From Epic Failures to an Unfailing Plan: A Christmas Reflection
How many of you already have all your Christmas presents bought? How many of you already have them wrapped!
How many of you haven’t even started Christmas shopping yet?
Ok, now we know who the planners are among us!
And we know who the re-gifters are among us!
Benjamin Franklin once said…
And I hope all of you are planning to have a great Christmas!
But have you ever had your Christmas plans fail?
And not just fail, but completely fail?
Maybe you thought you had a good plan, but things just didn’t work out like you thought they would and despite your best efforts it was an epic failure?
Epic Christmas Tree Fail
I mentioned this in my last post, but I love Christmas and I love Christmas trees and what I mean by that is that I love taking our family out to find that perfect Christmas tree, cutting it down, and bringing it home to decorate! And in my mind, the bigger the better.
I grew up watching the TV version of the movie Christmas Vacation and if you remember that movie and the scene where they find the perfect Griswald family Christmas tree… that’s the moment I’m trying to recreate every year for my wife and kids.
I want you to know that I grew up watching the TV version that we had recorded on a VHS tape, our kids have no idea what that is, but anyway… that’s the version of the movie I knew. I’ll never forget trying to watch it with my family the year that we bought the DVD. Suffice it to say the TBS TV version was an edited version.
Anyway, so one year when we were living in Atlanta, GA I had a plan. I had it in my mind to get the biggest Christmas tree we had ever had. We had this house that had one of those two story open living rooms, so we could go just about as tall as I wanted. And we did.
We got to the Christmas tree farm and I found a tree that was about 20 feet tall! I don’t remember exactly how we got it home, but we did! And then we got it in the house. We got it in the tree stand. We set it up and it was glorious! We decorated that tree with thousands of lights and every ornament we had. I was so proud! Chevy Chase would have been proud!
And then….
I’m at work one day when I get a call. It’s Alisha. And she’s in tears. I rush home. I walk in the door. And I see it. My beautiful 20 foot Christmas tree has fallen and is laying across the living room floor.
There’s tree water saturating the carpet. And what’s worse, all of Alisha’s cherished keepsake ornaments are broken into a thousand pieces all over the floor. She’s crying. My plan had failed. Like, epic failure.
In one phone call it went from the best Christmas ever to the worst Christmas ever!
Failure
Sometimes we don’t plan well and we fail.
We’ve all had that moment where we showed up to class and we forgot to study for the test. We’re on vacation and we’re in such a hurry to see all the things that we don’t map it out first and we miss out on what we wanted to see most. We come home for dinner and your spouse has rose petals and candles and a gift. You thought it was Taco Tuesday but it’s actually your anniversary!
There’s truth in the idea that when we fail to plan we are planning to fail. But the reality is that…
Sometimes we do plan and we still fail!
We do study for the test but the questions are different and the test is over the one thing we know nothing about! Or we do make a detailed plan and schedule for our vacation so we can see all the things and do all the things we want to do, but then the lines are longer, traffic is a bear, and things don’t go according to plan. Or we set up the tree in the special tree stand we bought for the 20 foot Christmas tree and it still falls and destroys your wife’s precious ornaments and you’re still in the doghouse 20 years later!
All of us in the room know a little bit about failure!
Sometimes we look at our lives and we realize where we are in life is because we failed to plan or because our plans failed. That’s one thing.
Sometimes we think we are where we are in life because we’ve failed certain people or certain people have failed us. That’s another thing. And that’s a hard thing.
And sometimes we think we are where we are because God has failed us. And the hard reality for so many of us is that if we’re honest, we’re disappointed with God.
And I want to talk about God’s plans today, but before we do I want you to know that God’s plan haven’t failed. I think Philip Yancey may have said it best when he wrote,
“Not until history has run its course will we understand how “all things work together for good.” Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
― Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud
God’s Plan
Maybe life hasn’t worked out the way you wanted or the way you thought it would but I want to encourage you today to take heart because God’s plan hasn’t failed. God’s plan for you hasn’t failed.
Yes, life is hard sometimes and often it is not fair. Yes, bad things happen to good people and you may be up against some of the hardest things in this broken world. God never promised your life, our lives would be pain free or problem free, He actually promised us something better. His plan is better.
