Nothing! Nada Hay Imposible!

Nada hay Imposible!

Luke 1:26-38 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

Intro: Have you ever wondered why some people seem to land right in the middle of a miracle, while others never seem to have anything out of the ordinary happen? What makes the difference? I have heard of missionaries who have been used by God to raise people from the dead, cast out demons, heal all kinds of sickness (including leprosy), and witness many other supernatural and creative miracles.

-When we talk about the virgin birth of Jesus, some people tune out at this point b/c it makes no sense to the natural mind. Kind of like the little boy that came home from Sunday School and his mother asked him what he had learned. He said they had learned about a man named Moses who was leading some people away from the Egyptians and the Egyptians were chasing them. As they were being chased, they came to a huge river and so Moses had his men build a bridge and then all of the people crossed over. As soon as they crossed over, Moses called an air strike in and the planes blew up the bridge so that the Egyptians could not capture them. The mother asked her son, “Are you sure that is what your teacher taught you?” The little boy said, “No, that’s not what she said, but you would never believe the story she told us.”

-The virgin birth is an amazing account of a surprising God who doesn’t always do things the way we think He should. He definitely thinks outside the collective box of human expectation!

-I have experienced the miraculous in my own life. According to the doctors I should not be standing here this morning. I should be in a vegetative state, with little or no awareness of my life or surroundings, or long since dead. God is sovereign and will work in His own way and in His own time. He does not work at our beck and call. Nevertheless, I believe that He wants to increase the supernatural activity in and through each of our lives. The main idea of today’s sermon is this:

Prop: Anything can happen when we get right with God and live in His favor, yielding ourselves completely to Him.

Interrogative: How do we know this to be true?

TS: We are going to look at 3 big ideas that come from our text today. We will see that when we line our lives up with God’s plan, nothing can stop what He wants to do in and through us.

I. It Pays to be Right with God! (28-30)

Luke 1:28-30 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.

-When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he gave her a somewhat unique greeting: "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Aside from the fact that a mighty angel was speaking to her, these words troubled Mary. What did it mean that she was a highly favored one? In first century Judaism, the term for virgin referred to young maidens, usually 14 or younger. Mary was likely no more than 14 years old. So her youth and the fact that she was an unmarried female meant that she had no status or social standing that she should be greeted by anyone in this manner- let alone by an angel. Even if she had been an important person in society, a greeting like this would not have been normal. Mary knew something big was happening. Did being highly favored mean that God thought she was a wonderful person? In a sense, I would say yes. However, the sense in which the angel told Mary she was highly favored implied that God had chosen her as the one whom He would bestow a particular blessing upon. This was more than God thinking nice thoughts about her. God was going to put His plan into action through her life. What was this blessing Gabriel spoke of?