Thank you very much, team. Appreciate it. Will anybody been sick this week? Everybody been sick?
Somebody asked me the other day. They said, I'm sick on the outside, but on the inside I got the resurrection life of Jesus. And he's never sick. And so I'm releasing what's in and releasing it out.
Because he's never sick, he's never depressed, he's never anxious, he's never stressed out or anything. And you carry the greatest gift, if you've accepted Jesus, you carry that in the inside of you. But you carry the very power of God that brought Jesus back from the dead, the same power that impregnated Mary, the same power that brought Jesus back to life is in you. So I think as we look at the story today, this morning we're gonna look at the story of the angels appearance to Mary.
Tonight we're gonna look at, or later this afternoon we're gonna look at the story of Jesus' birth and the angel appearances appearance to the shepherd. But I think the story of what happened to Mary is really a picture of what God wants to do in and through you. See, Mary conceived a miracle of the Holy Spirit. She carried that miracle, and then she eventually gave birth and delivered that miracle.
And John 1, 14, it says this, it says the word, speaking of Jesus, it says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. So I think most of you would agree, and if you don't, we don't have to agree, but I believe life begins at conception. I believe the moment that there is the sperm and the egg that they unite, that life begins at conception.
And so if we believe that, and the word says, the word became flesh, Jesus, God incarnate, God became flesh, the moment conception took place. He became life and flesh, the moment conception took place in Mary's womb. And I looked up this week, I thought, you know, as humans, we have a gestation period of nine months, right? So if you're a female, you get pregnant, on average, it takes nine months for that baby to grow to come to a place where it can be born.
And I thought, I wonder what the longest gestation period is. It is, it's actually an African elephant. African elephant carries its baby in utero 22 months. Now you can imagine, man, how miserable it is at the nine month period.
Like I've been there three times. You can imagine that husband elephant 22 months in. Like he's like, pooh, but you know, as I started to think about it, I think a lot of Christians got the African elephant beat. See, when we make Christianity only about the born again experience, conception takes place in you the moment you accept Jesus.
But I believe a lot of believers have been carrying Jesus in utero their entire life. That what God has conceived in you, he didn't intend for it to stay in you. He intended for there to be a period of gestation and maturity, but that eventually what was birthed in you would be released and delivered to a lost and dying world. And so I think, no, it's not the African elephant.
It's most Christians that carry the longest gestation period in the world, because you're actually sitting on the great I am from the day that you accepted Jesus. But you've never given birth to and delivered what God has put in you out of you. So God not only wants to get you pregnant, he wants to have you to get birth. He wants to create a miracle in you.
You know, salvation, the new birth, is the greatest of all miracles. There's none greater for Jesus to take a life that was broken, eternally separated from him, with no chance of ever being reconciled. And then he takes that, eliminates it, makes it new, and restores that relationship, and you become his. And he puts his DNA in you.
That's the greatest miracle. But I think there's a lot of people here that have experienced other miracles too, in addition to that. Like you've experienced miracles of being freed from bondage. You've experienced miracles of having healing take place in your body.
You've experienced miracles of God helping you to forgive somebody that's wronged you, like in betrayed you, like no other. You've experienced miracles where God has healed a hurt in you. But for some reason, you've never released that, and poured that into somebody else. See, God didn't just do it in you, because he wanted to fix you.
He also wanted to use you and flow that through you. And so what we see in the story today of Mary, and how that miracle took place in her, I do believe it's a picture of what God wants to do in and through us. Like he wants to not only birth new life in you, he not only wants to heal you and free you, and all those things that he does, but he doesn't stop with you. Like there are a billion upon billions upon billions of people that need Jesus.
See if Mary, that verse says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Had she never birthed Jesus, he never could have dwelt here, and we never could have beheld him. See, there's some things that God's done in you that need release so other people can see them, because in them seeing them actually opens their eyes up to the fact that there's a Savior that loves and cares for them too. And God wants to use you to do that.
I want to look at the story today of the angel appearing to Mary, weren't it? I wanted to do a few messages on from fear to faith. And last week we looked at Zacharias and Elizabeth, and the angel Gabriel told Zacharias he said, he said, don't fear for your prayer is heard. This week we're going to look at Mary, he says, to Mary, don't fear for you have found favor with God.
And it's odd that sometimes we fear favor. We actually fear the favor of God because we think we're not qualified for it. Like, I don't deserve it. But that's what it is.
It's undeserved favor. It's undeserved great. He says fear not for you have found favor with God. To Joseph, we may pull it in later in the story.
I'm not sure. But he says to Joseph, he says fear not to take Mary to you as your wife or what is formed in her or what is conceived in her as of the Holy Spirit. That sometimes there's things that are bur inside of people that we don't yet understand. But because they're of God, he says, I want you to move forward with it because it's of me.
And then this evening we're going to look at the Gabriel's appearance to the shepherds, where he says fear not, for I have good tidings of great joy, which shall be to you and to all people. And so we're going to look at that and then take communion afterwards. So I think it'll be really good and forward to it. Oh, can I say about communion?
Is Angela Bartlett here? No, I'll see her there. But Angela Bartlett, Angela, she made us communion bread. So she has the recipe from the Old Testament and has actually made this bread is amazing.
I had it at the previous church. I used to attend. And it's outstanding. And we asked her if she would make it.
She really loves to do this. So if you've taken communion here for eight years, we've always taken communion in the little packets. So tonight we're going to have traditional communion. We actually get a cup of juice that's we're going to serve.
And then you're going to get your own little piece of homemade bread, which I tell you it's amazing. It'll heal you just from eating it. It's like that good. Yeah, it's that good.
It's not like this stale cracker that's been sitting around for 10 years. So I just encourage you to come out. We're going to have somebody serving with a glove so that we're not all rifling through the bread. Crescent said, you know what?
Since everybody's sick, we might as well just drink out of one cup tonight. Let's just get it over with, right? Yeah, we're not going to do that. All right, here's three things I want to bring to you today.
So remember that we talked about last week that John says, he says, there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. So I really believe any time God tells us not to fear, within that command is some sort of revelation of the love of God. That God wouldn't tell us not to fear because if he wasn't giving us a reason to not do it. And so that's what we see in the Christmas story.
And so today I want you to see some more things about the love of God in this word to Mary that says, do not fear for you if found favor. So first of all, we're going to look at that God follows, God favors and God fulfills. God follows, God favors and God fulfills. Wow, we've got to jump ahead there.
Okay, God follows. We're going to read Luke 1 verses 26 through 38. And we'll just kind of read through it. I'm not going to read the whole thing outright.
We'll work through it. And then we're going to also tie in verse 45 at the end. Bear with my voice today. I'm in recovery from whatever everybody else had.
I love when you go to the doctor and you say, what do I have? You're like, oh, you got what everybody else has. I'm like, what is that? So here's what I want to tell you about God follows.
God was following your story before you ever followed him. He was actually, even before you, actually, here's the truth. Before you even had a story, God was following your story. So sometimes you know, you're like, well, I'm going to follow so and so story.
Well, God somehow was following your story, not only before you followed him, but even before you had one. Verse 26 says, now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, be troth to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary. So just so you know, be troth. That's not a word we use a lot.
Be troth, the marriage in Jewish culture at that time was a three stage process. So at approximately five years old, kids would get engaged. You can imagine this. The engagement took place around five.
It was most of the time the parents, what we would call a prearranged marriage. And so they would arrange this engagement. As they grew up, Mary is expected at this time to probably have been 14 to 15 years old, a year before the actual wedding ceremony takes place is what's called the betrothal period. And the betrothal period is a year where they set aside themselves for the other partner and it's as binding as marriage because the only way to get out of it is through divorce.
However, they don't actually come together as husband and wife. They take a year, set themselves aside, then a year later the marriage ceremony. So this is taking place. She's about 14, 15 years old.
During that betrothal period, which within that one year period, before they're actually gonna consummate the marriage and get married. And so what I want you to see, I've talked a lot about God's timing being perfect. He shows up in the sixth month. It's a six month of when her relative Elizabeth is now pregnant, six months.
And he says in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel sent by God. And just as we talk last week, God's timing's always perfect. He always comes in at the right moment. You know, you might not think it, but he comes in.
But just imagine this for a minute. I kind of like the picture. Anybody ever use Google Earth? Like you pull up Google Earth and you see what?
Like this globe, right? And then you type in 612 Brookfield Avenue. Anybody know where that is? Oh, okay, how about six, how about, I don't know where it's at.
How about 610 Brookfield Avenue? All right, you're here. So if you typed in 610 Brookfield Avenue, and all of a sudden it would start honing in and the globe would start spinning. It would come in and it would like zero right in.
So God didn't have Google Earth, but I feel like he had like Google Universe, right? Because he's an eternity past. Here he is up and having with with Gabriel. And he said, okay, it's time.
I want you to go to Earth so all the planets are moving and here comes Earth. And I want you to go to Israel and it's spinning around. And I want you to go to the region of Galilee. And then within Galilee I want you to go to the city of Nazareth.
And then within the city of Nazareth, Nazareth, I want you to find this girl named Mary who's a virgin and she's in her one year betrothal period to Joseph who is of the house of David. And all of a sudden, you know, it aligns and boom. It points right there. You know, here's the thing about Nazareth.
Nazareth had a bad reputation. So a lot of times, you know, the funny thing is like, here's Mary. She's a teenager. She's living in a city that's got a bad rep.
I know that because in John chapter one when Jesus calls Philip and Philip goes and gets in the Daniel and says in the Daniel, we've found the one who is called Christ the Messiah, come and see. And in John chapter one verse 45 and 46, it says this. It says, we found the one that prophets wrote about Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Nathaniel replied, can anything good come out of Nazareth? But here's God following a story of a young virgin who's growing up in a city with a bad reputation.
And so I guess I want to encourage you with this today is don't ever let the place that you were born derail you from your destiny. Because here's what happens a lot of times people say, well, God can't use me because I was born in the hills of West Virginia. God can't use me because I was born in the streets of Baltimore. God can't use me because I was from the other side of the tracks, whatever it is, whatever expression you use.
But here's the thing, God knew where you were going to be born before you ever born. God had a plan for you before your parents ever conceived you. And God was following your story before you even had a story to tell him. Here's what he says to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1 verse 5.
He says this. He says, before I formed you in the womb, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. That means I was intimate with you. I actually knew intricate details about your life before I even put you together.
And God knows everything about you before you were ever put together in your mom's womb. He says, before I formed you, I knew you. And approved you as my chosen instrument, before you were born, I consecrated you to myself as my own. I have appointed you as a prophet to the nation.
Now Jeremiah's job was a prophet to the nations. Your job might be to be a great school teacher. Your job might be to be a phenomenal dad or mom. It might be to be a social worker.
It could be a business person. It could be a pastor or a leader, whatever it is. God knew you and followed your story long before you had one. Because he knew they were coming day when you would say yes to him, something great would be birthed in you.
And he wanted to use you to release that into other people. Even the apostle Paul, you might say, I have a bad reputation. You think the apostle Paul in Galatians, I think it's verse 115, he says, that God not only set me apart, said God separated me and called me from my mother's womb. The apostle Paul.
So here's a guy that God separated and called into ministry from his mother's womb. And God knew that he would be the same guy that would persecute and kill Christians 40 years later, 30 years later. But he still called him an eternity past, knowing what he would do before he got to the point of saying, who are you Lord and what would we have me to do on the road to domestic? God's called you for a purpose.
God has set you apart for a purpose before you were ever born, because he's been following your story for eternity. He knows the end from the beginning. He goes on to say, this, God favors you. So what's favor?
Favor, if you look up the word favor, it's actually the word grace. So how do we define grace? We define grace as unmerited favor. So how do we define favor?
I guess it's unmerited grace, I don't know. But it's favor is the goodness, it's the kindness, it's the benevolence. It's God's, it's unmerited, like you can't earn it. It's God doing something good for you, not because of anything you did.
It's receiving something good, not based on you. And he says this, that God favors you. And here's the thing with favor. So favor is not so much about a possession.
It's not so much about having things. Favor and grace is about a person, it's the name of Jesus. Because here's what the angel tells her. He says, you are favored for God is with you.
The favor is more to do with the person of God's presence with you. When you think about Joseph, when Joseph was sold, remember his brother sold him? They made it look like he got killed, they sold him into slavery. And Genesis 39, verses two and three, it says this.
It says, the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man in the house of his master, Potiphar. Here's a guy that had been stripped of everything, sold into slavery, and yet the Bible calls him successful for one reason, because of the presence of God in his life. Was it because he had anything? It wasn't because he did anything.
It was because God was present with him. And that's what the angel tells Mary when he shows up. He says this. Verse 28 says this.
He says, and having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice highly favored one. The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled it is saying, and considered of what manner of greeting it was. Remember I told you people get nervous when somebody makes a declaration of favor or grace over your life.
There's sometimes a tendency to be like, you know what? I don't deserve that. When somebody does something for you, does something because you deserved it, you may ever just walk up and give you a gift out of the blue. And you had that little feeling, like I don't deserve it.
God says I don't want you to fear about that, because he wants to do it. So here's the fear that comes with favor. It's not so much that people wonder, can God do it, or does God want to do it, but will God do it for me? Will God do it for me?
It's not to fear so much that God's grace is for you, and you, and you, but does God really care about me that way? Does God favor me that way? He says this. He says, I have found favor with God.
I lost my place, I apologize. It says, having come in, the angel said, her rejoice highly favored one. The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting it was.
And the angel said, do not be afraid, marry for you have found favor with God. Just read the next couple verses. And behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth the sun, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the highest.
The Lord of God will give him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom. There will be no end. So you have found favor with God for he is with you. You can say, well, Mary was a virgin, and I'm the farthest thing from it.
Can you not find a reason why you don't deserve something? We all could if we look at it up. But here's what I want to tell you is, yes, Mary was a virgin, but he was also a sinner. I know there are some religions that teach, she wasn't, but she was.
When she later meets Elizabeth, and later in chapter one, she says this. She says, my soul does magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Only sinners need a Savior. See, Mary was just like us.
Mary was born of another human. Roman says this, it says that by one man, sin entered the world and death by sin, and therefore death has passed on, all men for all have sin. And so just like when you were born, you were born into sin, so was Mary. She may have lived a good life, you may have been humble, she may have been all those things, but she needed a Savior just like we did.
She also needed a Savior. So don't disqualify yourself. Don't say, well, God's grace might be for them, but you don't know what I've done. Here's what I know.
Titus 2, 11 says this, it says the grace that brings salvation, I think there's a mistake in my PowerPoint. I think it says Titus 2, 1, it should be 2, 11. Titus 2, 11 says the grace that brings salvation has appeared to who? It's appeared to all men.
When did grace appear to all men? When Jesus was born? Jesus is the person of grace. And when grace appeared, and when He died, it was for everybody.
Like there's no exclusion. I love this passage. You ever walk up to somebody and you say, hey, how you doing today? And they say, last in highly favored.
Hey, sister, how you doing? I'm blessed and highly favored. Brother, how are you? I'm blessed and highly favored.
I just feel like that's become something people say. You know, I think people say that. So maybe they'll start believing it. Maybe one day that it'll happen.
If I say I'm favored long enough, maybe one day I'll get favored. If I say I'm blessed long enough, maybe one day I'll get blessed. How about saying it because it's true? How about saying it not because the angels said it to Mary, but because the Apostle Paul said the exact same thing to the church at Ephesus.
The same thing. Ephesians 1, 3, says this, it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places where at in Christ Jesus. Verse 6 says this to the praise of the glory of His grace, whereby He has made us accepted in whom? The Beblah, which is who?
Jesus, you know, only two times in the entire Bible is the word highly favored used. It's used when the angels spoke to Mary, translated as highly favored. And it's used in Ephesians 1, 6 when Paul writes accepted. It's the same word.
So it wasn't just like, well, you can't say that because that's what he said to Mary. This is what the Apostle Paul said to the church at Ephesus. He didn't say that you're going to be blessed. He said what?
You have been blessed. Blessing, spiritual blessing, is your inheritance as a believer. That it is, it's not thinking about this the other day. We talked a lot about that God raised Jesus from the dead, seated Him as right at His hand, at His right hand.
We've been raised with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places. Like, I'm in Christ at the right hand of the Father right now. I know I'm here, but I'm also there. However, what else is there?
Every spiritual blessing is there too. Like, and it says this, it says that He has placed Him far above every principality, every power, all might and all dominion, not only in this age, but in the age to come. So that every authority that I sit above in Christ is beneath my feet. But here's also what's beneath my feet in His feet too, is also every blessing that I have in Christ.
So guess how protected what He has reserved for us is, if it's in Him at the right hand of Christ. If it's in Him at the right hand of the Father above everything the enemy can ever bring. It's secure. He says you have every spiritual blessing, and that you are accepted because of your good works.
Not right. You're accepted because of what? Because of Him. Because God accepts what Jesus did.
When I get in Jesus, if Jesus is accepted, guess what I am? Accepted. If Jesus is highly favored, guess what I am? Highly favored.
If Jesus is blessed, guess what I am. I'm blessed. Not because I earned it, deserved it, I'm good enough for it. Did this last night or that doesn't matter?
It's because I said yes to Jesus. It's because He did it for me. I have my position is in Him. So favor is never about possessions.
Favor is about a position. It's about the presence of Jesus in me and my position in Him. That's it. See, favor was never meant just so they could, God could give me a bunch of good stuff.
Favor has a purpose. Favor has, He gives me, see, favor is actually His presence that enables me to do something. It actually equips me to do something. See, here's what, when grace comes, think about Jesus.
You know, the law said this. The law said, don't commit adultery. Is that hard to do? Harder for some than others, right?
It said, don't sleep around. That's harder for some than others. But here's what grace says. Grace says, don't look at a woman to lust after her or you've already committed adultery in your heart, which is harder.
It's harder not to look at somebody. It's harder not to think something wrong about your brother than it is to keep, like, those things happen. But here's what happens. Grace empowers you to do the impossible.
Grace actually empowers you to do the very thing that it commands you to do. It's not so I can go out and sin and live and sin. No, it actually elevates you to a place where you don't sin. You live from a place of righteousness because grace enables you to do it.
So, if somebody says I'm blessed and highly favored, I want you to ask them why they believe that. Well, I just heard some preacher say, blessed and highly favored. No, I'm blessed because Jesus is blessed. I'm favored because Jesus is favored.
And I actually choose to believe it. I'm seated there. I didn't do anything. I just received it.
Because the one that says that Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I don't know a man? Remember last week we said that when Zacharias said, how will I know? Zacharias was looking for evidence. He's like, give me some proof.
How am I going to have a baby when my wife's barren? She's not looking for evidence. She's looking just for an explanation. Hey, how's this going to be?
As far as I know, when I went to school and they taught me about how babies are made, like something's missing. Like, how's this going to work? The angel said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the highest will over there. That person must be Marketing.
The power of the gospel of God is yours. He asked about faith concerning the law of Scripture. He asked the power of the Jesus in Scripture and said, the beauty of the systemthree times saying, the power of the Lord is mine. So he called Himself through your life to our evil people.
Let us go here and take 28 seconds to read your whole book and write your own time up here. It comes from this strategic principle of God. All right. God, we're going to share the truth about faith on faith.
Dad, we're following us at this passage with God and we are ready. There are restricted practices. God and we're South layethe, we're slow to sin through this sow, man. Where is there the place of nothing being impossible?
With God. You found favor with God. With God is the place of no impossibility. There's a connection between favor and the power of God for their miraculous in your life.
See, favor is just not to get stuff. Favor is so that you can operate at a level higher than you can in the natural realm. That God wants to equip you with his very presence and power to do the things that you're not capable of doing. It says you have found favor with God, for with God nothing will be impossible.
So the word nothing, I just want to point this out. The word nothing in the Greek is actually three words. The three words are u, pos, and rema. U means no or not.
It's a negative, not. U means no. Poss means any or all. And then rema is a word for the word, it's what we would call a freshly spoken word.
So there's two general terms for word in the New Testament. Logos, most of the time but not all the time, means written word. Rema, most of the time but not all the time, means a freshly spoken word. So generally the terms, when you see rema, it's a spoken word.
Logos is a written word. And so sometimes, did you ever read the Bible and you're reading a scripture and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit just like quickens something on the inside of you and takes that word and speaks something to you? Yeah, so the Holy Spirit comes upon the written word and actually speaks a rema word, a freshly spoken word into your life. See this rema word has with it the sense of like immediacy, like it needs dealt with now.
Yeah, you ever heard somebody use the term of what that was a right now word? Like a right now word needs a right now action, a right now decision that there's something God's doing right now that if I don't say yes now, I'm going to miss it. It's just that he's spoken something for this moment in time that needs me to respond to it because he wants to do something so great and he's just waiting for me to say yes. And it says, it says, for with God nothing, no thing spoken will be impossible.
That word is Adunateo, which means this, it means without power or void of power. It comes from the word Dunamis, which means miracle working power. So he's saying he says that no freshly spoken word from God is void of miracle working power. That when God says something to you, God says, I want to get you pregnant.
The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. The Holy Spirit is going to birth something in you. And when you say yes to the immediacy of that word, no matter how impossible it sounds, that within the very word is the power to carry out the thing that it just commanded. With God, no freshly spoken word is without the power in itself to perform the very thing that it commanded.
That's what he's telling us. He's saying, I've got a word for you, Mary. The word is the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you. The power of the highest is going to overshadow you.
You're going to conceive in your womb. You're going to bring forth the Son. You're going to call His name Jesus. He's going to be great.
He of His kingdom, there'll be no end. Okay. I don't know a man. He's going to be with God.
They're favor. God's favor, God's enabling presence will come upon you so that you're able to do thing that seems impossible because within the spoken word of God, it in itself carries the power to fulfill the very thing that it's in. There's no word from God that's without or void of miracle working power. When Paul says this in Romans 10 verse 17, he says, then faith comes by what?
Hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Or sometimes, like I said, the word of God. It's that word, Rama. That God wickens the written word and speaks.
And it says, God draws people. And God, like when God speaks to you and says, hey, Curtis, hey, Royce, I want you to go, hey, Bob, I want you to go pray for so and so. I want you to go deliver a meal to this person. I want you to go lay hands on this person.
I want you to go buy something and do something nice for that. Like when he speaks something with you, there's an immediacy that if you don't say yes in the moment, it's gone. And that's what he's like, well, I'm not qualified to do that. I'm the fact that he said it, he quipped me to do it.
But I choose, like, you know what? I think what I think carries more power than what God says. You know, when you choose to disobey that spoken word from God, you actually elevate your ability and your qualifications over the power that's contained within the word. When he says nothing will be impossible, no things spoken.
No freshly word spoken will be void of power within itself to carry out the thing that it's commanded. So I'm going to be able to elevate myself and elevate myself higher than that word. Now the results are up to him. The obedience is up to me.
God fulfills his word, but here's what he's waiting on. Favour unfolds when you say yes. Favour unfolds. See, the grace, the favor of God has appeared to all men.
But favour unfolds when you say yes. See, there's a response that you need to make. God always keeps his promises. God always keeps his word.
But he's waiting for a believer to say yes. He's waiting for an unsafe person to say yes, I need Jesus. He's waiting for a believer to say yes, I'll do what your word is telling me to do. The favor begins to unfold when we say yes.
Here's what happens a lot of times. We limit our amen to the level of our understanding. Where we limit the amen just means to say say the same thing. Where we limit our amen to the level of our experience.
I'll say yes to you, God, to the level that I've experienced before. Or I'll say yes to the level that I understand you. Even though Gabriel said the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of Almighty whoever shall you, I guarantee she didn't conceptually understand that. I still don't understand it.
I went through biology class. I've actually practiced this and I don't understand it. I just know it works. I get three kids to prove it.
And lots of practice. But I don't understand it. But that didn't limit me from saying yes. See, a lot of times we limit our yes to our amen to our understanding.
And when we limit our yes, see, if his word that performs the impossibles here and my understanding is here, when my amen is limited to the level of my understanding, I just created a God with a little G that looks like me and not like him. Because the one I said yes to looks a lot like me who has limitations. And what God wants me to do is begin to say yes to the impossible so that he can actually step in and do something. Like, if it wasn't impossible, why do I need him?
If I could do it my own strength, why do I need him? Because you got to say yes. Say this, my yes matters. My yes matters.
