Turn in your Bible to Luke Chapter 1. Now I want to explain to you what we’re about to do. We are about to start a journey through the book of Luke. We’re probably going to be in this book until Easter. Probably for the next five months, we’re going to walk through the book of Luke, talk about the stories, the ideas that Luke captured.
So let me a give you a little background. We really don’t know who wrote the book of Luke. Obviously, it was a guy named Luke, Captain Obvious, but it was a guy named Luke. But we don’t know which Luke. There’s a Luke that Paul mentions three different times in his writings. In fact, in 2nd Timothy, Paul said that only Luke was with him and quite possibly the reason Luke was with Paul was because Paul was sick and Luke was a doctor; at least that’s my thinking on it. But Luke the doctor, the one who followed Paul, may have written the book of Luke and a lot of people think that he did. But there was another Luke; Luke the Evangelist that some people believe wrote the book. So we really don’t know. We’ll find out when we get to heaven. But it was a guy named Luke. And the thing that I like about Luke is that Luke was not an insider. Luke was an outsider who was invited in.
Luke was not a disciple of Jesus. He was not one of the 12 disciples. In fact, we’re going to find in just a minute that Luke probably did not personally witness anything that he wrote about. He was simply capturing stories and he did his own investigation, and put together this long letter to a guy named Theophilus, and explaining to him what Jesus did when He was on the earth. So Luke was a guy that was on the outside who got to come into the family.
Now I don’t know probably what the percentage is, but most of us sitting in this building this morning, we’re also outsiders who got invited in. In fact, probably 99% of us were Gentiles, and Jesus was Jewish. And the scriptures say that we as Gentiles were grafted into the Faith; that we were outsiders looking in and we were invited into the family. And that was the perception, the perspective of Luke. In fact, throughout the book of Luke, if you’ll read it, you’ll always see that he is inviting the outsiders into the family. If you look at the genealogy of Matthew, it stops at Abraham. But if you look at the genealogy of Luke in I think Chapter 3, it goes all the way to Adam because he was a guy that was welcoming everybody into the experience; everybody into the journey.
Another thing that I like about Luke is that he was a very detailed person. If it was Luke the doctor then obviously he had classical training and Luke talks about very detailed things, especially when miracles happen, when Jesus performed miracles, Luke mentions a lot of real specific things that the other writers of the other 3 Gospels don’t mention.
Also, the book of Luke is the only book that mentions the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. Those stories are only found in the book of Luke. So Luke was fascinated by the things of Jesus and he has a perspective on the teachings of Jesus that I find really fun to look at. So that’s what we’re going to do in the next five months. And the reason I’m telling you that is I want you to read along with me. I want you to open up the Bible on a daily basis. I want you to read with me. We’ll probably be in Luke Chapter 1 again next week.
So at some point this week, I want you to open it up, maybe with your family, and just read through the first chapter of Luke together and talk about it. What are the things that pop off the page at you? And this is the way I’m studying for the series. I simply … this is very simple. I just open up the Bible, normally around Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, I just open up the scriptures and say, “God, what are You saying?” And I try to read it, like it’s the first time I’ve ever read the story. And I want you to read the book of Luke like it’s the first time you’ve ever read it and ask God, “God what are You saying to me, as I read these familiar passages in these familiar stories?” All right?
All right, Luke Chapter 1. This morning I’m going to talk to you about people of a great purpose; people of a great purpose. We’re going to start in verse 5. If you read those first four scriptures, he’s talking about, you know, “I was not an eye witness, but I’ve come up with all these stories because I’ve done my thorough investigation.” He’s writing the letter to a guy, possibly named Theophilus although some people believe Theophilus means, “lover of God, friend of God,” and so some people believe he’s writing it to whoever loves God; so that’s one idea about who that person is Theophilus.
In Luke Chapter 1 verse 5, we open up with the story of Zechariah. And then we follow that up with the story of Mary. In both places, God … the Angel Gabriel is sent by God to Zechariah and to Mary, and this angel gives both people these amazing promises. And but they respond very differently. Let me ask you a question, do you believe this morning that God makes people promises? It’s not a trick question. God is a promiser. God makes promises to us. This is a bigger question: do you believe God is a promise keeper? What about the ones that haven’t happened yet? You see here’s what happens, people hear promises from God and then when it doesn’t happen exactly the way they think it should, they become disappointed, disillusioned.
