The Great Personalities in God's Amazing Plan-Mary (2)

Luke 1:26-31

Luke 1:26–31 NKJV

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by 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. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then 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 bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.

Luke 2:19 NKJV

19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Bewilderment

How many ways have you heard responses to greetings when you address someone and you ask them how one is doing?

-Fair to midland

-Come see come saw

-Copestetic

-Same thing, different day

-all is well, etc.

And we would deduce that one was saying there is life was neither up or down, all things are normal. It is interesting how the Lord works in these areas of life. I believe what happened for the apostle Paul is somewhat normal for most of us. We do not have any idea, usually any preconceived notion that God is getting ready to bring surprise upon us. The Lord so many times in our lives is like the unexpected visit from Gomer Pyle. The Lord I believe loves surprise parties.

Acts 9:1-5 “1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.””

You see different vantage points around the life of Mary. We see blindsided life events all around Mary and the birth of Jesus. You see in the life of Zacharias and Elizabeth, an 11th hour blessing in life to have a son, John the Baptist. Conversely, with Mary having her whole life in front of her, God’s plans and her plans I can assure you were not aligned. But the story of Mary reminds us that we never have a clue what the Lord is up to. Mary, the mother of Jesus-wow. What a blessing bestowed upon Mary. What a blessing to us that she faithfully served that role.

“you have found favor with God”

Matthew 1:18 “18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”

Luke 2:4-5 “4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”

We see movement of a couple that were working on the family dynamics of a positive future as husband and wife.

Be steady. We have discussed many times in messages of late that when life does throw the curve balls, stay steady. Here we see a family that were going through the motions of righteousness, right living, being responsible-not w/o sin, but godly living.

When we live out the Christian life by God’s amazing grace and our efforts of love for Him and obedience, God blesses a steady obedient life.

The story provides a specific visitor, a specific time, and a specific place upon which Mary was visited. God will send to you a specific person, at a specific time and a specific place that could very well change your life. For those types of blessings to come about it comes firstly with a consistent lifestyle that is befitting to the Lord. Now, you and I both know when we are living a life that is befitting or when we are living outside of His will. Our conscience or better yet, the Holy Spirit will make that very clear to both of us.

Notice something important about the Lord. God doesn’t intervene on our time tables. he intervenes on His timetable. Why is that? We do live by deadlines, fines, penalties, certain days to get matters handled. God is not controlled by time.

Mary was a fine young Jewish young lady who was in the last days before having the big wedding and getting married to a fine Jewish man named Joseph of the house of David. We know many stories of great testimony where Jesus came into the life of a scoundrel, a real heathen, and God changed miraculously and they are preachers or are doing a great work for the Lord. But never let it be said that when we walk right with the Lord that God doesn’t honor righteous living as well.

Billy Graham-Franklin Graham, Anne Graham Lotz

Charles Stanley-Andy Stanley

Ed Young-Ed Young Jr.

Mary and Joseph were in a betrothal period, but were doing things right. They were following OT Jewish tradition in the planning of a wedding. The courtship, the honoring of each other to remain pure before marriage, and the excitement of involving family, the getting ready process.

Everything in the life of Mary and Joseph points to humility, steadfastness and one’s that loves the Lord.

Furthermore, there life was godly, but godly quiet living from everything we can tell. There was no pomp and circumstance, eye candy, or fanfare that we can tell from their lives.

Low key God honoring living can lead to Lord God honoring reward.

Blessing

Luke 1:28 “28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!””

The angel Gabriel gives us all a prescription of how we should live out the Christian life.

Gabriel found humility. And, if we are living firstly a humble life in the Lord, the Lord wants us to live a hilarious life in Him.

“rejoice”-Oh, dearly beloved, do you rejoice enough? Do you laugh enough? Do you live in the joy of the Lord?

Ecclesiastes 3:4 “4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;”

Luke 6:21 “21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.”

Job 8:21 “21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, And your lips with rejoicing.”

Why should we live a life rejoicing? God is with us.

How doe we stay in an attitude of rejoicing?

Philippians 3:1 “1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.”

Philippians 3:3 “3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,”

Philippians 4:4 “4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

“blessed are you among women.”-we are blessed because we are this side of His birth and our salvation.

We are blessed among Christians-you have been highly favored. God picked you out. God came upon you and birthed into you new life.

Birth

Folks, it is not over until its over. I believe I am accurate that Dr. Charles Stanley retired as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Atlanta at age 87 to be Pastor Emeritus.

We studied Sunday that Moses did not even lead the people out of captivity until he was age 80. Zacharias and Elizabeth, Abraham and Sarah were at the other end of the spectrum of age and look at what God accomplished in them.

Do not say, I have done my time. My ministry days are over. Its time for the younger people to step up. The truth is that we must live some years to have enough sense to be used. Amen?

Luke 1:31-33 “31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give 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.””

Luke 2:19 “19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

she pondered God’s handiwork post blessing.

Do we do enough of that?

I wonder many times if we could stay the course if we reflected more on God’s handiwork?

-we quote Paul-forgetting those things which are behind…”

-we do need to keep to remembrance God’s handiwork because it brings faith and confidence in the present time.

Will there be times in our lives when life will have a bewildering turn of events? Without a doubt. Will you or do you always understand what God is up to? Absolutely not. But, if we will live live humbling, many times quietly serving Him in a way that is befitting to Him, maybe, just maybe, at the least time you are expecting, God may visit you with a specific person, at a specific time, and a specific place that is a door of opportunity beyond your wildest imagination. And it is in times like that that we hear testimony after testimony, I sensed this opportunity, this ministry request, this place of service I would have never chosen, but I sensed God wanted me to do it and I can not tell you how many blessings I have received for taking the step of faith to step off into it and try it.

And it birthed something great in me and God has been gloried.

Let me ask you a question, an important question. Have you been guilty of wanting daily to say that I am one foot in the grave and yet the Lord says I want to birth something in you and through you. I want to offer you new life, new vitality, new energy with something you would never imagine. Maybe God wants to do that for you today.

What was birthed in Mary was God Himself. She was going to bring new life into the world and receive new life in the process.

2 Peter 1:11 “11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Mary was the ponderer.

Watch, look. listen, digest, mull over, study where God is at work. You might think tonight its basically over for you. God on the other end may say, it has only begun.

Let’s pray.