CHRONICLES OF A KING: Living By Faith (Mother`s Day) - Maegan Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Hey everyone, happy Mother's Day.

We are so excited to honor our mothers who are varying many seasons of life.

We honor you all the things that you have to juggle on a day daily basis, especially during this season.

Just know that Mother's Day doesn't look like it looked uh in the years past, but it doesn't mean that you're still not valued, you're not loved.

We appreciate you and we honor you today.

My name is Megan, and I get the privilege of serving alongside my husband at Celebration Orlando.

This is our church at home service.

So we we're so honored to have you today joining us um online.

And so we thank you and we pray for your families each and every day through this season.

And so today I have the honor of uh speaking on a message or sharing a message uh today.

And it's not, I just want to give you a little note on this.

It's not just specifically for women, the word of God is for all of us.

And so, with that being said, I do want to examine uh a woman of faith and the life that she led in hopes that we can be inspired and encouraged along the way.

And so I want to talk to you about Mary, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and what do we know about Mary?

A lot of times we have our our view on her is during Christmas time, it's a you know, we think of her at Christmas, or when we see a portrait with her carrying baby Jesus, that is our perspective sometimes of what we have of Mary.

But Mary, um, she was a profound woman of faith, she had so much strong faith, and I think there's something that we can learn from the life that she lived.

And so, in many cases, uh, we have to consider you know, we look at Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but I'm sure Mary looked at him as so much more.

He was a son, he was uh a brother, he was a friend, but most of all, Mary knew him as her savior, and and she put all of her faith in him.

And so, uh, before we enter into uh our message, I have entitled it, Living by Faith.

So let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for today.

I thank you for your presence.

I thank you that we get to uh worship with you, Lord God, and that we get to learn more about you.

Lord God, I pray that this message will speak to our hearts.

I pray that it will challenge us, I pray that it will encourage us, I pray, I pray that it inspires us and it and it lifts us up.

So we thank you for what you're gonna do.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

So uh I just want to talk about the background of Mary and um and and and go into the scriptures.

And so if you can grab your Bibles and turn to Isaiah 7, 14.

Uh, and in this uh we get to hear about uh the prophecy of Mary um and speak into uh all that.

And so it says, Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

See, the virgin will conceive and have a son and name him Emmanuel.

And then if you can turn your Bibles as well to Luke 1, 26 through 31, it says, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary.

And the angel came to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you.

Just remember that, the Lord is with you.

But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be.

Then the angel told her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

And so in this, we can see the prophet uh tells us about the savor, savior that's gonna be born uh through a virgin.

And the story picks up actually in the Gospels, and this is where Angel appears before her and uh gives her the good news that she is going to give birth to the savior of the Lord.

And let's consider this for a moment uh in Mary being in Mary's situation.

Like, how is this gonna happen?

She's espoused to Joseph, um, she comes from a very poor background.

Why was she chosen to carry this child?

And the angel appears before her and tells her, You are blessed and highly favored.

There was nothing that she could have done.

Her status didn't uh tell her that she was blessed, she didn't have to be up here, but the Lord took her where she was and made her blessed and favored.

And sometimes we can think of this: she was not blessed because of her current status.

She was blessed because of what she was called to carry.

She was chosen to be a carrier of Christ, which is what made her blessed.

And so I have news for all of us.

We are truly called to be carriers of Christ on a daily basis, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, we are called to be carriers of Christ.

And because of that, we are also blessed and highly favored.

And so my husband often says, says, You are blessed because of what you have.

Um, you are not blessed because of what you have, you are blessed because of who you have.

So we have Jesus, and because we have him, we are blessed.

And from this moment forward, we see powerful moments where Mary is navigating through all of the social pressures and all of these other things that are going on in her life in an effort to fulfill her own calling and help uh to facilitate fulfilling her son's calling.

So she she's to help him uh direct him in that way, just as we would with our own kids when they're growing up.

We teach them in the ways that they should go so they can't depart from the Lord.

Uh, we teach them good things.

Um, and so Mary did the same thing.

And so as she navigated um through this, having explained that she's pregnant, she navigated through raising a child that is destined to save the world, but she also has a response responsibility that we typically would have, which is to change him, to feed him, to teach him along the way.

And I believe that as we examine Mary's life, there are three crucial things that we can learn from her.

And so one of the things that we can learn from her is that her faith was strengthened through remembrance.

And on two occasions, when we look at the scriptures, Mary had moments where uh she stirred up what she was seeing, what she was hearing, she stored those things in her heart.

And so in Luke chapter 2, it gave an account of the birth of Jesus and they rejoiced.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Um, there's the shepherds were there, you had the wise men, you had the angels, they all were present for Jesus.

And this was showing the magnitude and the purpose and the calling that was truly on his life.

And so in Luke 2.19, it says, Mary stored, or some other translations say treasured, um, and meditated on these things in her heart.