I was thinking this week about promises. Pam and I know a lady. She’s about my age, 42-43, and for years now she’s asked God for a husband. And God has come to her and spoke to her, that he has a husband prepared for her. She doesn’t at all feel called to a life of singleness because she really feels like that God said to her, “I have a husband for you and you’re going to have a family.”
Well, here she is in her early forties, she’s a wonderful girl, wonderful lady, and she’s still not married. And she should be; she’s just wonderful, she’s sweet, she’s fun to be around. Pam and I have often talked, “Why is it that she’s not married?” It just seems like it’s an obvious thing that she should be married because she’s just this wonderful person, Godly woman. And so she’s wrestled with disappointments. You know, there are times when she has come to me and said, “You know Brady I’m just so disappointed. God made this promise to me and now here I am in my early forties and I want children, you know, I want to raise a family. It seems like the clock is running out for that, and where is God?” And then I’ve talked to people. I talk to people all the time, who have children, and these children are now adults and they’re not serving God, they’re not following God. And I’ve had parents say to me, they said, “Brady I did everything I knew to do as a parent. And I even quoted that scripture out of Proverbs you know, ‘Train up a child in the way they should go and when they’re older they will not depart from it.’ And I hung on to that promise throughout my parenting years, and now my kids are adults and they’re not following God. What happened? Where is God? He made me the promise. Why is He not keeping his promises?”
And so I want to give you permission this morning. I think this is something we need to talk about often in church. I think it’s okay personally to be a little disappointed sometimes. I don’t think that’s a huge sin. I think it’s something you need to be honest about; being disappointed in the way God’s doing things.
I had a man tell me not long ago, he said you know, when he was a young man, God came to him and said, “You’re going to be a blessed man all your life.” And this man is now probably early seventies and he said to me, “Brady, I thought that meant as a young man that I was going to be wealthy.” He said, “Here I am, early seventies and I’m not a wealthy man. And then I realized,” he said, “that really the blessing that God promised me was right by my side for 40 years as my wife. That’s the blessing that he was talking about the whole time.”
So here’s part of the problem about being disappointed in God. We think that God has to do it the way we want it. Instead, looking back in the rear view mirror of our lives, we see that God’s ways are always better than our ways. God really knew what He was doing when He made the promises to us.
So God not only is someone who makes promises, God is someone who keeps his promises. And we don’t live in a culture where people keep their promises. “I do” means “I might” in today’s culture. “I do” doesn’t mean what it used to mean when my parents said it. In fact 40 % of people just have it … just polled, this survey just came out. Forty percent of the people in our culture have given up on the idea of marriage. Do you know why? Because they don’t really believe that two people can keep their promises to one another. And everything now requires a contract, everything’s contract driven. You have to sign your life away to do anything. Even those warrantees, you know, where your money back guaranteed? There’s about 23 loopholes you got to go through in order to get your money back because nobody really keeps their promises anymore.
So because we live in that culture, we automatically believe that God is a God that doesn’t keep His promises, and yet He does. And so I was asking, “Lord, if you are someone who makes promises, what groups of people do you typically use for great things?” It’s people who believe His promises. I’m going to talk about that in just a minute. But let’s first look at these two encounters, Zechariah and the Virgin Mary, both had an epic encounter with the Angel Gabriel, and I want you to pay attention as we read these stories to how they responded to the promises of God. Let’s pick it up here in verse 5.
In the time of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of a really hard word. His wife Elizabeth, just making sure you’re listening, his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Pastor Aaron [ph 0:09:51.5], now that’s a different Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. Now notice there are two really good people. These are people that are amazing people; they’re Godly people, they’re devoted people, devout people.
Alright, verse 7, “But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well along in years.” Now in this culture that Elizabeth and Zechariah were living in, to be barren, to be childless was a curse. And the other women in the community openly mocked a woman who could not have children. So Elizabeth’s realty was this, everyday when she went out to do the washing, the cleaning, whatever she did, the other women in the culture, the other women in the town that she lived in, openly mocked her, made fun of her because they saw barrenness as a curse form God that obviously she had done something to be cursed by God. And so this was a painful thing for Elizabeth to walk through.
