The Greatest Gift - The Announcement - December 8, 2024

So they picked me that preached it.

Now they did it. They they didn't pick me to

preach, but I do get the honour of welcoming our guest speaker.

According to his daughter, we are practically twins.

We look alike. And I'm pretty excited about

that because he's pretty handsome.

Dude. This guy, he was able to that

the associate or the California Southern Baptist Association

asked this guy to preach at the California Convention Pastors

Conference this past year. We are so lucky that we're able

to partner with him and his church plant.

Pastor Derek is one of my favorite people of all.

Pastor Derek. Come on up man.

Guys, this is my twin. We we look just alike.

Love you man. Love you too.

Thank you brother. Well, happy Lord's Day.

What you didn't tell you is at the California Southern Baptist

Convention where I had the opportunity and the privilege to

preach. They gave me 7 minutes and I did

it because they started playing some music so and they had me

preach on the Trinity for 7 minutes.

That's crazy. Come on now.

It's always an honor and a privilege to be before you to

present God's Word. So if you have your copy of

God's Word, go ahead and meet me.

In Luke chapter 1, we'll consider verses 26 through 38.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Mark earlier mentioned that you all have been able to

partner along with the church planner and provide financial

aid and assistance. And I'm that church planner that

he mentioned. So thank you all for partnering

with us. And we're getting going in

Northwest Pasadena. That's where we're looking to

plan a church and see what the Lord has in store when He's

going to do. So thank you all for your

faithful giving. Luke chapter 1, verses 26

Luke 1:26–38

through 38. If you're there, say I got it.

Need some more time? Say hello, I got you, I got you,

I got you. Week 2 of the Advent series that

you're in. Again, we'll start off by

reading the Word in its entirety and then we'll dive in.

Most important part of the sermon will take place at this

time, the reading of God's Word. So please be attentive.

Verse 26. In the sixth month, the Angel

Gabriel, he went 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 greeting.

So favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern

what sort of greetings 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 a great, 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 over shadow you.

Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of

God. And behold, your relative

Elizabeth and her old age has also conceived a son, and this

is the 6th month with her who is called barren for it.

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,

The grass Withers, the flowers fade with the word of our God

endures forever. Amen.

Amen. Let's pray, ask the Lord for

some help and dive in. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for another Lord's Day where we can gather as your people to

worship you and one Spirit. We praise you for the gift of

your Son, the Lord Jesus. We praise you for the fact that

although we were born separated, dead, and sin wanting nothing to

do with you, the true God of the Bible, you redeemed us.

Instead of sending wrath upon earth, you sent your Son on

earth through a virginal conception.

We praise you for this miraculous truth that has

transformed us. We praise You for this gospel

that makes us new. And we pray that we can hear the

gospel anew this morning and be refreshed by it.

The same old story. And if there's anyone here who

does not know you, is not in relationship with you through

your Son, we pray that you would do what you do best, which is

draw people unto yourself, make much of your son the Lord Jesus,

and regenerate and convert where it is needed.

We pray all these things by the power of the Spirit unto God the

Father in Jesus mighty name, Amen.

In the summer of 2016 my wife sat me down and she said she

wanted to show me a spoof video of a film called Captain America

Civil War. Now if you know me, you know I

love Marvel or I loved they kind of they didn't fall fell off

now. But I love Marvel movies, love

superhero movies, love movies in general.

So I thought she just wanted to offer some entertainment to me

and have me watch this spoof video.

She's right next to me on the couch as we watch it.

This is when we were still living in Houston.

Little did I know, at the end of the video, she had her own

prerecorded video, and at the end, it was her.

Surprisingly, with our first pregnancy, I figured I'd get

that response. Yeah, and that was our first

born Nariah. It was something that we had

been praying for and hoping for. And she thought that it would be

appropriate to provide a memorable experience for this

news. And that's what we get in the

text this morning. Now, as much as I love me some

Nariah and I do love me some Nariah, right?

I got 2 twins. I got Pastor Mark and Nariah,

that's my other twin. This announcement vastly

eclipses the announcement that I received on the summer of 2020

2016. Again, Crystal and I had been

hoping and praying for about a month or so, and the Lord

provided. However, this pregnancy was

promised back in Genesis 3 when the Lord God uttered to a fallen

people that the seed of the woman will crush the seed of the

serpent. Now just place yourself in the

shoes or sandals of the Israelites, right?

