Rejoicing in Faith: Lessons from Mary’s Song || Pastor Adam Mesa

So good to see y'all.

I'll say one thing when it comes to our Christmas

services coming up, We're gonna have a series all month long,

really leaning into the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus.

But I've heard for thirty years my.

Dad say this every single Christmas season, and I'll say

it to you. If there's a service that's important to

go to this month, come on Christmas Eve, either at

three or six pm.

Pick a service to come.

And what my dad has said for thirty years is

remember that day is not your birthday. Okay, it's great

to be with family, is great to be with friends,

but remember the point of Christmas is not to celebrate

family and friends.

It's to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Now you could do that with family and friends, but

the highest priorities to honor our Savior who was born.

And so if you're traveling somewhere for Christmas Eve, that's fine,

but if you're in the area, make sure it's the

priority to worship the King of Kings on Christmas time.

So join us either that Sunday or Christmas Eve.

But I can't wait to see you as we continually

honor the Lord during this season, which we'll talk about

during this month. So if you have your Bible with you,

we'll jump into the message today and we're gonna find

ourselves at first.

In Luke chapter nineteen.

So if you have a Bible with you or you

simply want to follow along, we'll have it up on

the screens, but as you find it, just hold your

place there. We'll get to there in just a few moments.

But only recently, about a couple of weeks ago, I

didn't have an answer for something. I was left a

little speechless, which for me, who's normally a little bit

sarcastic and a little bit snarky, I normally have a

response to everything. And about three weeks ago, my youngest son, Thomas,

my three year old. So I have two sons, Matthias

and Thomas, my youngest Thomas, who that's his personality built

into a box right there in that picture.

That's him all day long. I'm sitting in a corner.

I have a little nooking in my house where I

study and stuff like that, and Ashley's kind of just

a little ways away from me in the live room

watching TV, and Matthias, my oldest, is right next to

me kind of playing on his iPad, and Thomas walks

up to me, very sincere and very serious, and he

looks at me. He says, Daddy, I have a question.

I said, yes, son, what's your question? And he just

stands there with his hands in his pockets and he goes,

is Santa Real?

And I thought, oh, man.

Okay, here's what you gotta know about our family. We

don't really teach Santa at our house. So he's on

movies and you know, like when we go to Disneyland,

he's a character. But for us, we just kind of

treat Santa like Spider Man or Superman. It's just like

kind of more of a pretend character. But like on Christmas,

we don't give presents on behalf of Santa.

To our kids.

And it's not because we're Christian and it's very religious

for us. It's simply because I don't want an old, white,

fat man with a beard getting credit for what I

spent money on to give my kids. Like that's you know, oh,

like that is gonna say from mom and dad. No

imaginary person came and gave you this gift. Mom and

Dad gave you this gift, all right, And Jesus supplied

the blessings for mom and dad.

So that's the only reason why we do it.

It's not because we're oh Santa, no not in this out,

No no, no, no. Dad's getting credit, Mom's getting credit.

That's really what it is. But also there is a

truth that for us just in our house, and it's

not right, wrong, or different, but Christmas is really important

to us and we really want as best as possible

to focus on Jesus as much as we can, because

it is very easy to get mixed up in the

Christmas hight because we do a lot of fun things

with our kids. We go on drives to look at

Christmas lights, we go to the Christmas tree farm, so

we do a lot of things that are really not

fully Jesus focused. And so on Christmas Day, even though

we're giving our boys gifts, you know, as a family,

we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas Day and

and and we give presents, but then we have a

conversation about Jesus being the greatest president of all and

that's why we give presents.

So that's really frogus.

So it caught me off guard that Thomas would even

ask if he's real because we don't even talk about him,

which means either through you know, what he has seen

on TV, in a movie, or even his conversation with

classmates in school for some reason, either someone said he

wasn't real and it got him to ask the question

or whatever it was. And so if you have kids,

in a few moments, you can muffle their ears depending

on what you have or haven't told them. That's why

we have Patriot kids. So none of our teachers there

will ever break that news to them. I don't think

that'll be a mom and dad decision. You know, so

he says, or he says, it's Santa ru So I

have a decision to make. Either I could be like,

do you want him to be real?

You know? And we yeah, let's make believe.