Verse 8, “But once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as a priest before God, he was chosen by lot according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense.”
Can you imagine the shock of going about your normal priestly duties and suddenly this angel appears. POW! And that’s exactly what happened. “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to give him the name, John. He’ll be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He’s never to take wine or other fermented drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah.’”
Now everyone in the Jewish culture had been longing for the return of the Messiah and they knew because of Old Testament prophecies, that there would be a forerunner come before Jesus, someone like Elijah. So for Zechariah to hear this and say, “Listen, your son is that promised person, your son is. He will come with the spirit and power of Elijah,” was a huge thing. I mean that to a dad, for an angel to say that about your child is amazing. “Your son’s going to be like Elijah and prepare the way before the Lord. He’s going to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.” So the angel here is quoting Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew testament, the Old Testament, and Zechariah the priest knew that he was quoting the prophecy found in Malachi, that “He’s going to turn the hearts to the children, and the children’s hearts back to their fathers.” And listen to how Zechariah, verse 18, how he responded though. Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this?”
Now listen, I’ve never had an angelic visitation, except when I met Pam; that was the first time. That was pretty good, wasn’t it guys; you like that? Yeah, she’s smiling, isn’t she? I’m going to look back. All right, so I’ve never had an angelic visitation besides that. I don’t know about you, but if an angel named Gabriel; he’s kind of a big angel, kind of a big deal in the angel world. If that angel appeared to me, I think I’d believe whatever he said. I mean look at the question Zechariah just got – he asked, “How can I be sure of this?” What he was saying is, “How do I know that it’s God that’s speaking to me? How do I know for sure that this is possible; that this could even happen?” He was needing proof. Now this is a Godly guy. I’m not trying to make Zechariah out to be a bad guy. This guy was a Godly guy who followed the law blamelessly; remember, we just read that.
Yet there was something in his heart that when God gave him the powerful promise, his immediate response was doubt: “I don’t know if this could really happen. I’m not sure God if you’re able to make this happen.” And listen, he gives a reason for it. He says, “How can I be sure of this? I’m an old man and my wife is well along in years.” I like the fact that Zechariah knew better than to call his wife old. He said, “I’m an old man and my wife, well she’s kind of well along in years.” That’s a great way of saying that.
Verse 19, the angel answered, “I am Gabriel. It’s on my name badge right here. Look, I’m Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” And then listen to what happens to Zechariah, “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words which will come true at their proper time.” His first response was unbelief, “I don’t believe you, God. God I believe you can do that in someone else, but I’m not sure you can do it with me. I’m an old man; my wife is well along in years.” And Zechariah, as the priest, as a scholar of the scriptures, obviously knew the story of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. He obviously knew the story of Abraham and Sarah. Why couldn’t he believe that for himself? And listen, here’s the tension that I want you to think about in your own heart, do you believe that God can do amazing things with everybody else but you?
Do you believe that God’s capable of doing amazing things with everybody else, but when God comes to you and whispers something, it seems big? When He comes to you, and listen, let me just say this is a prophetic message to many of you today. God is about to come to many of you. He’s going to whisper a promise. Maybe it’s a promise for your child, like it was for Zechariah.
I feel like God’s already spoken to me about Abram and Cali [ph 0:15:55.5]. I can tell you with absolute certainty, what Abram and Cali are going to be like as adults, you know why? Because I asked God, “God, how should I be fathering them? What is it that you’ve placed in their heart that I am to treasure, that I am to nurture, that I am to help grow?” And God has not shown me everything. I’m not telling you I know everything that’s going to happen; I don’t. But there are a few things about Abram and Cali’s life that God has come to me and said, “They have this in them. And when they are older they’re going to be this kind. This is what you need to nurture.” It’s a promise and I’m holding on to those promises and I’m not going to share them with you.
