And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.
41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54 He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;
55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.
56 And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.
Luke 1:26-56
This morning, if you have your Bibles and will turn with me to Luke’s Gospel, I want to continue looking at the events that led up to the birth of Jesus. Last Sunday, we looked at Zechariah and Elizabeth and their son, John, who was born when neither of them thought they would ever have a child. John had been born to be the one that would go before the Lord, that would proclaim the day of the Lord.
He was to come in the spirit of Elijah, calling the people to repentance and to prepare their heart for the Messiah was coming. It would be John, about 30 years later, that as he saw Jesus walking towards the Jordan River and John was out baptizing people as a sign of their repentance, he called out and said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. The people didn’t fully grasp and comprehend who Jesus was.
In some ways, John didn’t even fully grasp and comprehend who Jesus was. He truly was God come in the flesh because it was only by Him coming who was without sin and taking on the sin of the world that man could be redeemed and saved and would not have to face judgment and accountability for the rebellion against him. As we saw last Sunday, Elizabeth was a cousin of Mary.
She was older than Mary. Mary was in all likelihood at this time in her late teens. Elizabeth was probably 50.
She’d never had a child and she’s now pregnant. She’s pregnant six months. Mary goes to visit her cousin.
But before she goes, she has a visitor of her own. The same angel that appeared to Elizabeth’s cousin Zacharias appears to Mary and he’s got a very special message. I want to read that message this morning and then we’re going to be looking at the words that Mary says and some other scriptures and examine the significance of this event.
So if you have your Bibles this morning and will turn with me to Luke’s Gospel. And I would like to begin reading at verse 39 of chapter 1. Let’s read instead. Let’s begin at verse 26 of chapter 1. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God onto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that are highly favored. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind that manner of salutation. What manner of salutation this was.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. And he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom shall be no end.
And then Mary said unto the angel, Also is he, seeing I know, not a man. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. And the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah. And entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me.
For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leapt in my womb with joy. And blessed is she that believes, for there shall be a performance of those things which withhold her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in my God, my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed me strength with his arm.
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath set empty away.
He hath opened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary abode with her for three months, and returned to her own house.
That your hand is reaching down and touching people today. To transform their lives. To give their sins.
Make them new creatures in Christ. All because of the depth of your love. The depth of your compassion.
The depth of your mercy. And the extension of your grace. Lord I pray this day that you would just speak to us through your word.
And help us to understand these events. And prepare our hearts to hear them. If you would ask me to do this.
Often times one of the problems we have at this time of the year. Is the whole concept of Christmas has become secularized. Last Sunday I talked a little bit about the birth of Jesus didn’t happen on December 25th.
You can find it in scriptures as I pointed out last week. If you take the Jewish holidays. Look at the times when Zacharias was serving in the temple.
See which festival or feast it would have been at. What time Elizabeth would have been pregnant. What time would have been six months after that.
What time would have been nine months after that. If Jesus would have been born. It would have been late September early October.
And it would have been as you know at the Feast of Tabernacles. And it’s fitting that he would have been born at that particular time. Because the whole Feast of Tabernacles.
The point of the Feast of Tabernacles. Went back to the time of Moses. When the Lord brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt.
And they had literally tents in the desert. And God was with them. He went as a cloud by day a fire by night.
We were studying in the adult class this morning. He was constantly presenting to them and providing for them. And literally he was tabernacling with them.
He was presiding with his people. They were told by the Lord the nation of Israel. That they were to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
And really it has two meanings. Like two feasts do. Passover has two meanings.
Passover has a meaning of looking back. To when the people came out of Egypt. And they killed the lamb.
And they put the blood of the lamb on a door post and lentils. And the angel of death passed over. And their houses were touched by life not death.
And God’s blessing was upon them. And they did not experience judgment. It also was speaking of a greater Passover.
Where the Son of God would come. And his blood would be placed on our hearts. That God’s judgment would pass over us.
And that God would instead of seeing our sin and our guilt. He would see his son’s holiness and purity. And he would experience his forgiveness, mercy and grace.
