God With Us - 11.30.2025

I love a good proposal story. Guy’s all nervous, girl’s all excited. Surprise, ring, happiness, etc, etc. So I wanted to start this morning by telling you my proposal story - how I asked my incredible girlfriend to become my wife. Now at the time, I was living in Chicago - I’d already started my first semester of seminary down there. And Sara was still living up in Grand Rapids - we were doing the whole long distance relationship thing - which was rough. And we’d talked about marriage, so we knew where we were headed as a couple, as a relationship - so I felt like I didn’t really have the element of surprise, which is really my favorite part of the whole thing. I was pretty confident that she would say yes, but I still wanted there to be a fun surprise element to it. So I organized a surprise party celebrating our engagement which would start right after our proposal. I was REALLY banking on her saying yes. Now, in Grand Rapids that weekend there was this huge new art festival called Art Prize. The first time they ever did it was my Senior year of college and it was super fun - so the next year, my excuse for coming back that weekend was we’ll go see the art festival together. She was living in a house with some roommates, and so the plan was; Sara and I would get all dressed up, go out to a fancy dinner, come back - surprise, friends and family are all there for a fun party. I had the ring, I had the parent’s permission - I was ready. So we got all dressed up, I had a fedora - because I am a ridiculous human being. [put up a picture of that]. I put on my suit and I realized - this box is really bulky. She’s going to see the square bulge in my pocket. So I took the ring out of the box and I put it in my pocket. For those of you who know my history of dropping rings - this was a bad idea. But we made it. Saw some art, went to Sara’s favorite sushi place downtown - it was called Morados, it’s not even there anymore, but it was walkable to Rosa Park’s circle. 

And can I just tell you - it is SO awkward sitting there with a ring in your pocket. How are you supposed to have a conversation with someone when the only thing you can think about it, “when do I do it? When am I supposed to do this? When do I do it?” Over and over in your head! Do I put it in her food - that’s gross. Do I put it in her drink - what if swallows it? Do I get down on one knee - what if I drop it? I like getting attention, but Sara’s not a fan - how can I be discreet about this? I kept waiting for the perfect moment, and before you know it - the meal’s over - and I still hadn’t asked yet. And I didn’t want it to be rushed, but I really do need to ask this question - I’ve got a whole house full of our closest friends and family waiting on us. So as sort of a last minute moment of inspiration I suggest - hey, why don’t we go for a walk? We’ll see some more of these art displays, walk down by the river - which is really beautiful if you’ve ever walked around downtown. So I’ve got all the pieces, and I just kept waiting for the perfect moment. Finally we get to a stretch of sidewalk down by the river, and it hits me. I know what to say. I turn to Sara and I say, “Do you recognize this place?” She looks around. “You don’t recognize this place?” No, should I? And I look at her and I say, “this is the place where I ask you to marry me.” And before that sinks in fully, I’m down on one knee - and here we are today. But here’s my favorite part of the story. She says yes and we go to get back in the car to drive home - and remember, there’s a surprise party waiting with everyone we know and love. And as we are driving there - Sara is trying to text and call all of her closest friends and family to tell them - her sister, her housemates, you know - all these people and for some silly reason they just are not answering their phones. And she’s getting so frustrated - and I’m just cracking up inside, trying not to laugh. I know why they’re not picking up. Proposal stories are always fun because for a lot of them - the timing of it all has to be JUST right. 

Today is the start of a brand new sermon series called “When Heaven Breaks Through.” If you can believe it - we are on the other side of thanksgiving, and for people in the church that means we jump headfirst in a season of preparing ourselves for Christmas, the moment when we celebrate Jesus coming to earth. And to get us into this series I want to tell you another story of how the timing had to be JUST right.