And so there's also in verse 51, if you scroll down to that in chapter 2 of Luke, um, it also says that she treasured these things in her heart.

And so along the way, you know, Jesus, um, when it goes to verse 51, Jesus was with his family traveling um to Jerusalem after Passover, and along the way he got lost.

And so, can you imagine as a parent losing your child?

We often do this at Disney or the grocery store, we've lost our children, uh, and in that moment, but to lose him over a couple of days is frightening.

And so Jesus, as she goes into the temple and she sees him, she saw how much wisdom that he had even for that age.

And she the verse says in verse 51 that again she treasured these things in her heart, the things that she saw, the things that she heard, she treasured those things in her heart.

So, what does this mean?

She was processing and reconciling the words that were spoken over her life and in Jesus and seeing them come to pass.

And so she was storing up the activity of God in her life and for her family.

And so she deposited this in her soul.

Um, and perhaps Mary knew that there would come a time and a moment in her life where she would have to rely on what was stored in her, storing those things that she remembered.

And these these things were needed for what was going to happen that would be out of her control.

She would need to be encouraged or strengthened along the way, along the journey of her faith.

And so there are many times that our faith is strengthened, and there are many times where our faith is not as strong.

And in those moments where our current situation can cause us to lose sight of the power in the presence of God.

But when you store what God has done in the past, it will encourage you in the present.

Again, when you store what has been done, uh, what God has done in the past, you can be encouraged in the present.

And so we when we look at the life of Mary, we can remember when the shepherds came to see her son.

She remembered when the angels came down from heaven to see Jesus.

She remembered the calling on his life.

She remembered even at a young age how he was used.

And I think we all can be inspired by the faith that is rooted in what God has done.

Remember when God has got you through financial difficulties, loss of a loved one, a job, all of these things.

Remember how he got you out of that.

Because when you remember what you've gone through, you can remember what you have survived through.

And so God has not brought you to this point to leave you.

His word said that he will never leave nor forsake you.

And so the same God that got you through that season is the same God that's going to get you through this season and the seasons to come.

And so our faith can be strengthened through remembrance.

And with our faith being strengthened through remembrance, we can know that also her faith was expressed through action.

And in John 2, 1 through 5, it says, And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus was also invited to the wedding with his disciples.

And when the wine ran out, the mother said to him, They have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?

Now I know in this day and age, with my son, had he said, Woman, what does this have to do with me?

I think we would have a different conversation.

But at this time, there was a grace on this conversation because of who Jesus was.

He says, After that, my hour has not yet come.

Um, and then his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

And so this was one of the first miracles that Jesus performs.

Um, and when they ran out of wine, he took the water, turned it into wine, and he made it better.

And so a lot of times when um when we're going through these things, we're like, Okay, can Jesus make this better?

Like, I want to do it this way, I want to have it this way, uh, I think it should go this way, and it's gonna turn out this way.

But Jesus, when we give it to him, those things are worked out for the better.

And so even when uh he was reluctant at first, um, she didn't even when he responded and said, What does this have to do with me?

She didn't take that no as an answer.

She took it that, oh no, I know that you can do this, I know that you're a miracle worker, I know what you have in you, I know that you would do this.

And so when it comes to the part at the end and it says, do whatever he tells you, basically, she was telling the um the workers, hey, be obedient to what he says.

And I know a lot of times when um there's things that we won't we're we're supposed to do where someone tells us to do something, we have to ask questions.

Um, we're we're questioning why we have to do it, we have an attitude.

Um, there's different things when we're told to do what God is calling us to do.

But Mary speaks to the servants, and it's a crucial part of all of us.

When he tells you to do it, then you do it.

And so if he tells you to forgive, do it.

If he tells you to serve, do it.

If he tells you to pay for that person's um meal behind you, do it.

Our obedience activates the miracles of God, and so when Jesus gets involved, um, you know, like I said, he he intervenes, um, but it was Mary's stepping out, doing that, stepping out and saying, Jesus, I need you to do this.

Her actions activated the miracles of God.

And so our faith has to be active if we want to see the miracle of God activated.

God can do exceedingly abundantly, and above all, that we can ask or think.

And so there's nothing too hard for him.

So, regardless of the things, we can ask him, we can go to him, we can petition before him, we can ask on the behalf of others, and we can watch God move uh in their lives.

And so as we go through that again, we have that she was strengthened through remembrance, her faith was expressed through action, and then we have that her faith was one of devotion.

And not only was she devoted to Jesus as his mother, but she was devoted to him as her Lord.

And so throughout his life, um, she did so many things to try to protect him.

She dedicated him to the Lord.

Uh, when he was gone, she went looking for him.

She um they they taught him, like his stepfather taught him how to be a carpenter.

There were things along the way that they were devoted to helping him that would help him for his calling.