Pam and I, we just talk among ourselves. It’s not something I broadcast of what I think is going to happen in their lives. And I haven’t even told them because I’m not trying to put some kind of burden on them to become something. I know what God has said about my children and I pray over it. I nurture it. I care for it. I believe it, and it’s big. It’s big stuff. It’s good stuff, stuff that God’s going to have to do. If any of the things that God has said to me happens in Abram and Cali’s life, it will be God, it will be a miracle, it will be obviously God. And I’m praying for it, I believe it, I trust it. Zechariah I believe also was silenced. It seems like punishment, doesn’t it? Just because you didn’t believe, POW! You can’t talk. But God doesn’t punish us. God disciplines us, and there’s a big difference.
And the reason I believe that Zechariah was made mute, is because I think he was an influential priest. Obviously he was a priest. I think he had influence over not only his home but over his community, and if he was going to speak doubt, I don’t think God wanted him to speak doubt. He said, “Until you believe me and can speak words of faith, I’m going to make it so you can’t talk. So first of all, I’m going to let your heart change and then I’ll give you your mouth back.” I believe God said, “You’re going to believe me, because the words I want you to speak need to be words of faith.”
Let’s fast forward now. The same angel Gabriel in verse 26, shows up in another town not far away to a young girl named Mary; you probably heard of her. Verse 26, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel (really busy angel, by the way) to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored …’ mark that, mark that, okay? ‘Greetings to you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.’” Of all the things I’d want an angel to say to me, “The Lord is with you,” is pretty big. That would be near the top of the list. “The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words; wondered what kind of greeting this might be but the angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” Notice twice the angel, to make sure she understands this, two different times he says, “You are highly favored. You have found favor with God. And you will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name, Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the most high. The Lord will give him the throne of His father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His Kingdom will never end.”
And notice her response; she doesn’t doubt God’s ability, here’s what she said, “How will this be?” She just wanted some details because she was old enough to know where babies came from. And she’s a virgin. And he says, “I’ll tell you how it’s going to happen.” Because again she was in an engagement period with her husband and she was married but for the first year of their marriage, they lived in their separate parent’s house and after about a year, the couple would come together and consummate the marriage and start living together. So she was in that engagement period and she knew, “I can’t become pregnant. That would be scandalous. They’re going to call me an adulterer.” So there was a lot riding on the angel’s answer here and listen to what he says; she says, verse 35, the angel answered, “The Holy Spirit …” notice that he says two things and you got to really pick this up, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.” Here’s what he’s saying, “I’m going to give you the ability on the inside to believe it, and I’m going to give you the power from the outside to do it. You’re going to believe it and you’re going to do it. And it’s going to be only by the help of the Holy Spirit.”
Listen, God is going to come to many of you and say things that you will not believe right off the bat. You won’t believe it immediately because it seems too big. It seems too enormous. And yet the Holy Spirit is right there with you. When God speaks to you, the Holy Spirit is the only thing that will allow you to believe and then to act upon it, to do it, to believe it and to do it. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. And this is why I want you to embrace the work of the Holy Spirit in your life because you will never believe what God says about you if you don’t. And you’ll never do what God’s called you to do unless you embrace the work of the Holy Spirit in your life; pursue the Holy Spirit. Saturate yourself with the things of the spirit and then you’ll start believing the promises and you’ll have the power to do it, unlike any other time in your life. Let’s keep reading here.
Thank you for the Amen. All right, he said, “I’m going to come upon you and I’m going to overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age …” and by the way, the angel was not near as nice as Zechariah “… a child in her old age, and she was said to be barren, is in her sixth month for nothing is impossible with God.”
Verse 38; now listen to the young Mary. We don’t know how old Mary was, 14, 15, 16, 17, somewhere in that age, in her heart though she had settled something. Zechariah’s first response was, “How can I be sure of this?” Mary’s response is, “Zechariah was the older man. Zechariah was well up in years. He was mature. He was a churchgoer. He was the priest.” Yet the young girl, barely old enough to be married, not old enough to even graduate high school probably. Just some girl has settled a big, big issue in her heart. And that’s why she had favor. I hear people all the time, “I want favor with God. I want favor with God.”
Listen, it’s not something you just order up like a sandwich. Can I tell you how you get favor with God? Make sure your heart responds the way Mary’s about to respond. You got to settle the issues in our own—we must settle these issues in our heart, then favor comes. Listen to what she says. So he just gives her an amazing promise, “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” And then the angel left her.
