Submitting to God makes me joyful, because:
- It makes me a recipient of God’s Grace. (Luke 1:26-30)
- It makes me a subject of God’s Sovereignty. (Luke 1:31-33)
- It makes me an agent of God’s Power. (Luke 1:34-38)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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One of the reasons we had a quiz was I wanted to show you that there are a lot of misconceptions about Christmas.
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You know why?
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Because there are a lot of misconceptions about the Bible.
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And here's a misconception that I have to fight every week of my life.
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And if you're in any form of ministry, you're fighting this misconception too.
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Here's the misconception.
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Surrender is a bad thing.
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Surrender is a bad thing.
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Let's think about surrender for a minute.
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thing or bad thing? Well, the church answer is, it's a good thing to surrender, but you know in your flesh, surrender often seems like a bad thing. Every single choice that you make is going to boil down to one of two categories. Am I going after my will or am I going after God's will? Every choice you make is one of those two categories. My will or God's will. Now tell me, which Which one's easier for you to want to do?
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My will, right?
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My will.
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But yielding, submitting, surrendering to God's will brings joy, and people don't want to buy that.
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People don't want… you mean to tell me that it's good to bend my will to the will of else? For me to tell myself no for the sake of doing something that somebody else wants doesn't sound like joy. Well, let's be clear, I'm not saying that you should give up joy for submission. I'm not saying that. Nor am I saying that you can add submission to your Your joy.
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Here's what I am saying.
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There is no joy apart from submission.
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There is no joy apart from submission.
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There's not.
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Are you in Luke chapter 1?
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I want you to look at the last verse first, the one that we're going to be looking at.
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Verse 38, we're going to be reading the account of the angel telling Mary what was about to take place concerning the incarnation.
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Look at verse 38, this was Mary's response to all of this, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word." I want you to see Mary's attitude through this.
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I'm the servant of the Lord.
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We're going to see in this account an angel basically shows up and says, "Hey, your life Life is taking a completely different track than you ever thought.
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Let's be honest, many people in our day, what would we do?
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We'd go to counseling, we'd cry, we'd withdraw, "It's not fair, it's not fair, I didn't want this, I didn't ask for this." Mary said, "I'm a servant of the Lord.
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Let it be to me according to your word." The short version of that is, Mary was like, "Okay, my life's taking a completely different track.
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Okay, we're going to go through these verses.
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We're going to pick up in verse 26." I can't put a spin on this story to make it any more awesome.
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Seriously.
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Like, "Oh, it's Christmas and we're going through the Christmas story as preachers in all churches do every year.
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You know, Pastor Jeff, what spinner are you going to put on it this year?" I'm not going to put any spin on it because I can't make it any more awesome than it is.
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Here's what I'd encourage you to do.
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Let's go through this like the first time, okay?
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Can we do that?
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Can we pretend like this is the first time we're actually reading this text and go at it in like such a fresh way?
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Can we do that?
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Can we try?
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All right, let's try.
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I'm going to try.
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You try with me, all right?
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Obviously, the last verse is sort of the thesis of the sermon.
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I have on your outline, "Submitting to God makes me joyful because, number one, it makes me a recipient of God's grace.
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It makes me a recipient of God's grace." verses 26 through 30, "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
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And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one.
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The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
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And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'" Let's look back through this.
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First of all, in the sixth month, the sixth month of what?
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Well, he's talking about the sixth month of Zechariah and Elizabeth's pregnancy.
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Elizabeth was a relative of Mary.
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Previously in Luke 1, he talked about how Elizabeth conceived and eventually she was going to give birth to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ.
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So in the six months of Elizabeth's pregnancy, an angel shows up.
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Now, what was the angel's name?
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Gabriel, right?
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And he is the messenger angel.
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It seems like when you see him in the Bible, he's like showing up to deliver the news, okay?
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Now, it says that he shows up to this city of Galilee named Nazareth.
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Now, you have to understand how significant this is, like to try to put it in context.
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Okay, so we're pretending we're reading this for the first time, but really we know what's coming, right?
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How many of you know what's coming?
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Jesus.
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The most significant person to ever walk on the planet, God, is coming.
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So where does He show up?
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Times Square, right?
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Downtown Pittsburgh.
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See, Nazareth, what is Nazareth?
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Here's what Nazareth is, I love this.
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Nazareth was this rural town of about 2,000 people that was about 70 miles north of Jerusalem.
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You know what I love about this?
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Do you know what Nazareth's like?
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Do you know what Nazareth's like?
