All right open up your Bible here on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, to Luke Chapter 1, and I want to talk this morning about this title, “God Has Arrived.” And that’s the meaning of the Advent, the longing, the awareness that God was coming, that God was going to arrive, that the Messiah was going to come to the earth. And this morning in Luke Chapter 1, we’re going to look at the story. We’re going to take a look at the Magnificat. We’re going to take a look at the song of Zechariah and we’re going to discover some things, why it’s important that God had to come the way He came. The reason that God had to arrive in the body of a little baby, birthed by a teenage girl in the middle of the night, there is a reason for all of that.
Let me ask you a question. What is the greatest miracle in the Bible, you think? I mean, think about all the miracles because the Bible is full of miracles. In fact without miracles, we miss the core message of the Gospel. The whole Bible is based … our whole belief system is based on the idea of miracles. So what do you think the greatest one was when you think about the Bible; the parting of the Red Sea? I mean, that’s a natural miracle. The sun standing still? That’s a pretty big miracle. I’d make the Top 20 maybe. What about somebody being raised from the dead? I mean, that’s a big deal. And then we saw that throughout scripture, people being raised from the dead, and people being healed of their diseases, their sicknesses. That’s a big deal. And that happens throughout scripture: Old Testament, New Testament; people were healed, miracles happened all the time in the Bible.
In my opinion though, the greatest miracle in the Bible is the Incarnation. The fact that a finite God would come in human form, taking on the infinite God, taking on the mortality of the human being, entering into our world as a human being, the Incarnation. The fact that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary, that she would give birth to this fragile baby; this baby to me is the greatest miracle in the Bible. And I think often times, we’ve lost the meaning, the awareness, the awe of that moment when Jesus came as a little baby.
And next week I’m going to talk about the grand invasion; what really happened in the spiritual realm. We’re going to talk about that next week. We’re going to talk about the angels and the spiritual warfare that happened. But I was thinking this morning driving here, to the church, there was a tremendous amount of spiritual battles going on in the heavenly realm. If you read Revelation Chapter 12, or read that this afternoon or this week, you’ll see kind of a type-in shadow or a picture of the demonic spiritual warfare, the clash between heaven and hell that was happening during the Incarnation.
But I was thinking, you know, God had to come into the world and most people, most Jewish people especially, believe that God would show up the conquering Warrior King: the Leader, the Conqueror because they were being enslaved by the Roman Empire. They needed freedom. They needed somebody strong to come and defeat the powerful Roman Empire. Everybody thought that Jesus would show up 9 feet tall with you know, armor on, and a big sword blazing, and come in and defeat the Romans. Instead God sends a baby.
God sends a baby when everybody was expecting the Warrior King: Leader, powerful—God sends a baby. Isn’t it an amazing thing that God … we always … the enemy especially always over estimates what it takes to defeat Him. When everybody was expecting the Warrior King, here comes a baby. And the baby brings redemption.
So let’s pick up this story today, Luke Chapter 1. Last week, we ended our talk last week with Mary in verse 37 and 38 saying, “May it be to me as You have said. I am Your servant.” Remember we talked about being open to whatever God has for your life saying, “I’m a person of a great purpose, may it be to me as You have said, God. I am Your servant. Do with me like You want.”
So let’s pick it up now in verse 39. We know that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist is further along in her pregnancy, about six months further along in her pregnancy than Mary is. But this is the first time in Luke that we actually hear Mary. Now she’s got a baby in her womb. Baby Jesus is now in the womb of the Mother Mary. In verse 39, at that time, so Mary has taken a trip to go see her cousin, Elizabeth.
At that time, verse 39, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in a hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and notice this, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now a lot of people misread that and think that the baby was filled with the Holy Spirit inside her womb. That’s not what happened. Remember what Gabriel said, Gabriel said that at birth John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s not what had happened. This is not what had happened though. This is when Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
In verse 42; in a loud voice she exclaimed, notice what she says here. Notice that there should have been, in the natural realm, there should’ve been tension between the older Elizabeth who was having a baby much later than she expected. There should’ve been tension between her and Mary; Mary who was having a baby a lot earlier than she had ever expected. There should’ve been tension between these two women.