I don’t know about you, but if I were Mary, I had a lot more questions to ask. I would’ve asked a lot more questions than, “Okay, whatever. All right so I’m going to give birth to God and I don’t know … it’s not going to happen with my husband. And the Holy Spirit’s going to …. Okay, that makes perfect sense. I’m the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you said. Have a great day Gabriel. See you at Christmas.”
I think though there was something bigger here. I’ll tell you why, the reason she didn’t ask the questions that most of us would’ve asked because really something had happened in her heart. She was a girl, a young girl that trusted God. I don’t know how it happened. We don’t know anything about Mary’s childhood. We don’t know anything that would’ve caused this to happen in her heart, but she agreed with God. I wonder what two groups of people God really wants. I’m going to answer that question here, just briefly.
I believe there are two groups of people who God seems to always use for great purposes. Just wherever they go, they seem that God always uses them. And it’s not a big group of people. Listen, I don’t meet many people like this. I don’t know if I’m a person like this. I want to be a person like that, that God, whenever He gives me an assignment, whenever God speaks to me, I want to be used, and I want to be productive.
So here’s the first group of people that I believe that God just seems to always use. Number one is people who believe Him. And here’s what I mean by that. That sounds so simple and obvious but what Mary said, the angel said to her, “For nothing is impossible with God.” I believe that. People who really believe that, seem to always be used by God for great purposes. They seem to be a people of a great purpose. They just believe that whatever God says, he’s able to do it.
Now I know if I ask you the question, “Do you believe that God can do anything?” Everybody in this building with maybe a few exceptions would nod “yes” with their head. But would you say “yes” in your heart? Because if you believe that, then God will come to you and say something to you that seems almost impossible. And that will be the test. The test is when God asks you to do something that seems unnatural, that seems out of the scope of your abilities ….
Earlier this year, when God began to whisper to me, “Open these dream centers, open them up, prepare for the poor.” He led me to a scripture that said, “If you care for the poor, you’re lending to the Lord.” And what I said, my conversations with God were like this, “Well God, we have $24 million of debt on our building. Wouldn’t it seem right God, now I know you’re God, I’m not, but wouldn’t it seem logical to pay off our debt first, then we’d use the cash that we were paying off debt with to then open the dream centers so we wouldn’t go into any kind of debt? Wouldn’t that be logical, God?”
I wasn’t Mary. I questioned it because it doesn’t make sense, and I’ve had people ask me, “Brady, why are we opening dream centers, taking on more expense when we should be paying off the debt on our building?” I said, “I agree, I agree. That’s the way I’m wired. That’s what I would do at my house. Pam and I wanted to live without debt; I mean that’s how we live.” But that’s not what God said. God said, “Brady if you care for the poor, you’re lending to me. You care for the city; I’ll pay off your debt.” That doesn’t seem logical. But that’s what God said. And I just didn’t move forward without asking a lot of people.
We prayed about this as elders and leaders and I asked a lot of people, would you just pray with me that we’re making sure we’re doing the right thing, the God thing. We all believe God said, “Care for the city. Care for the city.” And He’ll pay off the debt. I just have to believe God for that. And every time we sing that song, “Jesus You Will Move the Mountains,” I won’t sing it out loud because I’ve done that once before and it didn’t go good. So singing “Jesus You Will Move the Mountain,” you know that song we sing? Every time we sing that song, we’ve sung it 50 times since I’ve been here, every time I pray about the debt, “God that’s a mountain of debt, I pray you to move the mountain; move the mountain. You move the mountain so that we can care for our city. But we’re going to start caring for our city God, and we’re trusting you to move the mountain.”
Do you believe that nothing is impossible with God? We may nod with our head, we nod with our head, but watch what happens when God comes to you and says, “Hey I’ve got an impossible, what seems impossible, I want you to do it.” That’s when the test happens; people who believe Him. There was another elderly couple that God blessed with a child. Romans Chapter 4 talks about Abraham, verse 18 says, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be, without weakening in his faith.’” Notice this, “He faced the fact that his body was as good as dead.”
