Greetings From God!

Good Morning everybody.

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Good Morning everybody.

So we've only got one more month left until 2018. Isn't that crazy?

I think that's crazy.

Anyways, as we get into the month of December, we've got some cool stuff coming up. Obviously there's Christmas right around the corner,

but we're also getting ready to kick off the new year and Nick, Myself, Mary and Victoria believe that God has a vision for all of our lives that He wants to give to us next year.

but we're also getting ready to kick off the new year and Nick and I believe that God has a vision for all of our lives that He wants to give to us.

So I would really encourage you all to start praying now that the Lord would be leading and guiding this group in a way that is going to first and foremost bring glory to him.

But even personally, that God would be stirring a hunger and thirst for the Word of God in our hearts.

But even for this group personally, that God would be stirring a hunger and thirst for the Word of God in our hearts.

That he would really be working and transforming. Giving us a love for Him and His people and the lost.

That he would really be working and transforming all of our hearts. Giving us a love for Him and His people and the lost.

You know, there's a pretty good sized children's group here, and obviously a pretty good sized high school group.

But let me just remind you that, even though this group is small, it's by no means less significant than the other groups.

God wants to move just as powerfully in this little group as he does in the sanctuary upstairs.

God moved powerfully throughout the world with 12 people. Don’t you think he could do it with us?

And I really believe God wants to totally set this group on fire for Jesus Christ. Amen?

I really believe God wants to totally set this group on fire for Jesus Christ.

So be praying for the group, that God would be doing that work in us.

So be praying for the group. Pray that God would give Nick and I wisdom as we lead and teach you guys.

And pray that God would bring people in who need to hear the Word of God.

And just remember, this isn’t just Nick and my group. This is you

Anyways, we do have one month left of the year, and Christmas is coming up.

So Nick and I this month are going to be sharing with you guys about some of the Christmas stories in the Bible.

And hopefully by the end of the month, God will radically change our ideas about what Christmas is all about.

I know we all love getting together with family for Christmas, decorating the Christmas trees, eating really delicious food, and don't forget the presents!

And all of those things are great and they are fun. I’m by no means bashing any of those things. And it's a blessing to be able to celebrate.

And all of those things are great and they are fun. And it's a blessing to be able to celebrate.

But let us never forget that Christmas is all about Jesus.

It’s all about Jesus.

It's all about the reality that God Almighty, the Lord of the Universe, humbled himself and became a man like you and me, so that he could save his people from their sins.

It's all about the reality that God Almighty, the Lord of the Universe, humbled himself and became a man like you and me, so that he could save us from our sins.

Go ahead and turn with me to .

Luke 1:26–38 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 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. 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Wow.

I think about all the ways God could have come down to his people on earth.

God is all powerful, he could come down in a blast of thunder and earthquakes, maybe some fire from heaven, and, forget the baby part. He could have appeared as a fully grown man.

He could have just been like, alright everybody. God's here this is my planet. I made it. And now I'm your king, and there's nothing you can do about it.

God had every right to come in that kind of authority, I mean, everything belongs to him anyways, right? It wouldn't be wrong for him to do that.

But what did God decide to do?

He decided to choose a woman by the name of Mary, just a regular woman, nothing so special about her, to be the vessel in which God would be born in human flesh.

Think about that. Pretty mind-blowing if you ask me.

So here starting in verse 26, we see that God gave Mary a message concerning this baby that was going to be born.

Look again with me at the first couple of verses.

Luke 1:26–27 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

Luke 1:26–28 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

So immediately in these verses we see something very striking about this message that was given to Mary.

And let me just say, it’s not the angel, despite how cool that would have been. I mean, I don’t know about you but I’d be freaking out if an angel showed up to me randomly.

But that’s actually not what I had in mind. It’s easy to focus on the angel here and be like, “Dude, sweet! An angel!” But look what it says,

It’s easy to focus on the angel Gabriel here and think, “Woah! That’s crazy, an angel showed up!” And angels are pretty awesome.

“the angel Gabriel was sent from God”

God sent the angel because God had a specific word that he wanted to give to Mary. Even the word “angel” just means messenger. God is the one who initiated the birth of Jesus. He’s the one who initiated the work of salvation amongst his people.

God was the one who was sp

And I think that’s a really good thing for us to see today.

Whenever a good work from the Lord happens in our lives, it always starts with God.

Did you know that?

Sure, we have our part. We respond in faith.

But God’s always the one who begins the process. He’s the one who begins to speak in our lives. He’s the one who begins to move in our lives. He’s the one who begins to work in our lives and the lives of other people.

Just like Jesus said in He said that “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

Do you realize that today church?

The only reason that any of you are walking with God today, the only reason I am walking with God today, is because the Father has drawn us in.

It’s not because we had anything to offer God.

Jesus even spoke to Peter at one point and said, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter then replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Then what does Jesus say to him after that? He says, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Our Father in Heaven is the one who has drawn us to himself. Who has drawn us to Jesus. He’s the one who has opened our eyes to the fact that the helpless baby that was born from Mary is more than just a helpless baby. He’s God in the flesh. Don’t ever mistake that.