Elizabeth was the one who was shunned, who was scorned. Mary was the highly favored one. There should’ve been friction and jealousy and tension; instead, listen to what comes out of Elizabeth’s mouth. She said, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” Notice the prophetic thing that came out of Elizabeth. She’s just been filled with the Holy Spirit and then out of her mouth as soon as she’s filled with the Holy Spirit, this prophetic words come out and said, “Why am I so favored that the Mother of my Lord, the Mother of my God Redeemer, should come and visit me?” This prophecy came out of her; this foretelling came out of her.
Verse 44; “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who is believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” This is what we talked about last week again. Do you believe that when God comes to you and says things to you, gives you these great promises, are we men and women who will but believe God, agree with God, be willing to be used by God for whatever purpose he chooses? And Mary was and this is why she found favor.
All right let’s skip down now to verse 46 because this is when Mary has a response. Have you ever had something so good happen to you that you wanted to just sing, you just had this spontaneous moment, you just got the best news you’d ever gotten in a long time and you just wanted to tell somebody, you wanted to say something, or maybe you went into a little dance in your kitchen and you were hoping nobody was watching you, but you just got overwhelmed with joy.
Well this is what the Magnificat is all about, these next few scriptures that we’re going to read. It’s called the Magnificat. It’s a Latin word for magnify. “Oh magnify the Lord.” This is how this comes out of Mary. Notice the worship, the praise, the adoration that comes out in Mary’s heart in verse 46. And Mary said, “My soul glorifies the Lord.” Some of your translations may say, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” The Magnificat is based on that. And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has been mindful … now notice this, I kind of got a laugh out of this week because Mary is saying to God, “I’m so grateful that you noticed how humble I am.” Now notice she’s talking about herself here. I kind of laughed about that. “For He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.” Thank you Mary. “And from now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty One has done great things for me; Holy is His name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He’s brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but he sent the rich away, empty. He has helped His servant, Israel, remembering to be merciful.
Notice this; that she is recalling now the promise. All the Jewish people knew of the promise that God had made Abraham, and she is now recalling that and saying, “To Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he has said to our fathers that Mary and everyone else: Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, all of those who were following God at the time, they were remembering that God had made a covenant with Abraham and for thousands of years, hundreds of years they had longed for that promise to be fulfilled.
And now Mary, Elizabeth, and Zechariah get to be a part of that story. And this Magnificat, what I just read, that is a song that was meant to be said and played with music and it has been a song that the church has sung for 2,000 years. In fact in the early church often when they would gather like this, we sing songs that were written by Jared Anderson, and Jon Egan, and Glenn Packiam; they sang songs that were written by Mary. They would sing that. What I just read to you would come out of them with music. Maybe somebody there with a tambourine or harp, and they would play that and they would sing that song reminding them that God is a God who keeps His promises. That God is a God that when he says things, He does what He says.
So this song, The Magnificat, is a rich deep part of our history. And many of you who came from a liturgical background, you know what the Magnificat’s all about. But for many of us who came from traditions, we never celebrated that growing up in the churches where I grew up. But I’ve caught the meaning of it. It’s the rich, rich part of our church history that we need to reconnect with, as a church. And remember these were the songs that came out of the early Christ followers. This was 30 weeks before Bethlehem, 33 years before the Cross, yet God was at work. And this virgin birth, this Incarnation had started. Baby Jesus is in the womb of Mary and not long, 30 weeks later, He would be born; around 30 weeks later.
So this morning I want to talk about why that’s a big deal. Why is it that God came in the form of a baby? Why is it that the Incarnation is a big deal this morning? Here’s the first reason, because Jesus is fully human and fully God. The Incarnation is a reminder that God took on full humanity and He had full divinity; neither one decreased because He took on human form. He had fullness of humanity and he was fully God. And that’s a big deal to understand, so theological understanding that we need to have. God could’ve done this in a lot of ways. In fact I think there’s two other ways that God could have arrived on the earth.
The first way that most Jewish people thought, that He would arrive as a human being, a full grown man that he would come out of the wilderness and just appear to Israel. In fact a lot of people had trouble believing that Jesus was the Messiah, because they remembered Him as a little boy in Nazareth. And the tradition said, no, he’s going to appear as a great warrior. But if He had just appeared as a full grown man, I think we would’ve doubted His humanity. We would have serious doubts about whether He really could be a high priest who sympathized with our weakness.
Can this man, this messiah, if he just appeared out of nowhere, does he really understand the brokenness of humanity? Has he ever really been tempted just like we are, yet was without sin? We would’ve doubted His humanity if He had just appeared out of nowhere. And there’s another tradition, another train of thought that Jesus could’ve just been born of Joseph and Mary, natural human parents and then later on in His life could’ve taken on the fullness of deity, and a lot of people believe erroneously that Jesus took on deity when He was baptized by John the Baptist.