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Shakora.
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Seriously.
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Now, how many of you know where Shakora is?
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Shakora is where I grew up, the mean streets of Shakora.
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It's where I cut my teeth.
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a man out of me, those mean streets of Shakurah. Obviously, if you know Shakurah, you know I'm joking. Shakurah doesn't even have a stoplight. Shakurah is a town of about 1,000 to 2,000, 60 miles north of the metropolitan area, Pittsburgh. So when you read this story, basically this is what you're seeing. God's like, "I'm going to do the most significant thing ever since creation and here's where I'm going to do it. I'm going to send my messenger to Shakurah." happening here. He waltzes into Nazareth to get this going. Several times in this passage we see "virgin," and some people say, "Well, that just means that, you know, their marriage wasn't fully legally finished." No, the word literally means "one who had no sexual relations." was betrothed to Joseph, and actually that was a legal contract. Did you know that? In our day, engagements happen, they break off, they happen, they break off, right? That's just sort of like, you know, you get a promise ring, you get a go steady ring, you get the class ring, and then you get the engagement ring, and if that doesn't work out, you just kind of, oh give me my ring back.
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And the betrothal was actually a legal contract.
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And it typically happened, get this, it typically happened when the girl was 12 or 13.
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Do we have any 12 or 13 year old girls sitting here?
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Okay.
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All right, so here's our model.
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This is how old Mary would have been.
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I think sometimes we read the story and we get in our mind that Mary is this like, you know, twenty-nine year old woman.
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She wasn't.
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She probably wasn't even barely a teenager.
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But also notice, not just what the Bible says, but what the Bible doesn't say.
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Verse 27 says, "The angel shows up, 'Okay, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.'" I want you to notice that the only thing that's said about Mary is her name.
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There's no commendation given.
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And I know in some religions she's venerated as being the dispenser of grace, and in this passage we see is she doesn't give grace, she's the recipient of grace.
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But she gets no word of commendation, none.
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No, you know, "Devout student of the Word named Mary," no, you know, "Holy prayer warrior Mary." It's like an angel shows up to who?
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Just Mary.
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Just Mary.
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So what's the message?
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shows up and he says, "Greetings." That sounds so formal. Literally, what he said was, "Hello." Can you imagine, the angel walks in, and the angel walks into your front door and the first thing he says to you is, "Hi." That's what's happening here.
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"Hello, favored one." He says, "The Lord is with you. You found favor with God." And what was Mary's reaction?
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Somebody tell me, what was Mary's reaction?
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She was greatly troubled.
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This is the only place in the Bible this phrase is used.
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So you can say she was troubled like no one else in the Bible.
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Again, can you like go at this for the first time and really try to think of what's happening?
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12 or 13 year old girl, an angel shows up.
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Can you put yourself in that place?
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An angel shows up and says, "Hello." God's got his hand on you.
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And she's like, "What?" And it says she was trying to discern, I love this, what type of greeting it was.
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"What's that mean?
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What's this even mean?
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She was greatly troubled.
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While submitting to God, we know that's what Mary does, I want to camp here for a second.
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It makes me a recipient of God's grace.
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I want you to write this down on your outline.
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When we talk about grace, grace doesn't mean easy.
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Grace doesn't mean easy.
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Do you know what followed this event?
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Do you know?
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Joseph will misunderstand, and he's going to make a plan to divorce you quietly, which as you know didn't happen.
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But what's your fiancé going to think about this?
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Could you imagine showing up to your fiancé, think, "Oh, by the way, the Holy Spirit got me pregnant." That's what's happening here.
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I mean, what would you do?
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Mary, you're crazy.
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That's what crazy people say.
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People are going to talk.
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Oh, by the way, here's what else is coming.
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Your son is going to be born in a feeding trough.
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You will have to flee to Egypt because Herod is going to kill all the male babies two years and younger because the top plan of the government is now to kill your child.
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Oh, and eventually when your son gets to be about 33, you're going to watch him be nailed to a cross.
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You're going to watch him hung to die publicly in the most humiliating and painful way possible.
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Grace doesn't mean easy, okay?
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You know, we talk about God's grace, we sing about God's grace, and sometimes I think that we get in our minds, you know, when God gives us grace, that means things are going to be easy.
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Mary wouldn't say that.
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You know, you're favored one, and you found favor with God, and the Lord is with you.
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That didn't mean life was about to get easy for Mary.
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That meant things were about to get really difficult.
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Let me ask you a question.
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Did Mary have a choice?
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What do you think?
