Rick Warren - The Untold Story of The 3 Wise Women of Christmas

All your life, you've heard about the three Wise Men

of Christmas. This year, I want to talk to you

for just a second about the three Wise Women of Christmas.

You maybe have never realized that there were three wise women,

but there were. One of them was married, one of

them was single, and one of them was widowed. The

first one was named Elizabeth, the second one was named Mary,

and the third one was named Anna. Every one of

these three wise women faced a major obstacle in their life.

Elizabeth faced major disappointment. She was old and unable to

bear a child. She had been childless.

Her entire life.

Big disappointment. Mary had to face a major change. She's

pregnant and she's single. How's she going to explain that?

And Anna had lost the love of her life, her husband,

just a few years into her marriage, and so she

had to deal with loss. So disappointment and change and

loss were the three things these three wise women had

to deal with. But they all overcame each of those

because they were wise. Elizabeth overcame resentment and bitterness, Mary

overcame her fears, and Anna overcame her grief because they

all made wise decisions. By making wise choices, how do

you know when somebody is wise. How do you know

when somebody is really wise or not by looking at

the decisions they make. Wise people make wise decisions. Foolish

people make foolish decisions. Unwise people make unwise decisions. If

I want to know if you are wise, if you're

truly a wise woman, I want to know if you're

truly a wise man, all I have to do is

they tell me about the decisions you've made in your life,

because your decisions reveal whether you are wise or not.

The Bible says this about the wisest man who ever lived.

His name was Solomon. He was the king of Israel

because God gave him wisdom because when God said, I'll

give you anything you asked for, he didn't ask for money,

he didn't ask for fame, he didn't ask for comfort.

He said, God, I want you to make me wise.

And he became the wisest man in the world. And

the Bible says this on the screen First Kings three

twenty eight. The people saw that Solomon had God's wisdom

by the decisions he made. What I want us to

do right now is look at the three decisions that

these wise women made because if you want to be

a wise woman or you want to be a wise man,

you need to make these exact three decisions this next

year and for the rest of your life. So first

we're going to start with the first wise woman. If

you want to write her name in if you're taking notes,

the first wise Woman of Christmas is Elizabeth. We find

her story in Luke chapter one. We find Mary's story

in Luke chapter one, and we find Annas story in

Luke chapter two. Now on your outline, the Bible says this,

when Herod was the king of Judah, there was a

priest named Zachariah and his wife was named Elizabeth. Both

zachari and Elizabeth were righteous and godly people. This is

what the God says about them. Their lives pleased God.

Circle that their lives pleased God because they always did

everything God commanded, and they lived with a clear conscience

before God. But they had no children because Elizabeth had

been unable to conceive, and now they were both too old.

Now in these couple of verses, we learned a couple

of things about this first wise woman. First, we learned

that Elizabeth was a very strong woman. She's mature, she's strong,

she's godly, she was a woman of God. She was

probably a great mentor to young girls. Probably a great

mentor because she's very strong in her faith. Verse six

says her life pleased God. You know what, as your

pastor and coach, that's what God. I want God to

be able to say about you, that your life pleased God.

That's what it means to be a godly woman. That's

what it means to be a godly man. Your life

pleased God. That's the highest compliment. There's nothing better than that.

The Bible says she was righteous. The Bible says she

was devout. The Bible says she was dedicated. So we

know she was a wise woman. But the second thing

we learned in this is that she's carrying a lifelong heartbreak,

a lifelong hurt. The Bible says in verse seven, had

no children. And many of you can identify with this hurt,

with this heartbreak. For some reason, it hasn't happened. You've

always wanted to be a mother, or you've always wanted

to be a father, but it hasn't happened so far

in your life. The Bible says that Elizabeth was pleasing

to God. She did everything right. She was a woman

of integrity. But the hurt and the heartbreak in his

heart is that her greatest prayer had not been answered.

And this means that Elizabeth had every temptation to get bitter,

She had every temptation to get resentful against God, because

she could say, you know, God, I have served you

my entire life. I have lived for you. I've done

what's right. I've tried to do the right thing. I've

tried to honor you and worship you and love you,

and yet you haven't answered my biggest, biggest prayer.