You notice when he was 30 years old, that at the Jordan River, Jesus is baptized and when he comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Some people believe erroneously, that’s when Jesus took on fullness of deity. If that were true that Jesus was born of a natural father, a natural mom, and later took on kind of the idea of deity, we would’ve doubted His deity. We would have had serious doubts about whether he was really a God. Just like God always does, God did it the perfect way. He chose a girl, Mary, and she was conceived, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the natural womb of a young woman. Therefore, He had the fullness of humanity and the fullness of deity and that’s why He came to the earth. And by the way, Jesus never, ever, ever, hid His humanity from us. Don’t ever think for a moment that Jesus ever hid the fact that He was fully human.
First of all the Bible says that He grew in wisdom and stature. He grew up like other children. Baby Jesus had poopy diapers. That’s a fact. He had to be potty trained. In fact it says He grew in wisdom, He grew in stature. Baby Jesus didn’t come to the earth with a full understanding of physics. He was a baby. He had to learn to talk. He had to learn to walk. He grew up like other children. Secondly, he became tired, hungry and thirsty. The scripture says that He was often tired, that He was hungry, that He slept at night, because He was tired.
Number three, He had human emotions. In fact nowhere in scripture do you see the fullness of His humanity and the fullness of His deity, then it’s a story when He raised Lazarus from the tomb. He waited for a few days until Lazarus had died and He shows up, and Mary and Martha come to Him and say, “If you’d only been here, our friend Lazarus, our brother would not have died.” And the Bible says that Jesus wept. Jesus cried with them, He understood their emotions and He stood there with them. And I believe He had His arms around them. And together the three of them, who they were all very close friends; I believe Jesus stood there and wept with them and then just a moment later, He walked over to the tomb and said, “Lazarus, come out of the tomb.”
Nowhere do we see the collision of human emotions and the power of His deity than right there in that story. Why did He stand there and weep with those women when He knew He was about to go take Lazarus out of the tomb? Because He was showing us something, He understood us. He understands our mourning. He understands our suffering. And that’s why when you lose a loved one, when you go through a season of mourning, Jesus says, “I know what you’re feeling.” Some of you right now, sitting in this crowd, are probably going through a stage of mourning, grieving over a loved one. Can I tell you something? God knows what you’re feeling. That’s why the Holy Spirit is the Great Comforter. Jesus said, “I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, I’m going to represent you to God. I’m going to speak to the Holy Spirit and tell them this is what they’re feeling. This is what they’re sensing.” And that gives us great hope that God knows what it means to weep and to cry with us and yet He does not withhold His power from us at the same time.
He had human emotions and he died. He died on the cross; a scientific death, a clinical death. It wasn’t that he went into some kind of trance. No he died. His brain function ceased. His circulatory system ceased. He had a clinical death; the same kind of death that most of us will suffer unless Christ returns. His body ceased to live. And at that moment on the cross, is maybe the second greatest moment or maybe the greatest moment of seeing His humanity and His deity. So He dies a death, he’s put in a grave, and three days later he comes out of that grave fully God. And Jesus still has human form today.
He kept His human form. In heaven now, when we see Jesus, we will see Him as a human being, when we go to heaven, and He’s fully God. He certainly never hid His deity from us. In fact in John Chapter 8, He left nothing open to the imagination. In John Chapter 8 verse 58, He says, “I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am.” Now he’s using a Greek word here, but the Hebrew word would be “Yahweh.” He’s not saying Yahweh, but he is obviously referring to God’s epic encounter with Moses in the book of Exodus where Abraham says, “Who are you?” Or Moses says, “Who are you?” And God says, “I am who I am. I am the great I am.” Jesus left nothing open to the imagination.
So here we are today, and some people say to me, “Well Brady, Jesus is just a good teacher.” Actually I had an atheist—obviously he says he’s an atheist. He sent me a message this week, kind of making fun of me, mocking me. And he said, “You know, you’re believing in a myth. You’re believing in that Jesus thing.” And he just kind of mocked me. I enjoyed hearing his heart because now I know how to pray for him. But Jesus was not just some good human teacher. God was not just some peaceful person; he didn’t leave that open to a possibility.