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Did Mary have a choice?
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Paige says no.
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What does everybody else think?
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You got guts because everybody's afraid to answer.
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But you're like, I'm answering and I'm committing to my answer, I respect that.
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So what do the rest of you think?
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Did Mary have a choice?
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Doesn't look like it.
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Look, I'm not getting into the whole Calvinism, Arminianism thing, you know how I feel about that.
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It's like, that stuff's up to God, all right?
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All I can say is when I read this, It doesn't look like Mary has much choice.
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The angel didn't show up and say, hey, you know what Mary, God was thinking about, oh by the way, it's like 60 degrees and we're talking about Christmas, isn't that crazy?
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Taylor's not here so nobody's gonna be offended if I take my jacket off.
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The angel didn't show up and say, hey God was thinking about doing this incarnation thing, would you be interested?
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He basically shows up and say, hey, God's going to do something Guess who he picked?
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He picked you, Mary.
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We'll jot this down.
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Sometimes God's grace looks like an invasion of your plans.
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Did Mary have a choice?
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Didn't she have a choice?
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I'm kind of with Paige on this one.
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I lean towards no.
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It doesn't look like she did.
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You know, what it all boils down to ultimately is, at some point, she made the choice to be submissive to God.
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And God used that.
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But sometimes God's grace looks like an invasion of your plans.
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You know, what's Mary thinking at this point?
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You know, I had plans for my life.
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You know, I'm supposed to get married to this guy, Joseph?
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He's like this stud, and I'm like really looking forward to getting married, and I'll probably help him out.
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He's a carpenter, and I just, I had these plans for my life.
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And God's like, yeah, I got plans for your life too.
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But no, no, no, I had all these dreams, and I had these things I wanted to accomplish, and God's like, yeah, I got some things I want to accomplish too.
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But getting away from Mary for a second, there's some people sitting here right now, that God's grace has shown up in your life in such a way that He's put you on a different track, a track that you weren't expecting, and a track that might feel like you didn't have a say in the matter.
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Maybe it's a health issue.
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Maybe it is some sort of unexpected blessing that doesn't look like a blessing right now.
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So maybe you're saying, "You know what, I had plans for some things that I wanted to get done and now I can't do it because of this." When the other side of that coin is God is saying, "Now you're going to accomplish the purposes that I have for you." But I had my plans, I had my goals, I had my dreams.
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Well, my plans, my goals, and my dreams are all tainted by selfish motives and fleshly desires.
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Instead would I rather have God's goals, God's plans, holy, eternal purposes.
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I don't really want to get involved in the church.
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I don't want to be in a small group.
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I don't want to do a mission trip and God says, "Your plans have changed.
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I have a plan and it involves you." So get this out of your head that grace means things are going to be easy.
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Grace doesn't mean easy, but here's what grace does mean.
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Verse 28, "The Lord is with you." The Lord is with you.
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So you really have a couple of options here.
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You can fight your way through life without the Lord, or you can fight your way through life with the Lord? Which one are you going to go with? There is a sense in which you do have a choice. I don't know how people do it without the Lord, I just don't. I don't know how people hold it together without the Lord. I don't know how people hold it together mentally. I don't know how people When Jesus Christ isn't the center, when your will isn't pursuing His will, I don't know how people hold it together.
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Grace means that God is with you.
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See, that was really all that Mary needed to know, right?
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Yeah, things are about to get really hard, but God is with you.
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God never promised that hard times wouldn't come.
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The only thing that He's ever promised is when they come, He will be with us.
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You know, what's the 23rd Psalm?
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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
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Why?
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Because you're with me.
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I'd also like to remind you, Proverbs 334, James 4, 6, 1 Peter 5, 5, all say the same thing.
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God opposes the proud.
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But He gives something to the humble.
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What does He give?
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Grace.
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So the alternative to humbling yourself is squaring off against God.
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And you should want God's grace because you need God's grace.
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But understand that God is after more than just saving you.
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God isn't your ticket to heaven.
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God's not your fire insurance.
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He's after more than that.
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God wants to indwell you and change you and change your course and use you for His purposes.
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And even if it doesn't look like it at first, joy comes when God's grace arrives.
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So submitting to God makes me joyful, first of all, because it makes me a recipient of God's grace.
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Secondly, it makes me a subject of God's sovereignty.
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Makes me a subject of God's sovereignty.
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Look at verses 31 through 33.
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And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
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He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to 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." It makes me a subject of God's sovereignty.
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The news just gets more intense.
