The Call to Conceive This Christmas

At Luke's Gospel. The Christmas story appears, of course, in Matthew and Luke. By the way, while you're turning there, if you come in, we've already had a drama that you may have missed if you came in late, as well as a special song. And I want to encourage you, we didn't do that so you'd miss it. We did that because it fit better today. But please, I know it's tough when it's gloomy out to get moving early. You might even want to stay over and watch it in the beginning of the second service. There's an idea for it. All right, Luke chapter 1. In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, verse 26, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age. And she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God. Let's say that. For nothing is impossible with God. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. It may be my imagination, but it seems that every year at this time, precisely in these few weeks before Christmas, the television screens are flooded with reruns of the Christmas movies of days gone by. How many of you have seen The Miracle of 34th Street for the 50th time? Or perhaps your favorite is It's a Wonderful Life, or A Christmas Carol, or one of those wonderful movies. Tradition and memories are part of Christmas to all of us, and I can't help but notice that we're all affected. Even as we sing some of these carols, memories come flooding back, and tears fill the eyes as we think about loved ones and scenes of Christmas. We tend to even gauge how successful Christmas is this year based on its comparison to years gone by. Dear ones, I'm going to depart today from a North Way tradition, which has basically been over the years to use the Christmas season as an opportunity to address sort of the broader themes that are out there, speaking with sensitivity toward the visitors and so that we have. But this year, very clearly, this entire week, the Lord has been speaking to me to address you, the Church, and to specifically target this message to the abiding membership of our Church. And if you're a visitor today, I think you'll find it relevant to you, but I want to be on record now as saying this message is for those of you who call this your Church. How many does that encompass, by the way, all right? And I trust that what I say today will find hearing in your heart and will be life to your spirit. The word that I want to share is found here in this sort of pre-Christmas story. We wouldn't have a Christmas story if we didn't have this part of it. You understand that? And the principal character in the story then is who? Hello? Mary. Everyone hates to answer questions wrong, so you don't answer at all. I can tell that. It's Mary. Obviously, as of this reading, it's Mary. Now, Mary happens to be a very controversial figure, does she not? Maybe some of you grew up in a tradition where Mary was revered, given a status above humanity, maybe even seen as a mediator between you and God. Others of us grew up in a tradition that reacted to that position and saw Mary as just, you know, another person kind of along the way, and we just preferred the point of view that said the less said about Mary, the better. I mean, you know, she's just another person like us. In fact, this kind of controversy still flares up. I'm amazed that even these last weeks there's been a flare-up recently on our Christian talk shows about the person of Mary. I asked the Lord, why couldn't I talk about Joseph, you know? I mean, who has a problem with Joseph? Does anyone have a problem with Joseph? He's basically a good guy. No, it's Mary. But it's very important that we start today with your willingness to identify yourself with Mary. And that isn't easy to do, especially if you're from the background, which about a third to a half of our church is, that has seen Mary in the tradition of being more than human. And it's also not easy for those of us who saw Mary as being human because we have not really ever given her the kind of place that she needs to have. But make no mistake, Mary was given to us to be more than just another person, but as a model. And I want to talk about Mary as a model of our faith and response to God. Let me help you just a bit, if I might, to see how you might relate to Mary. A few things about her. Mary, in verse 26, was from the town of Nazareth. For us, it would have been like the town of Millvale. I mean, it's just a common town, no big deal, all right? Mary was living under the government of her day. She was part of the system that the Romans controlled. That's just where she was coming from. She was part of the children of God. She was a daughter of Israel, a child of the covenant, and verse 27 tells us that she was pledged to be married. In other words, she had the normal drives and desires that all of you have. I do not hold to the theory that Mary never had sexual intercourse. She had drives and desires like all of us do. She was a normal person. Now, those four little descriptors should pretty much encompass all of us. Most of us are from very normal kinds of backgrounds. Most of us have been, you know, living in order under the government of our day. Most of us