Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Give Your Life to God When It Feels Impossible | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 1:28-38

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

"Three times [Jesus] goes and prays and asks God to take this cup of judgment away from Him. And yet, every time he prays, 'not my will but Your will be done in my life.' You can hear Mary, can't you?" When Mary submits to God and becomes the mother of Jesus, she surrenders her entire life to Him. She doesn't just suffer the pain of childbirth and a compromised engagement. Gossip and scandal follow her for the rest of her life. Her Son is her Savior, and He's not at all what she'd expected from a son or a savior. Learn what Mary really agrees to when she submits to God as https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) continues going through https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A28-38&version=NIV (Luke 1:28-38) for our series on Learning to Follow Jesus. In this episode, we discuss Mary's response to God's word. Listen to https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/what-god-doesnt-care-about-learning-to-follow-jesus-luke-126-45/ (What God DOESN'T Care About) for more context. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. Kevin Baugh has his own country. It's called the Republic of Melasia. And if you don't mind, he'd prefer it if you called him His Excellency. He's got a very impressive khaki uniform with six big metals attached to his chest and a green sash.

hanging over his shoulder. Now, if you've never heard of the Republic of Melassia, that's understandable, because it consists of only Bo's three-bedroom house sitting on a 1.3 acre yard right outside of Dayton, Nevada. In an article in the Chicago Tribune, it says that Melassia is the smallest republic ever. It only has a population of six. It's Ba' his two sons and has three dogs. The newspaper goes on to say, Baw, a 45-year-old father of two, is a micro-nationalist, one of a wacky band of do-it-yourself nation builders who raise flags over their front yards and declare their property to be, as Baw puts it, quote, the kingdom of me. You caught it, right?

The kingdom of me? For Baw, it's a joke, but in the joke, he's touched on something that every human being wants to do. We all want to build the kingdom of me. We all want to be king or queen of our own lives. We all want to live for our own needs to get everything we want, to build our own kingdom on our own agenda. But it's right there that we come into conflict with Jesus, because Jesus is the king of all things.

Jesus is the king, not us, and we are called to build his kingdom, not our own. We're back in Luke chapter. one where we are walking through the conversation that the angel has with Mary. In verse 28, the angel says to her, greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. It says that Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this must be. Now, that's a really normal response by a really normal girl. She even has an ordinary name. There are so many Mary's in the New Testament that it kind of gets confusing.

But the point is that there's nothing really special about this girl. The angel goes on and says to her in verse 30, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. There it is. Mary is told that she is going to give birth to the king of kings, the one who sits on the throne of David and whose kingdom never ends. See, we know how this story goes, and so we miss out on some of the shock and confusion and doubt that probably Mary experienced and went through?

I mean, here, based on what this angel has told her, she's going to have to go to Joseph, who she's engaged to, and tell him that she's pregnant, but she hasn't been unfaithful to him. She's going to have to go tell him that an angel appeared to her and told her that she's pregnant with God's child, that God is doing a miracle in her body. Now, what are the odds he's going to believe that story?

You see, I think many of us think that maybe these ancient people didn't understand that virgins don't have kids, can't have kids. We're more educated. But the way this story is told, it's very obvious that Mary and Joseph know about reproduction. They know as much of it as we do today. They knew where kids came from. And Mary also knew what would happen to a woman who was caught in adultery. A lot of times they were taken to the public square and stripped down, and then people would walk by and shake their heads and cluck their tongues,

and it'd be even possible that she could be stoned to death. See, Mary knew that if she said to God that if she wanted to do God's will in her life, it would be very costly. It would cost her her reputation. It might very well cost her marriage, and maybe even her life. everybody in the town would know about this. This isn't just some theory of what might happen to Mary. This was actually her lived experience.

