He Will Be Great

Turn over to Luke chapter one. We're obviously less than three weeks from the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ, but I hope that we celebrate what God has done for us all year long. Every day, it's an amazing thing to just think about God and His goodness. Do you think about that? Do you really think about that? We live in a pretty tough world. We get that chaos, heartache, evil, lots of struggles and hurts, but we have a faithful God.

And by that I mean faithful, unshakably faithful, unshakably good. And sometimes we literally kind of blow past that because we won't take the time to think about who he is, what he's done for us, what his word says. We won't take the time to actually see the depth of his love. And I pray that, I pray we'll think about that today as we look at this passage. So look chapter one, we'll begin reading in verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth. To a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you.

But she was deeply troubled by this statement wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you found favor with God. Now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Mary asked the angel, How can this be since I've not had sexual relations with the man? The angel replied to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

Therefore, the Holy One will be born, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth, even she has conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God. I'm the Lord's servant," said Mary. May it happen to me, as you have said, than the angel left her. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the chance to come together, to worship, not just to sing, not just to pray, but

To come into your presence, Lord God through your Word, to allow your Word through your Holy Spirit to speak to us. Some of us, Lord God, have heard this passage many times, which means maybe, Lord God, we need to be more sensitive than we've ever been before to what you have for us. And I pray that you would help us with that, Lord. Some of us maybe heard this passage for the first time. And we, same thing, Lord, we pray that we'd be open and ready and willing to hear what you have to say to us.

Lord, you are an amazing God. You're full of love and grace and mercy and compassion. And yet, Lord, God, you're righteous and holy and just. And we need you. There are people here this morning that have never trusted you a savior. And I pray that even today they'd believe in Christ and be given new life.

Many of us, Lord, God need encouragement, protection, guidance, wisdom. I pray to provide all the things that we need. But above all, I pray that you'll be worshiped and glorified among us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So if you were a men's prayer breakfast yesterday, I shared kind of the simple things about this passage. But I had planned on preaching a different passage basically all week long. And God just wouldn't let me move away from this passage this morning. And quite honestly, it's just too It's just too sweet, it's too powerful, it's too profound. There's so many things about this passage that you could pick out and just spend one message on each one, but it's such an incredible thing when you think about what is actually taking place.

Here we know that this angel Gabriel comes to Mary in Nazareth of Galilee. Nazareth of Galilee was not a high traffic area. It was a little village, unknown village. It wasn't anything impressive to anybody. It was on the main thoroughfare if you will. It was kind of on the back side of the mountain away from the main trade route. It was out of the way place. Mary was just a young teenage girl, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, we're not quite sure, but young lady and she was engaged to a man that was a carpenter and really nothing special about these guys. And we can talk about that a little bit more in a minute, but the truth be told is that this is

After 400 years I've really no new messages from God. The 400 years from the prophet Malachi, all the way basically people count till when John the Baptist was born and began preaching, there was no real word from God. Through his prophets, we call it the Inter Testamental period, and God had just been being God. He hadn't been speaking. Things weren't so easy. You know, it'd be tough to not hear from God. Now God had given promises, right? the promise of the Messiah coming. We knew he was coming. We even knew what town he would be born in. We had all kinds of different things from God to know that he was on the way, but if you were living in that time, you would probably have probably very little expectation of hearing from God,

Right? I mean, some of us even today go, where is God when I need Him? Why isn't God speaking? Why can't I hear from God? You know, I hear people say to me sometimes, I think God has abandoned me. I think God has forsaken me. Some people even say because I haven't heard from God the way I want to hear from God, then maybe I'm wrong about who God is at all. Maybe it doesn't exist at all, right? I mean, you think they didn't think things like that back in these days? Let's struggle to know who God was. Let's struggle to believe in God. Was God active during those 400 years? Absolutely. The Bible says that God holds all things together by the power of His Word.

He's holding creation together every single day in those days. He knew them by name every single day. Just like he knows you and I by name every single day. He knows what we're doing. He knows where we're going. He knows where we're hurting. He knows what we need. He's not distant from us. He's well aware of us, which is fantastic. But I mean, for most of us, if we were Mary, we

Wouldn't have been expecting a visit from God's messenger, right? I mean, quite honestly, you know, we try to figure out sometimes why did God send Jesus into the world when He sent Jesus into the world? And if you come up with a really profound answer to that, you're probably going to be wrong

Because only one that knows that is God. And the whole great thing about God is that he has a time and he has a way and he has a message and he has an answer in the right time. And that's what we see happening here. Mary's just going about her everyday life. She's probably planning on what it's gonna look like for her wedding day and what it's gonna look like to be a wife and what it's gonna look like hopefully to be a mother, but she's not expecting God to intervene to inject himself in such a profound way. But man, hallelujah. And the truth be known about this passage when we first read it is just, you know, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth.

This wasn't happenstance. This wasn't accidental. This was God saying, I know what the world needs. I know when the world needs this and I'm gonna take the initiative to send this message to this young lady to prepare her for my son's entrance into this world. I love that so much.

I love that so much. I love it so much that you and I can trust God to do what needs to be done at the right time. I know sometimes we wonder why God haven't you answered this prayer? Why haven't you taken care of this situation? Lord God, where are you? Why are you delaying, if you will?

The truth be known is that we don't have to be afraid of God stepping in at the right time because He loves us. You talk about a picture of love. You think about this. Why would God even care at all about sinful people that have mistreated him, dishonored him, rebelled against him, disobeyed him?

We could go on and on and on and on. The mystery has never been, why isn't God doing more? The mystery is always, why did God love us in the first place? And you and I have got to come to that place because it is sweet and powerful and deep to think about God choosing to love us. The Bible says, and first John, and I don't know the chapter on verse, I'm sorry, but says this is love, not that we first loved him, but

What? He first loved us. This is the proof of that, right? So he says the angel Gabriel sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. That's really all we know about Mary. It's all we know about Joseph. All we know is that they live in Nazareth. All we know is that they're engaged. We don't know anything more about them. Quite honestly, the truth be told is they're just regular people. They're just regular people. I know there are people who claim that somehow she was divine or somehow she was sinless, but that's not what this says, but I fact the Bible contradicts that, right?

The Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all, there's none who are good, none, not even one. This isn't a young couple that is walking around with light shining out their ears. This is just a young couple. This is a young couple to live in a

Nowhere place. Matt grew up in Fairberry, Illinois. I know where these people grew up. There wasn't much happened in Fairberry, Illinois. Ever. There wasn't much expectations. There wasn't much expectations for me to do something special, or go someplace special, or be someplace special. My dad was a load of trucks for a living, grew up on a farm. I mean, there's,

I'm ordinary. I'm as vanilla as you could be. I can't understand what this looks like. This is a young woman that had absolutely no expectation of God choosing her to do something as profound and miraculous as what he chose her for. But that's also an incredible thing to think about as we go through this passage. Right? God knew Mary.

What made Mary special was not who she was in their social order, or in her age, or her wisdom, or even in her righteousness. What made her special was that God had created her newer before he formed her in her mother's womb, and that he chose her. Not just chose her to bear Christ the Messiah, but chose her to be his child through Christ. beside her son.

And you and I, man, we would do well sometimes to realize that what really sets us apart is not our uniqueness in the way we look or the skills that we have or the knowledge that we have or whatever it is. That's not what sets us apart. What sets us apart is a God who knows us and loves us and sees where we are and has a purpose for us. And so many Christians today, they're convinced that because they're ordinary, God doesn't really want to do anything through them. Are you one of those people today? that you think, well, I'm just ordinary. I don't really have much to offer. Well, I promise you Mary didn't think she had much to offer.

I promise you she didn't think, hey, there's something special about me. So God, surely gonna do a work in my life. So because I'm so special. No, we know that because when he tells her, he says greetings highly favored one, she's troubled. What in the world does that mean?

I don't see myself as special. And yet here is our God not only breaking into life as we would know it to bring the Messiah into the world, but he's breaking into this ordinary girl's life to have her do something that she could have never asked for or imagined all for his glory. Now if you're a Christian here today, You're special because He chose you. You are beautiful because He saved you. But you are also beautiful and unique because He wants to use you. He wants to do something through you. And many of us are here ducking God by going, I'm not that special and I'm not that important but I don't have that many skills.

And it's not about that. It's not about that at all. It's not about you. What does God want to do through you? Then we live in a unique time. We live in a more difficult time than I've ever known in my life. There are more people that are confused about God. And if he is God and who Christ is and if he's the Savior, if there's somebody else, there's so many people walking around this city that we live in, then they really believe they don't need anything in their life. They're gonna be enough for themselves. They don't need save. They don't need to depend on God. They're gonna be fine. One of these days they're gonna either die and go nowhere.

They're gonna die before God and go look at me. I'm so good. Why don't you let me into heaven? Do you not know these people? I talk to them all the time. Do you talk to them all the time? Man, they're all around us and what do they need? They need Jesus and they need Jesus through us. That means you better figure out what God wants for your life and be about it, be willing to share the hope of Jesus Christ with Him because He's chosen us like He chose Mary, right?

Well, we go on. The virgin's name was Mary and the angel came to her and said, greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Now I love this because Gabriel is basically just a messenger. I know we call him angels. Angels is just a word that's not been translated, been transliterated. It actually means messengers. If we actually translated it wouldn't be city of angels in California. It'd be city of messengers. It gives a whole different context to Los Angeles, doesn't it? Messengers. But this Gabriel told Daniel... I'm Gabriel who stands in the presence of the living God. That's crazy to me. So this messenger who stands in the presence of the living God, he shows up at this young lady's house in this little tiny village of nobody's and says to her,

Greetings favorite one. He's excited. He's come to see Mary who has been favored by God. Now that's pretty amazing because he's excited. Matter of fact, favored one means richly blessed one. So he basically comes in and says, greetings, richly blessed one.

But Mary, like I said, she's not quite sure. What else does that mean? I live in Nazareth. I'm gonna marry a carpenter. I'm not upset about that, but favored one, richly blessed one. She's troubled by that. And I find it pretty refreshing actually because, man, there's some people that actually believe they deserve all the grace and love that God has given them. Can I just say that No one, not one of us,

Actually deserves to hear God say greetings favorite one. I know some people go, band pastor, don't talk about us being sinners all the time. Just the other night at WBI had a man tell me, I'm not, I'm not really a sinner. I said, you've never sinned. Oh, maybe a couple times, but you know, it wasn't really, really bad.

And I said, well, compared to who, I said, because you know, I'm not talking about sinning against me. I'm talking about God. And I went through the Ten Commandments and he got up and left. I mean, if you think there aren't people even in this sanctuary here today that don't think

That they're that bad, you'd be mistaken. Mary was like, who am I? that the messenger of God would come in here and say, greetings, favored one. And quite honestly, I hope that we will have the understanding that, man, when God chooses to reveal Himself to us, and when we realize that God chose to sin Jesus Christ, His Son, the Messiah into this world,

We should be humbled by that. We should go, Lord, Your love is the indescribable thing here. The indescribable part is that the holy God, the perfect God, the righteous God would even consider me. It's almost said, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you would even consider him?

That's what Mary is saying. What kind of greeting is this, that you would call me favored one when I am just an ordinary, regular sinner? Well, points to the greatness of our God, doesn't it? So he continues on, says he was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this would be. And I love this, as verse 30, the angel told her, do not be afraid, Mary. for you have found favor with God.

You know, one of the hard parts for us sometimes is to have a balance, right? The Bible says it got as opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So when we actually have the audacity to say to God, I'm so good, I don't blame you for saving me. That's the wrong balance. But to have the understanding that we are important to God, That's huge, right?

The other part of it is sometimes is that we really wonder if we found favor with God. Many, many Christians, they still struggle and we found favor with God. Many times we're afraid. I talk to a considerable number of people that really struggle to trust their salvation. You know, maybe you're one of those people that you go, I believe that Jesus died from my sins. I believe that He rose again on the third day, but I'm such a sinner that I don't know how I can trust His salvation. I keep falling short. Well, if that's you, that's me too. I fall short. I don't know how anybody could say you don't fall short. First John 1 tells us if we say that we have sin, we deceive ourselves and we make God a liar.

We have sin, right? But does that mean we haven't found favor with God? Of course that does not mean we haven't found favor with God. How do we know we found favor with God? We find favor with God through Christ. Christ came into this world. God showed His favor to us. There wasn't that God just showed favor to Mary to be the mother of Jesus. He was showing favor to Mary to send Jesus into this world to be the Savior. Then you and I, man, we don't have to be afraid. So many people live in fear as if God's not gonna come through for them, or if God's not gonna care for them, or maybe if they make the wrong step, God's gonna stop caring for them.

That's not true. If you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have received the salvation that cannot be taken from you. It cannot be stolen from you. It cannot be ripped out. You can't rip yourself out. It's Christ. He's the favor. You wanna know if you found favor with God? Look to Jesus Christ, sent from the Father, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins. He became our sin.

Died for our sin, rose from the dead on the third day. If that's not favor with God, I don't know if favor is. Man, don't be afraid. He says there, don't be afraid. You found favor with God. How many of us could be set free from some debilitating anxiety or some debilitating fear or some enslavement to some sin if we just look to God and go. He has shown me favor. He has shown me favor. He loves me. And I know because of Christ. I know because of Christmas. I know because of Easter. I know because of so many other things.

Don't be afraid. You found favor with God. And then he begins to give his message, right? He just greeted her, worked her through the greeting. He has a message. It's an incredible message for Mary. He says, now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son. I'll just stop right there.

Can you imagine? She even says, later on, how's this possible? I've not known a man. But can you imagine what would have started going through your head? You're gonna conceive and have a son. If I told some of you that today, you'd be like, what? No way. Not possible, don't want to. What about my family? What about my friends? What about my community? What about all, all, all, all, right? There's no. This is my message. God's message for you. You're gonna conceive. You're gonna have a son. And it gets even better. And you'll name him Jesus.

He'll be great. He'll be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, Dave, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. All right, Mary, you're gonna conceive, you're gonna have son, you're gonna name Jesus.

Man over in Matthew chapter one, we'll look at that passage next week, but Matthew chapter one, verse 21, when the angel's talking to Joseph, he says, she will bear a son, and he will call his name Jesus. where he will save his people from their sins. Mary, you're going to have a son. He's going to be the savior of the world. He's going to save his people from their sins.

And it just keeps building because then he says he'll be great. He'll be called the son of the most high. He'll be great.

Now, put yourself in Mary's spot. She lives in an unknown town, basically. She lives in a town in Galilee, which is the, for second class, Israeli citizens. You got to go down to Judah to Jerusalem to be first class Israeli citizens. They live in second class, lower class,

Galilee. There's no expectation of greatness from the Galileans. Not a fact when Philip told Nathaniel he'd found the Messiah and he was from Nazareth. I'm pretty sure if I'm not right on the names, forgive me but I think this is right. Nathaniel said, can anything good come from Nazareth?

Right? I'm not making this stuff up. Why would she ever think anything great would come from her? The truth was it wasn't from her. She's going to be the vessel, but the greatness came from who she was bearing, the Son of God. He'll be called the Son of the Most High. It's one of my favorite names for God, God, most high.

There aren't any other gods, but there isn't anything higher than the Lord God Almighty. He's gonna be the son of the most high God. There's nothing like him. There's gonna be nothing like him. After he's born, there was nothing like him before the son of the most high. This child you're gonna have is unspeakably glorious and great. And he goes on

And he says, the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. Now this is really important. He has got it promised that David would have a descendant that would always sit on the throne of Israel. Matter of fact in 2 Samuel 7, 12 and 13, God says to David, when your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you, meaning of your line. And I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Man, this angel, he's telling Mary, God's message is telling you that the one that's been promised to be the eternal King over the people of God is going to be born through you. A powerful thought is that. I'm going to fulfill my promise. He's going to reign forever. He goes on,

He says, he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Man, I was reading this to the day and just the thought, his kingdom will have no end. I love that so much. I mean, we are people of kingdoms. Whether we want to admit it or not, we build our kingdoms, right? Sometimes it's just our house. How many of you are building your kingdom at your house? You're fixing your house right now. Anybody working at your house right now? Isn't that a lovely kingdom?

Because guess what happens when you're done without part of your house? You'll have to fix another part of your house. And if that doesn't happen, then your house is just gonna fall down, which one of these days the Bible says, everything that's not eternal is gonna be destroyed anyway, right? The Bible says so. Your kingdom, if it's your house, is not gonna last. Your kingdom, if it's your health. I love that. I go to the gym just so you know,

Makes me feel good, right? It does make me look better. But I love the ones that are in the gym because their kingdom is their health. And then one day they're not in the gym

Because their health has broken them. They can't go to the gym. Your health isn't gonna last forever for sure. Some people like, oh man, I'm not worried about anything but my country. My country is my kingdom. Well, the US isn't going to last forever either. And I love our country, but it's not going to last forever.

But there is a king. There is a king. And he has a kingdom. And it's an everlasting kingdom. It's never gonna end, not ever, not for any reason. And he's the only one that has the power to make it eternal. And he's the only one that has the power to make you part of it. And his name is Jesus. And if you wanna be a part of the kingdom that has no end,

You've gotta trust Christ as your Lord and Savior. He's the one. The message was, I'm sending the one and only savior of all mankind. I'm showing favor on all mankind. You're going to bear the sun that is called the sun of the most high God. He's going to be great. He's going to reign on David's throne. He's going to reign over the people of God and his kingdom's going to be forever. One of the great pictures of the eternal kingdom is back in the book of Daniel. And again, I don't know the chapter, but many lists off all these kingdoms. And then he talks about this rock that's carved out of the mountain without hands.

And it rolls down and it hits the bottom of these other kingdoms and all these other kingdoms are shattered. And it talks about the kingdom of heaven that is the eternal kingdom and the kingdom that's gonna reign. And he's being born through Mary. for us. And I get so humble sometimes

At who Christ is. For me, who Christ is for you? Matter of fact, I get so broken sometimes when I talk with people about Christ and they act like he's nothing and they act like he's not important and they act like they don't want him. I get so broken, I just like, got what? What's gonna take? What's gonna happen to see these people come to know this king that's been so good to me? who keeps me, who secures me, who loves me, who forgives me, who guides me and protects me. It's so personal to me. These passages are so personal to me. God's saying, I'm sending the one, the one you need, and there isn't anyone like him, and nothing else will be sufficient.

He's great. He's glorious. He's savior. He's Messiah. Well, Mary, here's all this, and she says, how can this be? Since I had sexual relations with a man. Some people say, well, she's obviously doubting him. I don't think so, because at verse 38, she says, incredible faith. Incredible faith. What she's saying is what a lot of us say sometimes is

Practically speaking. It's impossible for me to be pregnant. It's just that simple for her. It's impossible for me to be pregnant. And many of us here are very pragmatic. Are you pragmatic? You know what you see? You've heard? You see how things work? You've got things under control because you know, you know so much, right? It could never possibly work

If it's not within the realm of physical laws and biology and so forth. Well, how mistaken we are, right? Because I love the explanation. The angel says, they're the Holy Spirit, will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. All right, Mary, you wanna know how this is gonna work?

God's gonna do it. God's gonna do it. He's gonna overshadow with you. He's gonna put his son in you. That's how you're gonna be pregnant. I actually kinda love that. because that's really insufficient for many of you, isn't it? Some of you are like, come on. I need a little more explanation. No, you don't. What you need is to know who God is. Man, for some of us, we just need to relax every now and then and go, you know what, I know God. I don't need to have him tell me the answers. I don't need to have him explain it to me. I know God. And if God wants to do it, he can do it.

That's great with me. Man, where do we come to the place where we've told God we have to explain? He has to explain everything to us. Do you think we could handle that? Do you think we could actually handle somehow a God who's so powerful and so sovereign and so amazing that he can place his son inside a physical woman when we come to Philippians chapter two and we talk about have this attitude in yourself which is also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself and took the form of a bond serving in the form of a man, you think we could comprehend that?

We can't comprehend that. So God just said to her, hey, you know what? Got this. I got this. The Holy Spirit's gonna do a work in you that can't be done physically. Man, I don't know about you, but I need that from God. I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I'm not even close. I'm not close.

We play trivia, Beth and I read trivia questions all the time. She wins all the time. I try to find a different box of them. She keeps winning.

After a while, I just play a different game because it's not fun to lose all the time because she's smarter than I am.

It's not even fun to admit that, but it's just true. But I know this. I need a God and I have a God who can do more than I can do. Do you? Do you need that God?

Some of you are here and you've never trusted Christ and you're like, I don't know what will happen if I trust Christ. I don't know what's going to happen if I actually surrender myself and believe in Him and say, I'm going to follow Him. How's that going to work in my life?

Well, you don't have to know the answer to that. You just have to know that it's gonna work because he said it would work. Now when I trusted Christ, He changed my heart, He changed my mind. I knew instantly, I knew I was not the same. I couldn't think the same, do the same, act the same, go the same places. I knew. When I was sinned, when I sinned today, he still says to me, hey, knock it off. What do you think you're doing? That's wrong, repent. He does this work that I can't fully comprehend sometimes. And he doesn't work in me that I can't always understand even in a physical realm. Does he not do that for you?

Man, sometimes we just think God is like us. and therefore limited. He's not like us and he's not limited. So he tells her, man, I'll put this child in you. And because of that, the one who will be born will be called the Son of God. He will not have an earthly father. He could not have an earthly father. He would have been a sinner just like the rest of us.

He's the Son of God. He's a sinless one. He's the one that would then be qualified to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He didn't deserve it, but laid down his life. And because of his great value as a son of God, his sacrifice was sufficient for the payment you and I owed. God did the work and God will do the work in your life. And you won't have to figure it out. Just trust him.

And then he says, consider your relative Elizabeth. Even she has conceived his son in her old age. And this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. He says, man, if you don't think I can do it for you, I did it for your cousin, she's old.

And she has a child who would soon be John the Baptist. Well, he says for nothing will be impossible with God. Don't you love that? Nothing. Nothing. Are you in dire straits this morning? Nothing is impossible with God. Are you enslaved by something? Be it sin, addiction, spiritual forces? Are you enslaved? And you're like, how am I going to be free? Nothing is impossible with God.

Financial troubles, heartache, marital struggles, relationship struggles, and some of you are just overwhelmed by various things that's not hard. This world's a tough place, but nothing is impossible with God. If He can impregnate a young woman,

With His Son that He might save the world through His Son. Can He not deliver us, forgive us, save us, protect us, provide for us? Can He not? Oh, He can. He so can. He so can. And He will trust Him. But in fact, we end this passage with this profound verse.

Mary says, see, I'm the Lord's servant. Now that in itself is profound. This is an overwhelming thing God has said is going to happen in your life. You're not only going to carry this child for nine months, but this child's going to live in your home. You're going to be the one that feeds him, changes his diapers, watches him grow God's son. Talk about pressure.

This is going to be a huge call beyond what she can handle. And Mary goes, see, it's not about what I want, Father. I am the Lord's servant. So what you want, God, is what I do.

See, that's part of the key to Christ in our life and the difference that he makes. We're not the Lord. There's only one Lord, that's Christ. He's the Lord. So if you say to me, Lord, follow me, serve me, give, forgive, love, you name it. Our responses the servant of the Lord, whatever you want, whatever you want.

But then she said, may it happen to me as you have said. That's faith. Lord, you've told me you were going to do something in my life that can't be physically accomplished by anyone on earth. But I trust you. So let it happen to me as you have said. So what How does that apply to us? How does this passage apply to us? Well, first of all, we have to see the greatness and the goodness and the love of God

Choosing to send Christ into this world. Not our choice, not our plan, not our timing, God's love, chose to send a Savior for every single one of us. Hallelujah. That's amazing. We have to see that God give a promise of one that would reign and that would rule forever. And all who would call upon his name would be saved and become a part of his kingdom. You don't have to be outside. You can be in the kingdom. But we also have to see. We don't approach God telling him how it's going to be. No, we go Lord servants and we trust you. Some of you, man, you've thought about Jesus. You've prayed, maybe Jesus will save you, but you haven't been willing to go, here's my life, Lord.

I trust you. I need you to forgive me. I need you to make my mind and my heart new. I need you to give me eternal life. I can't do it on my own, but I trust you. You've got to trust that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the price for your sins and that everything that needs to be done for you to be saved has been done by Him.

And your faith in Him will be sufficient. And when you trust Him, He'll transform you and bless you and fill you with His presence and give you a joy and a peace that you can't have apart from Him. You've got to come by faith. And some of us ask Christians, We gotta return to faith.

We gotta quit thinking. Everything's on our shoulders. Everything's responsible. We're responsible for everything in our life. It's not true. We are responsible to seek Him, to hear from Him, and to obey Him. He is responsible for our care and our provisions and our ability. How about we trust Him?

If you've never trusted Christ, why not now? Say, Lord, I believe you died for me. I believe you rose again. I know I'm a sinner. I'm sorry. I want you to forgive me. I believe you'll forgive me and make me your child. Do that right where you are as we pray. Let's pray.