The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: The Promise Fulfilled

Episode Date: December 3, 2017

Mary is a picture of what happens when the Spirit of God moves in you: faith, surrender, and worship. 1. Faith is trusting that “nothing is impossible for God.” 2. Surrender says “behold, I am a servant of the Lord.” 3. Worship is our response to God. “My Soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

Amen. Amen. How are we doing, church? Doing okay? Man, we have been blessed to be a blessing. Amen. And because of your generosity, our church is able to do things like that. And several series ago, one of the things we asked you to do is pray, big, bold, audacious prayers.

And one of the prayer requests was from the Nick's family that God would move in a significant way in their lives, particularly with that medical debt that they had incurred. And over the last 2,000 years, one of the primary ways, maybe the primary way, maybe the primary way that God answers prayer is look around. It's his church. It's his hands and feet, taking care of the people of God and taking care of this world to demonstrate God's glory. And we are in that kind of season right now at Christmastime.

And so Merry Christmas, it's official. Christmas is here. Get the decorations out. Put the music on. It's on. Which means we're going to be in the first couple chapters of Luke. And so if you've got your Bibles, I hope you do, go to Luke chapter one. We are in week two of this series called He Is.

Pastor Adam did a phenomenal job last week, right? How blessed are we to have such a great teaching team of pastors that preach the Bible? I should not be here more often because 58 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen? Praise God. And so with that in mind, there's a baptism class this Sunday that is within our Discover 1122 class. And so we would love for you 58 people, or if you have not been baptized as a believer, yet please go to that.

All right, we're going to do baptisms in the service in January. It's a new year. You've got a new life. We should put all that together and make it happen. And so as you find your way to Luke chapter 1, we're going to pick it up in verse 26, but we're going to study Mary because what we're trying to do here is in Luke chapters 1 and 2, there's a bunch of individuals. I don't want to call them characters because this is not a story.

You know, it's not like the Christmas story, like once upon a time, long time ago, in a galaxy far away. It was actual events, but there were people in this events. And so over the next several weeks, we started last week, we're just going to kind of do studies of these people, and tonight we're going to look at Mary. And honestly, if you grow up in Protestant church, which is what this is, we don't talk about Mary much. And I think part of the reason is this, about a month ago on October 31st, while you

and I were celebrating Halloween, if you do that, I know some Christians don't. Okay, at my house we do. We dress our kids up or they chose their outfits. JP was a zombie, and Reagan was a zombie cheerleader. And so, like, all good pastor kids should be, right? And so, anyway, we go around and get candy, and then there's that dad tax. The kids already know they don't even ask anymore. They take all the Reese's peanut butter cups, all right?

And they just put them in the refrigerator, and those are mine, all right? And so anyway, while we were celebrating that, a lot of people like me were celebrating 500 years. years ago on October 31st was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It on Halloween that Martin Luther nails the 95 feces to the door of a church in Germany and it began what is known as the Protestant Reformation. And Martin Luther was a, he was kind of a haunted monk that really despised God and his righteousness and worked every day of his life as hard as he could to try to earned that right standing with God, and he knew that he couldn't. And then something very dangerous

happened. He got a hold of a Bible, and he started reading it. And so he comes up with what's known as the 95 thesis, and basically it was 95 problems. He was like, here's my 95 problems, and the Pope is one. That was part of it, all right? And what led him to that was just, he was reading in the book of the book of Romans chapter four and he began to realize that the Bible teaches that justification is by faith alone, period end dot. Not faith plus anything, but faith alone. Not faith plus communion, not faith plus catechism,

not faith plus the saints, not faith plus mass, not faith plus anything. And so as he dug around in the scriptures, he comes up with 95 problems. It can kind of be summed up in what it's known as the five solas, grace alone through faith alone. in Christ alone to the glory of God alone with the authority of Scripture alone. And so what began to happen, the Protestant Reformation happened.

Praise God for the Protestant Reformation. People got hold of a Bible. The reason that you and I talk about a personal relationship with Jesus is because of the Protestant Reformation. Now, here's what I know too, a whole bunch of people here at 1122 grew up Catholic or are Catholic or you come on Thursday night because this one doesn't quite count, but you know, you go to Grandma on Sunday. You know, you got the Catholic guilt. awesome. But then what happened, part of the reason we don't talk about Mary is in the Reformation, we kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater because the Protestants didn't want to be Catholic.