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Okay, so the angel shows up and he's like, "Hi, Mary.
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God's with you.
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found favor in God's eyes. What's that mean? Here's what it means. Think about this phrase, "You will conceive in your womb." He didn't say, "You and Joseph." That would have made sense, like, "Oh yeah, someday, yeah, yeah, someday we talked about having kids, so that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, Joseph and I are gonna have Yeah, that makes sense.
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He didn't say that.
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He goes, "Hey Mary, you're going to conceive." Does that like strike anybody else as being like hit the floor crazy?
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Like an angel shows up and says, "By the way, you're gonna have a baby." What?
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But not just a baby.
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Look at what the angel says about the baby.
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Look back at verse 31.
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You will call His name Jesus.
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Okay, so we've got the name down, don't have to argue about that.
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Verse 32, "He will be," first of all, "He will be great, and He will be called the Son of the Most High.
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And the Lord God will give to 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." Write this reference down.
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We're not going to turn to it now, but write down 2 Samuel 7.
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Second Samuel 7.
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You need to know that passage.
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That's a very important passage in your Bible, 2 Samuel 7.
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You're like, "Why is that so important?" Because back in the Old Testament, God actually told David, who was the king, he said, "David, you're always going to have someone on the throne." God made a promise to David, "Your lineage, your family line, you are always going to have someone on the throne." Now Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that, you understand?
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was Jesus' legal father, and Joseph was from the line of David.
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Actually there are around 350 predictions in the Old Testament about the first coming of Jesus Christ.
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And basically what this angel was saying, "You know all those promises, Mary?
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You know all those promises in the Old Testament?
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Well this is the fulfillment of that." You know there's a word that we use here a lot, that you'll hear me throw around, and It's the word sovereignty.
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Do you know what that word means?
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Do you know what the word sovereignty means?
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Go ahead and shout it out if you know.
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What's the word sovereignty mean?
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You mean we've been using this word and nobody knows what it means?
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I'm so embarrassed right now.
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What does sovereignty mean?
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Yeah, you're in charge and you do what you want.
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That's a good way of putting it.
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It actually comes from two words, which literally is "solely reigns." There's only one person that can be said of.
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Who is it that solely reigns?
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It's God Himself, right?
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When we say that God solely reigns, what that means is He doesn't have a committee.
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God doesn't have a meeting.
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He's like, "Yeah, I was thinking about doing some stuff.
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What do you guys think about that?" "Well, God, we would advise against that.
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We're entering into a bad fiscal quarter." And God's like, "Oh, okay, well then, thank you for that.
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I guess we'll hold off on our plans." When we talk about, and when the Bible talks about God's solely reigns, we talk about His sovereignty.
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What that means is God is in complete control of every single thing that happens.
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There's not one time anything happens that's outside of God's control.
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God's never said, "Whoops." Did you know that?
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God's never been like, "Oh, I'm doing this revival here in Africa, and then something happens over here in the United States.
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Well, how did I miss that?" God never misses a step.
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In fact, Jesus said, "God knows how many hairs you have in your head." And for some, that's a lot less counting than for others.
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But the point is this, God is absolutely in control, solely reigning over everything, and when's His term up, by the way?
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When's God's term up?
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Never.
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That's why when we studied Philippians 2 a couple of weeks ago, remember, "Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess," Philippians 2, verses 10 and 11, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Look at this promise. Mary, you're going to have a child and you're going to call him Jesus, and he's going to be the king of everything forever. Awesome.
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Awesome. God solely reigns. Somebody told me -- I can't remember who told me this story, so if it was you, please remind me. But about an elementary school class was having a mock election, you know, getting the kids involved and interested in the politics and what was happening, and this one little girl didn't vote. And the teacher said, "Well, you know, you need to vote. You need to pick who you want to vote for." And the little girl says, "I want to see who wins, and I want to vote for that person, right? Like I want to know who wins, almost like well if I vote for the person that doesn't win then then I lose like it's a big game. Well I'm going to tell you right now who's going to win. And I'm not talking about a political election, I'm talking about the sovereign of the universe. Here's my encouragement for you no matter how bad things get, no matter the pain you experience here and now, no matter how much I struggle with discouragement and disappointment, my best days are ahead of me. So, surrender is making yourself a subject of God's sovereignty. You know the day is coming when Christ returns and he's going to establish a thousand-year reign on this earth to show what life was meant to be like before ushering in the final state of things. One of my most favorite verses in the whole Bible, Revelation 21 5, when Jesus said, "Behold, I am making all things new." So surrendering to God is to be subject to the Creator who loves, the Creator who redeems, and the Creator who will ultimately restore all things. That's my hope and that's my allegiance And that is my joy.