Or I could or I could say, okay, well I

didn't know if I told him no, like, is he

gonna break out in tears?

Like what's gonna happen?

And so look at Thomas and I and I just say,

and so I make the decision as a dad. You

just you're gonna get You're gonna grow up fast. Right

now at three, we're gonna break the news to you.

And I look over at.

Matthias, who's six, and he's mouthing to me, no, he's not.

So I'm like, I think I found the culprit who

told him Sanna's not real. And uh, I don't even

remember having that conversation with Matthias, but somehow he just

and he's telling me like, no, just break it to him,

just tell him no, tell him no. So I just

told Thomas, I said, Thomas, we, uh, Sanna is is

make believe, just like Spider Man and just like Superman

and and but and then I tell him, but there

he's based off of a real person.

Called Saint Nicholas. And Saint Nicholas was a.

Great Christian man who gave gifts to children who were impoverished,

and that's how Santa was created. So he was a

real person. But the Santa we seeing movies, he's like

the characters all the other characters we see in movies.

And so he just looks at me and he's like okay,

and I go, but you can you can make believe

that he's real. You know, we can pretend just like you.

Because they wear costumes every day. They love to change

into little costumes and dress into characters, and I'm like,

we could pretend, and he's like, okay. And then I said,

you want to know who is real though? And then

Massius jumps in and he's like Jesus, and I'm looking

at him and I'm like, you may go somewhere in life, Matthias,

you speaking truth, that's six No, he's not real. And

then you know the answer, good jobs. So he says Jesus.

And then what we did is I began, as best

as I could do a three year old have a

conversation on what's the difference between pretend and what is real.

That Jesus is real and Christmas is real for us

because Jesus was born.

But all these other characters that we see, that Frosty the.

Snowman and the Reindeers, they may be based on off

of real things in life, but their fun pretend things

to partake in. Now, it's important for us to recognize that,

whether you want to break that to your children, have

that conversation at three years old or fifteen years old.

You know, I've met ten year olds who still believed

and said and that's okay. But at whatever point you

want to have that conversation, it is important though, to

also bring in the conversation about the reality of.

Who Jesus is.

Because Christmas is a very easy time to really catapult

everything into make believe, everything into fun. We convince ourselves

we need to be joyful and cheerful, and the December

twenty sixth comes along and then we go, we don't

need to be that anymore. But if you recognize who

Jesus really is, and that he was really born and

he really came to give us hope, he really came

to give us peace, and he really came to give

us joy, that's something even an adult can learn today

a child can learn. And so over the next couple

of weeks, as we really jump into the Christmas stories,

we're gonna realize that not only is this important for

us as adults, it's important to teach the next generation.

The value of who Jesus is not the value of

a season, and not particularly even the value of a date.

It's the value of.

The time that we recognize who Jesus is in our

life and that he was born to save us. And

so if you have your finger in your Bible at

Luke chapter nineteen, I'm just gonna read a few verses

with us today and if you'd like to stand for

the honor of reading God's word, this is where we'll

find ourselves today.

And here's what we're gonna.

Do over the next couple weeks is we're gonna read

this passage at the beginning of the message every single

week leading up till Christmas, because this is important. This

is just the week of Jesus's last day of week

of ministry. So this in Luke nineteen, this isn't a

Christmas story verse. This is actually a verse that Jesus

is headed to Jerusalem, that by the end of the

week he would be put to death on the cross.

But there's value in his words that we're going to

see all throughout this Christmas season. There's values of him,

there's values of us, and there's values of his desire

for us.

And so here's what it says.

This is a moment he's gonna enter Jerusalem, and Jesus

says this, go into the village in front of you,

where on entering you will find a cult tide which

is an unwritten donkey, a cult tide on which no

one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here

if anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You

shall say this, the Lord has need of it.

I want you to repeat that with me. The Lord

has need of it. Let's do it one more time.

The Lord has need of me. There you go, you're

catching it. So those who were sent away and found

it just as he had told them. And as they

were untying the its owners said, why are you untying

the colts? Why are you touching my donkey? And they said,

the Lord has need of it. And so presumably the

person said, oh, it's for Jesus. Take it, and they

brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt,

they set Jesus on it, and as he rode along,

they spread their cloaks on the road.

As he was.