And there's some things in the Catholic Church like what was known as the veneration of Mary, which just means respect, really turned into like the idolatry of Mary, like praying to Mary and things like that, the deification of Mary, which you can't find anywhere in the scriptures. And so as we look at Mary here, really the Protestant church has missed out because what an incredibly faithful servant of God. And so as I was preparing, and you're in trouble too. I've been on a two-week study break, so we might not get out of here until about Saturday at 10, okay? And as I was studying how to unpack this, there's a few ways that you can talk about this. This person, the Virgin Mary, one way that I read about was that Mary could be a picture of the church,

that she carries Jesus into the world, you know, and talk about how the church carries Jesus into the world. I thought, man, that's interesting. Another way was Mary is a picture of sanctification. That as Jesus grows inside of you, you change. And at first, maybe not so much you change to the physical eye. But over time, sure enough, you begin to make changes and everybody begins to notice. The only problem with teaching it those two ways, it kind of gets really weird right there at the end. You know, that whole birth thing is not, it's really not awesome.

And if you think it is, you're a weirdo, okay? Because it is, I've been there twice. It is, ugh, okay. Anyway. But the problem I think with talking about Mary, like in an allegory, is that I think what we'll do if we do that is you miss that this is a real teenage girl dealing with some real issues. just to nobody from nowhere with some jacked-up family situation. She looks around all of a sudden, not by anything that she had done, this was not her fault, and she looks around,

and she's thinking, what in the world am I going to do? And what I want to do is I want to look at Mary, this teenage girl, in the nitty-gritty reality that she found herself in. And I think if we dig in that way, then you may find that you, and check this out, Catholics, you ready, that you may have way more in common with Mary than you ever thought. I mean, like if you've got some real family issues and you've got some serious questions that you can't find answers to and if things are not going the way that you planned,

then guess what? That was Mary's first Christmas too. But what happens in, literally inside Mary is that the spirit of God moves. And what I want to look at is, what would happen in you and what would happen in me if the spirit of God moves in our lives? So chapter 1, verse 26, here it goes. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth. Now, Nazareth is like Dylan, Palacca, your name, name your small town, okay? It's a nowhere, it's nothing, all right?

Verse 27, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the Virgin's name was Mary. Now, I could spend, I could spend really our entire time here today just talking about the prophecies that are being fulfilled in these two verses. Last week, Pastor Adam talked about the mathematical probability of one human being randomly fulfilling all of the prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah, the Christ that was coming. And he gave you a big number.

One of the ways I've seen it illustrated is this, is that the rinket, randomness of just some individual being from the right lineage at the right time, from the right person. I mean, pretty much the virgin mom thing kind of whites most of us out, right? And so it would be like if you filled up the state of Texas, four feet high with silver dollars, painted one of them red, blindfolded somebody, cut them loose in Texas, and said, okay, randomly pick up one, you would have the same probability of picking up the one red silver dollar out of this Texas size, you know, four-foot silver dollar state, that's what that number equals. And so what we see here is a really, really big deal.

And that God has been warning and preparing his people through the prophets since the beginning of the Word of God. Verse 28. And he came to her and he said, greetings, oh, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the same. and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. In other words, she's freaking out a little bit. You see, here's the thing now.

Listen, Mary was a lot like you and I. I don't know if this ever happened to you. It happened to me a lot, but oftentimes, when I was in elementary school and middle school and high school, we used to just have this little little announcement box thing, right? And it would come on. Could you please send Jobie Martin to the office? And you know what I never thought?

I never thought they probably have an award for me that they failed to give me at awards day. No, no, no, no, no. because I knew me, okay? I knew me. It was very similar to when my dad would get home and he would say, son, is there something I need to know about? There's like six something.

So why don't you go first and we'll just deal with the one that you know about, okay? So Mary is deeply troubled because here's why. Mary knows Mary. Now, she's legit. I'm not saying she's shady. She's legit, but she's deeply concerned and troubled that she is labeled by. by the angel, old favored one.

Verse 30, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid. Every time an angel shows up, that's what they start with. Why? Because these are messengers of God, otherworldly messengers. So everybody freaks out. So it's like, don't be afraid, Mary. For you have found favor with God. This is very important.

Not earned favor with God. Found favor with God. Why? Because it is the grace of God that he chose Mary. anything that Mary did. You see, there's a few people, no matter how good your soterology is, your theology of salvation is, there's a few people in the Bible that we kind of think earned their way to heaven. Abraham, Noah, and Mary are usually top of the list.