I want a baby. Now.

This is a great temptation to be hurt and to

be bitter and to be resentful. You could probably think

about something in your life You've prayed about a lot

and it just hasn't happened yet. You can be bitter,

or you can be better. You can trust God, or

you can get mad at God. And Elizabeth, in her wisdom,

did not get mad at God. But the point I

want to make here is that living for God does

not guarantee you a hurt free life. God never said

that everything's going to happen the way you want it

in life. This is not heaven. I've told you this

so many times. Don't expect heaven to be on earth.

In heaven there is no sorrow, no suffering, no sadness,

no problems, no pressure, no pain, no disappointment, no tears,

no grief, no loss. None of these things are in heaven.

But this is earth, and on earth everything is broken.

Not everything God wants.

To happen happens, because the Bible says the Lord's not

willing that any should perish, but people perish all the

time without Christ. God doesn't want people to sin, but

they sin all the time. God gives us that choice.

And so to expect heaven on earth is going to

set you up for disappointment. Nothing works perfectly on this planet.

I've told you this many times. The weather doesn't work perfectly,

the economy doesn't work perfectly, your relationships don't work perfectly,

your body doesn't work perfectly. Everything is broken. Living for

Christ does not guarantee a pain free life. In fact,

Jesus said just the opposite. He said, in this world

you will have trouble, not might not, might not could happened.

It says you're going to have trouble, So we shouldn't

be surprised when things don't always go the right way.

We shouldn't be surprised when we have pain in our lives,

because it's not heaven. But Elizabeth had wanted a baby

all of her life and it hadn't happened. Now we

pick up her story in Luke. Chapter one started with

verse eight, and this is the story of the miraculous

birth of John the Baptist.

Elizabeth was the sister of the cousin.

Of Mary, and she was the mother of John the Baptist,

who was the forerunner, or the announcer of the Messiah.

Here's what it says on the screen.

One day, Zachariah was chosen to enter the Temple of

God to burn incense.

He was a priest.

While he was doing that, a large crowd of worshippers

stood outside the temple praying. But inside the temple, an

angel appeared to Zachariah standing at the right side of

the incense altar. When Zachariah saw the angel, he was

startled and overwhelmed with fear. But the angel said, don't

be afraid, Zachariah. Your persistent prayers have been heard. Now

we'll come back to that. I might circle it. Your

persistent prayers have been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will

finally conceive. She'll bear you a son, and you are

to name him John. This boy will not only bring

great joy to you, but many other people are going

to be blessed by his life too, and they'll celebrate

his birth one day. John will become a great man

for the Lord. Later, Jesus would call John the Babtist

the greatest human being that ever lived. God said, John

the Babtist was the greatest human being that ever lived.

John will become a great man for the Lord. He

is never to drink any wine or any other alcohol,

and God will fill him with his Holy spirit, even

from birth as a baby. And God will use him

to bring many people back to the Lord. He will

preach with the spirit and the power of Elijah. And

he's gonna reconcile fathers and children. He's gonna put families

back together, restore harmony in the home. He's gonna get

disobedient people to think and act in the right ways again.

And this will prepare the people for the coming of

the Messiah. Those of you who are old enough to

remember Johnny Carson, anybody remember him, and Johnny Carson's sidekick

was who Ed McMahon and everything on night TV. He'd go,

here's Johnny. He was the announcer. John the Baptist was

the announcer for Jesus. Here's Jesus, He's coming. He's gonna

be here. Get ready. This will prepare the people for

the coming of the Messiah. But then Zacharih said to

the angel, how am I going to know that what

you're saying is true? I can't believe he's doubting an angel? Okay,

But he go, ah, am I gonna know what you're

saying is he's doubting? He says, I am an old man,

and my wife is well along in years too.

Notice how polite he is to his wife.

I'm an old man, he doesn't say, And I'm married

to an old lady. An he says, and my wife's

old in age too, or up there, he's very polite.

