that I longed to be, and to believe that he would help me do it."

"Jesus," was the prayer of surrender for Patricia Raybon. That began her own personal journey of learning how to pray. She writes, "In real prayer, we go places we don’t want to go. We learn lessons we don’t want to learn. We tell secrets we don’t want to tell. We walk bridges we don’t want to cross. We face battles we don’t want to fight. Then we change the world. We stand at the door to heaven and then we rush in." (I Told the Mountain to Move by Patricia Raybon, Salt River Publishers, p. 19-20, 24)

God’s voice may not wake you out of a dead sleep—but it may. God came looking for Anne Rice, Mary, and Patricia Raybon and when he found them the only response he wanted was surrender. Today God has come looking for and speaking to you. Everything is on the table. Mary said, "I am willing to accept whatever he wants." Can you say the same thing? The only way is by surrender.

Christmas is about God speaking. The question is: Are we listening?

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org