Because what begins to seep into her mind is we think that God had a kind of big deal going on, you know, Jesus is going to show up on the very first Christmas, and he looks about all the earth and he finds the favored one because she's so awesome. That is not what the scripture says. It says, you have found favor. Why, that word for favor basically means grace. That God's grace is upon you. Mary, the reason that you don't have to be afraid

is because of the grace of God. That's why. And Ephesians 2.8 tells us, it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and not of works, lest no one boasts. And this is why she's troubled. This is why she's afraid, because she knows her,

and she is standing in the presence of a messenger of the almighty God. And he says, you have found favor. Verse 31, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, Yeshua. So when we sang that song, worthy of your name, the first time I heard that song several months ago, I was speaking at a men's conference, and we're singing the song, Worthy of Your Name Jesus.

And I thought, I bet most of these people don't know why he's worthy of his name. because the name Jesus means God saves. Yeshua is Joshua in the Old Testament, and Joshua was like a lesser Jesus. He was a picture of what Jesus would do. Joshua in the Old Testament would take the people of God, cross over the Jordan and take them into the promised land, and that was a picture of what King Jesus would do.

He would gather together the people of God, those of us that put our faith in him, and he would take us cross over from death into life and take us ultimately into the promised land. And so the reason that Jesus is worthy of his name is because he saves. The reason that Jesus is worthy of his name is because the tomb is empty. That's why we can trust it. I don't know what your name means.

I hope I'm not worthy of my name. You know what Jobi means? Afflicted. Not affliction, you know, like those goofy shirts with the bedazzlings, but it's just a random name. But for Jesus, it's really, really important. And so the angel says, this is, this is what we're going to call him. You shall call his name Jesus.

Verse 32. And he will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. In other words, listen here, you little peasant teenage girl, you are about to give birth to a king. and not just any king but the king of kings. We'll come back to that in a minute.

Verse 34. Mary has a very legitimate question. And Mary says to the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? That's a legit question. Now, the thing is, if you were paying attention last week, which I believe that you probably were, isn't this very similar to what Zach asked last week?

Remember? The angel shows up. Same angel, by the way. It's not like Jesus in the way. seven dwarfy angels and you know the last one got happy and this one's happy and the last one was grumpy it's the same angel shows up and zach is like you sure and god puts zach and time out until much much later remember that and now mary she asked well how can this be since i'm a virgin and and what you're going to find here is she gets in no trouble at all in fact he just answers

her question and it seems to me though is that last week that that zach he he got put in time out because it seems like he was doubting God, and what Mary is doubting is herself. She's saying, how can this be? Because there's, you know, I'm no doctor. But there's usually something that precedes a birth. I remember one time, this is terrible. I was working in a student ministry, and this girl is an unwed mother. And she's teenage girls, comes in my office.

And I just remember, she's like, how did this happen? And I was like, should I get the whiteboard? so that's not what she understands this. Now here's why this is not a throwaway verse. This is a really, really big deal, okay? The virgin birth has tons of theological significance. Tons. First and foremost, it is a fulfillment of prophecy.

This matters a bunch. Isaiah 714 is one. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. that this is John chapter 1 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, not only is it important because it is a fulfillment of prophecy, but another reason is very, very important is this,

is that Jesus is not a son of Adam. That Jesus is the son of the most high God. And you say, well, why does that matter at all? Well, the reason that matters is in Romans chapter 5, verse 12, really a big old chunk of 5, I'm just going to read verse 12. Says this, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sin. In other words, that when God curses Adam, everyone who is a son of Adam inherits this spiritual disease called sin.

Well, because Jesus was not in the line of Adam physically, then Jesus does not inherit the sin nature that you and I inherit. This is a really, really big deal. It is the only way that from birth that he would be perfect, that he would be sinless. You see, the Bible's going to go on to say, and the sun will be holy, set apart. Now listen, man, our children, they are cute, they are lovely, they are adorable, they are precious, they are fearfully and wonderfully made. But you know what they are not? Holy. Amen? They are just selfish, little selfish creatures that only think of themselves, right? Why? You're not doing anything wrong. If you're a new parent, you're not doing anything wrong. They're put on this earth to try to kill you for the first few years of your life. That's what it is, okay? Just to remind you of your utter dependence on the almighty God. They do. I mean, if you have, even like when they learn to speak, they're still self- cute, adorable, image bearers of the Most High God, selfish little, like the seagulls from Nemo.