Now I really can relate to that, death. Once you turn 40, you become mortal. By the way, if you’re under 40, you think you’re immortal; once you turn 40, you become mortal. And that’s what he was saying. Since he was about 100 years old, can you think about raising a baby at 100 years old? Let’s just think about being 100 years old, let’s start with that, and raising a baby. And he says, “And that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”
Verse 20 though is the key; this is what separated Abraham from most of humanity, though. Verse 20, “Yet he did not waiver through unbelief, regarding the promise of God that was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.” Are you fully persuaded this morning? That if God promises you something that seemed impossible, that he will still do it? Are you this morning fully persuaded that what God promises, God does? Fully persuaded? This is my prayer this morning, I want to be a person who is fully persuaded; people who believe Him.
Here’s another group of people that God always seems to use for great purposes. It’s people who are willing. I’m talking about a group of people who don’t know, have to know all the details before they say “yes.” I’m talking about somebody who said to God, “All of me belongs to all of You. And I don’t have to know all the details. I don’t have to have all my questions answered. I don’t have to know everything. I’ll just say yes, God. Before You even get the question out Your mouth God, I want you to know, the answer is always yes. Even when it seems mysterious and risky and maybe even dangerous, I’ll say yes. God I’m not taking anything off the table. All my chips are in the middle of the table. All of me, all for you. Lord I don’t have any preconceived ideas about how it’s going to happen, but God I’m just trusting. I believe in Your ability and I believe that I’m Yours.”
This is what Mary said. Mary said, “I’m Your servant. I’ve already made up my mind; I am a servant of the Lord. The Lord is not my servant, I am your servant. You’re not here God, just to meet my prayer request; I’m here to serve you. I’m here to give my life away for you.”
I would’ve had a lot more questions than Mary and I don’t think Mary obviously understood what she was saying “yes” to. Here’s what she was saying “yes” to. She was saying “yes’ to being the topic of gossip and ridicule. You can’t imagine the public beating Mary took when everybody found out she was pregnant. It was scandalous. The public ridicule, the whispers behind her back, the shunning of her family and friends because no matter how much she tried to explain, “It was God who made me pregnant.” That just didn’t fly very well to her friends: “Yeah, don’t blame God. You’re the adulterer.” That’s what she got. That was the language that she got. She didn’t know she was saying “yes’ to that.
And then she had to travel to Bethlehem while she’s nine months pregnant. Now nowhere in the Bible did it say she rode a colt or a donkey. We’ve made that up. But I’m assuming because Joseph was probably a nice guy that she did ride on the back of a colt. But listen ladies, those of you who have been nine months pregnant, would you like about a three day journey on the back of a donkey? Good camping trip? At nine months pregnant? I don’t think she understood that she was going to have her very first baby in a really strange dirty place. And by the way, it does not say she was inside a barn; again another Christmas myth. What it did say is there was no room at the inn. She could’ve very well been out in the wide open because every place had a manger; it’s a place they fed their animals; so almost every home had a manger, so it wasn’t that she even had shelter.
Here she is a scared lonely girl, about to give birth for the first time. Her mom’s not there, her friends are not there. She’s got a knuckleheaded husband who’s trying to figure out how to do that. Waah! Boil some water! Do you ever wonder why they say that? Boil some water. I think it’s just to keep the husbands busy doing something productive. Stay out of the way. And then I don’t think she knew she was going to have to flee for her life to Egypt because an evil ruler of the land had every two-year-old boy murdered. I don’t think she realized that in the middle of the night, she was going to have to grab her belongings and flee because an angel said, “Go to Egypt because your son’s going to be killed.” I don’t think she understood she was going to have to move back to Nazareth.
Now here’s the thing I think was the most difficult for Mary, and it would be for any mom sitting in this room, to be an imperfect mom to a perfect God child. You’re raising God. I think your kids may think they’re god but they’re not. And you got this promise and it says that Mary hid these things in her heart; treasured these things in her heart. What she did know was, this baby was not just some average baby. This baby was the living breathing Son of God, that came to the world and here she is trying to nurture that, trying to protect that, trying to do the best that she knew how. Can you imagine the insecure moments that Mary must have had to saying “yes” to this? And I can imagine Mary in her private times would have said, “God, why did you choose me? Why did you say this to me? I’m not highly educated.” In fact women had no education during that time, and “I feel ill prepared and God help me.”
