Mike Fitzhugh - Sunday, February 16, 2020

Family Bible Hour featuring Mike Fitzhugh.

Transcript:

Good morning, everyone. We can get the technology to cooperate here we will have a message. There we go.

Okay. It is good to be with you. It's, as they sometimes say, good to be anywhere. And we're very thankful to the Lord and for bringing us here and thankful to you for your prayers. I know that that you prayed for us as Paul kind of shared some of our needs. For those who don't know 11 months ago now. Time has flown but we had come down here for a little vacation, Nona's sister Karen was over in Winter Haven, Florida. And we came down for a two week vacation.

We landed at Orlando Sanford airport, picked up the rental car, and about 45 minutes or an hour later we were rear ended at 65 miles an hour plus. We were just sitting stopped in traffic and somebody was distracted and they rear ended us. So our car kind of flew up in the air a little bit and spun around ended up on its side. And I had a broken back, two broken vertebrae, a collapsed lung, broken shoulder, and some cuts. And it kind of knocked me silly too, as far as knocked me out cold pretty much. And then Nona had bumps and bruises and, but we're praising the Lord for just for his grace for being here. He has given me, in light, in spite of the accident, really a remarkable recovery and we're very grateful just just to be alive but to be able to be here.

I remember back 11 months ago in the hospital room, over in Osceola Regional Medical Center telling Nona, Well, I guess the Lord's not through with us yet, he's got work for us to do. So, including being here today. So that's great. Thank you again, so much for your prayers. We really appreciated that.

This morning, I want to share a message with you, as you can see on the screen having to do with the fact that we who—excuse me—we who know the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him know and serve the God of the impossible. And we want to talk about that this morning. And specifically, we want to look at Luke chapter one. So if you'd kind of get there Luke chapter one, be ready to read. I want to focus on the idea of responding to the God of the impossible. And our text is found in one of my favorite passages of Scripture here in Luke 1:26 through 38 so I'd like to read that with you, and I am using, this is—I've used the New American Standard Version for years—that's what I'll be reading to you from this morning. So if it's a little different than whatever version you use, that's why.

Luke 1:26 through 38 says this now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth to a virgin engaged or betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her: Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at the statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 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 embera son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great to be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.

Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I'm a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her six month, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her.

Let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who inspired the word. It was breathed out by him through the apostles and other inspired writers that you chose. We thank you that we have the completed Word of God. Today, your complete revelation and we pray that the Holy Spirit who inspired it would teach us and guide us into all truth This morning, that he would empower the the word, empower the message, the message and the messenger, and have his will in all of our hearts today. Thank you, Father, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, as we think about our lives, I think we could agree that we all at times in life face what we might call impossible situations. Would you agree with that? It might be a health problem. That seems impossible to overcome. It might be a personal problem that seems impossible to solve. It might be a financial hurdle that seems absolutely impossible to get over. We all face situations in life. Maybe it's a spiritual or emotional battle, where victory seems absolutely impossible to achieve. And we've all been through that. There may be sins, or a sin in your past that you think it's impossible for God to forgive. And you may think that what you've done is so bad that it's impossible for God to forgive you or to save you even. Some people are in that situation at times.

So there are many different situations in life that to us just seem impossible. Yet often, God will send us messengers and with messages that reveal him to be the God of the impossible, that show that He is the God of the impossible, and that he can do the impossible. And the Bible is full of examples of that. We will look at a few but our main one here is in Luke one today. In our text in Luke 1:26 to 33, Gabriel has brought a special message to Mary announcing the future birth of the Messiah, Mary was the recipient of God's grace—of his unearned favor, the recipient of God's grace.

And you'll note that the Bible does not say hail Mary full of grace, as the Roman Catholics at times would or often would say, but rather Gabriel said to Mary, hail or greetings highly favored one—literally, highly graced one. And grammatically, the passive voice tells us that she was the not the source of grace, but she was the recipient of grace. That's an important distinction to understand: it says she will bear his son, but not just any son, but the Son of God the Messiah. And he will be named Jesus meaning Jehovah saves, or Jehovah is salvation.