Mine, mine, mine, mine. I mean, has your child ever looked at you? You know, seriously, Dad, you've probably had a hard day at work. We've played enough. Why don't you rest? No. No, no, no. It's because we're sons of Adam.

Now, here's the thing. I think a part of the reason that the angel is telling Mary that and his kingdom will rule forever is a way to think about. creation and the fall and redemption and consummation is in kind of a kingdom mentality. You see, God is the king of kings, the sovereign ruler of everything, and he creates us as image bearers, male and female. And so in the original plan, male and female, we were kings and queens of this kingdom that he created for his glory and our joy. And it went super good for almost a whole page in the Bible. And then there's an enemy who comes in and tricks.

and usurps the authority of the reigning king and queen of this kingdom. And essentially, when they eat of the forbidden fruit, they lay down their crowns at the feet of the enemy, Satan himself. And this is why the Bible says that the enemy that Satan, he is the prince of the power of the air, or he has rule over this earth, over this dominion right now. Ephesians 2, 2 says it this way, and you were dead in the trespasses and saying, in which you once walk, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So there's a kingdom that was given to God's children and usurper, taken over by an enemy king,

and then the king of kings shows up on the scene, Jesus, holy, blameless, set apart. His father is not Adam. His father is the almighty God. And he is the greater king. He is the one that can do what Adam failed to do. He is the one that can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And Jesus comes as the greater Adam, the king of king. He's not born under Adam's curse of sin, but he's God and he's man, and his father is the almighty, and he takes back and reestablishes his kingdom and his reign.

This is why it is a big, big deal that it's a virgin birth. And then you'll probably see, if you watch some of the world. kind of history channel something on, you know, during Christmas, there's always some liberal theologians that says, yeah, does it really matter if Mary was a virgin? So I went to a super liberal seminary. So just imagine the fun that that was for my professors and me, okay? Literally in one point, I told my due test for professor, I'm pretty sure when I get to heaven, you're not going to be there, in class one time. I said that out loud, okay? So I still believe it, but anyway. So, and she liked me so much. She let me take that class again. But anyway, that's a different.

And so I battled this in seminary. So what they will say is, all right, well, Luke is borrowing from Isaiah 714. And in Hebrew, that word virgin can also mean young woman. I'm like, okay. But Mary is not saying, how can this be? For I am a young woman. That doesn't make any sense at all. It is obvious that Mary is claiming her virginity.

And so she asked the question. How? How? It's a really big deal. But how is this going to happen? And the way it's going to happen is the spirit of God is going to move. Verse 35, and the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy. You see, therefore, because this is not the seed of Adam, but the seed of the Almighty God. This is God becoming flesh. He will be holy. birth, set apart, again, not like our kids at all. The son of God. Verse 36, and behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age, has also conceived the son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called Barry. Now, you got to stop right here for a second, because you and I have seen too many Christmas

pageants, okay? Because right now the Christmas pageant, Mary, who's like, you know, the cutest kid in the youth group and she's got some little, either a fake baby or, you know, somebody else's kid up here, and she's just sweet. everything looks so sweet. Let me just tell you what's going on in Mary's mind right here. She's not thinking, oh, baby Jesus. No, man, she's feeling the burn right here. I mean, think about this. She lives in a culture that if you get pregnant outside of wedlock, it's not just embarrassing. According to the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, they kill you.

They kill you. And honestly, she's probably thinking that could be the best thing that happens to me right now. because she's going to at least be divorced. I mean, what's she going to do? How do you explain that one? Hey, Joseph, good news, bad news. Good news, we're pregnant. Bad news? We're pregnant.

Who is it? It's the Lord. Now, again, man, we're so familiar with it. They were like, surely I would believe it. No, man, if your fiancé came to you and, you know, you've been true love waiting and fleeing like you should, then, and she was like, hey, listen. it is the Lord.

You'd be like, you're the craziest. I knew you was crazy, all right? I mean, I was willing to put up with some of it because you're pretty, but it's too much crazy for the pretty, I'm out, all right? So if they don't kill her, and she gets divorced in this society, because of the shame that she would carry around,

she's for sure homeless. She's a beggar, for sure. She's thinking, how in the world am I going to care for this baby? With no husband, with no family? And who in the world is going to believe me? I can't even tell the truth. And here's one I think we forget about all the time.