When Jesus gave his first sermon in Nazareth, it's likely that Mary was sitting there listening with everyone else. And she overheard them say about Jesus, isn't this Mary's son? I mean, the implication is, we don't know who the dad is. is. Yeah, we get that Mary's the mom, but who's the dad again? It's Jesus being taunted as an illegitimate child. It's kind of interesting that when Jesus grew up and began his ministry,

he was well known for welcoming women with shady reputations. Maybe it's because he remembered how people treated his mom. You see, when the angels spoke to Mary, there was a lot she didn't understand. What she did know, though, is that if God was going to be king in her life, if she was going to surrender and submit to his plan, then all her dreams of a normal, comfortable, respectable, quiet life, in other words, all the things that we want and crave so much, well, all those things would be gone in an instant. And that's what makes her response so remarkable. Because in verse 38, we're told she says, I am the Lord's servant.

may it be to me as you have said now this isn't passive resignation to circumstances she can't control no this is a very active intentional surrendering herself to a god who is not just in control of the circumstances he's in control of all things and he's in control of her life this is mary surrendering to christ's lordship to jesus's kingship this is her laying a decide her agenda, her dreams, her life, so that she can say yes to God's agenda and God's will for her life. I doubt anyone consciously decides to live in the kingdom of me, and yet there's this relentless inclination to live for my needs, my comforts, my security, to live in a way that seems right to me. It's the life that it seems like everybody around us is living. It's the life

of least resistance, but it's also the life that leaves you empty. Have you ever prayed a prayer like Mary did? Have you ever settled the lordship question in your life? Have you ever said, God, I'm tired of living for my kingdom and building the kingdom of me. I want to live for your kingdom, the kingdom of love, justice, and mercy? Have you ever said, God, I'm not king? I want to get off the throne. I want you to be king, you to sit on the throne of my life. See, for Mary, this wasn't a one-time event. It was a decision that she had to make daily. And of course, the same is true for us. We have to make this decision to surrender and submit to God's kingship in our life on a daily basis. The dialogue that played out and Mary's mind

over and over must have sounded something like this. Who am I? I'm the Lord's servant. And what do I want, I want God's will in my life. May it be to me according to your word. Not my will, but thy will be done in my life. I think kids love to hear the story about their birth. You know, mom, tell me what it was like. Was they born on my due date? Was it painful? How much should I weigh? And my wife, Christine, would tell our kids about the day that they were born. Christine would tell them about how they didn't want to come out, and so she had to take drugs to induce them to come into the world. She'd tell him of long labors and the struggle to choose just the right name. Christine would tell them about what a calming, strengthening, even heroic presence their father was. I don't have time to go

in it right now into great detail, but let me tell you, it's a very inspiring story. So what would it be like for Mary to tell Jesus about the day he was born? Would she tell him all the way back to the beginning about how an angel appeared to her? How does she explain the whole virgin thing? How did she explain that he's the Savior, Christ the Lord, son of the most high God? Maybe she just told them that a long time ago, she said to God, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me, as you have said. Not my will, but your will be done in my life. And maybe she told them, son, if you're ever in trouble, if you're ever confused and not sure exactly what to pray. If you don't understand what God is up to in your life, maybe you could just

pray, God, I pray that your will would be done in my life. Maybe the hardest part for Mary is that as Jesus's ministry, as the Messiah developed, it's not at all what she expected. She would have been like every other first century Jew who expected the Messiah to purge Israel of sinners. But instead, Jesus is hanging out with sinners. He's eating with them, accepting them as his followers. I'm sure all of that was as confusing to Mary as it was to everyone else. Jesus is offending. All the religious leaders, all the wrong kind of people are attracted to him. It's not exactly the kind of ministry that would have made a mother proud. We don't often think about how his ministry would have affected his family, but there are clues.

Mark 3 tells us about a time that the family tried to come and get him because they thought he was crazy. John 7 tells us that even his own brothers didn't believe in him. Back in Mark 3, we're told that one time Jesus says, look, the people who are really my mother and brothers, the people who are really my family are those who do my will. How does Mary feel when she hears those words? I guess it was probably another chance to submit to God's authority in her life. Now Jesus comes to the end of his life. It's the night before he is going to be crucified, and he is struggling with it. Three times he goes and prays and asks the Father to take this cup of

judgment away from him, and yet every time he prays, not my will, but your will be done in my life. You can't you? You can hear her influence? I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me, as you have said. Not my will, but your will be done in my life. That takes us back to this conflict. The conflict of the kingdom of me and the kingdom of God. The conflict of me being king of my own life and Jesus being king of the universe, king of all things. I want more and more for Jesus to be the one who's exalted in my life.

I want more and more for him to be the king. king that I surrender and submit to. Don't you want that in your life? Isn't that when you find true joy? Isn't that when you find real peace, meaning, hope? When you're submitting to King Jesus? Oh, Jesus, today and every day, we pray that you would be king, that we would surrender and submit to you.

Help us to do that, Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.