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The Lord's Mother Shows Us the Best Way to Live
Luke 1:34-50
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - May 10, 2015
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Luke 1, thinking about the best way to live.
In this wonderful chapter, God sent the Angel Gabriel to give amazing good news to the Virgin Mary.
Listen to the heart of Gabriel's message starting in vs. 30:
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.
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."
*Now to see this Godly mother's response, let's read vs. 34-50.
INTRODUCTION:
================
*Moms are special!
"Better Families" magazine told about an elementary teacher who gave her class a science lesson on magnets.
Then she gave a quiz to see how much they had learned.
One of the questions said: "My name starts with 'M,' it has 6 letters, and I pick up things.
What am I?" Half the class answered "M-O-T-H-E-R."
(1)
*Thank God for all of the mothers in our lives!
-- Our grandmothers, our own mothers, the mothers of our children, and the mothers of our church.
Mother's are special to us.
They are also special to God.
We know this, because God created mothers.
We also know moms are special to God, because 2,000 years ago, God chose to have a mother of His own.
The Lord of all creation chose to be carried 9 months in a mother's womb.
And here in God's Word the Lord's mother shows us the best way to live.
1. First: We should pursue God's plan for our lives.
*Now, my wife is a planner extraordinaire.
All good mothers are planners, because they have to be.
They are generally juggling ten things at a time, and you can't keep all those balls in the air without a plan.
*It's good for people to have plans.
But God has plans too, and His plans are always more important than ours.
That's why Psalm 146 gives this wise advice:
3. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
4. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.
5. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
*Proverbs 16:9 says: "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."
And from Jeremiah 29:11 in the NASB: "I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."
*It's good to have plans, but God's plans are always the best plans.
I wonder what Mary had planned to do on the day the angel Gabriel showed up.
"Hey, Mary: What are you planning to do tomorrow?"
-- "Nothing special."
*But God had other plans.
God had a bigger, better plan for Mary's life, and she began to pursue it to the fullest.
That's what Mary was doing in vs. 38, when she said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord!
Let it be to me according to your word.''
*That's the kind of thing God wants us to say today.
He wants us to have the same attitude, the same kind of heart: A heart that embraces all God has planned for our lives.
Mary pursued God's plan for her life, and we should too.
[1] So we must have confidence in God's Word.
*Mary told Gabriel, "Let it be to me according to your word."
She agreed with the Word of God.
She believed in God's Word.
Mary trusted; she accepted what God told her through His angel.
That's why Elizabeth bragged on Mary in vs. 45, and said, "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.''
*We have the Word of God today, and we need to completely rely on what He tells us in the Bible.
But it's not always easy.
One reason why is because God asks us to believe some things that are too good to be true in the natural realm.
*That's what happened in Mary's house so long ago.
Again, starting in vs. 31, Gabriel told Mary:
31. . .
"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."
34.
Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?''
*God had the answer!
-- And He gave it through Gabriel in vs. 35-37:
35.
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36.
Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative (or cousin) has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37.
For with God nothing will be impossible.''
*The same kind of thing happened to the thief on the cross next to Jesus.
That thief trusted in the Lord, so in Luke 23:42, he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.''
And in the next verse Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.''
"What?
-- In Paradise today?
Me?
I'm hanging on a cross.
I deserve to die.
You can forgive me?
You can take me to paradise today?"
Yes! -- Because in vs. 37, "With God nothing will be impossible.''
We need confidence in God's Word, even when He tells us things too good to be true.
[2] But if we are going to pursue God's plan for our lives, we also need commitment to God's work.
*That's what Mary had in vs. 38 when she said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," or "Behold the maidservant of the Lord!"
She was saying, "Lord, I am your servant, even your slave.
I am willing to work for you."
We must not be too proud to think of ourselves as servants of God.
We need commitment to God's work.
[3] And we need consent to God's will.
*In vs. 38 Mary said, "Let it be to me according to your word."
In other words: "God's will be done!"
Mary consented to God's will even though tough times were coming.
Mary must have known that hard times were coming.
What would Joseph think?
There would certainly be gossip about her pregnancy.
*Later when she and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple for His dedication, the Holy Spirit told an elderly man named Simeon that they were there.
Simeon took Jesus in his arms, praised the Lord, and blessed them all.
*But in Luke 2:34-35, the old man also said this to Mary:
34. . .
"Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against
35.
(yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.''
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