here today are children of the new covenant, and most of us here today have relationships that have lasted a lifetime. You may or may not be married. By the way, Mary was in a very unusual position in terms of being pledged to be married. Did you know that in the Israeli culture of the day, the first step of the process of getting married was what they call being engaged? It didn't mean like we mean engaged. If we mean engaged, it may or may not happen. When they meant engaged, it was getting on its way to happen. That was when the parents set up the marriage. Did you know that in the majority of the cultures of the world, parents still set up the marriages? Did you know that? You know, when I was a kid, I used to think how awful for a parent to tell me who I had to marry, and now I'm a parent. I see the wisdom of some of these things now, you know? Anyhow, but so Mary was connected, if you will, with Joseph. Parents set it up. She was in the second phase of the Hebrew kind of culture, which was she was betrothed, which meant that they were literally formally locked. In fact, in that culture, it was just like being married, except they weren't living together. In order to separate, they had to get a certificate of divorce. That's what you read about in Matthew chapter 1. And so Mary was locked in, and she was building her life and her anticipation. The point I'm making is she was like you. She was living a normal life, trying to please God, living in the culture in which she found herself. All right? How many of you then, don't put your head down, how many of you can identify a little bit more? You see, she's not somebody that was sort of waiting in this ivory tower for God to appear to her. She was just a normal person. But God had plans for her. And it's very important from right now, at ground zero, that you understand something, that what I'm going to share with you is just as important spiritually for you as it was physically for her. What I'm going to talk to you about in the spirit is every bit as real as what happened to Mary in the flesh. The Christ child that she bore in her womb is the Christ child that you bear. It's very important today that you don't minimize that. Otherwise, you'll miss what the Lord wants you to know today for your life. Now, to this simple maiden of Israel, the angel of the Lord appears and says these words. Three points. Number one, I'm glad the angels even speak in threes. It kind of verifies my... Verse 28, the angel says, greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. The first thing I want you to hear today as I stand here as the Lord's messenger to this congregation today, you are highly favored. Now, some of you are thinking, well, you know, I'm already out of it. I'm not highly favored. There's nothing special about me. I'm not in any specific special place of grace. I've never had an angel speak to me. What are you talking about? Please hear me, dear one. The Lord wants you to know today that you're highly favored. The Greek word for favor is the word charis. What does that sound like? Well, for some of you immediately, you think charismatic, but charis means graced. It means the favor of God, the undeserved favor of God, I might add. And the angel is saying to Mary, you're a person who has found favor with God. And the angel wants you to know today, the Lord wants you to know today that you are favored of God. If you're here today and you've received Jesus Christ in your life, if you've walked out of darkness into the light, if you've left behind your old life, if you have purpose and destiny and you know your life is eternally secure in God, I would say you're favored, wouldn't you? Dear ones, I rub shoulders, as most of you do, with a world that doesn't know that God exists and doesn't have the time of day for him. And we need to understand something. Of all the peoples of the world, we have been favored. Those of us who've received Christ and trust. I know where I'm going and I can't wait to get there. I feel favored. I feel special to God. Don't you? I mean, do you feel like you're a treasure to God or do you feel like you're just a number in his little computer? Now, your present experience of that grace may not be all that it's to be. That's the purpose of this message today. You see, Mary was favored because she was a child of God. And yes, she was favored because the angel came to her today. And I'm saying to you, you're favored because you're a child of God and you're favored because God has purpose and destiny for you today. I'll never forget, never, walking on the sidewalks of the slums of Bombay near Victory Clinic where John Abraham has his medical mission. As I pick my way between the cardboard boxes of homes, ducking in now and then with John to see the families huddle around an eight by nine foot little room with an open fire in it. I saw the little kids with the matted hair and the many cases runny noses and obvious sicknesses they were dealing with and the malnutrition. And I saw the sewage running out of the huts down into the little center sidewalk, open pit of disease. And I thought, to this day, I think to myself, God, why am I here in this wonderful city, in