Hope is Born | Part 1

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Overview

69 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 8, 2019 · 4 min read · 69 min listen

When God's good news doesn't feel like good news, the answer is don't grumble, be humble.

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Scripture in this message

Big Idea

Christmas is the story of hope being born, but the very first Christmas didn't feel like good news to Mary or Joseph — it threatened their security and their reputation. Pastor Bill shows that when God's news doesn't feel good, grumbling comes from fear, but choosing humility, trusting God no matter what it looks like or costs, is how we don't miss what God is doing.

Key points

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1Grumbling comes from fear; being humble comes from faith
Pastor Bill tells a story of being stuck in stopped traffic on the way home from Thanksgiving, noticing how grumbling rises out of fear of the unknown and the feeling of being stuck. He connects this to the Christmas season, when the pressure to feel joy can instead expose feelings of being stuck in life with no hope.
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2Christmas is good news of great joy for everyone — but what if it doesn't feel that way?
Reading the angel's announcement to the shepherds, Pastor Bill points out the news is framed as good, joyful, and for everyone, then raises the problem: what do you do when God's good news doesn't feel like good news to you? He says both Mary and Joseph found themselves in exactly that spot at the first Christmas.
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3Mary's favor from God put her security and her life at risk
Working through Luke 1:26-37, Pastor Bill explains that the angel's word 'favored' means grace, not merit, and that Mary's pregnancy as an engaged virgin could have cost her her marriage or even her life under the culture's covenant laws. God's grace, he says, invited her into something that legitimately endangered her security.
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4Mary chose humility over grumbling
Despite the risk, Mary answers, 'I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true.' Pastor Bill holds this up as the model of humility: surrendering to whatever God does, no matter what it looks like or costs.
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5Joseph's good news cost him his honor and his plans, yet he also chose to trust
From Matthew 1:18-25, Pastor Bill walks through Joseph's heartbreak at Mary's pregnancy, his decision to quietly break the engagement rather than expose her, and the angel's appearance in a dream reassuring him. Joseph obeyed, married her, and lived the rest of his life under the shame of appearing the betrayed, foolish husband, and abstained from marital relations until Jesus was born — real costs that never went away.
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6Beholding Jesus is worth every cost of humility
Pastor Bill imagines the wonder Mary and Joseph felt holding the Messiah, the God they were entrusted with as a baby, and contrasts this with what they would have missed had they said no. He tells a personal story of his daughter grumbling about a family trip to New York City who, upon seeing the skyline, realized what she almost missed — a picture of what we risk missing when we grumble instead of beholding Jesus.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop grumbling and be humble with whatever news God brings this Christmas.

Name what you're grumbling about
Pastor Bill asks listeners to identify what in their soul they are grumbling about right now, and to notice where fear rather than faith is driving that response.
Surrender to the process instead of demanding a new address
Rather than praying for God to change your circumstances, be willing to let Him change who you are in the middle of them, trusting Him with the outcome.
Say yes like Mary and Joseph did
Tell God you'll let Him do whatever He's going to do in your life no matter what it looks like or what it costs, instead of resisting His plan.
Sign up to serve at a Christmas Eve service
If Rock Point is your church, commit to attend one of the 10 Christmas Eve services and also sign up to volunteer at least one, trusting that serving brings the greater joy.
Let anything that points you to Jesus count as good news
Whatever feels hard this Christmas, look for how it might be leading you to Jesus, and receive that as the good news of great joy, even if it doesn't look the way you expected.

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“the theme verse for this little short series is found in Luke chapter two and verse nine and ten. And what's happening is an angel has come and is sharing the announcement of the birth of Jesus to some shepherds”
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From the transcript
“when it says here in verse nine, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid”
From the transcript
“If you look first, we're gonna look at Mary of what happened when when when when the story what what was gonna happen with her was revealed. In Luke chapter one, starting in verse 26, it says this”
From the transcript
“Gabriel appeared to her and said, greetings, favored woman. The Lord is with you. Verse 28. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean”
From the transcript
“People used to say she's barren, but she has conceived a son, is now in her sixth month. Then verse 37, for the word of God will never fail”
From the transcript
“if you go back to Matthew chapter one, we get his point of view of what happened with him. And it says in in verse 18 of chapter one, this is how Jesus the Messiah was born”
From the transcript
“There's a huge gap here between eighteen and nineteen, because we know by what said that Joseph does in verse 19, we know the conversation happened between these two verses”
From the transcript
“Verse 25, but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. Are you kidding me? He got married, went on the honeymoon, then for nine months, nothing”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

The angel Gabriel shows up in an ordinary town, to an ordinary young woman, with an announcement that is anything but ordinary. And notice what he says first: 'You have found favor with God.' This is framed as grace — as good news. But the very next thing Mary learns is that this favor is going to cost her something significant. Her security, her reputation, her engagement to Joseph, even her physical safety in a culture that could punish an unmarried pregnant woman severely — all of it was suddenly on the table. That gap — between 'God is with you' and 'here is what that means for your life right now' — is a gap most of us know well. We believe God is good. We believe He is present. And yet the circumstances in front of us don't look like blessing. They look like disruption, loss, or confusion. The Christmas story doesn't paper over that tension. It names it honestly from the very first scene. Mary was troubled by the angel's words, and she tried to figure out what his greeting meant. That is not a failure of faith. That is a human being encountering the unexpected and taking it seriously. The invitation here isn't to pretend the disruption isn't real. It is to stay in the room long enough to hear what God says next.

For reflection

Where in your life right now does 'God is with you' feel more like disruption than comfort — and what would it mean to stay in that tension rather than run from it?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to sit with an unexpected or unwelcome circumstance long enough to hear what God might be saying in it.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about a time you got news that felt more like a problem than a gift — this message looks at exactly that moment in the Christmas story, and what Mary and Joseph's response to it might mean for us.

Discussion questions

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In Luke 1:26-37, the angel tells Mary she has found favor with God — and then describes a situation that puts her reputation, her engagement, and potentially her life at risk. What do you notice about the gap between how the announcement is framed and what it would actually cost her?
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The message described grumbling as something that locks people in a loop where they can't see past their own pain or unmet expectations. What do you think makes it so hard to see past that loop in the middle of a hard situation?
3
Mary's response in Luke 1:38 is, 'I am the Lord's servant; may everything you have said about me come true.' What do you think she understood about God that made that kind of surrender possible?
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Matthew 1:18-25 shows Joseph quietly accepting a plan that would cost him his reputation and the respect of his community for the rest of his life. How would you describe the kind of trust that choice required?
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The message drew a distinction between 'address prayers' — asking God to change your circumstances — and 'attitude prayers' — asking God to change you. What shifts when a person starts praying the second kind instead of the first?
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The message closed with the idea from Luke 2:9-10 that Jesus is good news of great joy for everyone, and that humility is what keeps us from missing Him. How might that reframe the way we think about the harder, unwanted parts of our lives?

Pray together

Asking God for the humility to receive His news — even when it's costly — and to move from address prayers to attitude prayers this season

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Hope is Born | Part 1

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

Evidence of Eternity | Week 6 | Message

Go Tell It | Week 1 | Sermon

GOD MAN KING | Week 1 | Sermon

Christmas at Rock Point 2022 | Full Service

Christmas At Rock Point 2020

Hope Is Born | Part 2

Hope is Born | Part 1

The big idea

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

Evidence of Eternity | Week 6 | Message

Go Tell It | Week 1 | Sermon

GOD MAN KING | Week 1 | Sermon

Christmas at Rock Point 2022 | Full Service

Christmas At Rock Point 2020

Hope Is Born | Part 2