And you know the story well: through a divine miracle God, the son would take on human flesh and enter into the world as the sinless perfect god man, and he would be born of a virgin: 100% man, 100% God. And I'm sure again, that you're very familiar with this passage. But this morning, I want to concentrate on verses 34 through 38, and especially 37 and 38.

And in this passage, I want you to see four ways to respond to the God of the impossible. Four ways to respond to the God of the impossible. Think about that for a moment this morning. How do you respond to the messengers and messages of God? Whether it's a sermon, or a devotional that you hear or read, or an article, or any Christian book or a commentary, wherever it might be presenting the Word of God, how do you respond to a messenger and the message of God again, I want you in these verses to see four ways this morning. And I think these can be life changing if we really take them to heart and understand what God is saying here.

Each of these are seen in the life and the reactions, or I should say actions of a special young woman named Mary as she responded to that very special messenger, the angel Gabriel. So let's dive right into it. And you can fill out the little handout if you want, or those are optional. You can use it to make a paper airplane All I ask is that you not fly the thing during my message, okay? You can do it later on.

Alright, number one, first way to respond recognize God's unlimited power. you respond by recognizing God's Unlimited, unlimited power. That's verse 37. And we see here that Mary recognized and understood this power by what Gabriel said to her and how she reacted to what he said, in verse 34. Mary responds to Gabriel's message and says, How can this be? Since I am a virgin? He tells her she's going to have a baby and she's going to have the Messiah. How can this be since I am a virgin?

And this is, by the way, a question of wonder, not of doubt. Please understand that. It's not a question of doubt or unbelief, like that expressed by Zacharias earlier in this chapter in Luke one. And you remember that, when the same Angel Gabriel came to Zacharias to announce the future birth of john the baptist, Zacharias posed a question of doubt and disbelief that's in Luke 118. And Mary's question is not what a doubt or disbelief. It's one of honest wonder. Honest wonder.

Zacharias, on the one hand cynically and immediately, in response to Gabriel raises two objections. He said, First, how shall I know this for certain? For I am an old man, that's objection number one. And then he says, objection. Objection number two, and my wife is advanced in years. I'm an old man, and my wife has advanced in years, and he was smart enough not to call his wife an old woman. hope you understand that there in the passage. Okay. Gentlemen, just use the term advanced in years and you can be on biblical grounds that way, when you want to do that.

But Zacharias didn't and he says, This, how can this be? He says I'm an old man my wife has advanced in years. But Mary said, with great wonder I believe in innocence. Or can this be? Since I am a virgin? I've never known a man intimately. It's an honest question, an innocent question she really wants to know. Well, Gabriel then explains to her how it can be in verse 35. And following he says, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest, the highest will overshadow you, therefore also that holy one who has to be born will be called the Son of God.

And to encourage her faith and to affirm his message, he says, now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible. Isn't it a great statement? With God, nothing will be impossible.

Mary learns that she is going to conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. She's been told that her close relatives Elizabeth, who had been barren over life, had conceived a son in her old age, probably in her 60s or so are older. And obviously, only the power of Almighty God could bring that about. Therefore, Mary learns that Yahweh, the Lord God, is the God of the impossible, and more importantly, she believes that. She believes that.

So a virgin birth is no problem for El Shaddai. Amen? For the almighty one, as some theologians claim, he is not subject nor bound to the laws of nature. That's what a miracle is: when God goes outside the laws of nature and, and does something supernaturally. He truly is the God of the impossible. Remember, this is the same God of the impossible who enabled Sarah, and 100 year old, 90 year old Sarah and 100 year old Abraham to have their son Isaac. This is the same God of the impossible who enabled Zachariah here and his 60-ish year old wife, Elizabeth to have their son John—John the baptist.