this great nation with all that I have? What did I do to deserve it, God? And you know what the answer comes back every time? What? Nothing. Nothing. You are highly, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. You're highly favored as I am, dear ones. And I want to say to you today that now the Lord is saying, open wider your heart and let the person of Jesus who dwells in most all of you, today the Lord is saying, I want to expand the realm of my dominion. I want to stretch out the boundaries of my rulership in you. I want new life, is what I'm saying. New life to begin to be formed in you today. That's the word of the Lord to us. I want something new to begin to be fashioned in us, is what God is saying. Because the Lord knows that you and I are not quite where we ought to be. Am I talking to anyone besides just a couple of us today? I mean, do you find yourself rubbing shoulders in a world that needs the power of God more than ever? People say, well, you know, we have so much now. We've got doctors who can fix our bodies and we've got, you know, banks who can give us money and we've got counselors who can talk us through our problems. Can I tell you that I know all that and I still think we have as many problems as we ever had, if not more. You may think the world's getting better. I think it's getting worse and I rub shoulders, and most of you far more than I do, with people who need God. And the Lord is saying today, expect something to begin to happen in your life. Hear the angel as he speaks to you today. You're highly favored. The Lord is with you. I know about my own life that nothing gives me more assurance than to know that promise, that the Lord is with me wherever I go. In a deep way, the Lord is saying to Mary here, to the angel, Mary, you're about to go into some new waters here. How many of you know that when someone was, a young woman that is, was found to be pregnant in that culture outside of wedlock, you know what normally happened to them? They were stoned to death. Now, in best case scenario, they were ridiculed, mocked, scorned, and rejected. When the angel came, it wasn't necessarily good news right off the bat. She knew that she was headed into some things, and the promise of God's presence needed to be reaffirmed. How many of you know that you can go through just about anything if you know that God is with you? Just about anything if you know it. It's just those moments when you wonder, is he really there? Did he leave me outside the operating room? Did he leave me when I took that new job? You see, grace opens the doors for us, but the presence of God abides with us when we go through. Remember years ago, training my kids to ride a two-wheel bike. How many parents have learned to do that, okay? The way we did it was, when we took the wheels off, we grabbed the back of the seat and went alongside of them, you know, keeping up with them. I just, I can still see it today. Those first few times we tried it, you know, don't let me go, dad. Watch, looking back, making sure that I'm there, and then finally you let it go. But see, God never lets us go. His presence is always with us. If we read the scripture, when the Lord's grace opens a door, his presence abides with us. Think of Noah. The Lord's grace opened the door into the ark. You know, the Bible says that the Lord shut them up. He shut the door and his presence was with him. Think of Moses. The Lord called him up by his grace to the mountaintop, but his presence, the Bible says, overshadowed him. Think of Daniel. His grace allowed him to stand in the face of the king in the fiery furnace, but his presence abode with him, the fourth man. What door has God opened for you by his grace? And you know that without his presence, you'll fail miserably. Well, today I want you to know the Lord is saying to us, you're highly favored. His grace is with you. New life's coming, and his presence will be with you. Mary was blessed beyond imagination, and yet Mary was like us. I'm sure she had questions about this thing. Notice what she said, by the way. Verse 29 says, Mary was greatly troubled at his words. You see it there? Why was she troubled, do you think? Well, maybe because she wasn't sure that this was really happening to her. Who is this angel? I mean, you know, this was not a common occurrence, folks, but I want to submit to you she was troubled because she knew something that I'm going to tell you, and maybe you already know it, that when God's favor rests on you, it does not necessarily mean that life will just simply be one unbroken journey of happy experiences. Mary had enough wisdom at her young age to know that God's favor rested on the prophets, and what happened to them? What? They were stoned and killed and despised, many of them. God's favor rested on the children of Israel, and they found themselves in lots of difficult times. Mary had some wisdom here, but she also had the promise of knowing that the Lord's Spirit would be with her. Mary then goes on, and as the angel is with her, she says, well, how is this going to happen? The H-word. How? How? By the way, earlier in Luke, did you know that Zechariah also asked the angel? Remember that