Then the angel answered, I am Gabriel. I'm Gabriel. I stand.

He's an archangel. I stand in the presence of God,

and God has sent me to tell you this good news.

But because you've doubted my words, you're going to be

struck silent and unable to speak any words until the

day that Elizabeth delivers her baby. But every word that

I've told you will happen at just the right time now. Meanwhile,

all the people outside of the temple are wondering what's

taking Zachariah so long. He's just going into light incense,

And people weren't allowed in the temple. Only the priest

could go on the temple, and in the Holy of

Holies only one day a year, on the day of Atonement.

But when he came out, Zachariah couldn't speak a word,

so they realized that he'd seen some kind of vision

in the temple. Zachariah kept making signs to them, but

he was unable to speak. Now, in this passage, we

learned two more things about the wisdom of the wise

woman named Elizabeth. First, we know verse thirteen, he says,

your persistent prayers have been heard. So we know that

Elizabeth and her husband never stopped praying, even after they

were physically unable to conceive. They kept praying. This is

a mark of wisdom, even in all of her pain,

even in all of her disappointment, even in all of

her dashed hopes, even as she got older and older,

she kept on praying. That's a mark of wisdom. And

in verse twenty, when Gabriel says every word that I've

told you will happen at just the right time, we

know that Elizabeth also understood the timing of God is

better than my own timing. She understood what it meant

to wait on God's timing. She had her timetable for

a baby, but God had his timetable for a baby.

She had her plans, and she knew that she could

trust God and she could trust God's timing. Both of these,

praying persistently and being patient are marks of wisdom. That's

why Elizabeth is a wise woman. Now there on your outline,

it says this one Peter Luke. Sometime later, Elizabeth became pregnant.

This is a miracle.

Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months she never left

her home. Okay, she isolates herself, she's housebound. She never

left her home. I think this is probably she's just

being careful and smart with her pregnancy. I'm an old woman.

I don't want to miscarry. I'm going to stay home

because God's given me this miracle baby. But she kept

praising God all these months, saying, the Lord did this

for me, and he has shown his blessing and has

taken away my shame and pain. Now she gives all

the credit to God, and he says she's taken God

has taken away my pain and my shame.

Why would she be ashamed of not having a baby.

Well, because she lived in a very different culture than ours,

and two thousand years ago, a woman's value was largely

determined by how many kids she produced, and if she

produced a big family, she was extremely valuable to that family.

She was considered the mother of future generations. Now that's

not true today. But she felt the shame of the

culture of that day because she was unable to have children.

If you had a lot of kids, you were highly valued.

If you had a few kids, okay, if you had

no kids, well, there was a a there was a

pallor there was a shame on that. She said, God

has taken away my shame. Now we pick up the

rest of the story in verse fifty seven. Look up

here on the screen. When Elizabeth gave birth to her son,

her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had blessed her.

All three of these women get the word blessed in

their life. You want God's blessing, you make wise decisions.

I'll say it again. If you want God's blessing, you

make wise decisions. The Lord had blessed her, and she

shared her joy. They shared her joy. Now eight days

later later, they that's all the relatives came for the circumcision,

and they're gonna name the baby after his father, Zachariah.

But Elizabeth spoke up and said, no, he is to

be called John.

So they objected.

But wait a minute, Elizabeth, you don't have any relatives

with that name. So they asked his father Zachariah what

he'd like to name the child. Zachariah asked for a

writing tablet, and immediately, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote,

his name is John. This is what they had been

told by the angel to name him immediately. As soon

as he did that, he got his voice back. This

is the miracle, and he began praising God. Now, this

story the miraculous birth, and John is Zacharai getting this

miraculous voice back. This story filled the entire community with

deep awe and everywhere everyone was talking about it and

wondering what kind of special person. Is this child going

to be for what was obvious that God's power was

on him. Now Elizabeth understands the delay. Her entire life,

She's been praying for a baby. God intended to give

her a baby. But God's plan was bigger than Elizabeth.