For hundreds and hundreds of years they faced opposition,

persecution by these Gentile Pagan nations, whether it be

Babylon or the Persians and the Medes or the Greeks and the

Romans. They are being stepped upon and

they're waiting for their Savior to finally rescue them.

And Mary gets the announcement. The time is now, so we have a

memorable announcement about the coming of our King, the

incarnation, God the Son becoming a human being.

So this morning, as again, as we continue the Advent series,

we'll consider the virgin birth, or more precisely the virgin

conception and it's important importance in Christianity.

So we'll look at some basics this morning.

Again, I'll just be reminding you of the age-old gospel.

Last week, Pastor Daniel preached the first 25 verses of

Luke chapter 1, and it was the story of the Angel Gabriel

Luke 1 · chapter mention

visiting Elizabeth and or it's not Elizabeth Zachariah, excuse

me, Zechariah, and giving him this news that your wife who has

advanced in years will give birth.

Well, if you noticed in our text this morning, there are some

similarities or some parallels with the story that you read

last week. For instance, we have Gabriel,

the Angel. He appears, then you have a

seemingly impossible pregnancy announced, and then there's a

promise about a child's future. And then we have a response to

the Angel. But what I want you to notice is

that there's an escalation of elements in our passage.

This morning there was news of a seemingly impossible pregnancy

given to Zachariah. However, his wife was advanced

in years. Mary is literally a virgin who

has not had any sexual relations.

So this is miraculous. On another level, there's a

promise about the child's future with John the forerunner, which

is very important. He's fulfilling prophecy.

But with Jesus, he's the king, in which his Kingdom will have

no end. You've noticed the response last

week, as was a response of doubt or cynicism.

This week, Mary responds with faith.

So it's It's almost as if the narrative itself is accentuating

the depth and the matchlessness of what's taking place with this

birth, the birth of the Messiah. Now let's examine the virginal

conception. It seems as if Luke wants us to

zoom our lens in on this very issue.

Consider verse 27 right to a virgin betrothed to a man whose

name was Joseph to the House of David, and the virgin's name was

Mary. That repetition is is on

purpose. And then verse 34 and and Mary

said to the Mary said to the Angel, how will this be since I

am a virgin? So I'm going to start off with

this question for you to ponder in your mind quickly.

Is the doctrine of the virginal conception a tier one essential

issue? If you know me, you know, I like

this idea of a theological triage, right where you go into

the hospital, go into the ER. They have to determine what's

more important than who they're going to treat first.

If you treat someone who has a headache like someone who has a

gunshot wound, that's medical malpractice.

Someone's going to die. Well, we as Christians have a

theological triage. We have first tier issues, which

if you remove these first tier doctrines, then the gospel

crumbles. We have second tier issues, not

as important, but still nevertheless important.

And it may even cause us to fellowship in different

churches, like the mode of baptism.

And then you have tertiary issues.

Where would you place the virginal conception and the

virgin of birth? Is it a Tier 1 issue?

If we remove it, does the gospel crumble?

Or is it just a Tier 2 issue? Is it something that we can

agree to disagree on and yet still fellowship with one

another? Well, Rob Bell, if you're

familiar with that name, suggests that it would be no big

deal if we found out that Jesus had an earthly father named

Larry. His words, His words, not mine.

According to Bail, this wouldn't be catastrophic to the Christian

faith. A person could still love God

and be a genuine, authentic Christian without believing in

the virginal conception. Based on how I framed it, you

probably wouldn't be surprised to say I disagree emphatically.

The virgin conception is absolutely a tier one gospel

issue. And that's what I'll be here to

argue. And for centuries this is been

widely understood as an essential doctrine within many

churches. Jay Greshamation concluded that

there could be no doubt that at the close of the 2nd century,

the virgin birth of Christ was regarded an absolutely essential

part of the Christian belief by the Christian Church and all

parts of the known world. Now, that's not scripture, so

it's not authoritative, as the church can get things wrong, and

the church has gotten things wrong even for a long time.

However, if Christians of every ilk in every place have

professed this doctrine, we should be hesitant to view it as

inconsequential. It wasn't until roughly a

century ago that influential theologians began to doubt

whether or not this was actually true.