He is the God of the impossible. This is the same God of the impossible, who when the nation of Israel is backed up against the Red Sea, and they've got Pharaoh in his chariots and soldiers bearing down on them, he parts the waters and a cross and the escape on dry land, same guy, same God of the impossible. And I like the way one writer put it when he wrote, "the laws of nature are not chains were with the supreme law giver has bound himself, but chords which he holds in his own hand and which he can lengthen or shorten as His good pleasure and wisdom dictate."

God is in control. He's omnipotent, all powerful, and He is the God of the impossible. For with God, nothing, absolutely nothing God says, will be impossible.

Let's talk about that word impossible for a moment. Impossible literally means not able, no dunamis, no power—that is, inability.

And so what the Bible is telling us, is that there is nothing that God says or wills or determines that he is incapable of doing. And he always acts in accord with his own holy and perfect nature. There is nothing that God says or wills or determines that he is incapable of doing. He has unlimited power. He is truly omnipotent or all powerful.

And you know, I I don't think we as Christians today I know we believe it. I know we believe what the Bible says about it. I don't think we talked about it enough. I don't think we trust in it enough that truth, that He is the God of the impossible and revelation 1:8 and 19:6, God is called the Almighty, meaning that he has all might, all power, unlimited power and strength.

We go back to Genesis 18 for that story that we know so well of Abraham and Sarah being given the promise of the birth of Isaac, and these two Old Testament characters were old advanced in years well past the childbearing years, you know, multiplying and replenishing the earth was was pretty much it was definitely passed for them. In fact, in Romans 4:19, Paul tells us that Abraham contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, and he contemplated the deadness of Sarah's womb. He thought about that carefully because he knew, humanly speaking, this just can't happen. This is not possible.

Yet the Lord, the God of the impossible, gave them a son, and fulfilled the promise, didn't he, in their old age. What a wonderful truth that is, brothers and sisters, how important it is that we recognize the unlimited power of God and I love Paul's words in Ephesians, 3:20, 21: Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond above some translations say all that we ask or even think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church, and to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians, 3:20, 21.

Think about it according to God's word. This is a quiz: Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Answer? No, nothing. Is the Lord's power limited? No, it's not. For nothing will be impossible with God. And I love what the Lord said to Moses, Numbers 23:11. And the Lord has made all kinds of promises to Moses and the nation of Israel, but just this little verse, "Now," the Lord says, "Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not." I love that. "Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."

Whatever strength of faith you have, wherever your faith is, in terms of how much you trust in God, you're going to see that my word will come true, it does come true.

So the application for us is this: when you hear a message on God's promises to save and forgive us of all of our sins, to provide all of our needs, to empower us to be effective witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ, or to be with us and sustain us through any and all circumstances and situations, how do you respond? How do I respond? How do we respond to a messenger? Who's bringing us a message from the God of the impossible?

Do you recognize the unlimited power of God? Or do you think of all the logical reasons why it just won't work? Or do you think of all the common sense reasons why it just won't work?

I remember speaking to a group of Christians one time at a church we're working with in Wisconsin years ago. We're kind of planning for the outreach of the assembly in the coming year. And I was trying to set a vision and set some goals for the congregation, and I said, I believe that we can reach at least 30 people this coming year, see them come to Christ, and be added to the church. And as soon as I got the sentence out, a guy pipes up and says, "Do you want to bet? You want to bet?"

That wasn't a sign of strong faith, was it? In the God of the impossible. But that's what he said. He wasn't considering the God of the impossible and neither did Philip in john chapter six. When Jesus looked out the huge magnitude (you remember the story) and he said to Philip, in verse five, really testing him, he said, "Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?"

Well, Philip studied the great multitude, the great crowd, and he pulled out his pocket calculator or Abacus or whatever he had, he did some calculating. And he said to the Son of God, Almighty God, the Creator of all things, 200 denari worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little. Philip had it all figured out just wasn't gonna happen. He figured it out.

