Summary: Adapted from a sermon by Brian Atwood. God cannot nor will He use proud people to do His work. Proud people get in the way because if you aren’t yielded to God, you begin to think you can handle things on your own.

Last week we saw an angel come to Zechariah with a message that the prayers, he and his wife Elizabeth were praying had been heard and that they were going to have a son.

Let’s pick up the story in the first chapter of Luke’s account of the greatest story ever told. READ

Have you ever given much thought to the world into which Jesus was born?

It was a time of spiritual darkness. Remember what I said, last week? It had been four hundred years since the last Old Testament prophet was inspired to write God’s words. Until this time God has been silent.

Rome rules the "civilized" world and the Greek culture is flooding the world, including many immoral and unfulfilling philosophies.

I love what E. Stanley Jones said…Instead of saying, "Look what the world has come to!" the Bible says, "Look what has come to the world!"

It was during this dark and lonely time that darkness met its match in the light of Jesus!

The Good News of the birth of Christ is the most positive and uplifting news anyone has heard in over 400 years and that’s how Mary received it.

She could have been fearful. As a poor young woman (most believe still in her teens) she could have been overwhelmed by her circumstances. She could have been filled with apprehension at the message of the angel that she, a young virgin, would bear God’s ONLY Son.

Mary’s response to God’s revelation is an example to us all!

I want you to answer the question: “How should I respond to God?”

There are three vital Ways you and I should respond to God:

1. Respond to God with humility.

Look at Mary’s response when she heard the incredible news that she would give birth to the Son of God.

Luke 1:38 (NCV) "I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!"

Humility is all about how you see yourself - and Mary saw herself as a servant and that’s one of the reasons God chose her.

God cannot nor will He use proud people to do His work.

Proud people get in the way because if you aren’t yielded to God, you begin to think you can handle things on your own.

When that happens, your pride will inflate your ego to the point you believe you don’t need God and you will eventually make a mess of things.

When God picked a town for Christ to be born in He picked the one camel town of Bethlehem.

He chose a cattle stall as the delivery room where His Son was to be born.

When the angels announced Christ’s birth it was to humble shepherds on a hillside…not to Herod in the Jerusalem palace.

When He needed a servant to bear His Son He chose a humble young woman from Nazareth.

God hasn’t changed. He’s still looking for big commitments from people who are small in their own eyes.

Proverbs 3:34 (GNT) He (God) has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.

Here’s a reality for you. Being humble is simple, when you realize that it’s a matter of perspective.

The naturalist, William Beebe told how he and Teddy Roosevelt would go out on the lawn together after an evening of talk. They would search the skies for a certain spot of light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then Roosevelt would say, "That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun."

Then Roosevelt would grin and say; "Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed."

What does it mean to be humble?

Andrew Murray said, "The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him.

He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because ... he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor.

Therefore, in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, and humility."

In the year 59, the Apostle Paul wrote these words in 1 Cor. 15:9: "I am the least of the apostles."

Four years later, he wrote: "I am the very least of all the saints." In Eph. 3:8.

And a year after that in 1 Tim. 1:15: "I am the foremost of sinners."

Here’s something for you to take home today. As Paul matured he thought less of himself.

Even at a very young age, Mary possessed the humility of spirit that God blesses.

Luke 1:30 (NCV) The angel said to her, "Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has shown you his grace.

Grace is favor. God favors the humble. God blesses the humble. He uses the humble to accomplish His tasks. He works in cooperation with the humble.

When God asks you to participate in His plans to help others, you have a choice. Just like Mary did.

She didn’t have to agree to carry this child and become a spectacle among her own people.

You can choose to partner with God in His work or you can just tell God to get to stepping.

I don’t know about you but I will do what Mary did and say,

"I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!"

When you approach God – make sure it is with humility, if you want God to work in your life.

The second vital way to respond to God that Mary exhibited is.

2. Respond to God in faith.

In Luke 1:45 (NCV) Elizabeth said to Mary

"You are blessed because you believed that what the Lord said to you would really happen."

Let me ask you something.

Do you think it was easier for Mary to trust God in her circumstances than it is for you in yours?

What is God asking you to trust Him with, right now? What are you dealing with that God has said to you, “Let Me handle it…Trust Me to do the right thing?” Was Mary’s circumstance easier than what you are dealing with right now?

Think about this – She believed that, even though she was a virgin, she was going to have a baby. Why? Because God said so!

Has God ever asked you to believe something that required more faith than that? Probably not!

Mary believed God’s message to her through the angel. And the writer of Hebrews reminds us in:

Hebrews 11:6 (NCV) Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him.

Faith honors God and God honors faith!

Let me read you a story from the life of missionaries Robert and Mary Moffat illustrates this truth.

For 10 years this couple labored faithfully in Bechuanaland (now called Botswana) without one ray of encouragement to brighten their way. They could not report a single convert. Finally the directors of their mission board began to question the wisdom of continuing the work. The thought of leaving their post, however, brought great grief to this devoted couple, for they felt sure that God was in their labors, and that they would see people turn to Christ in due season. They stayed; and for a year or two longer, darkness reigned. Then one day a friend in England sent word to the Moffats that she wanted to mail them a gift and asked what they would like. Trusting that in time the Lord would bless their work, Mrs. Moffat replied, "Send us a communion set; I am sure it will soon be needed." God honored that dear woman’s faith. The Holy Spirit moved upon the hearts of the villagers, and soon a little group of six converts was united to form the first Christian church in that land. The communion set from England was delayed in the mail; but on the very day before the first commemoration of the Lord’s super in Bechuanaland, the set arrived. (Paul Fritz)

Ralph Hodgson once said: "Some things have to be believed to be seen."

Mary believed that what the Lord said to her would really happen – and it did!

And the third vital way to respond to God is:

3. Respond with praise.

Luke 1:46 (NCV) Then Mary said, "My soul praises the Lord."

Mary not only believes God enough to completely trust what He has said to her – her faith is so strong that she begins to praise God as if the birth of His Son has already taken place!

What is your initial response when God allows you to face a situation that calls for you to trust Him?

Do you doubt? Are you filled with the dreaded “woe-is-me: virus?

Do you begin to feel sorry for yourself and start singing the "why me" song to God?

Do you struggle with inner peace because of your worry?

The most important step in developing inner peace is to stop complaining and start praising!

How could Mary praise the Lord when this promise from God just flew in the face of four thousand years of man’s history?

The ONLY other man ever to exist, without a human father was Adam…

AND NOW we find God asking Mary to trust Him as He brings the second Adam into the world by way of a virgin birth.

Instead of being confused and worried Mary was filled with praise!

If praise is not your natural response then you need to practice making it your natural response.

If you and I want praise to come natural to us in the bad times we’re going to have to practice praising God in good times until it becomes second nature, until it becomes something we do almost without thinking.

I’m saying that praise was not something that Mary worked up. Praise came natural to her.

Praying and praise are two things a lot of people have got messed up ideas about. If you think you’re only supposed to pray when you’re in trouble and praise when everything is going great – then you’ve got the wrong idea. You are supposed to pray and praise all the time!

Here’s my question for you today: How are you responding to God?

1) Are you responding to Him with humility?

2) Are you responding to Him with faith?

3) Are you responding to Him with praise?

Invitation: