Transcript

Now let's dig in. We're going to be in the book of Luke, chapter one. We've entitled this message, “The Annunciation.” And the word, “annunciation,” is just a big fancy word for “the announcement.” It means announcement.

And it's where the angel Gabriel came and announced the coming of the birth of Jesus to Mary. But you know, when I think about birth announcements, I see so many humorous ones on social media, don't you? You see these birth announcements, people announcing that they're expecting a child. Some of these look like this. Look at this first one I found on the Internet.

Here's the boss, right? This is the boss. And now they're finding out they've got another one coming. This is going to be an assistant. This is going to be the assistant to the regional manager.

You know, everybody knows when you get a three year old, he or she's the regional manager of your house. Look at the next one. What's one more? That's right. Well, you already have chaos.

You might as well just, you know, you can't make it any worse, have another one. And then this next one I thought was pretty humorous too. We just decided we were tired of sleeping in. Okay, that's a great way to make an announcement. And then this one's really funny.

This is a quote from Bob Ross, the painter, “There are no mistakes in life, just happy little accidents.” Painting a little tree there on her, that's pretty funny. And then these birth announcements for after the baby's already born. Look at this, my latest tax deduction.

This is Jason Alinger. You know, that's pretty good. And then we have this one just set free, just escaping from the womb. And then finally, here's a dad that's really proud of his son, right? You know, better lock up your daughters.

And so birth announcements can be humorous, they can be funny. And there's a reason for that. It's one of the most joyous moments in a parent's life, in a family's life. Yet for Mary, I don't think it started out as joy. I think it started out as fear and confusion.

And that's often the way we feel when we first hear God's word, when we first hear him speak into our life, we often feel fear and then sometimes we'll feel confusion. That was her first response. There was a reason for her having this response. You know, Mary was probably only around 13, 14 years old according to the time that a young woman would be betrothed in those days. And she was young.

And the news that was being brought to her could be scandalous because she was a virgin, she was not married. And so, of course, she had confusion and fear. But some of us, like Mary, we struggle, because when we look at our resumes, when we look at our past, especially when we look at some of our limitations or past mistakes, we might feel that when God speaks to us and calls us to give birth to something new in our lives through the power of His Word, we might feel inadequate, we might feel confused, we might feel afraid to say yes to God. And so, as we hear the Word today, I want us to kind of put ourselves in the place of Mary hearing this word, because God's Word is still speaking to us today. And so as we hear the Christmas story that we know so well, I pray that it speaks to you personally in a fresh new way today.

Well, let's look at the text. Here's what we believe in the book of Luke, that Luke recorded that the angel Gabriel came and brought a word to Mary announcing God's gracious favor to her, revealing the miraculous conception of God's Son, and gave her the assurance that enabled her to give humble submission to His Word. And I believe in this announcement to Mary that we too can submit humbly to God's Word and receive his unmerited favor, his grace. And as we look at the text today, I think we'll see four ways that we can see this unmerited favor from God.

So let's look at it. We're in the book of Luke, chapter one, starting at verse 26, Luke 1:26-38 (ESV) 26 “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant[e] of the Lord;

let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” This is God's word. We're looking for four ways God has revealed his unmerited favor to us. Here's the first way.

1. By the announcement of His grace.

By the announcement of his grace. That's what this is. This is a birth announcement. It's a surprising one.

It's an extraordinary birth announcement in a very ordinary time. And to a very ordinary young woman. It begins with this greeting in verse 28.

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” “The Lord is with you” in Hebrew would have been Immanuel. God is with you, O favored one. Favor. We saw it a couple of times. He repeats it again in verse 30,

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” That word favor in the first instance, oh, favored one. It's in a verbal form. It's surprising a little bit, because we usually see the Greek word charis. If your name is Charis, it means grace or favored one.

But here it's in the verb form

and so it's the idea that doesn't make sense in English, but you are graced, you are favored. This is how it sounds. And so it's this idea of Mary. God has decided to show you favor.

It's not something that Mary earned. It's not because Mary was wealthy or overly wise. It wasn't because she was sinless. It was because God chose her as the recipient of his favor. Because grace or favor from God is not something we can earn.

It's only something we can humbly receive. You see, I learned this acronym when I was a young man. I heard a preacher teach it that grace is God's Redemption At Christ's Expense. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Not only can't you earn it, but you've actually earned a different wage.

You earn wages, you receive a gift. The wages that we have earned according to the Scripture, according to our sin, as for the wages of sin, has earned us death. But what we can receive through grace is eternal life. He comes to Mary and he announces God's favor. Not because of her, but because of Him.

Just like every other little girl born to a Jewish family in this particular age, I bet everyone who was born to the house of David, born into the tribe of Judah, but particularly to the house of David, probably thought, I wonder if I will be the one who gives birth to the Messiah. The one thing about this, as we know from the Old Testament, from the Hebrew Bible, that this one that was to come had to be born to the tribe of Judah and had to be born even more specifically to the house of David, to the lineage of David. Notice how it begins here.

It tells us some things - “in the sixth month.” Well, what is that about? Well, he tells us down in verse 36 that it's the sixth month of Mary's relative, Elizabeth, who had been barren. She's six months pregnant now and she's in her sixth month. So that's what that refers to “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel…”

Now, what in the world? We know a name here. There are only a couple angels named in the Bible, Gabriel and Michael, both of them first appearing by name in the book of Daniel. We also have another angel, a fallen angel, Lucifer, whose name means son of the morning or morning star. But of angels, only Gabriel and Michael are named, and they are in the book of Daniel.

But here we see him again in the book of Luke. I don't think it's an accident. The book of Daniel was a book filled with messianic promises and often used a phrase to describe himself. The one who was to come, Son of man, heard this phrase, son of man, which is the favorite phrase that Jesus calls himself in the book of Luke. There's no accident here.

The same Gabriel who explained so many wonderful prophecies to Daniel is here to explain this word of God to Mary. His name means hero of God or strength of God. Anytime you see a Hebrew name with either the prefix or the suffix el, it's a shortened way of saying God. And then they'll attach some other name to give it fuller meaning. Here it's Strength of God or hero of God.

This is Gabriel. He is one who comes and brings a word. When he was coming to Daniel, Daniel had gotten a prophecy from the Lord that was so startling and so overwhelming that it made him sick. And he went to bed for a couple of weeks, and God sent Gabriel to explain it to him. Gabriel's the one who explains things.

And he explains some things. He doesn't just announce them, but he explains some things to Mary. So this is the one who comes. He comes to Nazareth. It's a little town.

I've been here before. It's kind of a busy city when you're downtown. But you don't have to go far to the outskirts to find yourself in the country. And it's not unusual to see a shepherd with a flock of sheep out there in Nazareth even today. And that's where she's at.

She's a small town girl, she's a country girl, and she's a virgin. She's never been with a man. Verse 27, “to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.” She's betrothed to a man whose name is Joseph. This is important information because he is from the house of David.

It's important because the Messianic promise is that the Messiah would be born to the house of David. But since Jesus will be born to Mary without a man, conceived of the Holy Spirit, he still needs a legal right to the throne. And so what we have, I believe when you look at the lineage in the book of Matthew, you have Joseph's lineage, which proves his legal right to the throne. And I believe when we read the lineage later in the book of Luke, we have Mary's lineage, which shows his physical right to the throne. I think this is important information Luke is capturing here.

He's from the house of David, which shows he has a right to the throne of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. Now, have you ever thought about this? There are four Gospels, not just one, there are four. And they each give us a unique perspective of the Messiah of Christ.

And so Matthew portrays him as the king. He's the king, and so he gives him the legal lineage to the throne of David. The imagery of a king is of a lion, and so he's called the lion of Judah. And when Judah went out from the wilderness, when they would break camp in the wilderness and they would go out under the banner of Judah, there would be a lion on the banner of Judah, right? And then Mark, which is arranged just after Matthew, sees him as a servant, Mark portrays him as a doer.

He's always doing miracles. Suddenly and immediately, therefore, it's very quick. It's like an action movie, the book of Mark. And if you look at the banner that Reuben goes out under as the tribe, it's the banner of the ox, which is the, the banner of a servant, right? And then the book of Luke shows us his humanity.

He’s very human. He's the son of man. In fact, the lineage goes all the way back to Adam in the book of Luke. It's very interesting. And so the banner that we see in the wilderness, the third banner is the face of a man on it, a human face.

And then finally, we have the book of John, which portrays Jesus as God. And so that final banner that we see in the wilderness is the banner with an eagle on it, portraying the imagery of God. We don't just see this in the Old Testament. We have four gospels that seem to portray the same thing. And then we go over to the book of Revelation, and we see these beings in heaven that they look one way and they have the face of a lion, they look the other way, they have a face of an ox, and they look the other way, and they have the face of a man, and they look the other way and they have a face of an eagle.

There's something going on here, isn't there? Here he is. Here comes Jesus. All of it's foretold. Every thread is now being tied together in a single knot.

Here he comes. She's hearing this now. How does she respond? Well, we know how she responds. It says in verse 29 that she was greatly troubled.

Wow. That's the response everybody seems to have in the Bible. When an angel shows up, the first thing an angel always has to say to us is, fear not. There's something about the presence of a holy messenger from God that brings fear. And that's how she was greatly troubled.

She's like, what sort of greeting is this? Highly favored one.

That's kind of how Gabriel would greet Daniel if you read the book of Daniel. Except he used a different language there. I think it was personal to each of them. I think Mary needed to hear that, that she was highly favored. I think what Daniel needed to hear after those terrifying images that he had seen in those prophecies, he needed to hear Gabriel say this.

You are greatly loved by God. God sure loves you, Daniel. That's Gabriel giving this word. It's a wonderful word. You know, this idea of Christ, the Messiah being born to a virgin was not news.

It should not be news to us. It was prophesied all the way back in the book of Isaiah, chapter 7. Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” It was prophesied that he would be born to a virgin.

The idea of being betrothed now is of interest. Can I take a pause and talk to you about betrothal? It's not engagement. They didn't date in the first century. This is a modern invention in the idea of dating.

In the first century, especially among Jewish families, the fathers would get together and the families would get together and they would make a match and they would study each other's families and did they have the right religious background and did it fit what they wanted for their son or daughter? And they would arrange a marriage. And according to 1st century Jewish rabbinic writings, a woman, a young woman, was eligible for betrothal when she was 12 years and one day old. 12 years. And so she might know from the time she was young who her future husband was going to be because they'd already started working it out.

But on her birthday plus one day, the families would come together and there would be a formal agreement written out about a betrothal. And then they weren't married yet, though betrothal, it had the power of marriage without the consummation of marriage. And so the betrothed husband, future husband would then return to his father's home and the bride, the future bride would stay with her father and they would remain pure. And then he would go and prepare a home for her.

And usually it took about a year, and he would go, usually add on a room or two to the house, to his father's house. When I've traveled to the Middle East many times, I finally made an observation with someone there that was from the area, and I'd say, how come every house I see in Jordan or Turkey or in the Middle East, I'll see these houses and they've got flat roofs and they have these sticks of iron sticking up, you know, above all the corners. Why don't they finish it off?

And they say, well, that's because the next son will add on to the roof. They've got to get it ready to go. And I say, okay, well, I guess that's what it is. And so they just add onto the house.

I don't know if they did it in those days the same way, but he would go home and he would add on to his house. And then after he had a home ready for her. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention. The rabbinic writings during the first century suggest that a husband, a prospective husband, should be at a minimum 16 years old, but preferably 18 in one day.

And so we know Joseph was older. We don't know how much older we suspect he was because we don't hear of him again later in the Gospels. He must have passed away. So he's probably an older man, 18 plus, she's probably somewhere between 12 and 14.

And this betrothal has the power of a marriage. If they break the marriage vow, the betrothal vow, it is considered adultery, and it can only be broken by divorce. Do you understand the predicament that this puts Mary and Joseph in? This is why, when you read the book of Matthew, that Joseph, being a righteous man, was going to divorce her quietly.

Why that language? Because that's what would be necessary legally to break the betrothal. It had that kind of power. After a year, the wedding day would come, and the bridegroom with his family and the bridegroom's party would travel from his house to her house and come and take her. And they would celebrate and take her home to his house.

But until that day, she stayed in her father's house, which is a beautiful picture. Of what? Of Christ returning to us someday. And so we see this beautiful picture. Well, it's all right there, isn't it?

This betrothal. Understand the importance of it. And this announcement. No wonder she's greatly troubled. And she gets even more troubled as we continue.

But at this point, she's hearing about the favor from God. You know, it says in Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) 8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And so we know this, that grace is a free gift. It comes to those that are highly favored.

Can you imagine receiving an Olympic gold medal in a race you never even ran? Well, Jesus ran the race for you. Can you imagine receiving the Nobel Peace Prize when you never even accomplished anything to make that happen? Well, Jesus has one peace between God and man on our behalf. And so we receive freely.

That's grace. That's God's favor, that. Stop trying to earn God's love. Stop trying to be good enough. You'll fail.

Just receive Jesus. He's good enough. He's better than good enough. And he shows favor to us through Jesus. He still makes that announcement today.

That's the announcement of Christmas today. God is showing his favor to us because he gave us Jesus. What have you done with Jesus? I'm reminded of a song, one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar at church. I think I played it when I was like 14 in my youth group with one of my best friends.

We both learned to sing this thing and it just came out. I still have the sheet music with Kris Kristofferson's face on the front. And it's “Why me, Lord.” Why me, Lord?

What have I ever done to deserve even one of your promises to me? It reminds me of that song. I've not done anything. But Christ has done it all by the announcement of his grace. Well, that's the first way that we can see God's unmerited favor toward us.

2. By the advent of His Son.

By the advent of his Son. We're looking at verses 31 through 33 now. 31 through 33, she's already a little bit troubled, but boy, it's going to come on now.

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” I'm not sure she heard anything else after. You will conceive and give birth to a son. I bet her brain froze at that point,

don't you think? Like just hearing that far. But he keeps talking and you're going to bear a son.

And his name will be Jesus, which in Hebrew he would have said Yeshua, which means God's salvation. Your son's going to be called Yeshua and he will be great. Of interest there is

the word great; in Greek is megas. He will be megas. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,” In other words, he's the Messiah.

This is clearly him being identified as the Messiah. Here she is. Now, picture her. If you're a teenage girl here, just picture this. 12, 13, 14 years old.

You're going to give birth to the Messiah. She knows what this is. She recognizes this language. I guarantee it. Every little Jewish girl knew what this was; you're about to bear

the one whose name is Yeshua, the son of the Most High God who received the throne of his father David. My goodness. Overwhelming information. This is coming her way. And then he says, 33 “and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his kingdom there will be no end.” He's announcing here the advent of the Son of God. The word advent just means coming. It comes from a Greek word, Adventus, which means coming.

So he's announcing the coming. That's the long awaited coming that first was mentioned in the book of Genesis, chapter three, when it says that the seed of the woman, that the serpent, he will bruise your heel, but you'll crush his head from then on. All through the Scriptures, it's announced that this one is coming. And here he comes. Here he comes.

This is the advent of the son. This is according to the promise that God gave David. We see it in 2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NKJV) 12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” He's talking about an eternal kingdom, a heavenly kingdom. He's talking about the kingdom of God that will be established by King Jesus. And so we see the coming of his Son. He has come, and he is coming again.

Here's a question to ask today. First of all, have you received the grace of God? Have you received the free, unmerited favor of God? Have you heard the announcement and said, yes, I received that. And having received it, have you decided to make Jesus king?

Do you recognize his authority over your life? And so he's saying to Mary here, you're going to give birth to the King of Glory, to the Most High, to the Great One, the Holy One. He goes on, he's not finished. He keeps describing this one who's to come.

He's going to be the Great One. And so she has an opportunity here. How will she respond to this? Which brings us to the third way that we can respond to God's unmerited favor:

3. By the assurance of His power.

By the assurance of his power. Now, Mary has a very practical question at this point. I think perhaps most of us would have such a question, a very practical question. I don't think it shows doubt. Do you think it shows doubt?

I don't think it's doubt. I think it's, now, how's this going to work? Now, remember, she's a country girl. Nazareth is far away from the city lights of Jerusalem, the capital. That's a country girl.

She knows where babies come from, okay? She knows that. They have animals over there. She knows.

She knows. And so she's young, but she's not naive. And I don't think this is doubt. I think this is, how's this going to work? 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be,

since I am a virgin?” She wants to know how it's going to work. Because I'm betrothed to Joseph, how's this going to be? This question has all kinds of implied things behind it, too. How's this going to work out?

What kind of a stigma is going to come with this? You have to just picture her day and time. How's this going to work? Well, this is Gabriel.

This is the same Gabriel that God sent to explain very complicated prophecies to Daniel about coming kingdoms and images. He explains how this will happen. That's still mysterious, but let's listen. ” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” The father of this child is God himself. The Holy Spirit's going to come on you, and the Most High God is going to overshadow you. Very particular language, overshadow. It literally means to envelop in a haze or a cloud of brilliance.

Now, did this happen in a visual way? It doesn't say. When we get to the next passage, Mary's traveling to see Elizabeth, her relative. We don't know if she experienced this, but this imagery is certainly Old Testament imagery, this idea of the presence of God enveloping, overshadowing with a cloud. All we have to do is to look into the wilderness stories in the book of Exodus and see how a cloud representing the presence of God overshadows the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and how it lifts and turns into a pillar of fire and leads them.

And then when it's time to camp, it stops. And then it rests again as a cloud. How when Solomon first builds his temple and they are having the grand opening of the temple and they offer the first sacrifice, that a cloud of God's presence fills the temple and the priests have to come running out because of the glory of God being present. That's the word here. He will overshadow you and you will bear a son, and he will be holy.

The word holy means not of this world, set apart for special purpose. Pure, sinless; holy.

That's his explanation. And behold, because he can see her face, he can see your eyes, and he knows she's going to need a little extra encouragement.

36 “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren” Every family reunion she went to, she was sitting over in a corner holding somebody else's baby with a little bit of a tear in her eye, wondering why not me, Lord, why have you never helped me? But now God has offered a double miracle, one that precedes. He opens up a barren woman's womb and then he opens up a virgin’s womb.

A double miracle so that John the Baptist is born to Elizabeth. The precursor, the forerunner to Jesus that would announce his coming. Like someone who would say, here he comes, here comes the king as the announcer. And now you're the one who will bring the son.

I think she needed that. I think she needed to know there's another woman who's bearing a child that happens to be a relative. I'm going to go see her first thing in the morning.

Guys, men. Have you ever seen women get together and talk about being pregnant? I usually leave the room about that time. They start talking about things that I have no conception of other than I've witnessed it three times.

It's an amazing thing. But I can't participate. But here goes, Mary. We'll cover that next week. She's going to head to see Elizabeth. I'm glad Gabriel gave her that.

That really helped her. And then he says this to her, though this is the key thing. He says, 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Nothing will be impossible with God. Mary, the fact that you've never been with a man doesn't stop him. He made the first man. He made the first woman. He's sending God's son.

You will bear God's son.

This is why the prophet Jeremiah says this in Jeremiah 32:17 (NKJV) “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” What are you saying today is impossible? Have you been praying prayers that haven't been answered?

And now you say it must be impossible. You've stopped praying impossible prayers. Is it some financial situation? Is it a broken relationship? Is it a prodigal child?

Is it a medical diagnosis, a financial mountain?

Nothing is impossible with God. Or we can say it, all things are possible with God. Where have you stopped praying, stopped believing? At that very place, would you hear the angel, the word of God, spoken to Mary, spoken to you?

Nothing is impossible with God. Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep believing. And then finally we have the fourth way that we can see God's unmerited favor:

4. By the affirmation of His Word.

We're on the final verse, verse 38. We see the climax of the passage. How will Mary respond? How will she respond?

And so she responds like this. She says this, 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant[e] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. What in the world? Who is this young woman?

You see, I don't think they had teenagers in those days. Teenagers. That's a modern invention, by the way. They used to be children and adults, and that was it. You were a child, and then you were an adult.

We have this thing called the teenage years. I think they last till 30 now, someone told me that; all the way to 30. But in those days, you helped around the house. Your parents had 12 kids, and you helped. And if you were one of the oldest ones, you helped raise them.

And then you were ready to get out of that house. No one had to tell you, get out of that house. I need to get out of this house. And that's how it used to be.

She says, “Behold,” You know, she talks like a grown woman to me. She talks like a woman who's ready. She'd been afraid. She'd been confused.

She's heard the word of the Lord. Now she goes, you know what? Amen and amen. You know what amen means? It doesn't just mean I agree with it.

It doesn't just mean, oh, that's true. It means, may it be so in me. It's so true that I want it in me. So don't say amen lightly. If you say amen, you're saying, I agree with that.

“May it be so in me according to your word.” I want all of that. I don't want half of that. I don't want part of that.

I want all that that you said over me, Lord. I want all of it. Amen. That's what she said when she heard Gabriel finish up there.

She says, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” In the King James, it says, “I am the Lord's handmaiden, may it be unto me according to thy word.”

Oh, I want to be like that. You know, sometimes we're afraid to make too much of Mary. You know, we're Protestants, but let's not be afraid to make much of her faith response. Look, she wasn't sinless. She wasn't perfect.

Neither am I. Neither are you. God showed her favor nonetheless. Right? But we can learn from her response.

She had a choice right here. She could say, you know what will happen to me? They stone people for committing adultery. If I break my betrothal, if I show up pregnant, do you know what's going to happen to me,God?” She could have said all that.

She doesn't say a word of that. “May it be unto me. ” Where's that kind of faith come from? Where have you said no to God? Where have you said to God?

I'm afraid I don't think I can do that. I don't think I have the right gifting to do that. I'm afraid you don't know my background. You don't know how many mistakes I've made. Where have you said no to God?

Because that's where your Christian life is stuck right now. That's why you haven't moved forward any farther. That's why you're still right there. Until you say God, may it be unto me as you have said according to your word, I am your servant.

Now, when I pray to God, I sometimes am guilty of trying to help God.

I tell God. That's the problem right there, by the way, God. Now if you work it out this way, I think that'd be a good result. And I pray good prayers now, y'all. I don't pray selfish prayers.

I pray good prayers. Now, God, if you make this happen and this happen, then I'll come through over here and this will all work out. But that kind of prayer is scary.

God, you be God, you do in me whatever you want to do.

If you want to break me, break me. If you want to lift me up, lift me up. If you want to press me down, press me down. If you want me to go over there, I'll go over there. If you want me to sell all I have and do this if you want to, Lord, I'm your servant.

You do what you want to do in me, I will do it. Now that's a harder prayer, and that's the one she says, “may it be unto me, just as you have said.” You know, for many of us, the reason we haven't seen the miracles, the reason we haven't received the glory of God in our lives, the reason we don't have the experience of ongoing faith, is because we've not said yes to all that God wants for us. We're still going, but that's impossible and I don't know how, rather than just saying, I don't know how you're going to do it, Lord, but you're God and I'm not.

May it be unto me, as you have said, according to your word, I want all that you have.

And so in the book of Luke, chapter 11, Jesus heals a mute. He sets him free from the demonic and he gives him his voice. And a woman in the crowd raised her voice, it says, and said to him, Luke 11:27-28 (ESV) 27 “As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”

She was fired up about somebody getting to be your mama.

28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Yeah, she was blessed. Mary was blessed. But she's no more blessed than you are. She came to him.

Christ came to him. But he has come to you. He has come to us. And that's what Christmas is about. “Unto us a son is given.

Unto us a child is born.” He's ours. What do you do with Jesus? I think that's the only question God's going to ask us someday. He's not going to ask you if you were good enough, because you weren't.

He's going to ask you, what did you do with my son? What did you do with Jesus? I pray that you say, may it be unto me, just as you have said, let's pray. Lord, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for giving us Jesus. Thank you for your grace and your forgiveness. Your mercy, unmerited favor. I pray for the one that's here today. You've never given your life to Jesus.

Would you do it? Right now, right in your seat? Would you do it? Would you speak to him? Just like this.

You can pray just like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. That you were raised from the grave and that you live today. Come and live in me.

Adopt me into your family. I recognize you as my Lord and Savior. I give you my life. I desire to serve you with my life. My yes is on the table.

Come and save me. Make me a child of God. I want to follow you. If you're praying that prayer of faith believing he'll answer your prayer. Others are here today.

And you're a believer. You're a follower of Jesus. But you've been trying to make deals with God. You've been saying no to him in certain areas. You've been holding back.

Would you put your yes on the table today? Would you say, here I am. I'm your servant. May it be unto me, just as you have said in your word. I want all that you want from me, Lord.

My yes is yes, yes and Amen. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.