They claimed that it was the stuff of fairy tales and

superstition, and that intelligent modern folk would

never accept a story about a virginal conception or a virgin

birth. So their thinking was, if

Christianity is to flourish in the scientific era, we must

scrap these ideas of myth. And that's how we get the birth

of theological liberalism, and that is theological liberalism.

And that's what it always does. That's how it works, and that's

how the devil works. It looks out at the culture, it

surveys the landscape, and it says, how can we modify or alter

the message of the gospel or the message of Christianity so that

it could be more palatable to the masses?

And that's why today there are so many quote UN quote,

Christians who are denying A biblical sexual ethic.

This is the birth of theological liberalism.

This is where it came from. And you know, interestingly

enough, they would argue that they had good reasoning or

motive behind it. We want this was in Germany.

We want Germans to become Christians.

We don't want them to reject the gospel.

Let's so let's modify it so that they would accept it.

The problem is they're accepting a gospel that cannot save and

you're giving them a God that doesn't look like the God of the

Bible, the God that they want created in their image.

So I'm arguing this morning for the that the virgin conception,

that the virgin birth is essential.

And I'm going to argue with three points and then give two

applications. That's how I messaged this

morning. So three points, why the

virginal conception is important and essential in Christianity,

why we should celebrate it, and then two applications.

And that's it #1 the virgin birth fulfills Old Testament

prophecy. We'll start here.

The virgin birth fulfills Old Testament prophecy.

You all probably knew I was going here.

Isaiah 714 Yahweh speaking to Ahaz says this.

Therefore Yahweh himself will give you a sign speaking through

the prophet Isaiah. Behold, the virgin shall

conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,

which means God with us. Now you have some who object to

this as biblical proof of the prophesied virgin birth because

there are two different Hebrew words for virgin, and they would

argue that the technical word for virgin is not being employed

here, rather another word that can simply mean a young woman of

marital age. While it's true there are two

different Hebrew words being used, and the word that's

employed here has a wider semantic range, there are no

explicit references in the Old Testament where this term

doesn't mean virgin as you and I understand it, but more

importantly in the Septuagint, which is just the Greek version

of the Old Testament. So in this, the Greek word that

we find here in Luke chapter 1 is the word that's employed in

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Isaiah 714 and the Greek version which tells us it indicates that

the Israelites understood this prophecy to be a actual virgin,

not just a young woman of marital age, but a virgin who

has not had relations as you and I would understand this.

And if we just use logic, by the way, if you look at verse 34,

based on her question, Mary said to the Angel, how will this be

since I am a virgin? The question itself assumes that

this is something miraculous that God is doing.

So the first reason this is essential is because it is

prophesied and God is not a liar #1 #2 it's three.

Like I said, three points. I'll be honest with you all the

points won't be that short. Just in case you were.

I don't want to get your hopes up, you know.

Second point, I saw somebody said, darn.

Second point, the virgin birth assures A spotless savior.

The virgin birth assures A spotless savior.

Now, this is closely associated with the Third Point we'll

consider this morning, but I think it's distinct enough for

it to be separate. So we need a savior King who's

untouched by the curse of depravity that was brought about

by Adam, sinned, and that's passed down to all of his

descendants. In case you're unfamiliar with

what happened in the garden when human beings first sinned, Paul

summarized it like this in Romans 512.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and

death through sin, and notice what he says here.

And so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Now Adam was our federal head, meaning he represented us.

When Adam made the decision, he represented all of us, and we

are now feeling the aftershock or the effects of his decision.

But I also think Paul is teaching something else in this

text that everyone who was born through natural means since Adam

and Eve in some way, shape or form mysteriously existed in

Adam. So when Adam sinned, it's not as

if we can make the argument now. If that was me, I would have

done the right thing. Because we all, I think what

Paul is getting at when he says so death spread to all men

because all sinned. I don't think he's saying all

men sin, but rather all sinned when Adam sinned.

So in some mysterious way, we made the choice, along with

Adam, to rebel against our God. One of my favorite preachers,

John Piper, says it like this. The problem with the human race

is not that everybody does various kinds of sins.

