Mary: Conceiving a Miracle - Christmas

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

You've been born for war.

You're born for war.

And if you think you're born for peace, primarily, you're gonna be severely disappointed in this life.

You are born for war at this time in history.

Because you're blessed.

You're blessed in the heavenly places.

You're positioned up there with Christ, raised from the dead, just like he was.

He's the firstborn of the dead, and you're the second, third, fourth, and billionth born for the fact that when you gave your life to Christ, you were raised up in the heavenly places with Christ, and every spiritual blessing is available to those who want it.

At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Turn to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

The famous story.

The most famous story in the history of the world is a Christmas story.

And in this story, we pick up with Mary being visited by an angel.

Verse 26.

Luke 1, verse 26.

Luke 1:26

Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel, and I'm going to talk about angels next week.

I want to talk about angels and kingdoms next week.

Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.

Now, Nazareth is a very forgettable city.

It's not anywhere in the Old Testament.

It's not in the Talmud.

It's very forgettable.

It's kind of forgettable now.

I've been to Nazareth.

Some of you that have been to Israel have been to Nazareth.

Some of you have lived in Israel, and you've probably been to Nazareth.

Only about 57,000 people live there now, but it was a pretty insignificant village even back then, to the degree that in John chapter 1, the description of Jesus being from Nazareth was can anything good come out of Nazareth?

John 1 · chapter mention

So this is a very forgettable small town at that time.

It's not much bigger even now.

It's about 70 to 80 miles north of Jerusalem.

You guys, it was so small at that time that even Joseph could not have even bought his carpenter tools in Nazareth.

He would have had to go four miles north to Sephorus to buy his tools.

So it's a very, very small town.

And it's a part of the accordion, kind of like an I think of Israel as kind of like an accordion, in which you have, you know, you have your southern region, which is Judea.

That's really where the action is.

I mean, even today, that that's predominantly where the action is.

That's where Jerusalem is.

That's where Bethlehem is.

The city of David is in the southern part.

Then you have Samaria in the middle, and then you have Galilee.

And the Galilee of the north is where Nazareth is located.

So it's kind of in the sticks.

Y'all know that term?

That's kind of a southern term that we used to use sticks, you know?

Like I lived in South Carolina, and really outside of Charleston and Columbia, everything's the sticks.

But it was like that.

It was way out there.

So he comes to her.

She's in Nazareth.

Joseph's in Nazareth.

Verse 27.

To a virgin.

And that was the prophecy that we talked about last week that the Savior would come from a virgin, betrothed to a man, so they're engaged, whose name was, and the word used then probably would have been Joseph, of the house of David.

So Joseph's lineage is Davidic.

Okay, so we know his lineage from Matthew and from Luke.

Okay.

And so his grandparents were probably born and raised in that area called Bethlehem or Jerusalem, around where the house of David would have been.

The virgin's name was Miriam or Mary.

Here's our point here this morning: is that God always invades average people at average times to do a supra-average work.

So he comes in, there's this couple, and they're really average.

Listen, if you were, if you were above average in any area, you probably did not live in Nazareth.

You would have already moved to Bethlehem or you would have moved to Jerusalem.

Again, that's where commerce was.

So they're probably poor, peasant, Joseph, Yosef's probably around 25 years old.

And that was kind of the average, 22 to 25 before you got married, because the custom of that time was that a man would establish himself first before he got married.

I've said that to many of you here, you men, single guys that I've had times to talk to over the years.

And you talk to me, I mean, I'm really in love with her.

And I go, that's great.

I said, how are you going to provide?

You know?

Now, you sound just like my dad.

But I said, Well, if you if that's how your dad talks, wait till you meet her dad.

But Yosef would have would have established himself as a carpenter, okay?

And then Miriam is probably between 13 and 15.

And so she's really young.

And how many of you know that you even today some countries still do arranged marriages?

So you have arranged marriages.

We were in Japan for all those years.

They still do arranged marriages there a little bit.

But so you don't understand that some of the stereotypical view of arranged marriages is not as static as you think.

It's actually very, very relational.

And so it would have probably been the fact that everybody knew each other in Nazareth, and at some point Joseph let his desires be known, or Miriam let her desires be known, and the families could kind of see.

I see it here.

I see where the eyes go.