Well, humanly speaking, he was probably right. But supernaturally speaking, he was absolutely wrong. For he was standing in the presence of the God of the impossible. And you know the story, the Lord Jesus with only five loaves and two fish, the God of the impossible fed upwards of 15,000 to 20,000 people that day. And they had how many baskets leftover? 12 right? All kinds of food leftover for other people!

And brothers and sisters, the Lord loves to glorify himself by exhibiting his power in our seemingly impossible situations. He really does and it's evident throughout the scriptures. Bible's full of historical examples of God doing just that. And we don't have time to go through; I could be here for weeks doing that.

Let me just give you a quick list as I think about people in both the Old and New Testaments. Where, where the God of the impossible was working on behalf of them on behalf of people like Abraham and Joseph, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, Elijah, Daniel, David, the apostles, the Lord Jesus Himself. I mean, throughout the Bible, you see the God of the impossible at work. And I love these words in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32:17, where he says, and I'm kinda I don't know this for sure, I'd have to look up the context. Again. I'm picturing him looking up at the sky and the stars and everything. Because he says this: "Ah, Lord God, behold, thou has made the heavens in the earth by great power and by an outstretched arm, nothing is too difficult for thee." Right?

Nothing is too difficult for God. And our Lord Jesus told the first disciples in Matthew 17:20, he said, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, that teeny little seed, you will say to this mountain move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you." Amen, brother, amen.

You know, over 46 plus years of marriage and ministry, God has countless times proven himself to be the God of the impossible to Nona, and me, and my family. And I could tell you story after story where he has done things that you would think were absolutely impossible, providing our needs, providing more than our needs, supplying things, saving members of my family that you'd never thought would get saved. He is the God of the impossible and I praise him for it, and so does Nona.

Again, the Apostle Paul said (to remind you again) Ephesians 3:20: "Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." What a great truth What a wonderful truth. It goes on to say "to Him be the glory, all the glory," right? Nothing is impossible when you're tapped into and trusting in the unlimited power of the God of the impossible.

So remember that please, when you're faced with an impossible situation in your life, especially if you're being faced with something like that today. But we need to move on. Please remember that we need to recognize God's hope. unlimited power.

Secondly, we need to do this: and that is respond to God as Mary did to Gabriel and release control of your life to God's will—release control of your life to God's will. Now it's one thing to believe in the unlimited power of God. And it's very important that we do that. But we must also be careful to be in submission to that power, amen? To be in submission to that. Let's say it this way: to be in submission to God's will and the use of that power. Let me say it that way.

We are to release control of our lives to God's will so that his power can flow through us, however, that must be in accord with his purposes and his plans in his will as opposed to our own. That's what keeps us from going out and doing some really crazy things. And some people I've known do that you know.

More than once Christians in churches have reasoned and said something like, "Well, hey, since he's the God of the impossible, and he can do anything, let's go out and borrow $2 or $3 or $4 million and build a new building. He can provide. He's the God of the impossible."

Yeah, that's true. He can, but it may not be his will. Right? We need to be in submission to His will. And releasing control of our lives to God's revealed will is the key. You know, James 5 very well, I'm sure. Excuse me, James, 4 James 4:15. You ought to say, when you're looking to the future and doing something in the future, you ought to say, "if the Lord wills, we shall live, or do this or that." We don't even know if we're going to live, let alone do this or that. But if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.

And we see this approach and Mary's answer to Gabriel in Luke 1:38, where she says to Gabriel, "Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; may be done to me according to your word." That's submission to God's will. "May it be done to me according to your word."

And after hearing God's messenger give God's message Mary declared that she was the bond slave of the Lord. That simply means a slave of the Lord. The King James, I think may use to use the term handmade, the ideas of female bond slave here. That's what she was, and she was willing to give herself up to the will of another. That's what a slave does. And Mary was willing to do that. Mary had released control of her life to the will of God Himself, the Lord God was her master. She was his slave, his servant, and her desire was that he performed his will in her life, whatever that would be. Whatever that would be.