Elizabeth just wanted a baby. God says, No, you're going

to be the mother of the greatest human being ever

to live, as Jesus called John the Baptist. You're going

to be the mother of the forerunner of Jesus Christ.

Doubt to be the forerunner. John couldn't be born thirty

years early or twenty years earlier. He needed to be

born just about the same time, literally just a few

months before the Messiah is going to be born.

Now she gets it. Now, she understands.

All that time he had been praying, I've been thinking

God wasn't here in my prayer. Here's the point. A

delay is not a denial. You need to realize that

in your life. A delay is not a denial. And

the difference between a wise person and a foolish person,

or the difference between a mature person and an immature

person is you know, the difference between no and not

yet no child knows the difference. When a child asks

a parent can I have this and you say not yet,

they think it means no and they start having to crying.

Only when you get mature, only when you get wise,

do you understand the difference between no and not yet.

All of Elizabeth's life, she'd been wanting and praying for

this to something to happen in her life that hadn't happened.

Maybe you've been wanting and praying for something to happen

in your life it hadn't happened yet. It just tells

me that a God has something bigger and better planned

for you. You need to be patient, You need to trust God.

Now Here is the choice that Elizabeth made that made

her a wise woman. If you want to be a

wise woman, if you want to be a wise man,

here's the first thing you need to do.

Write this down.

Elizabeth was blessed because she chose to trust God's plan

instead of being bitter. She chose it was a decision

to trust God's plan instead of being bitter. What are

you being tempted to be bitter about? It just means

you're not trusting God's plan. You think you know more

than God does a wise person trust God's plan and

timing even when it doesn't make sense, even when you

can't figure it out. Now, the second wise woman of Christmas,

of course, is Mary, and we find her story in

Luke chapter one. Start in about verse twenty six. Up

here on the screen, it says this, in the sixth

month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Remember, Mary and Elizabeth are related

by which makes by the way John, the Babists and

Jesus were cousins. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy,

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

to a young virgin pledged to be married to a

man named Joseph.

Her name was Mary. Now the angel said, greetings, God.

Has chosen you for a special blessing and He is

with you. But Mary was frightened and confused. This is

her initial reaction, fear and confusion, and she tried to

figure out what this greeting might mean. So the Angel

said to it, don't be a frightened Mary, for God

has decided to bless you in a wonderful way. You're

going to have a baby, and he will be a boy,

and you're going to name him Jesus. He will be

great and he will be called the Son of the

Most High, and God will give him King David's throne.

But his kingdom is going to last forever and never end.

How can this be?

Mary asked, since I'm a virgin, I've never known a man.

The Angel answered, God's spirit will come over you and

his power will overshadow you. So the holy child that

you carry will be called the Son of God. For

right now, your own relative Elizabeth is about to have

a baby, even in her old age, because nothing is impossible.

With God, he can do anything. Then Mary answered, well,

I am the Lord's servant and I accept whatever he

plans for me.

May it happen as you have said.

This is a surrender, it's a submission. So the angel

left her. Then Mary got ready and traveled quickly to

the town where her relatives, Zachary and Elizabeth lived. When

Mary entered their home, she greeted Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth

heard Mary's greeting, her baby leapt in her womb, and

instantly Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Overcome with joy,

Elizabeth exclaimed in a loud voice, Mary, you are the

most blessed woman. On earth, and the child you are

caring is the most blessed too.

But why why am I so blessed that the mother

of my Lord should visit me?

The moment I heard the sound of your voice, Mary,

the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Mary, you are this is the key.

You are blessed because you believed that God would do

what he said he'd do.

Now.

Mary responded by singing her praise to God. My soul

praises God's greatness, and my spirit rejoices that he is

my savior. He noticed me, He noticed me. God noticed

me his humble servant girl. And from now on all

generations will call me blessed because of what the Holy

God has done for me. So Mary stayed with Elizabeth

for about three months and then return home.

In those days, men and women married very very young.

Mary might have been fifteen years old, probably at the

most sixteen, when she hears this news that she's pregnant,

and she's filled with fear. Who wouldn't be first of

an angel showed up. That scare me, probably scare you too.