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So you are subject of God's sovereignty.
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That was the whole announcement here from the angel.
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You're going to give birth to the one who's going to be the king of everything forever.
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Well, finally, it makes me an agent of God's power.
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It makes me an agent of God's power.
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Okay so, the angel shows up to this young woman and says, "You're going to have a baby and your baby's going to be the king of everything forever.
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Now pretend you're that young woman.
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What's the first question you'd ask?" "How?" "Yeah, like, exactly.
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How's that gonna happen?
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Like look, mom and dad had the birds and the bees talk with me, and I'm not saying I'm like the expert, but I do know that it requires two people.
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Right?
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Like I know that part.
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So, and that's exactly what Mary said.
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You see verse 34?
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Mary said to the angel, "How will this be "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
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Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
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And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
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nothing will be impossible with God.
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And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
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Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
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Makes me an angel of God's power.
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So Mary's question, I would say logical, right?
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Would you put Mary's question in the logical category?
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So let me ask you, is it okay to ask God questions?
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Is it okay?
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Is it okay to ask God questions?
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Some people are like, "Don't question God.
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Let me ask parents." Parents, is there a difference between asking and questioning?
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Is there a difference?
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There certainly is, isn't there?
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In fact, you know, Jesus commanded us to ask, didn't he?
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Ask, seek, and knock, right?
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But isn't there a difference between asking and questioning?
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God has zero time for questioning, by the way.
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Questioning, what's the difference between asking and questioning?
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What's the difference?
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The difference is attitude, isn't it?
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You know, parents, your child comes up to you, it's like, "Dad, what are you doing that for?
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"What are you doing that for?" Versus, "Hey, Dad, can you tell me "why you decided to do that?
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Is there a difference?
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It's in the attitude, isn't there?
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So Mary to the angel, "What did you do that for?" Mary was saying, "Well, I'm just not understanding how this is going to work." It's okay to question God when you have the right attitude.
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Asking God, not questioning God, I should say.
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So what's the answer?
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Well, he says, "Well, the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you," and he says, "The power of the Most High will overshadow you." That's a picture from the Old Testament, God's presence overshadowing the tabernacle.
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And he says, "This child will be called holy, the Son of God." So basically what the angel was saying was, "God's going to make this happen, and you're You're going to be an agent of God's power.
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Do you see that?
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For a woman that's never been with a man to have a baby, something's going to have to happen.
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It's going to be a miracle.
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And really the answer's in verse 37, right?
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For nothing will be impossible with God.
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For example, previous verse, here's a little case study for you, Mary.
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You know your relative Elizabeth?
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You need to underline this in your Bible, circle it, highlight it, whatever you do.
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End of verse 36, okay, the angel says, "Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren." Underline who was called barren.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Mary's like, "Well, Elizabeth can't have kids.
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She's barren." "Yeah, your relative Elizabeth, she's expecting.
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She's six months pregnant." "Well, that can't be.
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Elizabeth can't be pregnant because she's barren." Notice Gabriel says that's what she was called.
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She was called barren.
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But when God shows up, everything changes.
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When God shows up, everything changes.
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I don't care what you were called.
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Listen, let's get away from this story.
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Let's put the "What's God's story?" right here, right now.
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I want to talk about you for a second.
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I don't care what you were called, addict, loser, failure, weak.
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You know, some people cripple themselves in life because they take an identity that was put on them and carry it with them and refuse to let it go.
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Well, you know, I'm never going to amount to anything because I'm an addict.
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I can't… I'm not really going to have much of an opportunity in life because I'm an addict.
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And God shows up, He's like, "No, you're not.
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That's who you were.
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That's not who you are.
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You have a new identity in Jesus Christ.
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That's what Elizabeth experienced.
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God shows up.
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God changes your identity.
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Yeah, Elizabeth, yeah, she was called barren, but do you know why she's not called barren anymore?
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Because she's six months pregnant, right?
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You don't call a six-month pregnant woman barren.
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Kind of a contradiction of terms.
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So nothing is impossible with God.
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So God had this plan.
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Right?
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God had this plan, and this was God's plan.
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Though people have rebelled against me, I'm going to save people from their sin.
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I'm going to give people eternal life.
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I'm going to forgive and restore people to myself." God's plan isn't a procedure, or a process, or a program.
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Everything about God's plan revolves around one person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
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Think about the miracle of Jesus Christ here.