Having recognized God's unlimited power, she released the reins of her life, to God's complete control. The question for each of us this morning is: have you done the same? Have we done the same? Have we said, "Lord, I'm going to get out of the driver's seat. You take the wheel, you take over, you be in total control of my life, whatever that is." That's Romans 12:1, isn't it? That's our spiritual service or reasonable service of worship. As we offer up our body as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God.

And you know what, there are wonderful examples down through history, church history of Christians who have done that. And that's why I love church history so much and reading Christian biographies of people who have, just like Mary allowed God to take total control of their lives. I think of Florence Nightingale. Do we have any nurses in the room?

Florence Nightingale was the founder of trained nursing as a profession for women, and she was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when she was 30 years old, she wrote in her diary, "I am 30 years of age, the age at which Christ began his mission. Now no more childish things, no more vain things. Now, Lord, let me think only of thy will."

And later, at the end of her illustrious and heroic life, she was asked, "What is the secret of your success? What would you say is the secret of your success?"

She replied, "Well, I can only give one explanation that is, I have kept nothing back from God."

"I've kept nothing back from God." have you said that? Is that in your heart? The attitude of your heart? Florence Nightingale, Nightingale, had that attitude and approach. And Mary, the mother, the mother of our Lord Jesus, she had that attitude and approach.

And again, the question is: do you and I? Do you and I?

We could mention other Christians. Like john Knox, john Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Hudson Taylor, at an errand Judson, George Mueller, Jim Elliot, Nate, St. The list goes on and on. All the missionaries that were slain by the Auca Indians. We could mention many more willing believers that gave their entire lives to the Lord.

But it's important to realize this, please keep this in mind because sometimes we stand back, looking back in history and seeing these great saints of God and we think, "Well, they were special super Christians, you know?" No. The truth is they were ordinary people just like you and me. They were ordinary people just like you and me. They were weak, flawed human beings, sinners who had been saved and transformed by God's grace, yet they yielded to the power of God and said, "Lord, you do whatever you want in and through me." And then the Lord went to work and did great things through them.

They simply recognized God's unlimited power and released control their entire lives to God and His will. And as they did God chose to work in and through them for His glory, just as Mary said, So should we. Let's go back to her words: "Behold, the bond slave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word," which is the same thing as saying, "Lord be done to me according to your will, whatever you want to do, I'm willing." Right?

Now, so let's move on. It can be exciting when you recognize God's unlimited power. I love preaching on that because it's so exciting to see what God can do. The unlimited power of God. You may feel somewhat convicted when you hear a message on releasing control of your life to God—that is a message on total commitment and dedication to God's will for your life. I feel convicted when I preach on it!

But thirdly, another important and proper way to respond to a messenger of the God of the impossible is to receive and believe God's Word or message. Receive and believe God's Word or message.

You see that which Gabriel was telling Mary was not his word. It was not Gabriel's message. It was who's? God's! It was God's message. It was God's word. Gabriel was an angelos, a messenger. You know what he was? He was a divine mailman. He was God's mailman, delivering God's message. In one sense, he was nothing special.

That you know, that's really what we as preachers and teachers are, I hope all preachers and teachers of the Word of God understand that—and they should understand it that way. We are simply servants of the king. We are slaves of the king. We are messengers of the king. And our job is to be faithful and get the message across as the King gave it.

I sometimes use this illustration, which is kind of trivial, but but it works in my brain. When I was a little kid, we'd be out playing, you know, it'd be seven o'clock at night and starting to get dark. And my brother who just flew into Orlando, came to our place last night, in fact, because we're having a family deal here in Florida. But my brother Pat would come to me and say this.: "Dad told me to tell you, it's time to come in for supper."

