How God Can Use Your Life
Luke 1:26-38
Introduction
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God’s part in using my life…
1.God chooses the person.
When God got ready to prepare for the
coming of His Son, He chose an ordinary Jewish teenage girl to have the honor of being the mother of the Messiah. He chose a young girl, who lived in the backwoods town of Nazareth. Nazareth was a town that served many soldiers and tradesmen because it was on an important trade highway. But it also had the reputation of being a rough and corrupted village. There weren’t many virtuous people, much less teenage girls, who lived there.
That’s one of the reasons that when the disciple Nathaniel heard that Jesus hailed from Nazareth, his first response was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth” (Jn. 1:46)? But when God got ready to look for the one He would choose to parent Jesus, He bypassed Jerusalem, “the City of God,” and even all of Judea, and went north to Galilee. His first words to Mary are, “Mary, you are highly favored because the Lord is with you.”
Our Catholic friends venerate Mary to someone greater than a human, who had special standing with God. But Scripture tells us here that Mary wasn’t special because of anything she had done. She was special because of what God had done in her life. She was a pure young lady who loved God and had her heart set on serving Him.
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." 1 Cor. 1:27
God can use a stuttering Moses to deliver a nation. He can use a teenage boy David to kill a giant. He can use an ordinary teenage girl to give birth to His Son Jesus. He even used a donkey to deliver a message to a prophet! And He can use you and me as well. It’s God who does the choosing, and He uses people who are usable.
2.God proposes the plan.
In verses 31-33, Gabriel delivers the meat of
God’s message to Mary—a mind-boggling plan to Mary I’m sure. It was a plan that seemed humanly impossible on the surface. But those are the kinds of plans that God specializes in. Consider the five-fold plan of redemption laid out here—
·The baby would be named Jesus.
The names simply means “salvation.” It’s a
name so simple that children can sing it out clearly. It’s so comforting that it’s whispered by elderly saints on their deathbeds. Jesus is the sweetest name I know.
·The baby would be great.
The word in Greek is “mega.” He is saying
that Jesus will be the one mega-man.
John Piper writes—
“Jesus is ten million times greater in every respect than the greatest men and women history has produced. If you took all the greatest thinkers of every country and every century of the world and put them in a room with Jesus, they would shut their mouths and listen to the greatness of His wisdom. All the greatest generals would listen to His strategy. All the greatest musicians would listen to His music theory and His performance on every instrument. There is nothing that Jesus cannot do a thousand times better than the person you admire most in any area of human endeavor under the sun.”
·The baby would be called “Son of the Most High.”
This is simply another way of saying that He
is the Son of God. He says it again in verse 35.
·The baby would occupy the throne of His father David.
Mary is assured of this not only because she
herself is of David’s line, but that one day He would literally sit on the throne of David. This part of the birth announcement will be fully accomplished when
Jesus returns and sets up His future kingdom that will reign on this earth.
·The baby would reign over the house of Jacob forever.
The “house of Jacob” is the 12 tribes of Israel.
This again means that Jesus will literally rule and reign over the nation of Israel in the future. This is an amazing announcement that Mary must have thought impossible. Gabriel is telling her that the greatest Man to ever walk the face of the earth will be Her Son.
God is a God of God-sized plans. He specializes in proposing plans that send our human brains into overload. And that is one of the key ways to recognize when God is working. Most of us never move beyond the scope of thinking about what we can do for God in our own strength. That’s because it is so much safer to think and live that way.
When God lays out the plan, He removes the boundaries and the limitations of human ingenuity. He does something totally new and fresh.
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19
A virgin giving birth to a child—that’s a new thing! It’s God who proposes the plan. Leave that
part up to Him so that He can do something beyond your ability.
3. God provides the power.
When Zechariah was exposed to God’s plan
for his life, he responded with doubt and unbelief. Mary could have done that. She could have pitied herself and the difficult situation this was going to put her in. But her response is different in verse 34.
The grammar in this verse makes it clear that she isn’t doubting God with her question. She is sincerely interested in knowing how God would accomplish this through her.
The wrong question when responding to God is “Why?” Don’t look for the negatives. Don’t make excuses.
The right question is “How?” Be confident in God’s ability to do what He proposes to do. Simply seek His face to find out how He wants you to proceed. It’s okay to have honest, legitimate questions. God welcomes that. When God moves in your life, simply respond by asking God, “How can I cooperate with You to see your power released in my life?” When you do that, you get the same promise that Mary did in v. 37—nothing is impossible with God.
Gabriel tells Mary that the Holy Spirit would come over her and God’s power would “overshadow” her. That word literally describes a shadow being cast over someone. It’s the same picture we get in Genesis 1 when the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:3
The Hebrew there literally means “Light be!” The Holy Spirit hovered over Mary and God declared “Life be!”
The birth of Jesus is about how God’s power can accomplish something that we could never dream up on our best day. That’s God’s part in using you—He chooses the person. He draws up the plan. And He alone can provide the power to get it done. But you and I have responsibility as well.
Your part in being used by God…
1. You must desire to do His will.
You have to want God’s will in your life more
than anything else. God’s plan isn’t automatic, because you have to choose to cooperate with His purpose for you.