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The God of the universe who spoke everything to existence chose a point in time that He was going to become a human being, to dwell among humans, to teach about eternal spiritual matters ultimately to lay down His life on a cross and die, to raise from the dead, to ascend back into heaven, that whosoever would call on His name, receive Him, believe that His death and resurrection accomplished what He said it accomplished, to be able to appropriate that by faith, anytime, anyplace, any people, the universal cure for the universal problem for those who will believe.
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And how did this all start?
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It all started with a young woman who was surrendered to God.
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I want to leave you with this.
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Mary wasn't great because of her wisdom.
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The Bible doesn't say that.
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I'm sure she was wise.
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I'm sure she knew the Old Testament better than I do.
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That's not what made her great.
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Mary wasn't great because of her family.
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I don't know anything the Bible says about her parents or any other family members really aside from Elizabeth.
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Mary wasn't great because of her talents.
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I don't even know if she had any talents.
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I'm sure she did, but the Bible doesn't talk about her being like a banjo player or anything.
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Mary didn't have this like fantastic social network.
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Like she was the prom queen.
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Mary didn't have even a lot of life experience.
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She wasn't like this grizzled, you know, haggard old lady that had all these life experiences that could sit down and say, "Well, I've been through a lot, Sonny." She was like adolescent.
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So what made Mary so great?
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Please leave with this.
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There was one thing that made Mary great.
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Did you see what it was?
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She was surrendered to God.
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Verse 38 is the only thing really that I can see biblically that made Mary great.
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As Mary said, "I'm the servant of the Lord.
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"Let it be to me according to your word." That's what made her great.
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You're like, "Oh, I know where you're going with this." Yeah, the same applies to you.
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You wanna be great?
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Well, your wisdom and your family and your talents and your social network and your experience will not amount to anything.
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You only have one shot at greatness in this life.
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You have one shot at greatness.
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You have one shot at experiencing true joy in this life, and the only way that's going to happen is if you surrender yourself to God.
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Then like Mary, you're going to experience His power, accomplishing His purposes through you.
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Are you going to give birth to a Messiah?
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Probably not.
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That was sort of a one-time thing.
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But is God going to manifest His power upon you and through you to accomplish things that only He can accomplish?
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Yeah, He will.
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But what that requires is for you to be surrendered to God.
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surrender, we've been talking about it the whole passage, and this week as I was working through this, one of the questions that I was going through is, "How can I illustrate surrender?
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How can I illustrate that?" What I thought was, I want to close the sermon with like a really graphic illustration of surrender.
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I even thought about calling Aaron Bloomingdale up and like, "Bring some of your weaponry and I'll put it on and then take it off and show like I'm surrendering things," but we didn't go that route.
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It kept going through my mind, "What does surrender look like?" Here's a bunch of people that, you know, you guys love God's Word, you want to do what God's called you to do, and as a preacher so bad I want to be like, "This is what surrender looks like." Maybe you're asking, "Well, how much do I have to give up to be surrendered? How much of my sin do I have to give up to be surrendered to Christ? A pornography addiction, a drug addiction, an alcohol addiction, how much of that do I have to give up to be surrendered? Can I give up, you know, can I cut my addictions down by like half and still be considered totally surrendered? How much of my stuff do I have to surrender unto God in order to be considered completely surrendered? Like what about like if I give God 5% or 10%? What if I gave 20%? That's like a double-tithe. Would that be considered being fully surrendered?
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What about my will?
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My goals, my dreams, my plans?
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What if like I commit to like helping at the church, but just as long as it doesn't really cut into my week too much, and it's not going to, you know, take me out of my comfort zone too much, and what if I just make a little tiny commitment?
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Is that a picture of being fully surrendered?
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You know, it's funny as I thought and I thought and I thought, "What does surrender look like?" And then I thought, "I'm such an idiot," because God's already given the perfect picture of surrender, hasn't He?
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In fact, when you come to Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Lord and Savior, one of the first things you should do as a believer is live out this picture of surrender.
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It's baptism, right?
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That's the picture of surrender.
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Because if you're a follower of Christ and you've been baptized, I'd like to remind you what that meant.
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What that meant was I'm considering myself dead and buried.
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And coming up out of the water, I'm identifying with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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So now the life that I live really is Him living in me and through me.
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That's the picture of surrender.
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So what a better way to close a message on surrender than by looking at a video where three guys from this congregation made that decision, fully surrendered to Jesus Christ.
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Watch this video.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 1:26-38
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.