This is what C.S. Lewis said, I want you to listen to this, “Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse, you can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him, kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” And this is the greatness, the miraculous thing about the Incarnation I want you to catch today; he did not come just as a human or just as God, he came as a fully human, fully God, therefore is not left open to any other thing. He’s either God and Lord and our Savior, or He’s a fool and we must dismiss the whole thing.
That’s the tension of the Gospel, though. That’s the message of the Gospel. And today in this room right now, some of you need to have that decision settled in your heart. I’ve been praying all week for you. Those of you who are listening, who have not settled this issue in your heart, you may know about God. You make and quote some historical facts about Jesus, but maybe there are some of you in this room this morning, you’ve never made Him Lord. You’ve never surrendered yourself to His Lordship, to His deity, letting him take control of your life.
I grew up in church. I grew up hearing about God all my life. I mean I was there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and any time we had any event at the church, we were there. And so I knew about God. Even as a 16, 17, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, I could tell you scriptures. I could talk about God and the subjects of the Bible. But I had not made Him Lord.
It was in August of 1988, on a Saturday night, driving along the back roads of North Louisiana, where I had to make this decision in my heart. God brought me to a moment, and I remember just the conversation I was having; I was by myself in my little pick up truck I was driving. And God said, “Brady you’re mine. Brady, you are my son but you got to say “yes” to Me. You just can’t know about Me. I want you to know Me. I know you, Brady, but you don’t know Me. But I’m offering you this adoption.” This is when I first caught it. It’s not knowing about God that sets me free, it’s allowing myself to be adopted by God that sets me free. And when I said “yes” to adoption, when I said “yes” to being His son, is when I made him Lord.
So I’m telling you something, your knowledge doesn’t save you. Some of you can quote scripture and know about God, that’s not what’s going to save you in the end. That’s not our salvation. Our salvation is being adopted into His family. Saying “yes” to being a part of a big messy adopted family; that’s our salvation.
And here’s the second thing I want you to catch today. When Jesus came in the Incarnation, Jesus fulfilled a promise that God made to all of us. God was not just making promises to Abraham. Listen to this, in Zechariah’s song in Luke Chapter 1 verse 68, Zechariah himself … by the way, you know Zechariah had not been able to speak now for nine months until the birth of his son. Suddenly, he gets the ability back to talk and listen to what comes out of his mouth. The first thing he says is, “I want to name my son John, because there were some people arguing with him about what the name of his son should be; he goes, “No, Gabriel said to name him John, his name is John.”
Now this is what comes out of his mouth next in verse 68, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel because He’s come and has redeemed His people. He’s raised up a horn of Salvation for us in the house of His servant David. As He said through His Holy prophets of long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers, and to remember His Holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham.”
Here’s the promise, Genesis 12; the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people, your father’s household and go to the land that I’ll show you. I’ll make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I’ll make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse.” And here’s the promise for you and I. This is the promise that Jesus kept for all of us, “And all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.” That’s us. We’re the Gentile nation. Many and most of us are Gentiles here in Central Colorado, Southern Colorado. We’re mostly Gentiles who were allowed into this family; and this is an over arching story of Luke. This is an over arching theme of Luke; outsiders being welcomed into the inside; to the family.
This morning listen, we are part of the story that’s being told. This Luke Chapter 1 invites us into this grand story of humanity. I’m going to sum it up for you, all right? Here’s the story that we’ve been welcomed into. It started with God creating the heavens and the earth, we know that. The story opens up with God creating the heavens and the earth, putting a perfect Adam and Eve in the garden, but then humans sinned. Adam and Eve sinned. They were thrown out of the garden, but God comes to Abraham. He finds a faithful man on the earth and he comes to Abraham and He says, “Listen, Abraham, you’re a faithful man. I’m going to bless you, I’m going to bless your descendants, and I’m going to bless all the nations because of the promise, the Covenant that I’ve made to you.” And so for hundreds of years, the Jewish people eagerly awaited the fulfillment of that promise. Then Jesus comes to the earth for the first time through Mary, through a human body, through a young woman, and he fulfills his promise to the nation Israel.
Then Jesus dies on the cross, and the Gospel is not only preached to the people of Israel, but the Gospel is now taken all over the world throughout Europe, Africa, and because of that, your descendants, my descendants heard the Gospel for the first time. Many of them believe the Gospel and because of that, we heard the gospel, now we get to be a part of the story.
Now we’re eagerly awaiting something, just like they eagerly awaited something. We’re now longing for the return of Jesus a second time. And when He comes back, He’s going to take those of us who believe with Him, and a new heaven and a new earth will be created and that’s going to be our home forever and ever. That’s the story that we’re a part of today. That’s the story that I’m living out. I have a part to play.
I was thinking while we were standing here, I’ve got a part to play in this story. I’m at New Life Church in 2010 and 2010 is about to be over. And we’re entering into a new year and I was thinking, “Lord, I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds in 2011. I don’t know what’s all going to happen. I’m just so thankful, so grateful that in some small way, I’m going to be a part of the story that’s playing out right now, on this place, in this state, in this city, in this church. I’m a part of the story. And I want to long and eagerly await your return because Your return means that you’re going to make all things right. You’re going to set things right. The justice that we longed for is going to happen. Those things that are bad, the evil that we see in the world is going to come to an end, and we’re going to live in a place where we don’t have anymore tears, no more sickness, no more suffering, no more shame, no more guilt; that’s what I’m longing for.
Are you longing for it this morning? I don’t think we talk about it enough. I don’t think we talk about the return of Jesus; what He’s going to do when He returns: new heaven, new earth. That’s not some myth. That’s not something just to make us feel good and warm inside while we’re here. That’s reality for us. You understand the story that you’re a part of this morning? I am inviting you into the story with me; just long for the unfolding of it. Let’s see what God says to us. Let’s walk together and anticipate the arrival of our Savior and this time He will come back as the Warrior King.
The scriptures are clear in Revelation that when He returns this time, He’s not coming as some baby, He’s coming as the Warrior, the King, the Redeemer, the Father. He’s going to set things right. So if you’re longing for a justice issue in your life right now, you just wish that things will be made right.
Can I tell you to start then longing for the return of Jesus because that’s when the justice that you so longed for will happen? Some of the justice might happen now. Some things may get set right now. Let me tell you this, when Jesus returns, all things will be set right. And this is why you can forgive. This is why David and Marie can forgive so quickly. This is why the Murray family can release that and accept that forgiveness so quickly because they caught it. They’ve caught it.
All things are going to be set right. All evil will be gone. We’re not going to live in an evil world when Jesus returns. This is why I’m calling you a new life, start longing with me. Just like the Jewish people longed for the Messiah to come and fulfill this promise to Abraham, can we now begin to long ourselves for the promises that He’s made us? Can we begin to put our hands in the soil, and begin to do the work to be a part of the story? Part of the story is we’re going to open our very first dream center, sometime in January or February and that’s going to be a part of the story that unfolds for us. We’re going to see lots of people be born again next year. We’re going to see people baptized. We’re going to see people say “yes” to following Jesus and participating with the work that God’s doing on the earth. We’re going to see hundreds of people begin to cooperate with God who are not cooperating now, but they will. That’s the story. That’s the story that’s about to unfold in front of us. As we head into this end of year, new year season.
Can I invite you into the story? Some of you right now, you’ve never said “yes” to Jesus. You’ve always thought it’s just a set of rules. It’s a set of things that I’m not doing now that I’m going to have to do. You’ve reduced it down to behavior modification. Sin management, that’s not what I’m inviting you into today. Let me just say this, your behavior will get better when you follow Jesus. And you’ll probably sin less when you follow Jesus. But that’s not what God’s inviting you into today. The Holy Spirit’s inviting you into a family, I’m inviting you into a family, but more importantly the Holy Spirit is whispering to many of you right now sitting in this room.
The Holy Spirit is whispering to you. You know it; you know it just like I knew it that night. Many, many, many times God had come to me as a young man, inviting me in, drawing me in, and there were times I would take a step forward and a step back because I wasn’t ready to say “yes” to that because I had reduced the Gospel down to just sin management; being better, doing good. I wasn’t ready to be good. I wasn’t ready to be good. That’s being honest with you. I was enjoying what I was doing, but when I discovered and God showed me, it was not about just being good, it’s about being adopted. About Him choosing me, about him looking for me when I wasn’t looking for him, about him paying it all for me and just offering it to me as a free gift. This is the core message. If we were here, if we were 2,000 years ago, if we had been sitting in some synagogue listening to Paul or Peter or John or any of the early church fathers, this was the message, this is what they said, this was common. Almost every time they gathered, they would’ve heard what you just heard in the last 5 minutes: “Come on, come on you outsiders. All you Gentiles, all you outsiders, the way has been made now for you to be close to God. Say “yes” to Jesus, say “yes” to this adoption.” This is what Paul said, this is one of the sermons.
Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians, Chapter 4 verse 4, “For when the time had fully come …” Notice that he’s talking about Mary. He’s talking about the Advent. He’s talking about the Incarnation. “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under the law …”, which we were under the law before Jesus, “… that we might receive not good deeds, not good behavior, not sin management, not just morality.” He says, “That we might receive the full rights of sons.”
The Gentiles heard that for the first time. They heard the full message. God came, he sent His Son, born of a woman, and he redeemed it now. He redeemed you. He’s inviting you now to be sons and daughters, son with full rights; sons and daughters. This is the story of the Incarnation. This is why we gather, celebrate and sing songs like, “Oh Holy Night.” This is why we sing those anthems of our faith because we’ve been invited into a family. And Christmas, and Advent, this season rings all about family, isn’t it?
Just this week Pam and I we put up a Christmas tree and the kids we all got down there and it took us four days to put all the stuff on it. And last night we were stringing popcorn, putting it on the tree because Abram and Cali like to do that. It’s about family just being together. But it’s more than just traditions; it’s more than just that. The bigger picture, the bigger story is this; Christmas is about being invited into a family. Some of you have never experienced real family here on the earth but I got good news for you this morning. God’s inviting you into His family; the perfect family and He’s the perfect dad.
Can you close your eyes this morning or just focus on God; you don’t have to necessarily close your eyes but I know this for a fact; I know this with absolute certainty. There are many of you, I don’t know the number and I don’t know who you are, I’m not the judge of your soul, I’m not the judge of anything. I just know that as I prayed over you this morning, God made it aware to me all week, this morning He reminded me again, “Hey Brady, there are going to be people who are listening live on the web right now, there are hundreds of people listening live on the web. There’ll be thousands of people listening to this pod cast. There’ll be people on a treadmill somewhere with this playing in their iPod who don’t know Jesus. And when they hear this pod cast, maybe six months from now, a year from now, they’re going to hear this and the Holy Spirit even then is going to draw them into the family.
But this morning sitting here in this building, there are some of you that have never ever got it. And I can sit here and explain it for days even. But it’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit do you really get it; you understand it. It’s the Holy Spirit that draws us to Jesus. So Jesus leaves and says, “If I don’t leave the Holy Spirit won’t come.” And He says, “It’s better for you by the way if the Holy Spirit is here. It’s better for you if I go and the Holy Spirit comes.” And so Jesus leaves, the Holy Spirit comes and now you know the primary work of the Holy Spirit. The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to come into your heart and mind and show Jesus to you; to reveal Jesus.
So this morning, it’s not me that’s inviting you into a family, it’s the Holy Spirit inviting you in to be adopted sons and daughters. I’m not going to linger much longer but this is the decision, this is the collision, the tension that you’ve got to wrestle with. Do you just know about God or do you know Him? Have you chosen God the way God has chosen you? Because it’s absolutely true this morning, every person in this room God has already chosen you.
And listen, please hear that again, every person sitting in this room, God has already chosen you; he has. He says so before the creation of the world, he predestined that you would be adopted into His family as sons and daughters. And it says in Ephesians that it gave him great pleasure to even think about it. The same way some of you are longing, some of you are in the process of adopting a child. Maybe that child’s in another country; maybe that child’s in the foster system. The attorney has given you a date for when that adoption’s going to happen.
And now as a family, you’re sitting there longing for that day thinking about [inaudible 0:34:47] getting that baby in to your hands or that child into your home, and it’s legal and official now. And you’re longing for that date. You’re looking ahead for that date knowing it’s going to happen on that date.
Here we are December the 12th, 2010, and I believe before the creation of the world God knew that some of you sitting in this building that today it would become legal. Today your adoption into his family on December the 12th, 2010, I think there was a time where God looked ahead and saw you sitting right here, and in his heart, God felt joy that today it will be final, be done. Today it will be legal in heaven.
Now here’s all that’s required, is that you pray and believe; just believe. By the way, sin doesn’t send us to hell. Sin has been paid for; it’s unbelief, that sends us away from God. So all you have to do today is just believe it. Pray and believe. It’s done then it’s legal; settled, done. So I knew many of us have already said this prayer, many of us have already believed it, it’s been 22 years for me that I’ve followed Christ.