You'd be surprised how much I know about what's happening with some of you singles in this room.

I I know, you know, I see you looking around, and I'm going, I'll bet he's gonna come early.

Because she comes early all the time.

You know, and then I'll see him over there, you know.

And that's what that it was sort of like that then, is that there are these relational connections, because the last thing that any mom and dad wants is for their daughter or their son to be in a loveless marriage.

So, but they would arrange it.

That was probably set up, and now they're engaged.

And and that's how God works.

Church, that's how God doesn't usually come with big, huge things and events and that just shatter your normal life.

It's usually as you're just going through your life, God starts to move.

And that's what happens here.

God shows up, and this is not normal, that means an angel, right?

But he says, I've come in, and look at verse 28, and this is so important, 28 through 30.

Having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, and if you got a pen or if you're highlighting, put a circle highly favored one.

Highly favored one.

The Lord is with you.

Blessed, circle blessed are you among women.

And men and women, don't forget that.

Mary is blessed among all women.

How many of you come out of a Catholic background?

How many of you come out of a okay, many of you do.

In the Catholic Church, the esteem given to Mary is a beautiful thing.

Now, obviously, it can go a little too far if it goes into worshiping Mary, but we have, in the evangelical, more maybe Protestant church, have kind of swung the other way and not realize it's right here that she's blessed among all women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting is.

So nobody's more shocked than Mary.

And then the angel says it again, third time.

The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have now circle, found favor with God.

So what God is doing here is he's emphasizing to Mary, who's an average peasant girl, God is with you.

He loves you, he has a mission for your life, he's got an assignment for you.

You found favor.

It's nothing about you, it's about a work of God in you, and he's giving you the opportunity to carry forth the redeemer of the world, the king of kings, and the Lord of Lords will be birthed in you.

And the word blessed is eulogia.

We had Paul Stanleys, the beautiful man of God that many of you have known for years and years, and in some cases you've been discipled by him.

We had his memorial service.

There was a eulogy by some 15 people who got up here and they blessed what Paul had done in their life.

That's the same word.

The word here is that I'm going to bless you, Mary.

My favor is upon you, Mary.

You are a favored one, Mary.

But listen to this.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, the same word is used.

Ephesians 1:3

Eulogia is used in Ephesians 1, 3.

Written to us, written to the church.

Listen to what Paul says.

Blessed, that's the word, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has, and here's the word again, eulogia, blessed us, all of us that are Jesus followers, with every, with every spiritual blessing, another derivative of the same word, in the heavenly places in Christ.

This is why we're gonna study Ephesians in January and February.

We're gonna talk about, listen, everybody, you've been born for war.

You're born for war.

And if you think you're born for peace primarily, you're gonna be severely disappointed in this life.

You are born for war at this time in history because you're blessed.

You're blessed in the heavenly places, you're positioned up there with Christ, raised from the dead, just like he was.

He's the firstborn of the dead, and you're the second, third, fourth, and billionth born for the fact that when you gave your life to Christ, you were raised up into the heavenly places with Christ, and every spiritual blessing is available to those who want it.

You can't not have anything you want in the spiritual blessings of God if you ask for it.

God's not going to hold back, He's gonna bless you with it.

And he has called you his blessed saint.

Now, if you're not a Jesus follower here, you're more of a churchgoer, you're more religious than having a relationship with God, then this is true of you, but you'll never you'll never attain it.

You'll never get there.

You'll always be disappointed.

You'll always be like this close, this close, and then you just kind of fade back.

And then you come this close and this close, and then you just fade back.

And it's really a bummer.

It's kind of the worst life.

It's almost better to be a total pagan.

Because at least you can go out and party and have fun and you don't have to worry about your conscience.

I know because I was there.

I was one of the happiest pagans ever until I was 18.

I mean, seriously, I don't remember ever feeling bad about the stuff I did the night before when I'd wake up the next morning.

It's like, woo, that was cool.

I want to do it better next week.

Then I got saved.

And I came to know Christ, and then the reason I got saved was because I thought the adventure of Christ was better than the adventure I was living without Christ.

And I wanted the adventure with Him.

And I've never looked back since then.

So this adventure is a blessing because you've been blessed, eulogia, with all the spiritual blessings in Christ if you want it.