Drawing near already on the way down to Mount Olives,

the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and

praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty

works they had seen, saying, blessed is the King who

comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in heaven

and in glory in the highest And some of the

Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher rebuke your

disciples because.

They were praising Jesus.

And he answered, I tell you, if these were silent,

the very stones would cry out.

You may be seated.

You see what happens in this moment is since the

birth of Jesus thirty three years prior, all of history

and all of the moments of history has culminated to

the moment where Jesus is going to enter Jerusalem, and

so from his very birth till now everything has anticipated

for this moment. What many people were anticipating is that

Jesus in that moment was going to take an earthly throne.

But what he actually was going to do is a

very human thing, which.

Was sacrifice his life, give his life up, die for

you and I. The reality was is in his sacrifice

he would bring us into perfect relationship with the God,

the Father.

So Jesus was born to die.

And in this moment, the disciples, not fully recognizing what

Jesus was going to do on their behalf, start to

worship him and praise him, and the Pharisees you are

nearby judging scoffing, looking awkwardly going.

To this place to tell Jesus to say, hey, tell your.

Disciples to stop worshiping you, Jesus says, listen, if humanity

doesn't praise me, then God's creation, the very stones, will

erupt with praise if humanity won't do this.

And so the beauty of.

A Christmas season is you and I have an opportunity

to give God a sound of praise in our life.

And here's the reality. If you and I don't, Creation will.

Do it for you. But God's call is for you

and I.

And God uses objects all throughout the scriptures and will

see in the coming weeks that God uses things left

and right, whether it be a manger of stone, whether

it be incense, whether it be trees, whether it be

any of those things.

God will use all of those things to his glory.

But more than that, did you know that God wants

to use you for his glory? You know He wants

to use you and I for his glory? How do

we know that? What we see that if you have

your Bible, you want to see. We're gonna look at

Mary today a little bit in Luke chapter one, starting

in verse forty six. If you're taking notes, there's some

things Mary teaches us during the Christmas season that's valuable

for you and I. The first thing is Mary teaches

us how important it is to rejoice during the Christmas season.

Rejoice always, but in this season we can really rejoice

that Jesus was born for you and I. And she

teaches us what that looks like. What happens is for

the virgin Mary is. The Angel of Lord peers to

Mary and tells her that she's gonna give birth to

a son by the power of God, a miracle.

Truly, she's a virgin.

She is engaged to a man named Joseph, and she

has never seen a man before in that way. And

he says, you are gonna or a child. He's gonna

be the savior of the world. Emmanuel God with us.

And how does Mary respond? Well, she responds in a song.

It's called Mary's Song. And the first thing she does

is she rejoices at the words of what God is

gonna do. Look at this, and Mary said, my soul

magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

What happens when God sends you on some type of journey.

What happens if God asks you to do something in

your life. I think most of us we would all agree, Well,

it probably was easy for Mary because an angel stood

before her and told her this is the mission that

God is gonna send you on. And most of us,

if we look at that story, we don't relate to

that story because we say, hey, I've never had an

angel visit me like that before, and if an angel

visited me in that way, life would probably be easier

for me, or trusting God would be easier for me.

There have been times in my own life where I've

had to make decisions and I've thought to myself, God,

if you just send a message or a messenger, then

I'll know and the decision will be easier, or my

faith will be easier.

To trust you. We think that way all the time.

And so we look at Mary's storr and we say,

so nice of Mary.

She gets to talk to someone from heaven, and of

course she's gonna say no. Who's gonna tell an angel no?

But God's never sent an angel to me, so therefore

it's much more acceptable that I.

Tell him no in areas of my life.

Well, if you look at a view versus prior, what

happens is is Mary has a cousin name Elizabeth, and

Elizabeth has a husband named Zacharia, and Zachari is a priest.

And an angel. Just a few verses, it's still in

Luke chapter.

One, which we'll see an angel appears and he says,

you and your wife, you've been believing God for a

child your whole life, and he's gonna finally supply you

that child. You're gonna name him John, which all throughout

the Gospels we know.

Him as John the Baptist.

