The transcript for the service is below.
LUKE 1:38
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:38 SERVING WITH PEACE
Springford Baptist Church: December 6, 2020.
2nd Sunday in Advent: PEACE
Where and when have you recently experienced the PEACE of God which passes or is beyond all understanding?
What does God want us to notice about His PEACE in times of waiting? How will we know God’s PEACE in a deeper way in this season of Advent leading up to Christmas 2020.
I was just reading a message on Facebook from a Pastor in Cuba whom we worked closely with when I travelled there with a Mission Team in 2016. His son has had an operation and they need a particular medication to aid his recovery. Many people responded with assurance of prayer and committing his son to God’s care. Can we have PEACE while we are waiting for the ways that God will answer our prayers?
I find that we often expect that the PEACE will come when whatever we are praying over is resolved and we are relieved of anxious thoughts and great uncertainty.
Truly miraculous PEACE from God can be ours while we are still waiting for answers from God and are not sure what the outcome will be.
I witness this kind of miraculous PEACE in the response of Mary to the angel who gives her the message that she will be the mother of the Son of God.
Mary says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38)
Our message this week focuses on that single verse because we find here a powerful message of what makes PEACE possible.
PEACE was possible for Mary when she accepted God’s plan for her. She did not resist or protest that God should choose someone else. She did not recommend that there be another way for God’s Son to enter our world. She made herself available and said, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
Mary was willing to serve in whatever way God asked of her.
Mary was saying, “Yes” to God.
She
really did place everything and every detail in God’s hands.
She
willingly placed herself in God’s hands.
This is what serving God requires. The one who serves does not try to hold on to control, but rather relinquishes control.
When we relinquish control to God and accept what He is bringing about then PEACE can be ours.
How could Mary have such a solid trust in God and an obvious willingness to serve God in this way?
Mary’s acceptance and subsequent PEACE could only come from her experience of knowing that God loved her.
When we are praying over the many things and the particular people that we bring to God in prayer, are we remembering how much we are all loved by God?
Do we only trust God’s love for us when we see things working out as we thought they should?
Again, we hear that Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
I already said that Mary was saying “Yes” to God and was willing for whatever God had planned.
She was accepting and the result was PEACE.
Imagine if Mary had said, “Yes, but…”
If Mary had resisted God’s miraculous plan neither she nor any of us could receive God’s miraculous PEACE.
The application of this message about SERVING WITH PEACE can only come for each of us as we get very specific with God.
Do you have something specific that you have been praying over and have not yet seen the answer from God?
Certainly, our prayers are ongoing for an end to this Covid virus and its’ impact on everyone.
I know that I have a particular personal prayer concern in mind that I have been praying over for some time.
If the answer to our prayers has been the need to wait or that God has a different outcome in mind, how will we respond?
Are we willing to accept God’s plans knowing we are ever and always deeply loved by God?
If so, then we can know God’s PEACE that comes with accepting and trusting.
Is
God asking something of us in the way that He wants us to serve Him
in this time of the pandemic?
Is it something that potentially
makes us feel uncertain or even uncomfortable?
It is possible to learn from Mary’s attitude in being willing to serve and trusting God with the details.
This does bring God’s promised PEACE.
Today on this Second Sunday in Advent and on the first Sunday of the month we come together to the Lord’s Table to be reminded through Communion of Jesus God’s Son and what He has done for us.
Mary accepted and was willing to bring Jesus, God’s Son into our world. God gave her PEACE.
Jesus, when He faced the cross, struggled to accept God’s will and God’s plan, yet in the end was willing and did accept and say to God the Father, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
God gave Him PEACE.
Whatever we are struggling over and whatever resistance we have to the ways that God is calling us to serve Him, we can let go and let God.
When we do accept and release ourselves into God’s loving hands, there will be PEACE.
We do not have to wait for things to be according to our plans and how we want to see our prayers answered for there to be PEACE.
While we wait for what God will do, there can be PEACE as we humbly say with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
Only then, will we, SERVE WITH PEACE.
ADVENT CANDLE OF PEACE 2020 Dec. 6, 2020.
Lola: Today we are thanking God that we can trust Jesus to give us His PEACE. God sent Jesus into our world to give lasting PEACE. When Jesus brings PEACE to us, He reminds us that He knows exactly how we feel and that He wants us to trust Him with everything and to receive His PEACE. Every time we feel afraid, we can look to Jesus for PEACE.
Everyone: God is just waiting for us to ask Him for PEACE. When we pray for PEACE, we are trusting God to take care of things. We know that we need to place everything in God’s hands because we cannot carry it by ourselves. This reminds us how much we need Jesus and the PEACE that only He can give. We have been very aware of needing Jesus each day of dealing with things beyond our control, like Covid. In knowing how much we need Jesus, we can be thankful that He is always there for us and that gives us PEACE.
Lola: Today we light this candle of PEACE knowing and having experienced that Jesus brings PEACE. We want to come closer with Jesus. We want to serve God with our PEACE centered in Jesus. (Lighting of the candle of PEACE)
Everyone: We will pray together, “Thank you God that we can have PEACE because Your Son Jesus has come into our world and into our lives. Thank you that the PEACE that Jesus gives is not just for Christmas, but for every day. Thank you that we can always have PEACE because Jesus is always with us! Help us to live each day in PEACE with Jesus and to share this PEACE as we serve You. All for Jesus. AMEN.”