Unwrapping the Gift of Faith (Luke 1:26-45; 2:1-7)
Faith is unwrapped by Acting despite being Afraid (Luke 1:38)
Faith is unwrapped by Believing despite not Seeing (Luke 1:45)
Faith is unwrapped by Being Content despite bad Circumstances
(Luke 2:1-7)
Slide
Intro
One week until Christmas.
Christmas gifts are being
bought and wrapped and
placed underneath trees
all over the world.
What is it that you will be unwrapping this year?
Last week we began a series, “Unwrapping the gifts of Christmas”
We started by talking about how to unwrap the gift of courage in our life.
This week we are going to talk about how to unwrap the gift of faith in our life.
To do that we are looking at the people of the Christmas story. Last week we saw how Joseph unwrapped courage into his life. This week we are going to see how to unwrap the gift of faith, just like Mary did.
Turn with me to
Luke 1:26-38 (p. 723)
Slide
We are going to read the account of
Mary finding out that she was going to conceive the Christ child
and how she received the gift of faith and
what that faith led to in her life and
what it can lead to in our life.
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.
(from New International Version)
That is some pretty amazing stuff there
If you had one of your friends tell you this story, you would probably be pretty skeptical of your friend.
And your friend, if they had this happen to them, would probably be pretty skeptical about anyone believing them.
Now, I want you to imagine for a moment Mary, a young teen girl, who finds herself with child conceived of the Holy Spirit told to her by an angel.
Knowing that the penalty for sex outside of marriage could be death, or if things went unbelievably well,
divorce from the man you are betrothed to,
public disgrace and humiliation for your family, and
you being ostracized from society.
Those are some great options.
She could have tried to talk God out of it.
I am certain that she was very scared of the outcomes of this situation.
But instead of trying to talk God out of it,
Instead of running away,
Instead of complaining about the situation, “why Me!”
She says, “May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)
She acted in spite of her fear
And that is the first thing we need to learn about growing in faith.
Faith is unwrapped by Acting despite being Afraid
Slide
she did not resist,
she did not run from it.
She accepted it and acted in accordance with that acceptance.
She informed Joseph and her family and did what was right even though she probably knew that nobody would believe her.
She did the right thing anyway.
Easy to talk herself into believing something else
This spot that she finds herself in is so unbelievable that it really would not take too much for her to convince herself that it was just a dream.
In today’s world, if she went to a psychologists they might explain to her that explain that she must have been so emotionally traumatized by a rape that she has blocked the whole situation out of her mind and has replaced it with some far fetched dream of Messianic proportions.
No need to tell people about the angel.
No need to tell them that God is the Father
Tell them what “really” happened, and that she just doesn’t remember it.
But she doesn’t try and convince herself otherwise.
She Acts in spite of being Afraid.
She not only finds that Faith is unwrapped by Acting despite being Afraid,
But she also finds that
Faith is unwrapped by Believing despite Not Seeing
Slide
You have heard the phrase Seeing is believing?
Well Faith is Believing despite not seeing.
She believed the angel
about what he said about her and
about what he said about Elizabeth
The angel told her that even Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant despite the fact that she had been
barren all her life and
was now old and
beyond child bearing years.
The text tells us that after the Angel left, she went to Elizabeth her relative.
Maybe she didn’t really believe.
Maybe she was just going to prove that it was false?
I want to tell you something.
For Mary to go to Elizabeth’s house was not like running down the block to your neighbors. It was more like an 80 to 100 mile journey on a donkey or by foot.
Mary believed and wanted to go see Elizabeth.
I want you to notice that as we begin to unwrap faith,
even as we believe without seeing,
God gives us something to help confirm our faith as well.
Here, God gave Mary Elizabeth.
Mary goes and visits Elizabeth and Elizabeth, her relative confirms the things that the angel told her.
Luke 1:41-42
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
(from New International Version)
Elizabeth confirms to Mary that there is something very special about the child she will bear.
Her faith that she is uwrapping, God is confirming.
God is so good to us.
He knows how weak we are
He knows how weak our faith is and yet he continues to want to pour out and encourage our faith.
Have you ever had God confirm your faith?
Jason’s neck
I remember when Jason was little.
He had a problem with his neck.
His head was always tilted to the side.
The doctor said it was probably a pulled muscle that happened in uetero and that it was scar tissue that may need surgery.
We tried neck stretching exercises and a brace that he wore that went from his chin all the way down to his waist that kept his neck tilted the other way.
It really did not seem like it was working.