Now had Pat come to me and said, "Hey, get in the house, it's time for supper," I would say, "Get lost," you know, "go hide in the woods."

But when he says, "Dad told me to tell you," I knew the message was coming through my brother, the messenger from my dad, and if I didn't get to the house, I'd be in trouble.

We understand. How that works is kids. And that's kind of the idea here, except on a grander scale. This was an angelos, a messenger of God, sent by God to Mary to deliver this message. And she believed the message, and she received it as for what it was: as a message from God Himself.

You know, in one sense, we as preachers and teachers are nothing special. We're servants. We are messengers of our king. And our responsibility, as I said before, is to faithfully and accurately deliver the messages of God—the words of God—to his people, to the people he sends us to. So please don't, I would ask you: don't elevate, don't exalt the preachers and the teachers. We are simply servants like you are, who have been given a special responsibility need to be faithful. And it's not my job to get up here and give you my own messages my own views, political, religious or otherwise, my own opinions or philosophies.

God hasn't called me to do any of that. But he has called me to be a servant and a messenger who has a responsibility to preach and teach and deliver accurately the messages from his word that he has given.

And put it another way The apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 4:1: "let a man so consider us as servants," or, "hyperatas," literally galley slaves of Christ, "and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found," what? Trustworthy or faithful. "Let a man regard us," he says, "servants." The King James I think might say "ministers." Hyperatas, a galley slave.

How many have read the book, Ben Hur? Or seen the movie Ben Hur maybe? You you know the story, those hulking ships had three decks—three decks. And and each deck had the oars, and the slaves were chained to the oars and pulled that hulking ship through the water. Those were galley slaves. Those were hyperatas. And that's the word Paul uses here in First Corinthians four.

That's what we are. We're slaves of Christ, and have the responsibility to faithfully deliver the mysteries of God via his word. And so the simple question is: when God sends us His messengers, do we who hear them? Do we who claim to be Bible believing Christians? Do we believe and receive the Word of God for what it is? The actual word of God? Because if the man is preaching the word faithfully, the Word of God, then it is a message from God, Himself. And that's our responsability: to receive it and believe it.

I love the way Paul put it! He wrote to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:13: "For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is: the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe." The Thessalonians are a wonderful example to us.

But sometimes there are those who even when an angel comes to them, they don't truly receive and believe the word. That was Zacharias here in Luke chapter one. And you know the story. Zacharias, he had all these objections, (as we mentioned before) and so he was chastised: he was made dumb, he was made mute, unable to speak. Why? Because Gabriel says in Luke 1:20, "Because you did not believe my words," which in reality, were the words of God.

Yet in contrast, you've got this young, innocent, Mary, in a very simple way accepts the message as being from the Lord, and believes it. And guess what God did? He fulfilled his word and she gave birth to Messiah, right? Boy, the message is pretty. The lesson is pretty obvious there I think to us. Well, is that all there is to it? Must all I do in responding to a message of the God of the impossible? Is it just a matter of recognizing God's unlimited power, releasing control of my life to God and receiving and believing God's Word? Well, you know, it's not because I told you the beginning there would be four points.

So, fourth and last point, okay? One more way to respond. Very important way.

Remember, another "R" word. Remember that there is a price to be paid for obedience. Remember that There's a price to be paid for obedience. In other words: remember to count the cost. Remember that faith and obedience to God's Word, to his message will cost you something. Always. It will cost you something. This is true when first coming to Christ at salvation, and it's true all the way through your Christian life. To trust in the Word of God and obey that word, it will cost you something. And this is in Luke 1:38. Luke 1:38. Brother Paul, I'm going to ask you to read that. Would you read Luke 138 on the screen, assuming we have it?

Okay, now you may be saying, "where is counting the cost seen in that verse?"

Well, it's kind of in the white spaces, all right? It's kind of in between the lines. But by that, I mean, it's strongly implied, and it is there.