story? Zechariah was told that he was going to have a child, and you know, his wife was an old lady and had never been pregnant, and he asked the angel, he said, how? He said a little differently, though. He said, what? Huh? Yeah, how can I know for sure? You see the difference? Mary said, how will this happen? He said, how can I know for sure? See the difference? What happened to Zechariah? Well, the angel hit him upside the head, and he couldn't talk for nine months. I always wonder, why didn't the angel hit Mary? Why? Because what Mary said was a question of mystery. Like, wow, how is this going to happen? Not one of doubt. You see the difference? Zechariah doubted. Mary wondered. Catch this very important word. Some of you right now are doubting that what I'm saying is for you. Some of you are wondering, how is it going to happen? I don't know how God will break through your obstacles or mine. I've got my obstacles to this promise being fulfilled of God's presence growing in me. I don't know. Maybe you need to see God's presence and power break through in a physical way. And I've got the reports that say, well, it won't happen. Maybe you need to see God's presence break through in a financial way, and you've got the pile of bills that say, I don't know how it's going to happen. Maybe you need to see God break through in a relational way, and you've got the emotional scars to say it'll never happen. I want to say to you today, don't ask the Lord, how can I be sure? Just say, Lord, I don't know how. It's okay to have obstacles. Just don't let them be the focus. Because the angel answers Mary and said, well, here's how it's going to happen. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Do you see it there? Verse 35. What's the angel saying? Well, let me just capsulize. The angel is saying, from beginning to end, Mary, God is going to do it. That's what that says to me. Mary, you don't have to worry about it, because all you have to know is that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you, and the power of God is going to overshadow you, and it's going to happen. You know what our problem is? My problem, let me say for me, my problem is I want to know just how it's going to happen and when it's going to happen. And I want to hear the angel say, don't worry about it, Jay. The power of the Holy Spirit will take care of it. You say, well, this is just for Mary. I did a little word study on it where it says the Holy Spirit came upon. You know what the word, the phrase came upon is one word in the Greek, and it appears just about a half a dozen times in the scripture. I wrote it down somewhere in my notes, but you forget it anyhow. I can't even pronounce it very correctly, but epistemize the word. You know where it appears? It appears in Acts 1 verse 8, which says, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. Remember that verse? And we know what happened at Pentecost. What happened? The Holy Spirit came upon. By that definition, how many people here have had the Holy Spirit come upon you already? You see what I'm saying? And I want to say again, by the Lord's word to you today, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. For some of you, it may be just a very identifiable experience. You may get a warm, fuzzy feeling. You may not feel any different at all. I just want you to know if you trust God, it's going to happen. The word overshadow appears only four times in the New Testament. Three of those four times, it's the story of the transfiguration, where Jesus went up with Peter, James, and John on the mountain and overshadowed them with his glory. Dear ones, I have never had a cloud of God come over me. I've known of some pastors who've had that. Jack Hayford is a friend of mine. He had the glory of God, a cloud descend over his sanctuary in California. I've never had that, but can I tell you something? I've had the cloud of God's presence over me, and so have you. There's a difference between a visible cloud and the cloud of God's presence. How many of you know that there's been times in your life when God was overshadowing you? You just knew it. You didn't see it. You just knew it. Most of God's greatest blessings we don't see. How many of you have ever seen salvation? Hello? How many of you have ever seen love? Well, you don't. You just know it's there, and today I want you to know that God's presence is going to overshadow us. His power is going to fall upon us, and in many cases it already has. The biggest impediment to the release of the fullness of Jesus' life and power in most of us is, listen, we've just stopped expecting it to happen. What we've needed is someone to stand up and say the word of the Lord to us and say to us, believe it. Believe it, dear one. Believe that God wants his person to come alive in you in a way that you've not known, and I'm saying to you today that that's what God wants you to hear. He wants you to be expecting him to come. You get the connection here? Turn to someone and say, I'm expecting. Now you're getting it. Now you're getting what I'm saying. There's a husband in the back row that just passed out. His wife turned to him. You see, when we stop expecting, we stop