Behind all of our depravity, behind all of our guilt, behind

all of our personal sinning, there is this mysterious

connection or union with Adam, our Father, who sinned, and we

being in him in some mysterious way, also sinned and died and

are condemned. So then every human father has

produced a son or a daughter with a sinful nature.

In other words, sinners begets sinners.

So if Joseph was the real father of the Lord Jesus, or if, as Rob

Bell would suggest, Mary was sleeping around and they came up

with this with this story to hot to cover that up.

And there was her. His father was someone named

Larry. If that was the case, Jesus

would have inherited the same sinful nature that you and I

have. And that is not inconsequential

because a Sinner can't stand in the place of other sinners.

Imagine the hubris like, like you're in a courtroom where

murderer is on trial and someone's valiantly steps in and

says, I'll stand in their place. But it's like Jeffrey Dahmer,

like another murderer. And it's like, no, you have to

pay for your crimes. How are you going to step in

someone else's place when the same way we need a

substitutionary sacrifice that is sinless, who has no sins to

pay for, and it's the virginal conception that makes that

possible. To make this point even more

clear, without a sinless Savior, there be no righteousness to be

imputed on your account. I want you to just think about

this. Contemplate for a moment you

need more than just forgiveness to get into heaven to be made

right with God. I don't know if you ever

consider that. I want to give you a quick

example I thought of. Imagine you're at the airport

and you're at your gate. You're trying to get into your

to your to make your flight. And the person who beeps you in,

I don't know what they're called, but you know the person

who beeps in your boarding pass. Let's say you get into it with

them, get into a huge argument and they say, well, I'm not

going to let you on this plane because of how you're acting.

And then, you know, you cool off, although you ruffle the

feathers, there's some reconciliation.

You apologize and they genuinely accept your apology, said, OK,

I'll let you in. I believe you're the contrition

that you're offering up. I believe that it's authentic.

Boom. But then you say, I don't have a

boarding pass. I lost my boarding pass.

They say, well, I do genuinely forgive you, but without a

boarding pass, you cannot get on this plane and I cannot make an

exception. Our boarding pass into heaven or

to be made right with God is perfection, righteousness.

We need a righteous, A righteous robe of life to cover us to be

in the presence of God. So the question is, how do we

obtain not just forgiveness? So we want to ask that question.

We don't want to just ask how can I be forgiven by God,

although that is an important question.

We also want to ask, how can I possess the righteousness,

righteousness required to for me to be made right with the holy

God. I'll give you the answer.

It's for you to live sinlessly. That's how.

It's one way. Never break the law, any of

them, not even once. Word, thought or deed.

You do that, you got a righteousness and you can stand

before God. I got a problem.

None of you can do that. None of you have done that.

None of you will do that. You need someone else to do it

on your behalf. It's not just the death of

Christ that's offered up to us. That's why Jesus didn't, you

know, Notice He didn't come as a baby and then just die as a

baby. Why he had to live a life of

righteousness. That's why the author of Hebrews

says he learned obedience to a life of submission to the

Father. So now at the end of his life,

30 plus years, 33 ish, he has a righteousness to offer all those

who respond to the gospel message with repentance and

faith. So the answer is a sinless

Savior offering himself as a substitute for punishment, and

subsequently he offers up his robe of righteousness to his

people. Hopefully you're getting that

the virgin birth is essential to Christianity.

But to that point, who can be perfectly righteous and sinless

except for God alone? Which gets us to our Third

Point. The virgin birth demonstrates

that Jesus was truly human and truly divine.

The virgin birth demonstrates that Jesus was truly human and

truly divine. In theology, this is called the

hypostatic union. The fact that Jesus is 100% God,

100% man, Fully God, fully man. Not 5050.

He was God and he took on the nature of humanity.

Now I already dressed why our Savior had to be spotless, but I

want to ask another genuine question.

Now, I believe I've posed this question here before and I like

posing it because I think it brings up our understanding of

the gospel or like thereof. If someone were to ask you

rhetorical, don't answer out loud.

But if someone were to ask you if the devil could be redeemed,

if he was genuinely sorry, if he truly repented, I wonder what

your answer would be. Because if it's yes, that shows

either you just haven't thought through it enough or you don't

truly understand the gospel. Because as we just talked about,

you're not right with God simply because you OfferUp an apology

that he accepts. That's not the gospel.

The gospel is that God has become one of us outside of sin

and has become our sacrifice on our behalf.