Mary is a good, orthodox, Bible-believing, Yahweh-worshipping Jewish girl. When the angel Gabriel tells her that she is going to have the son of God, the Messiah, she knows the end game of that. She knows Isaiah 53. She knows that he will be pierced for our transgressions, that upon him will be laid the chastisement of us all.

She knows that by his stripes we will be healed. In other words, here's what she knows. Think about this for a second. I'm going to lose my child. She didn't know when it's going to be, whether it's going to be 3 or 13 or 30 or 33. She has no idea, but she does know the end game is not good. The end game is not good.

This is why we're going to find out in a couple of weeks when she goes to present Jesus at the temple, a prophet says to her something's going to happen to you, it's going to pierce your soul. And she knew. Looks, folks, she is looking around right here and you know what I think? I mean, think about this, man.

Think if you knew. Look, some of you don't have it to imagine. In our church, there's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of folks that have lost children. And it is, you just can't imagine. And she knows it's coming. And she must be thinking, this is impossible. I am in an impossible.

situation. To which the angel, the next thing that comes out of his mouth is, for nothing will be impossible with God. For nothing will be impossible with God. You see, to actually believe that, I mean to believe it down like at the soul level, that requires faith, because without faith, it is it impossible to please God. And so here's how Mary responds. Mary says, behold, I am your servant. I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. In other words, she is trusting God, even though she doesn't understand what. what's going on at all. See the difference? I got some really good news for you. Listen, you don't have to understand God. That's my story, man. There's a whole bunch I don't understand. There's a whole bunch I don't understand.

There's a whole bunch I don't understand. Not so much about my life right now, although my day could be tomorrow. But man, walking with some families in our church over the last five years since we planted this thing, there's a whole bunch of things I don't understand. Come on, God. Why would you do it that way? You're the sovereign king of the universe. And even though I don't understand, I do believe this, that nothing is impossible with God. And I can fully trust him without fully understanding. And so she says, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Now listen, she's not stoked right now. She's not. And so what she does next is really, really smart. Verse 39. In those days, Mary arose and she went with haste into the

hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zachariah. and greet it Elizabeth. This is her relative. Here's why I think this is important. Oftentimes, when God is doing a work in you or around you, and you don't understand. And let me be clear about this, ma'am. Whatever has happened to you,

whether it was your fault or somebody did it to you or it was seemed random, whatever it is. I'm not saying God did it, but at least passed through his sovereign hand. And you look around and you're like, I don't understand. Here's what Mary does that we could all learn from. She gets around the right people to help you get some godly perspective.

Mary had somewhere to go when she looked around and she's feeling the burn and she's like, this is impossible. Do you? Do you? Listen, man, when we're pumping you to go to a disciple group, it is not like a program thing. Like when the wheels fall off of your plans, where are you going to go?

You drinking buddies? They ain't going to be there. They're not. Who are the people praying for you? Who are the people speaking life and truth into you? So she goes to Elizabeth, and here's what happens in verse 41. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. That's John the Baptist says who we was talking about next week.

It's going to be awesome. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry. Catholics is going to feel good to you. You ready? Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby, my womb leap for joy and blessed is she who believed.

She's talking to Mary. She's like, Mary didn't say she believed yet. You realize this? Only thing that Mary says, the angel says, this is going to happen to you. She's like, what, how? And then he explains it. And she's like, your will not mine. And then she's like, I've got to go to Aunt Elizabeth's house.

All right? But yet what Elizabeth is doing in here is she's kind of speaking some truth that might be just this baby little like mustard seed size belief that she has. has right now when she's helping build it up. And blessed is she who believe that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. She is speaking life. She is speaking truth. She is encouraging. That's who you need to be around when you find yourself in an impossible situation. Let me tell you the most dangerous thing you can do, man, especially at Christmas time. You look around Christmas time and your life's jacked up and nothing, man, nothing highlights it like the

holidays, does it? You know what our tendency is, man? Our tendency is to run, is to hide is to fake it is to be isolated we talk about this all the time the enemy wants nothing more than for you to be isolated why because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking one to devour they always man the lions always pick off the isolated one and so part of the reason man we talk about real stuff in a real way here at 1122 the the reason this is the movement for all people is listen man if you're busted up if you if you if you explained your story to us and none of us would believe you Congratulations, you'd be right there with Mary. And to you and your crazy stories, we'd say, come on, come on, just get in the middle.