So Mary is a type.

She's a type to us of something that really happened to her in her real physical womb that can really happen to you in your spiritual womb if you'll let the Holy Spirit come upon you.

If you'll let the Holy Spirit come upon you, God's in the business of redeeming everything.

And I don't care what happened last night.

I don't care what you did last night or who you slept with last night.

The reality is this if you'll repent and turn to Him, He'll start to birth a new work in your spiritual womb.

Now, what does it take?

It takes about nine months, right?

About nine months to have a baby.

So it's not an overnight success, I can tell you that.

But I can tell you something, when you get born again, the spirit changes.

There's this new kind of conception that happens in your spiritual womb that just starts off, what does it say?

Like a mustard seed.

It's just a mustard seed.

And then the mustard seed grows and it grows.

And what does it say in Matthew?

It says it takes over the whole tree.

It takes over it.

That's the way the kingdom of God works.

So the spiritual blessing of Mary is a type of the spiritual blessing that God has for us.

Look at verse 31.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He'll be great.

He'll be called the Son of the Highest.

And the Lord God will give 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.

Now that's pretty exciting, folks.

When you look at what's happening in our country right now, to realize that this kingdom is not going to end.

We win, they lose.

Everybody say we win, they lose.

We win, Satan loses.

Now you may think that Satan's winning.

But we're not at the fourth quarter yet.

But we are getting really close to it.

And here's what I know.

I know that I would rather go into the locker room, kind of beat up a little bit, but still believing, than to be out on the field, quit believing, and letting the enemy just run right over me.

So you guys keep believing.

You guys hang in there.

And when you feel like you're struggling and you've got some friends in your life that are believers, give them a call.

Say, I need a pep talk.

I need some help.

And they'll strengthen you.

Because we're going to see, even in this story, Mary needs strength.

And the angel understands that, and God's going to send her strength for her life.

But God's conceiving something in each one of you that is supernatural.

Look at verse 34.

Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be?

So again, I think Mary's like as surprised as anyone.

Since I do not know a man.

So she's looking at it naturally.

How many of you look at your situation naturally and it can seem hopeless?

Well, Mary did too.

You're on good ground.

I think Moses did.

I think Abraham did.

We know those stories.

I think as Moses came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh bearing down, and everybody's complaining, like, let's go back to Egypt, he probably had some second thoughts.

But God came, and so Mary has second thoughts also, and we all do in our journey.

And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore, also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now here's the encouragement she needed.

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.

Then Mary said, Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

Folks, God looks for people who will choose to trust him.

Now I don't know this is what I'm about to say, if it's true or not.

I'm just gonna say it's conjecture.

But I sometimes had thought maybe Mary was the fifth or sixth virgin gal that he came to.

And he made the same proposal to them, and they chose not to follow him and not to believe.

God's always in the business of giving us the opportunity to say yes or no, it's our choice.

And don't let the sovereignty of God get in the way of the choices that you can make.

And so the reality is this is that God comes to you and he wants to redeem something in you.

He's got redeemer work for you.

He's a redemption guy, and he's looking for people who will use the Redeemer to also redeem others.

And so I look at Esteban and I look at Lisa Medina, the video we watched, and and just where they've been, and the kind of choices that put Esteban in a place where he should have died several times.

But then with Lisa's help and the power of the Holy Spirit, he was resurrected.

Esteban was resurrected, and then he's given his life, second chance by faith, ministries, to others because of the gratitude that he has in his heart.

You see, something was birthed in Esteban's womb and Lisa's womb when he was in that hospital.

He wants to do that in your life.

There was something of that work in Ryan and Mandy's life, working with our youth.

The stuff that Al's done with the food pantry, the stuff that many of you've done throughout this church with something that's been birthing you.

God's gonna birth something in your spiritual womb in 2021 that's going to surprise you, but you have to say yes.

Yes, Lord.

Here I am.

I am I'm your servant.

Let it be done according to your word.

So, how do we hear God's voice?

I want to give you three thoughts to close here.

Three thoughts on hearing God's voice.

Because we can get all kinds of funny little clumsy little silly things that come with hearing from God.

The first one is this you gotta hear the right voice.

There's demons out there, folks, and you can hear from demons.

Demons speak to Christians.