So for the devil or the demons to be redeemed, God would have

to become an Angel and die as an Angel to redeem angels.

But the gospel says this to angels.

Your fate was sealed when you sinned.

You're done. All the you know, the the Satan

and his demons, one sin, they cannot be made right with him

ever again. Just think about that anytime

you think that your sin is not that serious.

Righteous angels, Paul calls the elect angels.

They're right with God, not because of grace, but because

they're sinless. They did what remember I said

like the way you can have a righteousness and be in his

presence is if you fulfill the law, you never sin.

Well, these angels, they have this, and This is why I think

the authors of the New Testament talk about the angels looking

into the church because we're experiencing something they

never will, which is grace. Experientially, they have no

idea what that's like. So the angels are just peeping

like that. I'm like.

What is this? Hear about it, hear the prophets

preaching. Peeping just means, you know,

they're checking it out and they're reading the scriptures

like this. This idea of grace, it just

seems so rich. I'll never experience it ever.

But God has created the people in his image whom he desires to

be in a relationship with, whom he loves, so that when they sin

and sin and sin and sin over and over again, there's grace that's

offered. This is impossible without the

virgin birth and our God becoming a man.

So he's fully God, the Lord Jesus.

There's never been a time where he didn't exist.

Another Tier 1 issue. So although he was born of a

human, if he had been born like any other human through the

union of a man and woman, we would question his full

divinity. So in theology, this is called

again the incarnation, God taking on human flesh.

And we'll take a little bit of time to consider that at the

end, but let's just reread verse 35 to see how our Lord's birth

was different. And the Angel answered her.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most

High will over shadow you. Therefore, the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God. 1st.

I just want you to see that. I think it's neat that we see

the full Godhead in verse 35, the Triune God.

We see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in verse 35 in that

text. And if you read the Bible,

you'll find that there are various monumental moments in

the Scriptures where the Triune God shows up, right?

Creation. We have the Father, we have the

Spirit hovering over the waters of the deep, and then we have

the Son, the Word, the Lagos baptism where it's like the

recreation that Jesus is bringing.

We have the Father offering up an affirming word to the Son,

and we have the Holy Spirit coming down Great Commission.

There are so many texts that we can look at where the full

Triune God is on display. Ephesians 1, verses 3 through

Ephesians 1:3–14

14. We see the Father electing, we

see the Son redeeming. We see the Spirit stealing us.

So in this text, that's just a side note, we see the Triune God

working out our salvation. 2nd it's important to note that

Gabriel is not saying that God will impregnate Mary as some,

you know, Muslims would slanderously say about

believers. You know that's a blasphemous

thought. That's not what he's saying to

come upon. Brings to mind what we find in

Genesis 1/2 as I just mentioned with a spirit hovered over the

face of the deep in creation. So it's what Jesus is quoted

saying in Hebrews 10/5 when he says sacrifice, sacrifices and

offerings you have not desired, but a body you've prepared for

me. So by the power of the Holy

Spirit and the will of God the Father, a body for God the Son

was prepared in which Mary would bring forth.

And because Jesus is God, he can supply the salvation to his

people that no man can. So hopefully with all this you

grasp the beauty and the importance of the virgin birth.

Perhaps you know someone who categorizes Christianity as a

myth, as a fable, as a fairy tale due to the supernatural

elements that we find, particularly the virgin birth.

And perhaps you're here and you would be one who categorizes

Christianity as a fairy tale. I still remember an undergrad,

my sociology class, one of my professors, my sociology

professor, she asked the class in a very mocking tone, like,

and this guy came out of nowhere.

We weren't even talking about this, but she said, is it

possible for a woman to give birth without having, you know,

a sexual intercourse? Does that even make sense?

You know? And in the class erupted with

laughter and she was mocking Christianity.

But what I think she missed was verse 37.

If she had read verse 37, perhaps she would understand

that this is not as far fetched as you may think.

What does verse 37 says? For nothing will be impossible

with God. I like what the BD said.

He's a pastor in DC. He said the moment you admit the

existence of God, you must deny the impossible.

That's good, right? He said the moment you admit the

existence of God, you must deny the impossible.

I'm like man, you have a problem with the virgin birth.