And so now let's picture this moment where he's arrested.

Fast forward.

And in that moment, um, she's seeing all the things that he's gonna go through.

She's seeing that he's being mocked, the disciples leave him.

Uh, there's no one with him.

He's carrying his cross.

And you know what?

As a mom, I don't know if I could stand back and watch my child going through some hard things.

I I don't know if someone was ridiculing them, mocking them, the whole world was against them, how I would feel.

How would I, how would I process that?

You know, it would be hurtful.

And so as parents, we know how much we let we we hate to see the pain that our children go through.

And personally, in my life, I have um I've gone through that and with Caleb.

And so when he was about three years old, um, he was at a daycare, and basically he flipped over a bike and his nails landed on the concrete.

And so one of the nails was partially almost off, the other one was partially off, and I had to rush him to the hospital.

And at that moment, my husband wasn't with me.

He's screaming in the car.

I mean, it was so much pain and anguish, and I felt so bad because I couldn't do anything about it.

And so we get to the hospital, and they let us know well, we have to put lidocaine underneath his nails, and um you have to hold him down, and so because I was in the medical field, I was used to holding kids when they got shots and stuff like that, so they wouldn't move.

But this was a different kind of hold.

I had to really hold them down because they were sticking, you know, large needles in um his fingers, and so um Keith came and he was supposed to help me with that process, but Keith ended up leaving.

It was too much for him to bear, it was too much for him to see Caleb going through that.

But I knew as a mother that I couldn't leave him, I knew that I needed to be there for him, and um, and so even with that, taking on that experience, I can see how Mary was in pain and anguish.

Hers was much greater than our situation.

But even when they put the nails in his hands and how she had to watch that, and how they talked about him, and how they were shattering him down to come like if this is you, show us.

And so, for her to be there, what I loved about Mary is that she didn't shy away from the pain, she didn't shy away from any of that.

She drew closer to the cross, she drew closer to Jesus, she did not shy away from what was going on, and even so, in the midst of the pain, she's she was there for her savior and her Lord.

And so I I had to ask myself, do I have a devoted, devoted type of faith?

Is is my faith gonna be the type that walks out of the room when it gets when it gets hard?

We could we call that a waiting room faith.

That's what my husband did.

He had a waiting room faith.

And so all I can say is, you know, when those times get hard, let's draw closer to Jesus.

A lot of times in the pain, if we stick in there with the plane and we draw closer to to Jesus, our healing and our miracle is on the other side.

And so Mary, for sure, with her life, we we look at that and just as close as she was to him at his birth, she was close to him even at death.

And so we have to ask ourselves within ourselves, are we devoted?

And if not, how do we get there?

How do we live a life that's devoted to Jesus no matter what we're going through, that we're not tossed to and fro, that we're we're leading right back to Jesus, we're drawing closer to him, and he'll draw closer to us.

So I want us to be encouraged in the in a life um in the faith of Mary, um, that we should have remembrance of the goodness of God, that we be active in our in our faith, and that we're devoted no matter what things may look like, we're devoted solely to him.

Let's pray.

Lord, I pray that everyone who hears this message, that they're encouraged, Lord God, that they will remember you, that they will draw close to you even in the hard times, that they will remember the good things that you have done, the situations that you brought them out of.

Lord, I just pray that even after that, Lord God, that we know that you are Lord of our life, that there's nothing that we can do without you and apart from you.

Lord God, I just pray that our life is one of a devotion, Lord God.

Well, no matter what, we're not tossed to and from on the side, that we're neither hot or cold, like Lord, that we're solely focused on you.

So we thank you for what you're gonna do, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this message from Mother's Day.

We we just honor you guys.

We thank you for joining us today.

We're gonna turn it over to the team who's gonna lead you to your next steps and lead your families into communion.

Uh, we love you.

We're praying for you.

God bless you.

Thank you, Pastor Megan, for that incredible word about faith.

Uh, today, maybe your next step is uh putting your faith in Jesus, and I want to lead you uh in a prayer so that you can take that next step.

So uh, dear Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner.

I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose again for me.

I choose today to make you my savior and to make you my Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you made that decision today, we want to connect with you.

So if you can text decide or decide to 25101, we'd love to connect with you there.

Yeah, at this time we're actually going to take communion together.

So uh you can pause your video and grab your communion elements, but uh we'll go ahead and do that together as a family.

Uh so let's go ahead and grab the bread.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it, and he blessed it, and he said, Uh, this is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the bread.

That same night he took the cup and he said, This is the cup of the new covenant and my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup of the day.

Father, thank you for sending your son and for uh the fact that his body was broken for us and his blood was shed for our sins.

Lord, we thank you that we are now a part of your family because of that.

We love you and we praise you, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, thanks for joining us today, guys.

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Have a great week.

Yeah, happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day! See you next Sunday.

Thanks again for listening.

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