Don't be isolated. Get off the fringes. Get in the herd where there is protection by God with God's people. That's what she does. Are you surrounding yourself with people that are speaking truth and life into you? Or are you surrounding yourself with people that are tools in the hands of your enemy speaking lies to you? And so look how Mary responds. after Elizabeth speaks some life into her and gives her some perspective of what's going on,

then Mary gets it, and she says this, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant, for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Here's what she's doing, man, she's singing a worship song that she wrote, very famous. and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away

empty he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy and as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. You know what Mary does? See, what she does when the Spirit of God moves in her literally, then Mary worships because she sees God for who he is and she recognizes what he is doing. She says, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

You see, this is what we do. When the Spirit of God moves in us, church, what we do is we worship. Do you know why we won't let you off the hook about worship around here? Because it is like oxygen to the believer. And let me tell you who doesn't worship. Well, we all worship something. But let me tell you who doesn't worship God. Not somebody that says, well, I'm just not into music.

Shut up. Yeah, you are. You're into some kind of music that you like. Here's who doesn't worship. You won't worship if you have too low a view of God or too high of view of self. That's who doesn't worship. That's who doesn't worship. When she sees the lowly state in which he is

and how magnificent the Lord is, that her only response is worship. So here's the point. Then I want to unpack it, try to make it practical for you. Here's the point. Mary is a picture of what happens when the Spirit of God moves in you. And when the Spirit of God moves in us,

three things happen. Faith, surrender, surrender. and worship. And in this order, this is what happens to Mary. When the Spirit of God moves in you, these things happen. Faith, surrender, and worship. One, faith is trusting that nothing is impossible for God. Even if you don't like believe it with your brain. Faith is trusting that nothing is impossible for God. Two, surrender says, behold, I'm a servant of the Lord. would say it is not my will but your will be done and then three worship is our response to god she says my soul magnifies the lord and my spirit rejoices in god my savor and you might say okay

well what does that have to do with me here's what it has to do with you faith is trusting that nothing is impossible for god anybody feel like they're in an impossible situation you look around this christmas and you feel like your marriage is impossible i mean you hear tonight and man you faking it so good. I mean, you are. You're sitting there and you smile and you, ha-ha, you kind of laugh and he throws jokes and you haven't looked at each other in like six months. Fought the whole way here. Or even worse, didn't fight. I think that's worse.

When it's just silence, crickets looking out the window. Walking here tonight, the people say, how you doing? We're just blessed in highly favor. No, you ain't. You feel like it's impossible. Or maybe you already left, or maybe she already left. And you're just, and you look and you think there is no hope. I'm in a hopeless, broken, impossible situation.

Nothing's impossible for God. Some of you feel like you have an impossible addiction. You tried everything. Everything. Been to classes, been to groups. Everybody else in your group seems to be doing fine and you don't. You got people praying for you. You feel like you're in an absolutely impossible situation because this addiction just seems to just take over. You've prayed, you've promised, you've committed, you've signed stuff, you've done, you feel like you've, and it's just ruling you. I would say faith says nothing is impossible for God. Or maybe sometimes worse, somebody that you love the most, they're the addicted one. And you've been praying and I've been praying and you fill out the cards and you think,

this is impossible, how long, and I would say nothing is impossible for God. Or some of you feel like you're in an impossible financial situation. You're just trying to find the right time to break it to your wife. I don't think we can't do presents this year. And you think, there's, how do we get here? And you think it's impossible. You're going to need a miracle. I got good news.

He's in the miracle business. That's what Christmas is all about. And nothing is impossible for God. And some of you just have this root of bitterness and you've been holding on to this unforgiveness. And the problem is the person that you hate, you're going to have to share turkey with in about three weeks. And you think, man, I can't forgive them.

and it seems impossible. And faith says nothing is impossible with God. You see, the way we say it around here is this, man. If the tomb is empty, then anything is possible. Because you know what's impossible? It's impossible for a man to die on a cross dead. Three days later be resurrected and eat fish with his friends on the beach. You understand?

And if the tomb is empty, then anything is impossible. When the Spirit of God moves in you, you do not let your circumstances tell you what's possible. You let the sovereign king of the universe tell you that nothing is impossible with him. That's what happens on the Spirit of God moves. Which leads, right after she says that, the very next thing that happens is this, is she surrenders control of her whole life.