But then what the angel says to that's even more scary.

Mary.

You're gonna be pregnant, You've never known a man, and

the daddy.

Of the baby's gonna be God, right right?

Okay, So imagine all the possible fear is going through

her mind. First, there's a fear of criticism. How'm I

gonna tell my mom?

Hi? Mom? Uh, yeah, I know I'm.

Engaged to Joseph, but I'm pregnant and Joseph isn't the daddy.

Oh and by the way, the daddy is God and

I'm caring the son of God. Would your mother believe that?

Pretty unlikely? Teenage girl? Hi Mom, I'm pregnant and God's

the reason. So how am I gonna explain that to

my mom? How I'm I gonna explain it to all

my aunts and my uncles, to my sisters. How am

I going to explain it to Joseph, the man I love.

That I'm gaging.

Hi, honey, I'm pregnant and you know we haven't had sex.

How am I going to explain it to the whole community.

It's probably one of the reasons why immediately after she

heard this news, she goes to another town for three months.

To live with her relatives.

Elizabeth Zacharie because she doesn't want to have to explain

this to everybody. It's not gonna make any sense at all.

So there's the fear of criticism. But there's also the

fear of the supernatural. She said, how am I going

to be pregnant? And the Holy Spirit I mean and

angel says, the Holy Spirit will come over you and

overshadow you. The fear of the supernatural. What's gonna happen

to my body? How am I going to be pregnant?

In the way, the fear of the supernatural. That would

be a scary thing for anybody, but yet less a

young girl. Then the fear of inadequacy. How in the

world am I supposed to be the mother of the

son of God.

I'm inadequate.

I I don't have any schooling, don't have any education.

I'm just a peasant girl in a tiny village. Why

me of all people, not something queen or somebody really

educated in her sense of fear of inadequacy, and then

of course, the fear of change. How in the world

is going to change my life? She was engaged to

be married. You know what, an engaged girl is thinking

about nothing but her wedding, and she's.

Making all the wedding plans in her mind. That's what

she's consumed with. And then Joseph and I'll.

Get married and will settle down and eventually we'll have

some kids. But all of a sudden, a monkey wrench

has been thrown into the plants. Her plans are out

the window. It's a major, massive change, and this is fearful,

but she's wise. She's wise, and in verse thirty seven,

Gabriel says, Mary, nothing is impossible with God. So she's saying,

God loves me, God chose me, God is with me.

Nothing's impossible with God.

Okay, I can handle this, not because my strength, but

because God is with me. God loves me, God planned it.

He's not going to overwhelm me with something I can't handle.

And so, based on the fact that nothing is impossible

with God, that God's going to help her lover. In

the next verse, verse thirty eight, she says, I am

the Lord's servant. I accept whatever he plans for me.

May it be according to your word. Mary wisely surrenders

to the will of God. Have you done that yet?

Have you wisely surrendered your life to the will of God?

If you hadn't, there's a word for that. Foolishness. It

is unwise to go with your plan for your life

when God, who created you, has a plan for your life.

Wise people say whatever God wants from my life. I'm

in I did not understand it, but I'm going to say,

whatever God wants for my life, that's what I want.

That's what wisdom does.

And so she wants God's will more for her life

than anything else. She's like David in the Old Testament

Psalm forty. On the screen, David said, I desire to

do your will, Oh my God, have you ever prayed

that prayer? Have you ever told God, God, I desire

to do your will, not mine. I desire to do

your plan, not mine. I desire to fulfill your purpose

for my life, not mine. That's what wisdom does. So

we know that the wisdom of surrendering to God's will,

God's plan shows a mark of wisdom. And the second thing,

we know that Mary was a woman of the words.

She knew this book, she.

Had much, many many scriptures memorized. I don't have time

to read the song that Mary sings spontaneously at Elizabeth's house,

but it contains about ten references to Old Testament verses

She knew this book backwards and forwards, so much so

that she could do, on the spot write a song

that would quote Isaiah and quote so many others in

the Old Testament.