Mary said behold the maidservant of the Lord. I'm your servant, Lord. See, how often do we want the word to serve us instead of us serving the word? I'm a servant.
The servant says yes. But what we want to do is we want to take the word and form it and make it to where it serves me and my needs. And we want the word to be the servant more so than we want to be the servant. But Mary says behold the maidservant of the Lord be it unto me according to your what kind of word?
Rama word. Be it unto me according to the word that carries within itself the power to fulfill the very thing that it commanded. See, the results are up to God but the yes is up to you. He still never takes away your free will.
Be it unto me according to your word and the angel departed from her. And then she later I just skipped down to verse 45. She goes to meet her relative Elizabeth and here's what Elizabeth says to her. The last is she who believed.
When did she believe? Be it unto me according to your word. See, she maybe didn't understand it. She didn't maybe fully grasp it.
But she knew there was an immediacy to something that God wanted to do. She said behold the hand made of the Lord. Be it unto me according to your word. And her relative Elizabeth says, the last is she who believed for there will be what?
A fulfillment. That word means a completion, a perfection. He who began a good work in you. He was completely completed until the day of Christ.
Like when you messed up, he does it. When you lose faith, he does it. And you get back up and brush it off and say yes again. I'm back on the yes string.
I'm yes, yes, yes. And Lord I might have messed up. But I'm saying yes. I'm saying yes to what you have.
Look at this in the Passion translation. It says great favor rests upon you for you have believed every word spoken. See, we like the buffet, Ramel words a lot of times. We like the buffet of Ramel words.
I think I'll take a little broccoli, a little bean salad. I don't really like beets. I'm going to leave that one over there. Here's what God speaks something to you.
He actually wants you to believe everywhere. He says great favor rests upon you because you believe everywhere spoken to you from the word. Close with this statement today. God wants to reveal Jesus in you, but not just in you.
He wants to reveal Jesus through you. If you don't know Jesus, God wants to do a miracle in you. If you received Jesus yesterday last week, 10 years, 50 years ago, God wants to release a miracle for you. He wants you to deliver the miracle in you to a lost and dying world.
He's not concerned about your intelligence or your education. Not concerned about your experience, your ability, your talents or any of those things. He's looking for one thing. Be it unto me, according to your word.
What we don't realize is your yes doesn't just affect you. Before your net, do you realize Mary's yes is still impacting people today? Her one yes of a 14 year old girl in a town with a bad reputation in an unknown place on a dark night, never expecting anything, not even looking for this. Her yes is still changing lives today.
So your yes matter. When Abraham said yes to God, puts Isaac on the altar. And God says, now, now I know that you fear me. He says, in you will all nations of the earth be blessed.
And the yeses have ramifications beyond you and your immediate generation. And I think noes have the same implications. You take Saul, Saul the first king of Israel. Saul was not supposed to make an offering.
He was supposed to wait for Samuel. He got impatient. He went ahead and made the offering. As soon as he does Samuel shows up, 1 Samuel 13, 13.
And Samuel says, why did you do this? And Saul gives him a bunch of excuses. And Samuel says, because you disobeyed the Lord, I'm taking the kingdom from you, I would have established it forever. See, Saul's one act of obedience would have actually, there never would have been the house of David.
It would have been Jesus after the house of Saul. But because he disobeyed, he said, I would have established your kingdom forever, but now I'm taking it away. I'm going to look for a man after my own heart. And David came in second.
So your yes matter. My mother's yes matter. 51 years ago, my mom said yes to Jesus. I was two years old.
Not long later, not long after that. My dad said yes to Jesus. Because they said yes to Jesus. I'm here today.
Do your yes matter. Your yes matters in your kids' lives, your yes matters in your grandkids' lives. Your yes today matters to four or five, six generations from now. I guess I just want to tell you this.
Don't be an African-American. Don't carry the miracle of Christmas to your grave. If you know Jesus, you need to tell someone. If you know Jesus, you need to pray for somebody.
If you know Jesus, you need to speak freedom into somebody's life. Because he didn't save you just to get you to heaven. He saved you for a purpose. Because he wants to deliver through you the miracle that he's birthday.
Let's pray.