She says, first she says, how? How? This is impossible. How could this be? I'm a virgin. And then he says, nothing is impossible. with God. And so she replies, well, here I am your servant. The thing that happens, once you have that faith in God, that nothing is impossible with the Almighty God, then the next logical step or response is this, here I am, Lord, I'm yours. I surrender. Let me tell you what, cannot live

simultaneously with each other. Surrender and control. Let me tell you why some of you are miserable. You still try to be in control. I mean, you sing in surrender songs, and you love Jesus, and you know, you sing them with one hand and one eye open and all that stuff and get really emotional about it. But the problem is, is you're trying to control everything, especially at Christmas, trying to control your family and the plans and the menu and where everybody sits and trying to control emotions and expectations and trying to control everything in your world. Do you realize that when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he's done on the cross, you are primarily surrendering control? And the spirit of God moves in the person that says, I lay down control. God, I trust that your ways are not only bigger, but your ways are better than my ways. And you say, here I am your servant.

And when those things begin to happen, when you begin to see God for who he is, the almighty, magnificent, all-powerful God, and you begin to see yourself as lowly as we should, and you begin to say, look, Lord, I am nothing more than a servant in your kingdom, then as that gap between the awesomeness of God and the smallness of us, as that gets bigger and bigger and bigger, the gospel of Jesus Christ fills that up, and the response to that is worship. It's worship. And I don't just mean singing songs to God, but that is important. But I would ask you this, church, do you have an accurate view of you and God?

do you have an accurate view of you and God? Because if your soul does not come alive to worship the Almighty God, then you might not know him. You might not know him. And the problem with church in Jacksonville is this, especially if you grew up in it for a long, long time. The problem is, is if you begin to see God as practical as opposed to beautiful, then you'll miss the whole point.

It's just true. Like, if you see God as a life coach to give you advice, or you see him as a judge to kind of make things right, or you see him as a sort of cosmic force to stir up feelings in you, then you will begin to see God as just a practicality instead of God being the most amazing and beautiful being in all creation that we are invited into. And when I say beautiful, sometimes the men have some problem with that.

I'm not saying you see God beautiful like you see a beautiful woman. I'm saying like you see the Grand Canyon and you go, whoa. I'm talking about like this morning when I went deer hunting. I opened my truck door to get out at whatever time, 4, 45, and there's not a cloud and you look up and you see, because, you know, when you don't have like streetlights around and stuff and you just see stars and you're reminded of the Psalms that say, your heavens declare your glory and you see it like, whoa.

Is that how you see God? See, that's how Mary saw God in an impossible situation, with no promise of things getting any better, but she began to see him for who he is and see her for who she was, and she worshipped. Do you see him as beautiful? I was on a plane yesterday, I think,

it all runs together, coming back from Houston, and I was speaking at a conference, and I'm watching this documentary on the Vietnam War, okay? And so, you know, so I'm watching it, and I just kind of skip it. of my stuff and I get to the end when our soldiers were coming home to what they should not have come home to. They should have come home to respect and honor and accolades and we love

you. And they didn't. But then there was a group of people that didn't come home. MIAs and POWs. And what this section of the documentary was about is it was about the POWs in 1973 who had been released. And they followed around a couple of the wives. And so there were these wives. And for five and a half years, they had been waiting faithfully and patiently for their husbands, maybe to come home. Maybe not. They don't know. They don't know.

But they're waiting by faith. I mean, you want to talk about an impossible situation. That's an impossible situation. For many of these men, they don't know if they're alive. They don't know if they're dead. They don't know where they are. They're unaccounted for. And for a few of them, when the husband was home, they got pregnant.

And then he went to war. and they have a five-year-old child that the husband has never even met, that the dad has never even met. And then one day, she gets a call. She picks up the phone and she hears these words, man, he's alive. We found him. He's alive. And so meet us in 13 days at this place, and there's going to be an aircraft carrier is coming, and then a plane is going to land on the airstrip, and then your husband is alive,

and he is going to be on that plane and you are going to be reunited. And then they began to show, on this documentary, they began to show that moment where she goes running to him and he, with injuries to his legs, come hobbling to her and they're embraced. And I'm going to tell you what, if I didn't work out, I would have cried something, okay? I'm telling you, it was on a plane.