Gabriel showed up and told Mary that God has this fantastic plan to redeem the world and that He was going to use her as a vessel that would carry the Lord of the universe. Later in this chapter she expresses her emotions about God’s choice to use her—
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” Luke 1:46-47
She could have said, “Find someone else!” She was a young girl with plans and dreams of her own. She was already betrothed to marry Joseph, which was a legally binding relationship. She had her own plans and ambitions for life. But when God changed her plans, she responded with a desire to put His plan first.
Think about Mary’s attitude—
·She was enthusiastic.
She said, “My soul praises the Lord.” This
was no “grin and bear it” kind of attitude. She was eager to be used by God. Nothing great for God is ever done half-heartedly. Enthusiasm comes from two Greek words—“en” meaning in and “theos” meaning God. If I am in God I am enthusiastic.
·She was humble.
“Thank you for thinking of your humble
servant girl.” She could have said, “I wondered when you would finally notice me!” She humbled herself before God and felt unworthy. The greatest servants in God’s kingdom always feel like the least deserving. We are all trophies of grace. God blesses us and chooses to use us by His own mercy and grace.
If God is going to work in your life, you will have to want His will to be done more than you want anything else in this life.
The Bible calls David “a man after God’s own heart” because he desired God’s will more than anything else. The apostle Paul said, “Our only goal is to please God.” If that isn’t the number one goal in your life today, you aren’t ready to be used by God.
How do you know if that is your desire? How can you evaluate your life to determine what your desires are? The best way to know that your overriding passion is God’s will is to listen closely to God every day. If you aren’t having time alone with God, if you aren’t reading His Word, if you aren’t in church under the teaching and preaching of God’s Word, you are not in a position to hear God’s voice.
One of the reasons that God chose Mary is because she had a listening ear—
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
Maybe you need to spend time considering today what your greatest desire is in life. What do you want the most? It’s your responsibility to make God’s will your greatest desire.
2.You must decide to pay the cost.
Following God’s plan will always cost you a
great deal. You will have to give up something—maybe something that you have loved more than you care to admit. That requires a step of faith, like Mary had to take as well.
Verse 38 expresses her willingness to do whatever God asked. “I am the Lord’s servant.” That’s a statement of faith. What did it cost Mary to follow God’s plan?
·It cost her reputation.
She was a virgin engaged to be married, and
now she becomes pregnant. How do you explain that to your family and neighbors? Jesus was thirty before He began to perform miracles and validate His claims as the Son of God. So she had to live with a social stigma around most people for the rest of her life. She had to give up her reputation because no one is going to believe a young teenage Jewish girl in the first century when she says she is pregnant and God is the Father.
When you get absolutely serious about God’s plan for your life, you can expect people to misunderstand and criticize you. You’ve made a commitment to follow a different path and the world won’t understand that.
·It cost her comfort.
She was in Nazareth but the baby would be
born in Bethlehem. While she is nine months pregnant, she has to take a long journey on the back of a donkey to another city. As a young peasant girl, she gives birth to her first child in a far away city, in a cold barn, with no family or close friends around for support. I’m sure that’s not they way she had dreamed of becoming a mother. And then when the child is born, there is a king’s threat to kill him and she has to flee for the child’s life to Egypt.
God’s plan for your life will always include some problems. They aren’t accidental problems. They are a part of the cost required to pay if you are going to make His plan the priority.
Jesus was always very upfront about the price you would have to pay to follow Him.
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27
Jesus is saying that the ones who choose to follow Him will have to be willing to lay down their lives and put it all on the line.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Phil. 3:7
Paul understood that all of the things in life that he used to think were so valuable to him, all the things that he had to give up to follow Jesus, were really not as important as he thought they were. If you are wanting God’s will today, but unsure if you are willing to pay the price, consider this—nothing in life is more valuable than a life blessed by God. Your part is desiring God’s will more than anything else. Your part is deciding to pay the cost.
3.You must dare to trust His promise.
It takes courage to be used by God. Courage
doesn’t mean that you are never afraid. It’s not the absence of fear. Courage is moving ahead with God in spite of your fear. It’s faith. Mary was a young lady that wasn’t afraid of the supernatural. She wasn’t afraid of trusting God. She wasn’t afraid of miracles.
Does God every perform miracles in your life? If He doesn’t, it might be because you’re afraid that He will. People who are afraid of miracles, who are afraid of the supernatural, are afraid of losing control. They are the ones who play it safe spiritually. When they want to buy something, rather than praying about it and giving God a chance to come through, they go out and try to rearrange their finances and do it themselves. You manage everything yourself and then wonder why God never does anything for you.
If anybody had a reason to be scared, to be
worried, it was Mary. But instead of worrying, she
worshipped. We’ll see that in verse 46. Instead of panicking, she praised God. When I panic, when I worry, it’s because I’ve forgotten God promise. I’ve given into fear, rather than walking in faith.
One day, Jesus’ followers were overwhelmed at what it would cost them to follow Jesus. They were amazed at the high cost of discipleship. When they asked Jesus how someone could ever take that kind of step, He simply says the same thing that Gabriel tells Mary—
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27
NOTE: A portion of this message is adapted from a message by Rick Warren "The Type of Person God Uses"