Could you do that?

Could you on the spot just write a song based

on scripture verses.

That's why she's a wise woman. She knew the word

of God.

And if you want to be a wise man, you

need to know the word of God, the Bible says

to Luke chapter two. Here on the screen, Mary quietly

treasured these things, all that God told her in her heart,

and she often thought about them.

That's a mark of wisdom.

You think about what God says, and you think about

it over and over and over. Now here's the second

key to being a wise person, a wise woman, or

a wise man. Number two, Mary was blessed. Write this down.

Mary was blessed because she chose to believe God's word

instead of her fears. She chose to believe God's word

what God had said, then to believe her fears. And

she certainly had a lot of fears, I'm sure in

her life. But she said, I'm not going to believe

my fears. I'm going to believe the truth. That God

has said. Let me ask you this morning, what are

you believing? Are you believing your fears, all those fears

that pop in your mind, all those worries, all those anxieties.

Are you believing your fears? Are you believing what God

says in his word? To believe your fears is dumb.

To believe your believe what God has said is wise.

That's what makes wise women and wise men. Now we

come to the third wise woman in the story of Christmas,

and her name is Anna, and Anna is in Luke

chapter two.

On your outline, it.

Says in verse twenty two of Luke two, after the

birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary took the baby to

the temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to God because

the law that God gave Moses, the Jewish law, said

every firstborn boy is to be dedicated back to God.

This specifically is Exodus thirteen to two. Now, here's the

first part of the story before we get to Anna.

Up here on the screen Luke chapter two, Verse twenty five. Now,

there was an old man living in Jerusalem named Simeon,

who was very righteous and.

God and loved God deeply.

God had promised Simeon that he would not die until

he had seen the promised savior of the world with

his own eyes.

It's quite a promise.

Now, on the day that Joseph and Mary arrived in Jerusalem,

God's spirit prompted Zachariah to go and wait in the temple. Course,

now this message is not about Zachariah, but I want

to make this point. When God's spirit prompts you to

do something, run because you're about to have the biggest

blessing of your life. If Zachariah had not listened to

that inner spirit that prompting go to the temple now,

he would have missed what he'd been promised to see

all of his entire life. No, I think I'm a

little tired. I'm not going to go to the temple.

I'm going to stay home and watch the ball game.

I'm going to mow the lawn. I've got some chores

to do. I need to clean up the kitchen. When

God prompts you to do something, do it instantly. Some

of you have missed amazing blessings in your life because

you didn't listen to the promptings of God. You got

this little inkling, this little impression that said, go do this,

and it was the Holy Spirit telling you to do that,

go do this, and you didn't, and you missed a

huge blessing in your life. When you get a prompting

of God's spirit, you need to do it immediately because

it means God's getting ready to do something really cool,

really great. So he goes to the temple, and in

the temple he finds Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus,

and in verse twenty eight it says this Simeon took

the baby in his arms and he thanked God loudly,

loudly saying, Lord, now I can die in peace as

you promised me. I've now seen the savior that you've

given to all people. He is the light that you

have sent to the world to reveal yourself to all people.

You want to know what God's like, look at Jesus.

God sent Jesus to be the light of the world

to let us see what God is really like. You

want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

So now you sent the light to the world to

reveal yourself to all people. Now Joseph and Mary just

stood there speechless. They were amazed. At what was being

said about the baby. When the word there says when Zachariah,

I mean Simeon thanked God for the baby. The word

there in Greek is the word you look gay. Oh,

you look gay? Oh is the word we get eulogy from.

A eulogy is what we usually say about people when

they die. But here a Simeon is giving a eulogy

about Jesus, but he's just been born on the front

end of his life. A eulogy literally means to speak

a bleating, to say something good, to say something good.