Think of this think with me: being a bond slave of God and in desiring to do God's will unconditionally, Mary would be opening herself up to all kinds of things, all kinds of persecution, and ridicule and gossip and shame, disgust, mistrust. Think about real life here now, real life in Mary's time. Just how would she explain her pregnancy to her family, to her friends, to the general public? And most importantly to Joseph, her beloved? How would she explain this?

How could she say, "Yes, well, I'm pregnant by the Holy Spirit and my baby is going to be the Messiah."

"Right, Mary! Nobody's ever tried that one on us before."

Oh, this was a difficult situation. The point is that by believing and receiving and obeying God's word, Mary took a risk. She risked her reputation, her marriage to Joseph and even her life. Because technically what could have happened? She could have been stoned, right? She could have been stoned for being an adulteress, because that's what everybody would have assumed, because she was betrothed, legally married really, to Joseph even though that hadn't been consummated yet.

But she would have been thought of as an adulterous she could have been put to death. We know Joseph even considered, he was going to divorce her, put her away secretly. Yeah, what happened? An angel intervened and explain things to him in a dream. And Mary was spared all of that.

Brothers and sisters in Christ if you are a bond slave of Jesus Christ, there is always a risk involved and there's always a price to be paid for following him. Always, to whatever degree. Now, we don't face a lot of persecution in this country I know. But whether it's at school, or at work, or in your neighborhood, or with your neighbors, or with members of your family, whomever it might be. If you take a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, and truly obey Him, you will face some flak of some kind. So there's a risk. There's a risk there.

I think of this: Christ Himself said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23.) And taking up your cross speaks of suffering, it speaks of sacrifice, crucifixion, obviously. In Luke 14:27 and 28. The Lord said, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. For which one of you when he wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?"

So if you are if you are a person who's willing to recognize God's unlimited power and release control of your life to God and receive them believe God's word you will find that there is a cost to be paid. Always. A price to be paid for faithfully following after the Lord Jesus.

Now listen to this: this is very serious. And I'm especially burdened for our young people, not that I'm not burdened for your older people, Okay? But especially for the young people to hear me out on this: Following Christ may mean major hassles and inconvenience in your life. It may mean the loss of friends. It may mean the loss of status and prestige; division in your family; disownership by your family; it may mean persecution and even death, depending on where you live, and what your circumstances are, and, and what's going on in your life.

It could mean the loss of personal comfort, material wealth, your job, your status and position in society, your career, or your reputation. There is a price of some sort to be paid for following after the Lord Jesus Christ. But please don't let those seemingly negative negative things bother you, or dissuade you from following him, Amen?

Because it's more than worth it to do it, to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, notice here what Mary said, "Behold," in other words, "look, here I am, the bond slave of the Lord, be it done to me, according to your word."

I'll close with this verse, you know it well. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. Two verses. "You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body."

Are you are you not His bond slave? Is He your master? Is He your Savior? And I pray that there's even one person here this morning that doesn't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; if you've never trusted him for your salvation, for your eternal life; if you've never believed, that he died for you, He was buried, He rose again from the dead the third day. If you've never received Him as Lord and Savior, I pray you would do that today.

But again, remember and He Himself said this: calculate the cost of following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for loving us so much that you gave me your only son, to die for us, to die in our place on the cross, to pay the penalty of all of our sins, that we never could have paid. You offered us eternal life. And Lord, I'm I'm thankful that there are many in this room today. I would certainly hope all, but there are many in this room today that have received that gift, and become followers of Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to be like Mary. Help us to really understand that power. Yield up control of our lives to you totally, to receive the messages that you send to us, to remember, to remember to count the cost. And Lord, help us to glorify Your name as we do all of those things. Because when, we know that when we do all of those things, ultimately you are the one working in us and through us. For it is God who is at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. We give you the praise Father, in Jesus name we pray and all God's people said: Amen.

Thank you very much.