Mary - Woman Of Power

Last week we began looking at the life of Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus Christ. Mary had an angelic visitation from the Archangel, Gabriel. Gabriel declared to Mary that she was a Woman of Grace and highly favored of the Lord.

Although Mary was considered to be just an average Jewish girl, the Holy Spirit had a “divine influence on her heart”.

Mary needed this blessing (from God) because Mary’s life was dramatically and suddenly changed.

Mary was given a tremendous responsibility of mothering, caring for and nurturing the very Son of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mary made the decision to do what the Lord had commanded her to do. As a young teenager Mary knew:

· She would have to make a stand for her faith completely on her own.

· She would be able to fulfill the plan of God because she (literally) had the life of Jesus Christ living within her.

As well for us the Bible has given you and I this same assurance,

“Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world!”

So we know Mary was blessed, and she was a Woman of Grace, but today I want us to see Mary as a Woman of Power.

Text: Luke 1:34 thru 37

Prayer:

The birth of Jesus was, and still is, a great mystery to mankind. In spite of the advances in the field of modern medicine and science, mankind is baffled with the intricacies of creation.

There may never be a simple explanation of how the Lord creates human life. With a high-powered microscope, a scientist may be able to explain and understand the biological process that is involved, but man has no concept of the origin of human life.

These things are mysterious to all of us. But even more amazing is how God could take a human body and supernaturally forge Himself from His Spirit being to that of a human being.

Last night many of the youth and I traveled to Lafayette to see the performance of a play entitled “The Birth of the King”.

I was again awestruck with the Christmas story and how it was that our God, Jehovah, purposely birthed Himself into the form of a small boy. God made Himself vulnerable to the frailty of life, and yet was the King of the Universe. Truly amazing.

This is (part of) what Mary wanted to know when she spoke with Gabriel in Luke chapter 1. Mary asked the same question I have asked myself, “How can this be?”

Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would “come upon” her.

Mary needed the Holy Spirit to “come upon” her before she would ever be qualified to do anything for God.

Before Mary could take on the most important task of all mankind, God’s Holy Spirit would “come upon” her.

We need the Holy Spirit to “come upon” us this morning.

Many people have told me they do not enjoy the holidays because it is too commercialized. Many people:

· Say the holidays are hectic.

· Have to work longer hours.

· Rush to the malls and shopping centers.

· Have Christmas parties with their extended families.

· Have even more parties to go to at work or at school.

Many people get down and depressed during the holidays due to old memories. The loss of loved ones.

Sometimes it is the regrets of past relationships.

We cannot allow ourselves to miss the joy found in Christmas.

But it is not just during the holidays that we have to deal with exhaustion and depression.

For some, this is something they deal with all year long.

Questions:

· Do you become weary/tired in trying to do what is right?

· What is it than can cause you to grow tired and weary?

· What can any of us do to gain our strength back?

Let me try and answer these questions for us. We can get our strength in the natural or we can get it in the supernatural.

In the Natural

There are a lot of things we could do differently in the natural. Perhaps we could start eating right, exercising, and get plenty of rest. And naturally, these are things we should be doing.

· Maybe we should go see a therapist for help.

· Maybe they could tell us what would be best for us.

· Maybe we should go purchase a Beauty Rest Mattress.

(You know, one of those with a soft pillow top cushion to make us sleep better, so we will feel better.)

We have health clubs we can go to nowadays. Perhaps we could go to an expensive Health Spa at a Luxury Hotel somewhere down in the Caribbean.

My point is, the world believes we can better ourselves by spending our money and buying a fix to our problems.