Okay, and and I've had Christians in my church come to me and say, I'm divorcing my wife because of da-da-da-da.

Or I'm I'm gonna have that affair because of da-da-da-da.

I'm like, you're listening to the wrong voice, my friend.

That's demonic, and it's gonna lead to your ruin.

And in some cases it has, and in most cases they've said, okay, what are you talking about?

And then we're able to disciple that dumb idea out of their minds.

But you've got you in the fourth dimension, you how many of you know you live in a three-dimensional world, okay?

But there's a fourth dimension.

And in the fourth dimension is where angels and demons are, it's where God is.

Okay?

Well, angels can speak, God can speak, and demons can speak.

We want to hear from God.

That's why it's so important, church, that you are connected to a local church.

Because if you're not connected to a local church, you're on your own.

And man, that's dangerous ground out there.

You need other believers with you that you can bounce ideas off with.

So, so when we hear God's voice, it's always confirmed with Scripture by people who love Jesus and by the church.

And so hear the right voice.

Secondly, seek God.

Seek God.

God usually speaks to seekers.

God usually speaks to seekers.

If you're not seeking God on a regular basis in his word, in prayer, you're not gonna hear from God.

You're just not.

So we we have it, you know, we have this uh recording that we hear again and again.

Well, I God never speaks to me.

And then my question is, are you seeking God?

What do you mean?

Oh, are you in the word?

Well, no, not really.

Okay, well then forget it.

You're no different than everybody else.

You gotta seek it.

So the scriptures say, seek me while I may be found.

If you seek me, I will be found by you.

And we can go on and on with hundreds of verses like that.

So he puts the onus on you.

Does that make sense?

Everybody go like this if you understand what I'm saying.

Good church.

So the the reality is this is that what happens in our lives is we get busy.

Right?

We all get busy.

And then we kind of move along and things don't go our way, or things do go our way.

Usually it's when things don't go our way.

And then we start to complain and we start to think that somehow God is like some lamp that we kind of rub and a genie's going to come out.

And the way it works, gang, is that God's given us this ability, because we're created in the image of God to actually communicate and have a personal relationship with Him through His Word, through prayer, through seeking Him, through worship, through being in the body here on Sunday morning.

All of that's part of it.

And if you get in that orbit, you're gonna hear from God.

You're gonna hear from God.

And it's exciting.

Third point, this is really important.

It's an adventure.

You're seeking an adventure, there's nothing to fear.

So I was a missionary.

My wife and I were missionaries.

I met Liz smuggling Bibles in China because I know what some of your things.

Like, man, if I really get into this Jesus thing, he's gonna make me wear a pith helmet and I'm gonna have to go to Africa or something.

And have mosquito netting over my head all the time.

That is that, let me tell you this.

I love being a missionary.

It was so exciting.

And whatever God calls you to, he works with your desires.

He gets you excited about that.

God does not need a bunch of ungrateful, boring, sad missionaries.

He needs people that are fired up, excited, and joyful.

And so most of the time, 99% of the time, God's called you to be a great mom, to be a great husband, to be a great single person who loves Jesus in your college and in your school and in your job.

Some of you are called to be accountants, some of you're called to be nurses, some of you're called to be doctors, whatever it is.

God wants you to love it because He's wired you that way.

So when you seek God, it's an adventure.

And I dare say, if we were to talk to Mary, you know, if we had the opportunity when we get to heaven to ask her, she'd say it was an adventure.

It was sorrowful at the cross, it was joyful on the third day.

And so there's gonna always be sorrow in our lives, you guys.

But listen, let God this year, this Christmas, 2021, conceive within you a new and fresh, miraculous work.

How many of you need God to show up in a miraculous way in some area of your life?

Yeah, that's most of you in this room.

So let's all just raise our hands to the Lord.

So, Father God, we raise our hands to you because we need a merry miracle in our spiritual womb.

Lord, we need you to birth fresh power, fresh forgiveness, fresh compassion, and fresh mercy.

That God, we could be your Redeemers through your Redeemer Son this year, next year in a mighty way.

And so we set ourselves up, Lord, to hear from you.

God, speak to us.

We're gonna seek you, we're gonna go after you, and we're gonna let you begin to set us free as we open your word and as we listen and as we pray.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.

Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.