Maybe today you’re trying to have the faith that one day things will make sense in reverse. That one day you’ll understand how God was working all things together for your good and for His ultimate glory.
Today what I want to do is just show you, remind you, encourage you by sharing with you how one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers described God’s plan. And by the way, this is God’s plan A, not plan B, C, or D. Before time began God had a plan, and we can see this in the gospel of John.
Most people don’t think about the gospel of John when they think about reading about the coming of Jesus into the world, but I love the way John writes about this moment.
This is John’s story, John’s version of the incarnation. Of God coming from Heaven to Earth. John writes in John 1:
1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
The Eternal Word
You may be wondering, what or who is this Word that John is writing about? This Word that already existed from before the beginning of time, this Word who was with God, who was God and who was in the beginning with God?
The word for Word in the original language is logos and it carries this idea of a Living Word spoken by a Living Voice. This Word that John is speaking of isn’t a normal word, and it isn’t just any word, John is speaking of Someone, not some thing.
Whoever this eternal Word is, He existed in the beginning, before the beginning, and has always been. In fact, He has never not been. He’s always been. And this Word wasn’t just with God, this Word was God.
John continues…
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
Not only was this Eternal Word with God, not only was this Eternal Word God, but everything that is came into being through this Eternal Word.
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, you remember what happened, how creation happened, right? God SAID… let there be light and there was light. God SAID let there be sun, moon, and stars and there were sun moon and stars.
God spoke and by His Eternal Word everything that was created was created! God’s Eternal Word gives life and gives light! To who? To EVERYONE! The Eternal Word of God brings Eternal Life and Eternal Light to the world!
Light in the Darkness
And this Light, listen to what this Light does…
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
This Eternal Word that brings Eternal Life and Light illuminates the darkness, defeats the darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish it, overpower it, or defeat it.
Whoever this Eternal Word is that brings Eternal Life and Light who existed before time began is greater than the greatest darkness.
That’s good news for this world because we live in a dark world, don’t we?
There is darkness all around us. Wars and conflict and unspeakable things are happening all around the world. Violence and crime and unspeakable things are happening in our own communities and cities.
The darkness is all around us. And it’s encroaching into our own neighborhood, our own homes, our own families. It’s piped in to all our devices. The darkness invades our screens and then it invades our hearts, our minds, our very souls.
Whoever this Eternal Word is that brings Eternal Life and Eternal Light that shines in the darkness, we need it, we need Him!
The Good News is that God has a plan. Not just any plan, an unfailing plan.
John the Baptizer Points
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Now we begin to learn a little bit about this plan, about God’s plan.
How will people know about this Eternal Word that brings Eternal Life and Light?
God’s plan is to send a man to tell people about this Eternal Word, this Eternal Life, this Eternal Light.
Who will go? Who will God send?
A man who goes by the name of John the Baptist. John the Baptizer.
People called him that because he was doing something no one had ever done before. He was baptizing people, immersing people under water, in the Jordan River as a way of repenting of their sins. Baptism wasn’t anything new.
Everyone was used to baptism. That’s what you did before you went into the Temple to worship. You would immerse yourself in water as a way of cleansing yourself, purifying yourself, to enter into the presence of God. That was normal. There were more than 300 baptistries in and around the Temple area where people would literally walk through the water before walking into worship.
But John isn’t in Jerusalem. He’s not near the Temple. He’s in Galilee. He’s at the Jordan River. And he’s doing something no one has ever done before. He’s baptizing people. He’s immersing people. And he preaching a message that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
John knew who he was and who he was not.
He was not the Light. He was not the Eternal Word that brings Eternal Life and Light. John’s purpose was to point others to the Light. He was simply a witness to tell others about the Light. The one true Light, who gives Light to everyone, who was coming into the world!
God needed John the Baptizer to point people to this person who was the Eternal Word of God, who brings Eternal Life and Light because…
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.
Not everyone listened.
Not everyone believed.
John was not 100% successful.
But he was 100% committed to pointing people to the light.
God’s Unfailing Plan
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Did you catch that? Did you hear the Plan? John, the gospel writer, one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers, just revealed part of the plan, part of God’s plan.
God’s Eternal Word CAME into the very world He created.
Everyone who BELIEVES, ACCEPTS, and WELCOMES Him becomes sons and daughters of God.