The celebration of Tabernacles had different meanings. It was to remind the people of when they tabernacled in the desert. With God as they were delivered from the Egyptians.
And today if you go to Jewish synagogues. During the Feast of Tabernacles. They used to have a Jewish synagogue about six blocks away from here.
And during the Feast of Tabernacles they put up tabernacles in the front of their synagogue building. To remind them of the tabernacling. And the thing is a lot of them had become very liberal in their thinking.
And didn’t really connect the dots even back to Egypt. But it became a feast, a festival, a time of year. Much like the celebration of Christmas.
Even though we saw last week that Jesus wasn’t born on the 25th. It had everything to do with a secular holiday. And it was really introduced by the Roman Catholic Church.
To embrace a populace that was pagan. So that they would accept their version of Christianity. But what we’ve done even in our culture.
With the festival or the feast that we say is to honor the birth of Jesus. And to remember why He came. Is that we have really materialized it.
And turned it into a time where we don’t focus on Christ. When Jesus came. He was coming in fulfillment of the law.
He was coming in fulfillment of the prophets. He was coming in fulfillment of the promises that God had given. And as He came.
People’s focus was to be on Him. And it’s only typical that He would have been born during the Feast of Tabernacles. When God would come to reside with His people.
It’s interesting. As you look at the account that we read out of Luke’s Gospel this morning. One of the things I hope you caught in the first portion of that book.
Is when Gabriel appeared to Mary. He told her that she was to be favored amongst all women. And I just want to give you a picture of what was going on in Israeli life.
Amongst Jewish girls that believed in God. They all thought am I going to be the one. Am I going to be the one that God would choose.
To be this one that He talked about way back in the book of Genesis. When He spoke to Adam and Eve. And He talked to them about the implications of sin.
In not only their lives. But in all of those that would come after them. That Satan had gained such a stronghold and victory.
As Adam had yielded his authority and position of being the head over his wife and family. To Satan. And the one who got it and trusted to be the caretaker of this earth.
And he had given it all to Satan by rebelling against God. And saying I don’t want what God is doing. I’m going to go this route.
And God promised them way back then in Genesis chapter 3. He said an interesting thing. He said there was coming one. Who would be the seed of a woman.
And who would crush the serpent’s head. It’s interesting he said the seed of a woman. If you’ve ever been to a biology class.
You know that in propagation of children. The seed comes from the man. Not the woman.
So why would he use that terminology? Why would God use that terminology? The seed of a woman. It was the first place that he made implication of the fact that this woman would be a virgin. How had sin come? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1. How had sin entered the human race? How had sin really destroyed all that God had created as good.
And begun to cause it to have evil things happen. And wickedness appear. And rebellion become a way of life amongst men.
How did that occur? Paul tells us in Romans through Adam. Through the first Adam. Through Adam that had been created and made perfect.
But had willfully chose. His wife had been deceived. And Adam was supposed to be there to overlook her and protect her.
But he wasn’t. And she was deceived. But Adam willfully make a choice to rebel.
And ever since Adam did that. There’s been something that’s plagued the human race. And it’s called sin.
It’s called rebellion. It’s called striking out against God. It’s saying really within our heart.
Hearing the voice of what Lucifer said to Adam. When he came with a new name, Satan, the deceiver. And he said, you can be God.
And man has believed it ever since. And you look at the problems we have in the world today. And at the heart of it, rebellion against our Creator.
Embracing against His foe. The one who had come to be the destroyer. And uniting with that world philosophy.
It stands against God. So Mary is a young girl. Growing up in Nazareth.
In the northern part of Israel. Along the northwestern portion of the Sea of Galilee. And one day an angel appears to her.
And he says, you are going to bear a child. And her immediate response would be one, if you were a pure woman. And a woman who had a pure heart.
And really was trying to follow God. The response would have been what Mary’s was. How can this be? I’ve never known a man.
How can you say that? And Gabriel tells her, a man isn’t going to be a father of this child. You see, this is totally of God. And God will come upon you.
And you will have placed within your womb His Son. The second person of the King. Now, when had God determined all of this? That all of a sudden He determined one day that, oh, I’ve got to get going here, man.
I’ve got a problem. Man, I’ve got to figure this thing out, or I’m not going to have anybody following me anymore. Is that what He was thinking? No.
God knew that if He had a problem with us, the minute He gave us choice, that we would choose wrong. But the other hand, if He did not allow us to choose, He would have a number of AI robots that we would just program to do what we wanted them to do. God gave us an amazing gift.
A gift to choose whether to believe in Him or not believe in Him. To follow Him or not follow Him. But He also knows the beginning from the end, and He knows that when man chose, he chose wrong.
And when man would choose wrong, it would result in disaster. And so how could man be dealt with justly? Or rebellion. I don’t know if you’ve ever been involved in a situation where rebellions come up.
In the military, rebellions dealt really harshly. They don’t allow rebellions. You rebel in the military, and you’re done.
Rebellion is becoming a common thing in our culture because sin is commonplace and people ignore Jesus and God. And so one of the problems you have in a lot of homes today is a spirit of rebellion. Kids rebelling against parents, husbands and wives rebelling against each other.
Rebellion. God knew it was a problem. And He knew the only final solution to rebellion would be to deal with it once and for all and judge it and have it done with.
But the problem is, He also wanted to have a means of redemption. A way of buying you back out of this rebellious state of reestablishing a relationship with Him that He created you to have. Your whole being in existence was created for fellowship with God.
Did you know that? Every one of you sitting in this auditorium today, I don’t care what your job is, I don’t care what your grades were in school or what your grades are in school. I don’t care what your intelligent quotient according to men is. I don’t care about any of that.
All I know is that each one of us, no matter what our circumstances in life, no matter what our looks, no matter what our intelligence, was created for one thing and that was to bring glory to God. Every one of us. But the problem is, because of sin, we willfully choose to rebel against God.
And when we do that, we don’t bring glory to Him, but we mock His name before Him. So God had this problem, but He tells us in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul tells us that God before the foundations of the world established a means by which He could purchase back a rebellious people and bring them back and pay the penalty for the rebellion so justice would be paid and that He could experience a fellowship and relationship with them and they with Him. Love and His love and mercy and compassion and grace could flow through their lives.
And He determined, before anything had been created, He would be the Savior, Jesus Christ. The second person in the Trinity. You know, some things in the Bible are difficult to comprehend because I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a pediatrician.
So sometimes it’s difficult for my little brain to wrap things around. There’s only one God, but He manifests Himself in three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And it was determined that God would take on the form of a man. Can you imagine that? The Creator taking on the form of the creature. I can’t even comprehend it, but that’s what the Scriptures tell us.
And by doing that, He would take the place of the first Adam. And the Apostle Paul tells us that’s exactly what happened. Jesus came as the second Adam.
The one who would come and who would live His life with no rebellion. And would live His life in perfect obedience to the will of the Father and the truth of His character. Never slip in.
Never fall. Never turn against Him. And when He did that, it enabled Him to pay the penalty of arson.
And this plan was being put in motion in Nazareth, northern Israel, in areas of human history. I want us to look at a couple things. I want us to look at some things that she said.
Because you see, some people want to misconstrue and take things out of context and make things, try to explain them apart from what the Scripture says. The Scripture tells us that she’s going to be blessed amongst all women. She’s going to be blessed down through the ages.
Why? Because through her the Messiah came. But what’s she saying? Because it’s interesting. I should have brought my date.
I don’t have a date. She wasn’t always declared sinless in the church. But a couple hundred years ago, she was declared sinless by a pope.
Well, I want you to listen to Mary’s own view. Did Mary view herself as a sinner?
What couldn’t be Jesus’s father? Jesus had to be a man. He had a dilemma. God placed in Mary’s womb the second person he was given.
And he placed them there the same way that every other child begins their life, a fertilized egg in the womb of a mother. This would be a totally different egg if he were in the womb of his mother. I don’t know about you, but I’m amazed at the power of God.
The only way to pay the penalty was he had to become sin who was without sin. And the only way for him to be without sin was to be born, but to be born without sin. And if he came from a man, he would be born of sin.
So we see that Mary says, my God and my Savior, my Redeemer, the one who is paying the penalty for my sin. You don’t need to look that far, but Jesus even chastised Mary once when she tried to have him do something that he wasn’t supposed to do. He wasn’t without sin, but she was special to him.
Now, I want us to look at the words that he says here. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden, but behold, from henceforth shall all generations come and bless her. The first thing I want you to see is, was Mary a wealthy person that came from the aristocracy of the time? Did she have a great position in the world? And was God lifting up this woman and saying, look at her? She came from a low estate.
You know, it’s amazing, God always uses what the world wouldn’t use. You can go all the way back to David. When David was anointed king, and those of you who have been going through this, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, we’re looking at the lives of the kings when we’re back, even back in 1 and 2 Samuel, when David was first going to be anointed by Samuel, and Jesse parades all of his sons out, and he’s so proud of all these boys, and he has them from the oldest to the youngest, and I can imagine they’re all handsome, they’re all strong, they’re all tall.
And Samuel’s comment, no, no, no, no. Don’t you have any more? Well, there’s David. There’s David, the little one.
The one that we send out to take care of the sheep. Teenager. He’s not ready to be a king.
This is what is in Jesse’s mind. But not God. Because God doesn’t look on the outside, nor does He look on the station in life, nor does He look on what we possess or what we have, but He looks at the heart, the mind, the will, and the emotions, and that they’ve been brought under the control of God.
David had a heart. Mary had a heart after the Lord. And God shows her for this special moment in history.
For He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name. Mary hadn’t done it even though, and we’re going to mention, we’ll probably have time in the morning, but if you look at the two lineages of Christ, they differ once you get to the son of David. Matthew’s lineage, the son of David, becomes Solomon.
In Luke’s lineage, the son of David becomes Nathan. How could this be? Two sons of David. Well, because both Joseph, the one who would stand in the appearance of the world to be the father of Jesus, but was not the physical father of Jesus, was the one who stood in the line of Solomon and had the right and heir to the throne of David.
Because even at this time we know there weren’t, last week we studied, there weren’t the king on the throne who was of Davidic origin, who was an Edomite king of the Herod clan. But Luke’s genealogy, you’ll see that Nathan is the ancestor of Mary. So Jesus, by birth of his mother, was an ancestor of David.
By rights of Joseph the throne, he inherited that right. And so when they would have them go to tax in their city, they would both go, because they were both descendants of David, and they would both go as husband and wife to the city of David to be taxed. But Mary doesn’t view herself as anything special, because in the eyes of the world, she wasn’t.
She was some poor Jewish girl who’s a descendant of David, and her husband’s a descendant of David, but they don’t have wealth, and they don’t have power, and they don’t have position. But God’s chosen her. I want you to understand, this impacts you.
God doesn’t choose us and say, I want you as my child, because you’re so special. He chooses you because He loves you, and cares for you, and created for you to bring glory to His name. And we don’t have to have position and power.
He lifted up in the eyes of God. And Mary wasn’t. And she understood this.
Verse 50, And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. Mary understood the concept of mercy. She understood that God’s mercy, and what is mercy? Again, I want to hammer home this.
I hammer it home quite often. What is the definition of mercy? What is the definition of grace? Because people get them confused. Mercy is different than grace.
Mercy is God giving us something that we do not… He withholds, rather, something that we deserve. And instead, by His grace, gives us something we don’t. So mercy, He’s withholding that which we deserve.
But He doesn’t give it to us. Because of His mercy. And she says, He’s shown mercy from generation to generation.
Why would she say something like that? Well, if she knew the Scriptures, which I believe she did, because I believe she went to synagogue. I believe she listened to the Scriptures read. I believe she understood those things.
And they would go through reading the history of Israel like we’re doing, the Kings. Oh, man, God’s mercy is really extensive to Israel. They should have been wiped out as a nation long ago.
But for His mercy they remain. It’s by His Word that they’re there. And it’s because of His promise they shall continue.
It’s His mercy. Not their great achievements. Just like it’s His mercy to us that you and I are sitting here today that we didn’t die in our sin years ago.
But by His mercy. His mercy is shown from generation to generation and she acknowledges this. And then she goes on, He hath showed strength with His arm and He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
She’s giving us a picture of the God that she loves and has served. Even as a young woman. The strength in His arm.
You see, a lot of these images which are Old Testament images, Hebrew images. The strength of one’s arm was power and might. The ability to deliver.
The ability to fulfill. The ability to accomplish. The ability to conquer.
The strength of God’s arm is there, but the proud think they possess it. The proud think they possess it. Is that any different than it is in our world today? You’ve got proud that you think they can do whatever they want to do.
There is no God, or if there is, you’re just going to wink at it because He has no power. But God’s power is able to deliver. And when she says the power of His arm, His power is able to deliver on the promise He’s given to Hesed the Messiah.
And this Messiah, and you can go back and read in Isaiah, this Messiah was to be born of a virgin. Supernatural. By His power.
And she says the strength of the power of His arm. And He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. I want you to know there have been many proud men throughout the ages who wanted to destroy the people.
Some in the name of religion, other in the names of world philosophies. But guess what? The church is still here today. God’s power delivers.
She had some books that she got from Lighthouse Trails that spoke about Russian Christians. And my wife just alluded to one that she finished and read. It talked about a Christian family that I believe the dad was put into a gulag.
The mom was homeless with kids. And she had a miserable life from the world’s perspective. She didn’t have anything.
It’s the power of God. And she would tell her kids, and this is my wife’s the way that she talks today. One day I asked her, how come you don’t have anything? I’m thankful for what God is going to do.
And He’d always make provision for them for what they needed. Not what they necessarily wanted, but what they needed. If they needed a warm place to stay.
All of a sudden, someone would open their house and see them and say, come in and sleep on our floor tonight. The power of God. Not according to the imaginations of the world.
They’re going to be confused and they’re going to be defeated and they’re going to be destroyed. But the power of God will change. And so the power of God reveals itself in fulfillment of a Genesis 3 prophecy given to Adam and Eve at the beginning of all of it when man first sinned, that I will deliver a Redeemer that shall crush the serpent’s head, but He shall bruise the redeemer’s heel.
The seed of the redeemer’s heel. How did Satan do that? Jesus went to the cross. Satan thought he’d won.
Jesus died at Calvary. How do we know He was dead? Because a Roman soldier came up there with his spear and ran Jesus through His side and it says water and blood ran out. Do you know what organ you have to hit in order for water and blood to run out at the same time? The heart.
You pierce the heart with a sword, you’re dead. It says that’s what would happen to Jesus, but it says He wouldn’t have a bone broken on His body. And He didn’t, even though both men standing next to Him, the soldiers broke their legs so they’d die faster.
But when they came to Jesus, He was already dead because He had given up the ghost freely. He had died freely of His own will. How do we know He was dead? And Satan thought he’d gotten the victory.
He’d crushed His head. Satan said, what He did was steal. He looked to the world like He was dead.
And He died. You can’t leave Him. He died.
Every man and woman in Christ that would accept the gift of salvation throughout the history of the world will sin against Him. And when He rose again from the dead, sin had no more power over man nor death. So you and I no longer have to fear the consequences of sin, nor do we have to fear death.
For we have been set free from the power of God. And the world thinks they had all the power, but they had none. And she says that.
The imagination of their hearts. They’re imagining these things, but they cannot have them because they are not walking with God and His power. Verse 52, And He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree.
If you read the history of Herod, they thought they had it made, but they were constantly being put down. The Caesars of Rome thought they had it made, but you hear the famous words, one Caesar, et tu, Brute? You too, Brutus? As he’s stabbing Caesar in the chest. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall and man thinks that they have made it all, but only God perseveres in sin.
Men come with their imagination given to them by Satan. And it says here, He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich He hath sent empty away.
When you become a Christian, your perspective should become different. Your value system should become different. I shared with you before, somebody asked Ted Berner one time, how much more money do you have to make before you’ll be satisfied? One dollar more.
He was saying, I’m never going to be satisfied. I just need one dollar more. And then they said, is there anything you want more than money? And he said, power.
I want power. If you look at Christians, if you’re walking with Jesus, you don’t need money or power. You possess things like joy, happiness, peace, love.
And you have more than the mightiest kings of this world have. This is a rule. Lost another kingdom last night.
Fear yourself. The Assad family has been in ruling for over 50 years. No longer ruling.
As a matter of fact, we believe that the son of the current ruler may have died in a plane crash or he was shot down. We don’t know for sure, but it looks like it. All the money could buy.
All the power that I had. Rebels are running through this palace. Can you take joy out of your heart? Can you take peace out of your life? There’s Christians that have experienced tremendous trials and persecution, pain and suffering.
But you can’t take that from them because you possess something that can never be destroyed and that is the peace of God that can be planted in you. And it says here, He hath helpened His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy. I just talked about that a few minutes ago.
You don’t have to go too far back in history from the time of Jesus’ birth and you can see Israel needed a lot of mercy from God because they were doing all kinds of things that were not God’s. And He spake to our father, to Abraham and to his seed forever. In other words, the thing that He promised to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and to the sons of Jacob, the promises that He gave them were not temporary promises.
And if you look at when He gave them the promises, it’s amazing because if you go back in the book of Genesis and you see Abram when he is called out as Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans and God brings him into the land of Canaan and He changes his name to Abraham and He tells him, look, as far as you can see, this is your land. You know, Abraham, if you look at the Scriptures and you go study secular history and you can try and find all of this land that Abraham owned, which would be Israel today and part of Jordan today and part of Lebanon today and part of Syria today, all this land that Abraham supposedly owned, how much did he own? He owned a cave where he bought from Canaanites, buried himself and his wife, and ended up with his son and daughter-in-law and grandson and granddaughter-in-law. And that was pretty much it.
Oh, he owned a well maybe here or there that he dug. But he was looking for a land. You know the land that Abraham is going to inherit one day? I believe it’s going to inherit when you meet heaven and you meet earth.
And he’s going to see something so amazing you won’t believe it. Why would he settle for a bunch of rocks? Oh, he believed in his heart God would be serious with him. And I believe God will continue to be serious with him all the way through because he’s not going to stop there.
Abraham’s going to see his full inheritance. We need to understand that Mary understood that’s a God of His word, a God that delivers on His plan, and a God that gives His word. Father, I pray that you help us understand this.
Help us to look at the life of Mary when she was told by Gabriel this thing that she didn’t believe was happening to her, but it was happening to her because you had chosen her. And Lord, help us to realize she understood the account that you had given to her. You told her that you had chosen her when she was 600 years old.
So precious is Jesus, my Savior, my King. His life all the day long with rapture I sing. To Him in my weakness, nor strength I will cling.
His heaven below, my Redeemer to know. For He is so precious to me. He stood at my heart’s door mid sunshine and rain and patiently waited in entrance to gain.
What shame it so long He entreated in vain. His heaven below, my Redeemer to know. For He is so precious to me.
I stand on the mountain a blessing at last. No cloud in the heavens, a shadow to cast. His smile is upon me, the valley is past.
His heaven below, my Redeemer to know. For He is so precious to me. I praise Him because He appointed a place where someday before His little grace I know I shall see Him, shall look on His face.
His heaven below, my Redeemer to know. For He is so precious to me. Lord, I thank You that You are true to Your Word, You delivered on Your promises, and You can be so precious.
Lord, go with us now and help us to have a wonderful week ahead, and prepare us for next weekend with all that’s going on on Sunday and help us to come out on the third day showing the obedience to You and what You’ve done in their lives and changing their hearts as they go through the water. Jesus Christ, Amen.