I was like, I got some man allergies going on here or something. Well, I've got a headache still, man. I'm telling you what? Now here's the thing. hang with me here. Do you know what changed in those two weeks? Did you know he was no more alive when they were hugging than he was four weeks before that? Here's what changed.

She got good news. She got good news. She received good news. By the way, the word gospel in the New Testament just simply means good news. And when she got that good news, everything changed. She saw a situation that she thought was impossible, become possible. Why? Because all things were possible with God.

And when she saw him, He goes running to him, and as you watch these, you can just look them up on YouTube, okay? And when you look at him, let me tell you what nobody does. Nobody looks at that reuniting and goes, well, that's practical. Good thing she's got somebody to help pay the mortgage now. You know, kids are more likely to graduate high school if they grow up with a dad. Nobody thinks practical, right? The only thing you think is, that's beautiful.

That is beautiful. Hoping for hope, and here it is. where a husband and a wife who've been separated for five and a half years, and the soldier survives, and mama was waiting on him to get home, and he would get down on his hands and knees and see his babies that he left, and he doesn't even really recognize anymore because they're five years older, you know, and they were this big, and now they're this big, and a baby that he hadn't even met yet,

and they just hug and cry and hug and cry, and nobody goes, that's practical. Everybody looks at that and goes, that is beautiful. church could you get your mind around that's what a relationship with the Lord is like you don't follow after God just so he can keep you out of hell and help you go to heaven one day you follow after Jesus because he is more than enough he is the treasure that we desire he is the pearl of value that we're willing to lay everything down why because the fact that the almighty sovereign king of the universe would send his only begotten son on a

you mission. He would show up as a baby in a manger, but he did not stay there. He was born holy and blameless, and he lived that perfect life for the glory of God, and we get wrapped up in that glory. And what we get is salvation and a relationship with him. And that is beautiful. So when the spirit of God moves, here's what happens. When the spirit of God moves, then God gives you the gift of faith. Even if you don't feel like it, you can say, nothing is impossible for God. So I pray that the Spirit of God moves in you. And if you think you're in an impossible situation,

I pray that you claim the truth, and hopefully maybe not overnight, but over time your feelings will catch up with the truth that you can look at that situation and say nothing is impossible for God. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And when the spirit of God moves, then what begins to happen is you begin to surrender.

You surrender control. You say, God, here I am. your servant. Lord, I want your will and not my will. And when the spirit of God moves, you see him as not just practical. Not, you ought to go to church. It'll help you and make more friends

and be more successful, whatever, man. That you get connected with the almighty God because he is worthy of that. And then our response is we worship God for who he is and what he's done. See, I'm going to confess. I'm not the biggest Christmas music fan. in the world, like the carols and stuff.

I like them. If it was up to Gretchen, we'd start Fourth of July. Reagan's kind of on that plan, too. They like it a lot. JP and I are like, you know, Christmas Eve, let's do it. And then I'm good. And oftentimes, I think part of the reason is, I think when we think like Christmas songs,

we don't always, we think more like traditional than worshipful, a lot of times, right? I mean, it's like Rudolph and Frosty and Old Little Town of Bethlehem, and they all kind of come on the same stations, you know. But there's one chorus that we'll sing that I think gets at what Mary was doing here when the Spirit of God moved. And she responds in faith, and she responds in surrender. And she responds in adoration.

It's sort of like the POW's wife when she sees her husband get off of that plane and she thought she was dead and now he thought he was dead and now he is alive. She adores him. At Christmas time, we are reminded once again, Mary helps us a whole bunch. Church, what we are to do when the spirit of God moves is to come and adore the almighty sovereign king of the universe who humbled himself and he was born as a helpless babe with the perfect life, died of sinners' death was resurrected on the third day and he is worthy of the name God save and oh come let us adore him so would you please stand and pray with me our good and gracious heavenly father Lord I pray holy spirit want you move

want you move for the man for the woman for the student that's here and they have a similar question then Mary has got how can this be because it seems impossible spirit would you just just at the soul level teach us. Nothing's impossible for you. God, by that faith, would you call us to surrender control of the things that we are trying to manage? God, would we just turn it over to you? And Lord, would you just stoke in us a spirit of worship that cries out to you, Abba, Father. God, would you help us see you for who you are and see us for who we are and come, let us adore you?

the king of kings that would step off of his throne to be born in the filth of this world to draw men and women like us under yourself and invite us into that beautiful reunion with the most high king oh god let us adore you