Who do teenagers look up to the most? Parents, you will be glad to hear that on the surveys I read on the internet this past week, you were on the top of the list. You are their biggest role model, although they probably wouldn’t say that to your face. Unfortunately, by the actions of many youth, it seems they have other role models as well because they are concerned with popularity, looks, having cool stuff, wearing the “in” clothes, and or even having a certain talent. Even though all of these things, and all of the role models change from year to year. The person who was cool and looked up to last year is no longer cool anymore. Someone younger, prettier, more talented comes along.
Other than their parents, I wonder why our kids role models can’t be an ordinary person, who was extraordinary not because of who they are on the outside but because of who they are on the inside.
Ironically, the most popular woman who ever lived, is rarely looked upon as a role model. She was not wealthy. She was probably not beautiful, just an ordinary looking woman (even though Hollywood had to make her look beautiful in the recent movie, “The Nativity Story”). She was probably not well educated (she might have even been illiterate). She was unknown outside of her home town during most of her lifetime. Yet she had an inner beauty that even impressed God! Her inner beauty was so powerful that she was chosen to become the mother of the most important person of all times: God’s own Son, Jesus. Of course we are talking about Mary, and the inner beauty that impressed God and should inspire us as our role model, whether we are teens or adults, was Mary’s faith and obedience to God.
1. God’s favor rests upon those who respond in faith
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her she was “highly favored,” or as another translation puts it, she was God’s “favored one.” Mary was favored not just because of what she was about to do in being the mother of Jesus, but because of the life she had already lived so far. We don’t know anything about Mary’s life before this event, but in her short life (13 or 14), she must have already exhibited an extraordinary faith in God because she because God chose her to be the mother of his Son.
What I want us to notice here is that God’s favor came to Mary even though she came from a modest if not poor family. God chose her even though she grew up in a remote region of the world, in a tiny village called Nazareth with only a few hundred people. God favored Mary because of the inner beauty of her faith and obedience. God’s favor is upon those who exhibit faith and obedience.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, whether you are a child, a teen, or an elderly person. Mary was in her teens, the OT patriarch Abraham was in his 70’s when God first called him (75). It doesn’t matter where you come from, you might come from the country, the city, the suburbs. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or what your family life is. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. Looks don’t matter either. The prophecies about Jesus said that he would be rather plain looking (Is 53:2). God looks at our faith.
We talk a lot about faith in the church, but what is faith?
2. Faith Is…
A. Believing that What God Says Will Happen
After the angel visited Mary and told her she would bear God’s Son, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was pregnant with a boy who would become John the Baptist. Listen to Elizabeth’s response during Mary’s visit with her. Elizabeth said:
NIV Luke 1:45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
That is Faith! Faith is believing that what the Lord has said will be accomplished, or that the Lord will do what he said he would do. We have to remember that the angel Gabriel told her something which was totally impossible, first that she would have a son who would be named Jesus. She hadn’t been with Joseph or any other man yet, she was a virgin, so how could she have a child? But the second impossibility was that this child would be the Son of the Most High, the Son of God. How could a human woman bear God’s Son, a divine being? Impossible. This was Mary’s question to Gabriel. Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her. Not a lot of details there. Gabriel then reminds us, “With God nothing is impossible.” In other words the angel was telling her God can and would do the impossible if she had faith. And Mary believed. She said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”
God told Mary he was going to do the impossible and Mary believed, she had faith, she trusted God would make her conceive a child even before she saw the evidence of her pregnancy.
The author of the book of Hebrews defined faith in a similar manner:
NLT Hebrews 11:1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. 2 God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.
NIV Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
God gave his favor or approval to those who had faith. People like Mary who were sure and certain of God’s promise even if they did not see it. Notice it says it is impossible to please God without faith. God continues to give his favor to those who have faith and trust in God’s promises today.
Promises like:
NIV Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Do you believe God works everything for your good if you love him and follow his calling, even when things in your life seem to be going poorly?
NIV John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Do you believe God loves you and sent his Son to give you eternal life?
Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead and will one raise your soul to be with him?
NLT Romans 3:24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25 For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.
Do you believe God has forgiven you through Jesus Christ?
Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must believe what God has said if we are to receive His promises.
B. Active – Mary was willing to endure many things be a servant
But faith is more than believing something to be true with my mind. Faith must also impact how I live my life. My actions should reflect what I believe. Faith is active. I must do things differently and behave differently because I believe that what God said is true. I can believe 2+2=4, or that George Washington was the first president of the United States of America because it is true, but this kind of faith doesn’t change my life. It doesn’t make any demands upon me. Unfortunately we treat our faith in this way, if I believe in my head that something is true I have faith. To believe something is true in your head, and to act as though it is true are two different things, and yet faith incorporates both of these.
When the angel Gabriel told Mary she would miraculously bear a child from the Holy Spirit, not only did she believe it would happen, but she also adjusted her life with God’s. She responded with a willingness to do whatever God wanted her to do, in this case she accepted the immense responsibility of bearing the Christ child and raising him in the ways of the Lord. Mary’s response was, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.” Mary didn’t just believe the impossible would happen, that she would be pregnant by the Holy Spirit, she was willing to be a vessel by which God would accomplish his divine plan.
Consider for a moment the ramifications of Mary’s response.
By her willingness to serve the Lord:
• Mary was trusting that her soon to be husband, Joseph, would believe her story of the visitation of an angel, and of the miraculous pregnancy. She was trusting that Joseph would not seek a divorce, forcing her to raise a child on her own in a society in which illegitimate children were looked up with particular disfavor, and not usually cared for. Or even worse, according to Jewish Law, Joseph could have had Mary stoned to death at the city gates thus killing her and the Christ child within her, fortunately though Roman law forbade anyone to take justice in their own hands, rather the Romans were the only ones who could carry out a death sentence.
• Mary was willing to be the gossip of the town because she was pregnant before marriage. Either she would have been ridiculed for being with Joseph in their betrothal period, or if Joseph divorced her, she would have been compared with a prostitute, because it meant she had an affair during her betrothal to Joseph. Imagine the gossip in the sleepy little town of Nazareth where everybody knew everybody. (Example of the portrayal of the friends of Mary and Joseph and the townspeople shunning them in “The Nativity Story”)
No matter what way you look at it, it was going to be tough for Mary, but because of her faith in God, that he would work it out, she was willing to put her faith in action.
What kind of faith is it if I believe in God, I believe Jesus was God’s Son born of the Virgin Mary, I believe Jesus spoke the truth, that he died and rose from the dead so that I can be forgiven, what if I believe God has promises of giving me abundant life, and eternal life, but then go about living my life just like an unbeliever, ignoring the way God has commanded us to live? That is not faith, faith implies a willingness to follow God.
On Thanksgiving we were at my parents watching a special on Niagara Falls. Back in the 1800’s there was a tightrope walker who decided he was going to stretch a tightrope over the falls and walk across. He was successful in his walk and since people lost interest he soon tried more and more difficult feats to get the attention of the crowds. On one occasion he took a wheelbarrow and pushed it across, once he was successful in that attempt he wanted to do something more impressive and so he asked someone in the crowd, do you believe I can go across this rope pushing a wheelbarrow? To which the observer agreed, sure. To which the tightrope walker invited the man to get in the wheelbarrow.
Faith is more than believing in our head. Faith involves our actions. Will we live our life differently because of what we believe? Will I change my priorities so they are in line with God’s? Am I willing to allow God to change my character to be like his (honesty, integrity, not use filthy language, )? Will I prioritize my time and money the way God wants me to? Will I love God and others by treating those around me like Jesus would including my spouse, my children, my coworkers, and neighbor? Being a willing servant may mean sacrifice.
Jesus brother James writes in his letter:
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Our faith should affect our head, our heart, AND our hands. Our head, what we believe about God, about Jesus. Our heart, we should have compassion for others, we should love others including our enemies. And our hands, what we do.
Would you say you have faith like Mary, who was willing to believe the impossible and step out and trust God? If not, why not? Are we willing to go wherever God asks us? Are we willing to take ridicule for being a follower of Christ? Are we willing to bring dishonor upon ourselves, for doing the right thing?
Is you faith in your head, in your heart, AND in your hands?