If you want to grab your bibles this morning we are going to be in the book of Luke, chapter 1, verse 26. Today I am using the New Living Translation. The bibles on the back wall are excellent - they use the NIV, the New International Version, which is another translation - but I’m going to be using the New Living Translation today. Now, for a lot of you, this is going to be a very familiar story - an angel is telling Mary she’s pregnant - but I want you to read it this morning keeping the timing in mind. Because what I want to show you today is that God chose the most inconvenient timing ever, and I think he did it on purpose. Verse 31, this is the angel speaking, [read v.31-34]. So Mary jumps right to it - hold up, wait a minute, ancient middle eastern sex education isn’t quite what it used to be these days - but I’m pretty sure there’s a thing I’ve never done, that has to be done in order to make a baby. And what I want to point out here is that Mary’s question comes from a place of wonder, not skepticism. She’s not attacking the angel, she’s not doubting the angel, she’s genuinely coming from a place of wonder. God is amazing, I know he CAN do this - but how’s that going to work. We keep reading, [read v.35-38]. Now that right there, that’s the part I want you to hang on to. The Word of God will never fail. 

Mary says, “How can this happen, I am a virgin.” But she’s not JUST a virgin, right? She’s an engaged virgin. There’s a man in her life - Joseph. But think about the timing of all of this. If you move this story in ANY direction on the timeline - it gets easier. If God had come and chosen her BEFORE she got engaged - it still would have been a miracle, but that would have saved her an awkward conversation with Joseph. If it had been a couple months the other way - that would have solved the problem too. I wonder if Mary ever thought about that, “Oh man! If only God had waited just a couple of months, maybe a year - nobody would be suspicious or upset. My fiancee wouldn’t be trying to dump me.” Such inconvenient timing. And not just the whole virgin thing, but why did it have to be this time of year? Do you guys remember the whole thing with the census? If you’re not familiar - Mary’s pregnancy and the birth of Jesus Christ happened right in the middle of this big national census thing. The Roman officials decreed that everyone had to return to the town of their origin - and we know that the inn was full, we know the city was packed - that’s why they had Jesus in a barn. I always imagine the streets of New York right after New Year’s Eve - just insane crowds and miserable traveling conditions. If we could just move this pregnancy a couple of months one way or the other - it wouldn’t be that terrible. They could have had a hotel room, maybe even a doctor - if only God had just waited a couple of months. It’s almost like God put it in this time, and in this place to make it worse, to make it harder, to make it more impossible for all the pieces to come together successfully.

Do you remember that phrase I told you to hold onto? The word of God will never fail. See, here’s the thing - nobody needs reassurance when the days are good. Nobody needs a pep talk when you’re already winning the game. Nobody needs to hear “the word of God will never fail” when your bank account is nice and full and your relationships are all healthy and strong and your work is fulfilling and life just feels so good and full of potential and beauty. You don’t need a flashlight when the room is full of light. It is those dark nights, those moments when hope is barely a flicker in your heart. When you are barely hanging on by your fingernails - you keep overdrawing the bank account, paycheck to paycheck you’re not sure what you would do if something happened to the car or the roof or if the fridge went kaputz. Your marriage, your kids - you know it’s not quite right, but you also don’t know how to fix it, so you sort of just don’t look at the problem and hope it goes away. Or maybe it’s a mental health thing. It’s the season of thanksgiving, the season of Christmas right around the corner - and everyone else seems to be really getting into - but all you seem to be able to muster is the ability to climb out of bed in the morning, and half the time you can barely do that. You feel depressed or hopeless or anxious or maybe all three at the same time. God put Mary and Joseph through the worst timing imaginable, on purpose, to teach you a lesson about miracles and hope. To show us that the word of God will never fail, even on the darkest nights.

 But what about Joseph - where’s he at with all of this? To hear his story - we have to jump over to the book of Matthew, chapter 1, verse 18. If you want to keep your finger in the book of Luke, we’re coming back, but there’s a little detour over to Matthew for a hot second. If you’re not familiar with how the gospels work - real quick: we have four authors who wrote down the story of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It’s the same story with different authors - so each one is a little different, different priorities, different audience. Some stories of Jesus are in all four versions, some are found in only one - and so we jump over to Matthew to hear the story of Joseph and the virgin birth. [read v.18-19]. So Joseph, very clearly does not believe in miracles. And while we might give him a hard time for that - would you believe any differently? How many of us, without evidence, would believe our spouse if they showed up pregnant and we had never done the thing that causes pregnancy? I think we’re all a little bit Joseph in this moment. And what we see in this is that the most common response to miracles is skepticism. And this isn’t just limited to miracles. In our lives, sometimes we get so skeptical about anything that’s good news! Skepticism slides into cynicism so easily. My team can’t actually win. I’m never going to get that promotion. She doesn’t really love me. They don’t actually care about ME, they just want something from me. God would never actually forgive me.

Let me ask you this - do you believe in coincidences? I used to. When I was younger, I used to believe some stuff just happened. But the longer I’ve been in ministry, the more stories I have heard, and all the times I’ve watched as all the pieces fall together. I just don’t have enough faith to be a skeptic. Maybe there are coincidences, but it’s getting hard to believe that. Think about it this way: if I told you that I flipped a coin and it landed heads up 5 times in a row. You’d be like, “that’s amazing, that’s super rare.” But if I told you, Hey - I flipped a coin and it landed heads up 500 times in a row. You wouldn’t believe me anymore. You would probably assume that I was rigging the system somehow. I’m cheating. It’s sort of a coin flip argument for God - in the face of incredible coincidences, the logical conclusion is that there must be something behind the scenes pulling the levers - making this happen. When we think about the virgin birth - and Mary and Joseph and the angels, and the census and the shepherds and the wise men who show up a little later- for all of these scattered pieces to come together with perfect timing, there just has to be someone working behind the scenes, pulling the levers. 

A few months ago I had an opportunity to go to the 41 hours conference, and while I was there I heard the testimony of a guy named Davey Blackburn. Davey was a pastor in Indianapolis - and he was married to a woman named Amanda, and they had a little boy Weston and they were pregnant with their second child. But on November 10th, 2015 - tragedy struck. Davey wasn’t home, and during a home invasion three men entered the home and shot his wife 3 times. Davey lost his wife and unborn child - which, if I can just be totally transparent, that is my greatest nightmare. God has blessed me with amazing children and as he was talking - I kept think about Sara and my children. Because of her death, Davey started a ministry with his church designed to help inner city kids - to get them on the right path before they might turn to a life of crime or drug-related activity. They caught the guys who killed Amanda, and all three of them went to jail. Then he talked a lot about processing his grief, raising his son as a single dad, the challenges he faced in ministry and his faith. Time went on and a few years later Davey met a woman named Kristi. She had started to attend his church and they met outside the gym. For a while Davey felt he had already had his love story. He was just going to focus on his ministry, raising his kid - no time for women. But they began talking, and pastors sort of live their lives like an open book - his church knew what had happened, and so in their chats, eventually Amanda’s death |+your story than you might realize.” Turns out her step-dad was a part of Davey’s mission in the neighborhood where he’d lost his wife. He was actually one of the Marion County Prison Chaplains. A chaplain to three men who had once broke into a home and shot a pregnant lady, who was married to a pastor. The woman God put in his life, her dad was the one sharing the gospel to the men who had murdered his wife. I remember when he got to that part of the story, I gave an audible grown, like “whew.” And there’s a lot more to the story, Kristi has her own story of pain - and they were able to process their pains alongside each other and they have been able to find healing from their pasts and reconciliation with reality - and now they have this whole ministry where they help people. You can be a skeptic if you want, but I just can’t bring myself to call that coincidence. Would there EVER have been reconciliation with those men in prison without a God in heaven pulling the levers? 

To get back into Matthew - Joseph was a skeptic, but as it turns out - there actually WAS someone behind the scenes, [read v.20-25]. You ever read a story and think, “Man, it would be so convenient if God would send some angels to clear up the misunderstandings in my relationships?” You know what it is for me - it’s this story, and the burning bush with Moses. You know, where God just shows up and tells him exactly what to do with his life and I read some of these stories and I have this weird envy where I’m just thinking, “Oh, God why can’t you just work like that in my life too?” It would be so convenient. But what was the phrase we were trying to remember from Mary? The word of God will never fail! That’s what this whole season is about! We tell the stories - the same stories we tell every year, we tell stories of incredible, impossible miracles, moments when heaven breaks through to remind ourselves of how God has worked in the past, to give us hope for the future. Think for a moment - do you have stories in your past? Do you have moments you didn’t think you would make it through, and yet here you are today? Do you have stories of incredible coincidences - where the timing lined up so perfectly and you didn’t even realize it until it was all over? The point of a miracle is not about “hey, look how cool God is” the point of the miracle is to give you hope on the days when you’re starting to give up.