Listen, that’s the journey God’s calling you on. Can I tell you that? That’s the good journey that God’s calling you on where you are literally trusting God every moment. God needs a handful of people who choose to live like that. Who just with reckless abandon, not with a lack of wisdom, I’m not talking about doing things that are not wise, but I’m talking about living with the reckless abandon. Giving up possession of your life, this is what it means to follow Jesus. Can I just sum it up for you? Laying it all down, dying to your own ambitions, your own dreams even, and saying, “God I am here to cooperate with you. All of me belongs to all of You.”
Listen if we could just find a handful of people, I mean less than 100 of us, if we said “yes’ to that, we could put a dent in the universe together. It doesn’t require thousands. It just requires a handful of us to say, “All of me, all of You, God, it’s all for you.” I’m not building a personal empire; we’re building the Kingdom of God. I want to say that again, that was really good by the way. You need to catch that. All of us, including myself on a regular basis, need to make sure we’re not building a personal empire here. I have no ambition for a personal empire. I want my ambitions to be only for the Kingdom of heaven and what He’s doing here because whatever I build is going to burn. Whatever He builds is for eternity. This is the radical idea. This is the thing we don’t want to talk about because it means dying to the self, dying to our selfishness, dying to our own things and ideas and saying “yes” to something that’s going to cost us everything. I wish I could make it nicer for you but if you say “yes” to this, it’s going to cost you everything; whatever you hold on to.
Listen, this is the fact and Jesus said it to His disciples, “If you hold on to this life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life you’ll find it.” If you hold on you’re going to lose it, if you let go … this is a paradigm of the Kingdom that we have to talk about. If you let go of it, it will come to life, you hang on to it, it’s going to die. And this is what Mary had already made up her mind. I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know what experience that she had had, I want to ask her this when I get to heaven. Might have some conversations with Mary and say, “Mary, how did such a young girl come to such a mature place so quickly? How is it that You had such divine revelation to say “yes” to an amazing assignment when you were so young?”
In fact listen, if you’re under the age of 20, can I say that God right now – I really believe this, that God wants to speak to that generation. If you’re under the age of 20, God so desperately wants to come to you and whisper promises to you right now. And what will happen if you believe it? If you are willing, those promises then will shape every decision you make for the rest of your life. That’s why God wants to give them to you when you’re young, so that you shape your decisions around the promises that God has made you.
If you’re just making random decisions without any end goal in sight, you’ll make random decisions; you’ll end up somewhere random. But if God speaks to you as a young man or woman and says, “Hey I’m going to say something really big to you.” And when he says it, if you’ll believe Him, if you’re willing, then everything else will fall into place. You want to know how to find the Will of God? Say “yes” to the promises of God first.
When I was a young 20-something, God spoke to me, “I’m going to give you a little girl with red curly hair and blue eyes.” And then he said some other things about this little girl that I’m not going to share with you, they’re very personal, but Pam and I began to pray for a little girl with red curly hair and blue eyes. Ten years later, now I can tell you a lot of stories in between there about how that shaped us and how we prayed that in, long before that. And yet we were infertile, not able to have—this story is very personal to me, God—Pam and I couldn’t have children in the natural realm, and God said, “I’m going to give you a little girl with red curly hair and blue eyes.” Ten years later I get a little girl with red curly hair and blue eyes. But I remember fighting with God, wrestling with God, being disappointed in God, complaining to God along the way.
Here’s the Grace of this message, even when we don’t do everything right, God is a promise keeper. God will fulfill what he’s promised. I’m talking to the singles out here who long to be married to a Godly young woman or a Godly young man or whoever. Even who have children, they’re not serving God; can I just encourage you that God is able? Do you believe that? Let me tell you if you don’t believe that, it will torment you. What your children are doing will torment you.
Parents who believe that God is able, I can tell you; you don’t have to tell me yes or no, I can tell if you believe if God is able because you’re at peace with it. Parents who come to me in a nervous fit over their kids, the issue is not their kids necessarily, it’s the issue do you trust God with your chil—we just did it; we just did baby dedication. And all the parents who did that this morning, can I tell you that was important what you did this morning?