They are reborn, born of God, begotten of God.
We still don’t know who this Eternal Word is that brings Eternal Life and Eternal Light into the world He created. But John writes…
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
Underline that word in your Bible… your translation may say home, it may say dwell, or lived. But that may be the most important word in this opening prologue of John’s gospel.
Literally, that word means to tabernacle, to pitch a tent. It brings with it the idea of God’s presence among His people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the promised land. God told Moses to build a tent, a tabernacle, and set it up in their camp.
When they did the presence of God is a visible way, like a cloud of smoke, covered the tabernacle. The presence of God in a literal way among the people of God. All of Israel knew because they could see that God was WITH them. Dwelling among them, making His home among them, living with them.
And now John brings this same word, this same idea and frame of reference forward to let people know that this has happened again. How? Not in a cloud of smoke and not in an actual tent. But in a person.
The Word became flesh, God’s Eternal Word become human and moved into the neighborhood, God with US, dwelling among us, making His home among us, living with us now!
Who is this Eternal Word? What is His name?
v29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
God’s eternal Word for the world = Jesus.
God’s eternal Word for human pain and suffering = Jesus.
God’s eternal Word for sickness and disease = Jesus.
God’s eternal Word for war, crime, violence, hate, and conflict = Jesus.
God’s eternal Word for every problem = Jesus.
God’s eternal Word is Jesus.
The Infinite became finite.
The Uncreated One became created.
The Eternal became temporal.
The Untimed became timed.
The Invisible became visible.
The Son of God became the Son of Man.
The Forever became For us.
And all this was set in motion before time was set in motion.
This was and this is God’s PLAN from before time began.
What’s the Plan?
Are you living your plan for your life?
Or, are you living God’s plan for your life?
That cold December day when my 20 foot Christmas tree fell and shattered all of my wife’s precious ornaments, I knew… I needed help.
Thankfully, my parents lived just a few minutes away so I called my father. He came to the rescue. He helped me lift the tree up off the floor. We got it vertical. Tightened the Christmas tree stand around the base of the tree.
And just for good measure, we tied fishing line from the top of the tree to different points around the living room just to make sure it wouldn’t fall again. And then we picked up all the broken pieces of ornaments.
If your plans have failed, if your dreams and good intentions have fallen, if the broken pieces of your life and shattered dreams are laying all around you and you don’t know what to do next, can I encourage you to call on your Father in Heaven?
He is the One who can help you in your time of need. He is the One who can put the broken pieces back together again. He has a Plan for your life. And His Plan in a Word is Jesus.
And if you will believe in Him, if you will accept Him and Welcome Him into your heart and life, He will give you the opportunity to become a son, a daughter, a child of God.
How does that happen? That happens when you are reborn.
Your first birth, your physical birth, was not your decision. You had no say so in the matter. You did not decide to be born.
But, your second birth, your spiritual birth is your decision. You get to choose to believe (v12) and to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Your decision to be reborn, to be born of God, to become the begotten of God, makes you a son, a daughter, of God.
John would later write in Revelation 19 this about Jesus: “His name is called The Word of God.” – v13. And he is the “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” – v16
God’s PLAN in a WORD is JESUS.
Will You Believe?
Not everyone has listened.
Not everyone will believe.
That’s not up to you. Will you believe, receive, welcome, and be baptized into the Name of Jesus? And will you point others to Him?
Will you tell, testify, and like John point other people to Jesus, God’s Eternal Word that brings Eternal Life and Light to everyone who believes?
Sometimes we forget that before time began God had a plan for us.
What I love about Christmas is that it is a time to remember. To remember who God is and who we are. To remember what happened when Jesus stepped down from Heaven to Earth for us. He did that so we would know we are not alone. By the way… that’s the promise!
God’s plan hasn’t failed. Maybe life hasn’t worked out the way we wanted or the way we thought it would but I want to encourage us today to take heart because God’s plan hasn’t failed. God’s plan for us hasn’t failed.
Yes, life is hard sometimes and often it is not fair. Yes, bad things happen to good people and we may be up against some of the hardest things in this broken world.
God never promised that our lives would be pain free or problem free, He actually promised us something better. His plan is better.
His PLAN in a Word is Jesus. With us. Forever.
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