But I want us all to pray this prayer out loud together because there are some people sitting around you that have never said this prayer, and when they prayed it they never believed it. So we’re going to pray a very simple prayer. And if you believe in your heart what you’re praying, the adoption becomes legal today, right now. Nothing else is required, just believing, just receiving, and the adoption that God has been longing for, looking forward to, will be legal today, right now.
Can we all pray together? Let’s all pray this prayer out loud. It’s a very simple prayer and believe me, when I pray it in your mind here’s the thought that the enemy is going to bring to you, “That sounds too good to be true. That sounds too simple. Brady you don’t know what I’ve done. I’m a bad person, I’ve done bad things. I’ve done shameful things. One little prayer is not going to settle that.” Yes it is. That’s the miracle of salvation. One prayer settles it. That’s the miracle of salvation. That’s why salvation is the greatest miracle any of us will ever experience. It’s the miracle of salvation. It’s a miracle. I can’t explain it. It’s just a miracle.
So let’s all pray this prayer together. Father in heaven, thank you for dying for me. Thank you for paying for my sins. The Lord Jesus today I receive adoption into Your family. I choose today to make You Lord, to make You Savior of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me the ability to follow you all the days of my life. Thank you that today I am Your son, I am Your daughter. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Listen I know this for a fact. There are a lot of people who prayed that prayer for the first time and believed it today. Can we just celebrate the way the angels celebrate in heaven for saying “yes” to that? I want you to stand. Everyone stand with me this morning. Now listen, if you prayed that prayer and you meant it, I want you to tell somebody today. Tell somebody today before the day is over. Go to somebody that loves Jesus and say, “Listen, I prayed that prayer with Pastor Brady. I prayed that prayer. I prayed it, I believed it, it happened.” You’ve got to tell somebody.
The second thing is this; you need to get water-baptized. You say, “Well Pastor Brady I got baptized when I was a kid or I got baptized earlier.” No, get baptized again. Get water-baptized after the fact; after you said “yes” to Jesus. I’ve gotten baptized twice. I got baptized the first time, I really wasn’t a Christ follower. I did it because all my friends were getting baptized and I didn’t want to look foolish so I got baptized with them. But it was all after I became a Christ follower I realized I had never really been water-baptized until after salvation, the way scripture requires us. And so a few years ago, I said to Garbin [ph 0:38:59], “You know what Garbin, I don’t think I’ve ever been water-baptized after I really got saved.” So we were in Israel and Pastor Garbin, here I am, I’m the Pastor of New Life Church and I hadn’t really been water-baptized, I realized I haven’t.
I got baptized when I was a kid out of tradition. But I really got water-baptized a couple of years ago in the Jordan River, near the spot where Jesus was baptized, and Pastor Garbin baptized me. Now I’m not embarrassed to tell you that, and some of you don’t need to be embarrassed. You need to show up. Some of you are usher or greeter and a small group leader, and you haven’t been baptized after your salvation. You’ve been embarrassed to admit it. So the next time we have water-baptism, I want you to show up. We’ll celebrate just like you’ve just been born again when in fact you may have been born again for 20 years. It doesn’t matter. You get water–baptized, all right?
That was a free sermon there. It was all free of charge. And the next thing you do, if you don’t have a Bible, we’ll give you one today. I’ll give you a Bible today. Don’t steal one; we’ll give you one, okay? That’s part of being a Christ follower, you don’t steal anymore. So we’ll give you a Bible. If you need one, you tell us right now, “I need a Bible.” And we’ll give you one that you can read and understand, all right?
So those of you who prayed, will you come forward, all our altar ministry team? Maybe you’d like to tell somebody right now. We’re not going to sign you up. We’re not going to put you on the stage and embarrass you. We’ll sign you up for something if you want to be signed up for something. But we do have classes, Pastor Glenn Packiam, leads a discipleship class on Sunday mornings and is coming up in January, right?. January we’ll start another series of classes, that you can come on a Sunday morning, come to these classes and you can experience true discipleship; we’ll take you through how to read scriptures, how to pray, how to do those things. We want to help you grow in your faith, all right? Let’s pray one more time, if you need prayer for anything, but especially if you prayed that prayer come forward and let us pray with you again, okay? So let’s pray, Father, thank you so much for salvation, for redemption, for healing. Thank you Lord, that we’re a part of a big story that’s being told right now; that’s being played out. Thank you for giving us a role or part to play, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless, have a great Sunday, Merry Christmas. If you need prayer let us pray for you.