So we had scheduled surgery, and couple of days before surgery, we were not feeling very comfortable with him having this surgery.
Now we were very young Christians at the time, and I was believing that the Lord was not wanting us to have this surgery.
We were to meet with the doctor the day or 2 before the surgery
Now while I did not have an angel visit me and tell me that, I remember praying that the Lord would just make clear what we were to do.
So we went to the Doctor, whom I really don’t know if he was a Christian or not, but I remember sitting in his office that day like 2 days before the scheduled surgery, and him saying, “Let’s let God work on him a little more.”
God confirmed to us, even in the weakness of our faith, that we were doing the right thing.
He took a weak faith, and gave us more and even strengthened our faith.
But it started with believing without seeing.
Mary believed without seeing and Elizabeth even confirmed that to her
Luke 1:45
45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
She had already believed.
We also learn through the story of Mary that
Faith is unwrapped by Being Content despite Bad Circumstance
Slide
Luke 2:1-7
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
(from New International Version)
We have heard this story a lot.
But this story is not only remarkable for what we read, but what we don’t read.
We don’t read that there was any complaining.
Application
Have you ever been in a position that you are trying to do exactly what God wants and nothing seems to go right?
That can be rather frustrating.
Imagine Mary and Joseph.
They took steps of courage in staying the course when it seemed like there were better options from a worldly point of view.
Mary is taking steps of faith and trusting God through all of this.
They are doing just what the Lord would have them do.
We from our human standpoint think that God should smooth things out for them, shouldn’t He?
“Ok, God, they are following you and relying on your strength, why not just give them a room at one of the inns? I mean, you are in control and everything, aren’t You?”
You ever been there?
You ever been in the spot where you are trying to follow God’s plan for you and your circumstance just the pits and it seems to keep getting worse.
They had to make the long journey.
Mary is ready to have the baby.
There is no place to stay.
Or maybe for you it’s
Lord, I am following after You and then I lose my job.
What is up with that?
Or
Lord, I am trying to be the spouse you want me to be, but my spouse
continues to take advantage, or
abuse me, or
neglect me.
Or
Lord, I am trusting you more and more and acting out my faith, but my medical condition seems to only get worse.
What is Going on?!
This is where faith is truly unwrapped.
There are going to be times when we are faced with situations that we are really not going to understand.
We can either trust God with the faith He is giving us and be content that God is doing some greater work and using us.
Or
We can turn from God and shun the faith He is giving us and say, I will only trust you after you pass your plan by me and I approve of it.
When we can
keep our focus on Him and
be content despite our circumstance and accept it,
we have come to a point of no longer having to rely on our circumstances for joy, we can rely on God and God alone.
But God has to put us in spots so we have to rely on Him, otherwise, in our weakness, we rely on our circumstance.
That is not where God wants us.
That is not where we experience life best.
Life is best experienced with a strong faith.
A faith that can find contentment and peace no matter what.
That is what is available to us and that is what God wants us to have.
Listen to what Paul says about contentment.
Philippians 4:11-13
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
He learned the secret of being content is to rely upon God for everything and when we do He will make us strong so that we can get through those circumstances, and not only get through them, but get through them and
be stronger,
better equipped and
in deeper relationship with the Lord.
We can be content knowing that God will always provide what we need.
Paul tells young Timothy in
1 Timothy 6:6-8
But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Ask God to help you be content in the situation you find yourself, trusting Him to provide for you exactly what you need.
Now this doesn’t mean that
we look for bad circumstances or that
we don’t avoid them when they are in our control.
But there are many circumstances that are not in our control that we need to learn to be content with and trust that the Lord is working out His purposes.
We are going to be closing in prayer in a minute.
I believe there are many here that need to unwrap the gift of faith that the Lord is giving you today.
Saving Faith
To Some of you, the gift of faith that He is offering you is a saving faith.
The Bible tells us in
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (from New International Version)
If you would just, by faith, receive Jesus Christ as Savior by believing in Him for the salvation of your soul you will be saved.
Romans 10:13
13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
When we pray in a minute won’t you just receive the gift of faith and exercise it by believing in Jesus and telling God exactly that.
Living Faith
For others of you, the faith he is offering is a living faith.
A faith that helps you persevere and grow deep in relationship with Him so that we can be complete.
James says this in
James 1:3-4
You know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything
God wants the very best for you,
but it will not be found in the world, it is
only found in a relationship with Him
that is by faith from first to last.
Won’t you unwrap the gift of faith and trust Him more today.
Let’s pray.