I mean just read Genesis 1, God spoke all things into existence

so surely he can cause miraculous events such as a

virginal conception. Moving to the application here

again said there'd be two applications.

One is do you believe this? Do you believe that with God

nothing is impossible? Do you believe it within your

local church? Look at, you know, 3 contexts or

instances, your local church, your own family, and just your

individual life. Pastor Mark earlier talked about

all that the Lord has been doing within this church the past

year, this past year or the past couple of years.

Many of you wouldn't have guessed that the Lord would have

done that or could have done that.

My question is, now that you've seen it or even prior to seeing

it, do you believe that he can continue to do miraculous things

within your local church? And if so, if you carry this

disposition, how does this impact the way or how does this

impact your approach to the local church, your local church?

How does it impact the way you financially give expecting God

to move in ways that you would never imagine?

How does it affect affect the way that you pray for the Lord's

work within your local church? How does it impact the way you

serve your local church? And that's not to say there will

always be the same harvest. I think that's an unrealistic

expectation, right? But we should be faithful in and

out of season. There will be some days where

3000 are saved in one day, but that didn't look like that every

every chapter in the book Acts. So that's that's not what I'm

saying. But the question is, do you

believe that it's possible that God has the power to do so even

if he chooses not to? But do you approach church life

in that way is my question. So it's a question of faith.

Do you believe that it's possible for the gospel to go

forth from this church to transform communities and

regenerate hearts all around you?

And what would it look like if you actually believe that?

How would that change the way that you serve or you approach

your local church? Do you believe that nothing is

impossible with God, with your family, with your spouse, with

your kids, with your parents, with your siblings?

Perhaps you're here, parents, and you're praying for the

salvation of your kids or praying for some type of freedom

from addiction and things are looking bleak.

Have you stopped to consider that you're praying to a God who

made a virgin birth possible? What's a broken marriage to Him?

What's an addiction to Him? What's a financial hardship to

Him when we have a God who makes the impossible possible?

God is able to work all these situations that seem on the

surface impossible for his glory and for your good because he's a

miracle working God to do you believe it when you pray again,

this isn't a believe it enough and it'll happen.

Consider the Lord Jesus in the garden.

He says, Lord, you could cause this cup to pass from me.

It's not as if he doubted the Father's ability, but

nevertheless, nevertheless, he prayed humbly saying, if you

choose for me to receive it, which he did, you will be done.

So we pray both humbly, knowing God is the one in in control,

right? And we can't demand his hand to

move the way we want it, but we also pray with great faith and

expectation. That is the the line that we

thread and even again, teenagers here, perhaps you're praying for

lost parents. Continue to pray.

When I was a when I was 16, I believe 16 or 17, I was a member

of a local church and the pastor said, think of 1 unbeliever in

your life who's even hostile to the things of God and begin to

pray for that person one time every single day.

I thought of a guy who I knew I was just in class with him and

he mocked Christianity, mocked Jesus, he mocked God began to

pray for him every and I'm sure I missed days.

So I'm not going to make it seem like I pray for him every day,

but I did pray for him consistently.

And four years later when we turned 20, God saved him, right?

Because there's a belief knowing that God can break down a hard

heart. That's something only He can do.

Do you believe that, brethren and cistern?

James 16 says this? But let him ask in faith with no

doubting. For the one who doubts is like a

wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

So again, this is not us praying thinking we can control the hand

of God, but us praying knowing that He has the power to answer

our prayers and the affirmative. And on the individual level,

perhaps you're dealing with a certain sin struggle that you

feel you'll never be free from. Maybe it's an addiction that

you've dealt with since it was introduced to you as a kid.

With you it's impossible to gain freedom, but with God, nothing

is impossible. Verse 37.

So that's number one. Second application this morning.

Consider the vessel chosen for this great task of birthing the

Messiah. Little old Mary from Nazareth.

Have you ever felt like your life was too small or too

insignificant for God to even notice you or to see you or care

for you? Perhaps Mary thought that way.

It wouldn't make sense for her to think that way as she's

living in Nazareth. Notice in verse 26 the scene

switches 6 month and the 6th month.

The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named.

Nazareth. Nazareth was a non place.

It wasn't mentioned in the Old Testament and Josephus's

writings or any rabbinical writings.

No one was taking vacations to Nazareth.