receiving. Without faith, it's what? Impossible to please God. A double-minded man, be sure of this, you'll receive nothing from God, and I was with God this week, just in my normal routine of things, and the Lord said, tell my people that they're highly favored. Tell them that I'm with them. Tell them that the Holy Spirit is upon them, and the power of the Most High will overshadow them, and tell them the third thing, if we can put it up, please, that nothing is impossible with God. Why do you think the angel had to go to that great length just to reassure Mary? Well, how many babies had been conceived without a father prior to this in history? Zip, or since, zero. There have been some miracle births, you know. I mean, Abraham and Sarah, that's pretty decent. How many of you know of any hundred-year-old dads here? But Jesus Christ was the only one ever conceived by the Holy Spirit, and so Mary needed this reassurance that nothing was impossible with God, nothing, and dear ones, the Lord is stirring us today for those who have ears to hear, those who have the courage to believe, for you to hear God say to you today that nothing is impossible for you. I want you to think of it right now. We're going to close the service in a moment. What are you looking at that's impossible? Which of your children is impossible to you? Which of your parents? What financial problem is impossible? I'm not saying some wild thing, but you know that it's something that's an obstacle to God's peace in your life. Think about your head right now. Think about it. What's impossible? What has the report said will never happen? What is the relationship that's been so broken that you can't imagine it getting better? What is the hope or dream that once burned big in your heart is now a smoking wick about to go out? Nothing is impossible. All right, now do you see it? You can look up again. Whatever that is, by God's grace, I want you to know something. The life of Jesus being birthed in you is the answer to that problem. The person of Jesus coming alive in you by the Holy Spirit is the supply that you need to overcome that problem. Some of you are expecting and you're about to give birth today. Some of you are expecting and you're about to give birth this week. Some of you may take a while. Last night when I gave this message, there were two young women here who had been friends. For the last year, they'd had a terrible falling out with each other. I mean, just isolation, not communicating. These two folks were very close, almost inseparable as friends. Counselors hadn't been able to get through to them. Friends hadn't been able to bring them together. I gave this message. I said the same things to them that I was saying to you. That night, last night, one looked at the other one and in that moment, God healed that relationship. They came to me afterwards last night and they said, Pastor Jay, we have to tell you something. I thought to myself, oh, here's a counseling thing coming up. They said, God's taking care of these. God's brought us back together. For some of you, it might just take a few weeks. Maybe it'll be nine months. Who knows? But I am, and forgive it if it sounds just a little crass, but I'm pregnant with expectation for my life, for your life. I'm pregnant with God and I don't know what it's going to mean. I'm just doing what I was told to do and that's to tell you those simple phrases. You're highly favored. The Lord is with you. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high is going to overshadow you and nothing is impossible with God. Not one thing. You say, but that was to Mary and I'm not like Mary. Yes, you are. You're highly favored. You say, well, what should I do? Finally, these two things. Here's what Mary did. Look at verse 38. Two simple things. She said this, I am the Lord's servant. The first thing is, dear one, it won't happen to you if you say to God, well, you better get moving. You know, this is the way I've always wanted to be. I'll do it my way. You've got to say the word servant there, by the way, is the word doulos in the Greek, which means slave. Most translators wouldn't say that about Mary. So your Bible probably says handmaiden, but Mary's saying, Lord, I am yours. Do with me what you will. And then what does she say? Secondly, may it be with me as you have said. She believed two things. She, she obeyed and trusted. She submitted and said, I'll obey you. And then she said, Lord, I believe you. And all you need to do to see God's power released, his life come forth. Those two things to say, God, I'm your servant and I trust you to do it. You can do that, can't you? I can do that. Let's stand together and tell the Lord that we can do it. Shall we? Lord, we stand right now at the summons of the Holy Spirit. And we ask you right now, God, to overshadow us. Lord, I pray even now, as we conclude this service, that you do what you said you'd do Lord, that you allow the Holy spirit to come upon some whose hearts have been stirred, whose expectation is already alive today. Lord, I pray that you begin to release hope and promise and an outpouring of life here today. Be with us. Keep your eyes closed as we sing this together.