So this angel Gabriel comes to Mary and shares with her this message from the Lord.

And look at what he says to her.

He says, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

It goes on in verses 29-33 and says,

Luke 1:29–33 ESV

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

But then jump down to verse 29.

It says,

Luke 1:29–30 ESV

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Luke 1:29–33 ESV

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:29

Luke 1:

So Gabriel comes to Mary and gives her this amazing blessing. He’s like, Mary you are favored by God. You are chosen by God.

And Mary doesn’t know what to do with it.

It says that she was greatly troubled.

Now when I first read this I thought that Mary was troubled because an angel just showed up. That would make sense right? Like I said earlier, if that happened to me, I feel like I would be pretty freaked out too. And that’s definitely a possible idea.

But what I personally think it’s saying isn’t necessarily that she was troubled because of the angel. But she was troubled because it was hard for her to see how God could be so gracious towards her. It says that she tried to discern, or understand what kind of greeting this was.

If anything, it really speaks of the humility of Mary.

You know, I will just let you guys know right now. The Catholic church has put Mary in a place where she was never meant to be.

I don’t know if you guys have ever been into a Catholic church. I’ve been in some. And many of them have statues made to commemorate Mary. You’ve probably seen some stickers of Mary on the backs of people’s cars.

But the Catholic church has almost put Mary on a level similar to Jesus. They believe that you can pray to her directly. Many Catholic’s believe that you can actually ask Mary to pray for you in Heaven. They believe if you are struggling with something, you can ask Mary to pray to God for you. And we know from Scripture that is not her job. Mary’s faith is no greater than any of ours. And if anything, the Bible says that Jesus is our great intercessor, and we can go straight through him to God. We don’t need to go to Mary.

And honestly guys, I believe if Mary knew what was going on, she would probably be pretty disgusted of it.

Mary was definitely an incredible Woman of God. And there is a great deal that we can learn in our lives from her example. She was humble, she was a worshipper of God, she was a servant. But still, she was human like you and me. She was no different. She still had to deal with her sin and find salvation through Christ like any one of us here today.

But don’t get me wrong, she was totally given one of the greatest blessings here on earth. I mean she literally got to watch Jesus Christ grow up. She was with him as a baby, as a teenager, as a grown-up carpenter, as the teacher of Israel, and as the Son of God who would die on the cross, and rise from the dead. I can’t even imagine what that would be like. Her baby boy was also her God. That’s mind-blowing.

It reminds me of the really popular song, “Mary did you know?” Have you guys heard that song?

This is what it says,

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water? Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you

Gives me chills just to think about it!

So Mary receives this incredible message from God, and now she’s going to respond. This is what she says.

Let’s continue, starting with verse 30 again.

Luke 1:34 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Luke 1:30–33 ESV

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Lule 1:34

Luke 30-33

Now just keep in mind that Mary wasn’t asking this question out of a heart of doubt. If you look earlier in the book of Luke, Gabriel also appeared to another man named Zachariah and told him that John the Baptist would be born in his old age.

And Zachariah asked the same question, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years?”

He asked a similar question, but it was with a heart of doubt. And if you guys have ever heard the story, the angel ends up shutting his mouth for many months until John was finally born because of his doubt.

That’s not what Mary was doing here.

Mary totally believed God, but still wanted to know the details of how it would all take place.

And I really like that.

God has a powerful plan for all of our lives here today. He wants to move in mighty and powerful ways.

He wants to impact the world for Christ through us.

And it’s okay to not understand all of the details yet.

I feel like there are things God has spoken to me that make no sense at all.

I have no idea how God is going to do the things that he has laid on my heart sometimes. But let me just say this to you guys. Just because you don’t understand how God is going to work something out. You still need to believe him. Everything might be a mess in your life, and God is telling you, I am going to deliver you. I am going to set you free and use you. Maybe he wants to call you to another country some day, or use you in some ministry. Maybe he just wants you to be a witness at school. And it all makes no sense to you. I would encourage you to have the same heart as Mary. Ask God for wisdom. Seek His face for those answers. But even when you don’t have them, continue to trust God and His faithfulness.

So the angel responds to Mary. Let’s keep going in verse 35

Luke 1:35–38 ESV

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. 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Wow

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

What a powerful message from God.

The Son of God, born from a virgin, born of the Holy Spirit, would come into the world. And why would that be?

Flip with me over to , and we’re just going to read through this to close.

Let’s read verses 18-21

Matthew 1:18–25 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18–21 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus wasn’t just born 2000 years for Mary, or for the disciples back then.

Jesus was born 2000 years ago for us.

Always remember that. Even if you were the only one on the planet who would respond to his work on the cross, Jesus still would have come and died for you.

He’s so worthy, and He is God with Us.

Pray.

Matthew 1 ESV

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

God

Greetings From God!

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