People were trying to get out of Nazareth.

People were passing through Nazareth.

As one author said, it was a shoddy, corrupt halfway stop

between 2 port cities and Gentiles and Roman soldiers

overran it. And This is why in John 1,

Nathaniel says, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

That's where the Messiah comes from.

I'm good. And yet it was Nazareth that the

Angel Gabriel visited the poor teenager.

From all indicators, life was not extraordinary, and yet you

see how the Lord uses her. Perhaps you're here and you're

dreaming of leaving Bakersfield, moving to New York and Miami, or

if you try to come to the North Pasadena, that's actually good.

That's from God. Sorry.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having those ambitions to to

leave and to move, as long as the motives are godly.

But I want you to the Lord has not forgotten about Bakersfield

as many people have. He doesn't view this city with

the same disdain that others others do.

And I would just encourage you to love the city that you're in.

God has called you here for a season or, you know, permanently

to serve. I remember living here and man,

Bakersfield would catch a lot of slugs, meaning people would talk

bad about Bakersfield, like all the time.

I'm like, Dad, I mean, I get it from, you know, people in the

world, but for Christians, this is your Nazareth.

This is where people are driving through and have forgotten

about. Do you view your Nazareth at

Bakersfield the way that God views it, or do you view it the

way the world around you views it?

Again, the norm is for the Lord to use ordinary folks outside of

the glitz and glam for Him to receive His glory from.

First Corinthians 2631 says this.

For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many of you were powerful. Not many were of noble birth,

but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is loved and despised in the world, even

things that are not to bring nothing, things that are things

that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of

God. And because of him you're in

Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness

and sanctification and redemption, so that it is

written, Let those who boast, boast in the Lord.

So God, he's into using the unlikely for his glory.

Love the city you're in, serve the city you're in for his

glory. Just want to close with just

thinking about the incarnation because that's Advent.

That's what Advent is about. That's what the Christmas is

about. It's all about us considering

God becoming a man. So I want to read a quote, and

I'm going to end with this, but let me say this.

Now consider Mary, who although this news that she receives may

cause her to be shamed by her family, divorced by Joseph, who

doesn't believe, who may not have believed her and just

become desolate, she accepts with faith, counting the cost of

what she may lose. And that's what it means to

positively respond to the gospel.

So if you're here this morning, you don't know the Lord.

Respond to the gospel by turning from your sin and placing faith

in the finished work of Jesus. This is the God that Christians

worship. I'm going to read this and close

with that closing prayer and imagine the great and glorious

Kingdom that is ruled by a strong and wealthy king.

This is from a book called The Man Christ Jesus.

The King has every privilege one can imagine and the finest of

everything money can buy. But one day while walking the

streets of his Kingdom, he takes notice of beggars and begins to

wonder what it would be like to live as a beggar.

So he decides to move out of his world palace and live on the

streets. He exchanges his fine clothes

for tattered and smelly garments, and every way he

could, he acquired the day-to-day life and limitations

of a beggar. Now having taken on the

restrictions of beggarly life when the king was hungry,

although he could have called for the royal chefs to bring him

a choice meal in order to live life as a beggar, he instead

learned what it's like to be hungry and to beg for food.

When he grew ill from disease, he could have consulted his

highly trained doctors, but he accepted the full life of a

beggar as he allowed himself to be sick with little if any help

for his illnesses. When mistreated by mean spirited

passerby's, instead of calling his rogue guard to defend him

and bring justice to bear against cruelty in order to live

as a beggar, he accepted with no retaliation the mistreatment and

insults foisted upon him. So while all the qualities of

his kingship were retained fully by this king become beggar, the

expression or manifestation of many of the rights and

privileges he had as king could not be made since he had chosen

to live life as a beggar. So we accepted the restriction

and limitation of the expression of his rights and prerogatives

as king. Although he is a king and hence

he continues to possess everything, as he's king now

he's also beggar. So he must accept the fact that

many of his kingly rights and prerogatives can no longer be

utilized or expressed. In other words, he's fully king

and fully beggar. That's what our God has done.

God, the One who created it all, limit willingly limited himself

to human flesh so that He can take our place on the cross.

Let's respond as believers in all, and if you don't know him,

through faith and repentance. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your gospel. We pray you change our hearts.

Do what only you can do.