What you’re saying is, “God, I’m going to be a good steward of this child. God you lead my child, you lead my son, my daughter and I am going to trust you, God. I am going to do my part God, as best I know how. I’m going to make a lot of messes and mistakes but God I trust You. I believe You’re able and God I’m willing to let them go. I’m willing to give them to Your Kingdom. I’m willing to give them up to You. I’m not going to hold on to my child and try to do this all by myself. I’m going to believe God that Your hand is on them, forming them, and shaping them.” And that’s what the only thing that will sustain you if and when they should wander away from the teachings of Jesus.
The only thing that will sustain you is this firm belief that God’s hand is on them, that He is able. I’ve just seen it happen too many times, a kid come back, kids come back. Parents trusted God the whole way; held on sometimes with white knuckles. God’s able if you’re willing. God is able if we’re willing. We got to settle those two things in all of our hearts this morning. God is able, if we are willing.
Can I pray for you this morning and I would like you to ask yourself this question, “Are you disappointed in God right now?” It’s okay if you are, I mean I think in fact the honesty of that, bringing that into the light will be part of the healing this morning. Are you disappointed that God made you a promise and it hasn’t exactly worked out the way you predetermined that it would? Maybe the blessing is not – maybe you’re overlooking the huge blessings because the one blessing you wanted hasn’t happened yet. Yet all around you these amazing blessings that God has put in your life – we’re so fixated on our idea of God’s blessing that we tend to overlook the enormous blessings that are all around us, that God did give us.
Are you fully persuaded? Only you can answer this question, and only you and God can wrestle this out. Are you fully persuaded that God is able to do what He’s promised you, completely persuaded, fully persuaded? And are you willing to say “yes” to whatever God asked you to do? Because God’s going to come and whisper to many of you about going to these countries and serving there and it’s going to scare you to death when He tells you. “What? Where? When?” And God’s going to say, “Will you go? I need somebody who’s willing.”
I believe this; God doesn’t necessarily need talented people. God really doesn’t need gifted people, although that would be nice. All really God needs is somebody who’s willing, and he’ll give to you. He’ll give to you if you’ll say “yes.” In fact, you won’t get the gifting until you say “yes.” In many cases you will not get the ability until you say “yes” first, and then you’ll just be subtly surprised how able you are to do it, once you said “yes.”
Let’s pray together; ask yourself those questions. Ask God to show you, “What’s in my heart, God?” Father in heaven today, we thank You so much for Your Holy Spirit. We are so thankful for the Holy Spirit, who not only gives us the desire to do things for You, but you give us the ability to fulfill it. You work in us and you overshadow us, You come upon us, and You overshadow us. We welcome the work of the Holy Spirit this morning in our lives. We welcome transformational work of the Holy Spirit. Give us the ability to believe you, Lord. And give us the willing heart to say “yes” to whatever You say for us to do. We’re in; count us in Father in heaven. And I pray that over every person today, let us be a people who are willing. Let us be a people who believe Jesus’ name. Amen.
Will you stand this morning? I’m so thankful for you being here. This is a love I hope you embrace this and go in with me into the book of Luke. Let’s read it together, talk about it together. I want our altar ministry team, those of you who prayed down in front, if you’ll step out right now and come forward; let us pray with you. Let me just say this, if you’ve got a promise that you’re holding on to, one of the most encouraging thing you can do is to have someone pray with you. And just tell them, this is something I believe, “God has promised me and would you pray with me that I would believe it, that I would be able to act upon it.” So we’re here to pray. If you need prayer you step out. If you need prayer for anything, we’ll pray for you down here, okay?
Guest Central is right there. That’s where Pam and I are going to go, to Guest Central. Love to meet you if you’re new to New Life or you’ve been around new Life for a while and we haven’t met, come to Guest Central, we’d love to meet you, all right? Don’t forget the hospitality challenge that we gave each other about three weeks ago. That is to find people you’ve never met, invite strangers into your life, aliens and strangers is what that word really means. So if you meet any aliens, strangers, people who look like aliens are strangers. But meet one another, go to lunch with one another, have them to your home, embrace this hospitality challenge with me, all right?
All right, let’s pray one more time, Father thank you for what You’re doing. We believe it. We trust You, in Jesus’ name. Amen. God bless, have a great Sunday. Meet somebody you don’t know.