And he says, this little baby is going to be

the savior of the whole world. He's speaking something good,

and they're shocked. Now in verse thirty six, we come

to Anna and it says this that day there was

also a woman named Anna worshiping in the temple. Anna

was a prophetess, and she was very old. She'd been

a widow most of her life because her husband had

died after being married only seven years, so as a

young bride loses the love of her life. Anna was

now eighty four years old, so she's spent over seventy

five years alone alone, So we're seventy five years old,

and since she had no family, she never left the

temple courtyards. She stayed there day and night, worshiping God

with her prayers and her fasting. Interesting thing here, what

do you do with a blocked love when all of

a sudden who you want to love is not there?

You redirect it. When you have a block love, you readirect.

If you can't have a baby and you want and

you would love to love it, you can adopt. You

can help with foster children. You can redirect your love.

There are plenty of children in the world who need

your love. But Anna redirects her love. She says, I've

lost the love of my life, my husband. We've only

been married seven years. And she says, I'm going to

redirect my love toward God. And she says, I'm just

going to worship God and love God and love the

people who come into the temple, and that that's going

to be my life. That's going to be my ministry.

She stayed there night and day, worshiping God with prayers

and fasting. Now, Justice Simeon was dedicating the baby to God,

and I walked by. She paused to listen. Then Anna

joined in praying for the baby. And she thanked God

for sending a Now here's the key to her life.

From then on the moment she had seen Jesus, the

moment she met Jesus.

From then on, Anna.

Talked about Jesus to everyone. Anna talked about Jesus to

everyone who was looking for redemption and freedom in Jerusalem.

Write this down. Here's the third mark of wisdom. Anna

was blessed because she made a decision. And the decision

she made was she chose to focus on God's presence

and talk to everyone about Jesus.

Said, I've lost the love of my life. I'm alone.

I'm going to use my life to focus on God's presence.

I'm gonna worship him all the time, love him all

the time, pray all the time.

I'm gonna focus on and I'm going to tell everybody

about Jesus. That's wise. That's wise.

Are you wise? Are you focusing on God? Are you

telling other people about Jesus? The Bible says he who

wineth souls is wise? Why don't you be like Anna

and say, I'm going to focus on God's presence, not

my pain, not my grief, not my loss, and I'm

going to focus on telling people about Jesus. Now, all

three of these wise women had heartaches. Okay, Remember Elizabeth

is a married woman unable to have a child. Mary

is a single woman pregnant with the pregnancy she can't

explain to anybody else. And Anna is a widowed who

spent most of her life without any family and no relatives.

And so they have resentment, and they have fear, and

they have grief. But they all made choices. Will you

make these same three choices? Will you choose to trust

God's plan instead of being bitter? Will you choose to

trust to believe God's word instead.

Of your fears?

And will you choose to focus on God's presence not

your loss?

And tell everybody about Jesus.

Last night in the service, there was a man who

came who had never ever been in a Christian church.

Ever, he was a Hindu background.

And he came in and he watched the Christmas story

and he heard this message, and at the end of

the service he opened his life to Christ. And afterwards

he went outside and was baptized immediately.

Some of you need to do that. Now, let's bow

our heads first.

I want those of you who already know the Lord

to pray this prayer.

Everybody can pray it, actually, but.

Just say God, I'm going to true choose to be wise.

I want to be wise, and I want to choose

to trust your plan instead of getting bitter that things

don't always go my way and the things I've prayed

for don't always get a yes answer. I'm going to

trust your plan and your timing. Then when you say God,

I'm gonna choose to believe your word instead of my fears.

I'm not gonna believe my fears anymore. I'm going to

believe the truth. And then will you say God, I'm

going to choose to focus on your presence, that you're

close to me, You're near me. I'm not going to

focus on what I've lost. I'm not going to focus

on my grief. And I'm going to talk to everyone

about Jesus. I want to be known for the person

who talks about Jesus. I want to be a wise man.

I want to be a wise woman. If you've never

opened your life to Christ, say Jesus Christ, I open

my heart to you right now.

I invite you to come into my.

Life and fill it with your love and your peace

and your purpose. And I want to get to know you,

and I want to learn to love you and trust you.

And today I accept God's Christmas gift to me, the

gift of his son. I ask you to accept me

into your family. And I humbly ask this in your name,

amenas as