So we jump back into Luke chapter 1 to wrap up with Mary. After she gets this good news from the angel, she hangs out with her cousin Elizabeth for a second and then she sings a song. Verse 46 starts with, [read 46-52]. It keeps going, but I’m going to stop there. There’s two themes I want you to catch in her song. First - God is super powerful. The mighty one. He shows mercy through generations. His mighty arm has done tremendous things. And second - he cares about people who are not powerful. Lowly servant, all who fear him, exalted the humble.. In Mary’s song we see echoes of the whole point of a miracle. God is powerful and he cares about those who are not powerful. Miracles like the virgin birth, like the star in the sky, like the prophecies fulfilled, like the angles appearing to the shepherds -these are the moments when heaven breaks through to give hope to those on the other side. We tell these stories in all their impossible glory - because when your heart is sitting in the darkness, you need a reminder about the power of the light. Miracles are designed to keep hope alive, because hope is what changes the world. 

The good news that I have for you this morning comes straight from the angels lips to Mary’s ears and into your heart: The Word of God will never fail. You see - there are some stories where God works through people - small moments of remarkable coincidences. And if you’ve never heard any of those stories - come talk to me after services I’ve got a whole big PILE of them. In fact, what I have found is that God actually PREFERS to work through his people - raising the humble, and all that. But some people have fooled themselves into believe that a God who works through the humble is not a powerful God, not a capable God. We get it mixed up - if he works with the weak, then he must be weak. A small god capable of only small things. But do not confuse humility for impotence. The Word of God will never fail. There are other times when God does incredible, huge, awesome things to remind us of the power of our creator. Bringing a child into the world through a virgin birth is just the beginning. We are just setting the table for a ministry that involves healing the sick, bringing sight to the blind, help the paralyzed man walk, bringing people back from the dead - we highlight the moments when God does big things to remember that God CAN do big things. 

I don’t know about you - but sometimes I have trouble remembering that the word of God will never fail. I fall into the temptation of believing in a small Jesus. A Jesus that is tame and predictable and safe. I make Jesus too small when I believe there is a sin in my life that cannot be overcome. I make Jesus too small when I treat him like my personal genie slash therapist instead of the King who commands my whole life. I make Jesus too small when I’m afraid of people’s opinions more than I trust in his promises. I make Jesus too small when I think he only cares about my Sunday morning - but not my whole life, habits, relationships, money. I make Jesus too small when I look at other and I think “they’re never going to change, they’re life is too messed up for Jesus to forgive them.” Sometimes I make the power of the messiah, born of the virgin Mary too small. 

So what about you? Where are you making Jesus too small? What makes you hopeless? Where are you right on the edge of giving up? Where in your heart do you whisper “it’s impossible” while on the outside you are praising a God who specializes in doing the impossible? We need a Jesus who is big enough to forgive our sins, heal our diseases, restore relationships. The word of God will never fail. The virgin birth is important BECAUSE it’s impossible. And we remind ourselves that God can do the impossible, because there are going to be moments in your life where you need heaven to break through. You are going to need a God who can do the impossible. The miracles of Christmas keep hope alive and that hope is what changes the world. 

And so in just a moment, we are going to sing our final song - but before we get to that I want to give you some space for a challenge. I want us to take a moment, and step in front of God in prayer. And I want you to answer these questions in your heart - we’ll put them on the screen: Where do you need heaven to break through in your life? What is the impossible that you have given up on? Or maybe most importantly, Who in your life needs heaven to break through? Think about a person in your life who is just about to give up. Will you take a moment and pray for that person today? As we give space for prayer and worship - I just want you to ask, what have you given up on? What have you stopped praying for? Who did you used to pray for, and nothing has changed in your relationship yet - and so you gave up on it? What did you pray for as a child, but you gave up on because you were too sophisticated? Too skeptical? Let’s bring all these questions in front of God - let’s pray.