He becomes a prophet that paves the way for Jesus

to rise, and he goes out into the rivers and

he starts baptizing Israel, and he calls Israel to repentance,

and he's a bold man of God. And he says,

you and your wife, you're gonna get that child you've

been believing God for. Is an angel telling Zachariah that

very thing that you have been hoping God to supply

your needs for decades, He's gonna do it. And not

only that, he's gonna use your son greatly. Look how

does Zachariah respond. Look at this, here's the first thing

that happens. Luke chapter one, verse twelve, And so we

read verse forty six.

Now we're here in verse twelve ahead, and.

It says, and Zachariah was troubled when he saw him,

and fear fell upon him.

And the Angel said to him, do.

Not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard.

And your wife Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and

you shall call his name John, and you will have

joy and gladness. And many others will rejoice at his birth,

for he will be great before the Lord.

And he must not drink wine or strong drink.

And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even

from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of

the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And

he will go before them in spirit and power of

Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,

and the disobedient to the wisdom.

Of the just, to make ready for the loved, to

people prepared. And Zacharai said to.

The angel, yippe, thank you.

No.

And Zacharai said to the angel, how shall I know this?

You're an angel? What proof do I have that this

is gonna happen? And he says this, for I'm an

old man, and my wife is advanced in years like

he's a smart man. He calls himself old, and he

calls his wife advanced. That's how you know he's still

a man of God. He had the right language. An

angel goes to Zachariah, you're gonna give birth to a

son you've been dreaming about. His response is, prove it.

Me and my wife are old. It's not possible for us.

This is a priest. This is a man who knows

the story of Abraham and Sarah like the back of

his hand. And an angel appears to him and says,

in your old age, now look at the parallel. An

angel appears to marry, who's anywhere between fourteen and fifteen

years old, who's a virgin, who's engaged to a man

who by then. Just remember back then, for a woman

to not be married and to be pregnant, I mean,

that is just about the worst thing that can happen

for a woman back then. Immediately outcasted from society, immediately

disowned by your family, immediately cut off from anyone you

love and care about. And what happens is that angel

comes to marry and says, you are a virgin, You've

never been with a man.

You're not even married. And God, by the power.

Of his Holy Spirit, is gonna give you a child

who will be fully God and fully man. And this

child will be Emmanuel God with us, and he will

rescue and to deem the world. And by doing that,

if you say yes, your family's gonna cut you off.

Your friends are gonna cut you off, your buddy, everyone

you know.

Your community is gonna cut you off.

Everything you know and love will immediately outcast you. And

Mary's response is, my soul magnifies the Lord, and.

My spirit rejoices. Am I God within me.

Zachariah a priest who's been a Christian a very long

there's no Christian back then. He was a Jewish man,

but a Christian for a very long time. He's been

in church. He knows all the worship songs. He's seen

God through and through. He's an elder, he's a deacon,

he's on the prayer team.

He's done it all. God comes before.

Him and says, you're a little old, but God's gonna

give you that child. And he goes prove it, and

we tend to thank God, give me a sign, and

I'll trust you.

God gave Zachariah a sign, and he still didn't trust

God's signs.

Don't dictate your faith. Your faith in God dictates God's

ability to meet you where you're at. Mary was full

of faith. How do we know because point number two

she tells us, here's the next thing she does. The

first thing she does is rejoice, and then the second

thing she does is she begins to reflect. It's a

young girl. This a fourteen year old. This is a

fifteen year old. This is a sixteen year old. This

is one of our teenagers over in patriot youth who

has the ability to share divine truths about who God is.

And here's what she says when she reflects. Speaking of God,

she says, for He has looked on the humble state

of his servant. For behold, from now, all generations will

call me blessed, For he who is mighty has done

great things for me. And holy is his name, and

his he is for those who fear him. From generation

to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He

has scattered the proud in thoughts of their hearts. He

has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted

those of the humble estate. He has filled the hungry

with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

Here's what she's saying, because in their day, if God

was gonna choose a daughter of Israel to give birth

to the son, who had chosen a Pharisees daughter, a

strong religious leader would have chose maybe someone who was wealthy,

who could actually run for office for this Jesus, And

if Jesus is gonna take over the throne, it's like

modern day politics. You can't be as much as you

want to be a politician. If you ain't got money,

you ain't being a politician. Jesus is day too. So

if this man Jesus is gonna run for office and

be the next king of Israel, he's got to be

born into a wealthy home. He's got to be born

into a religious home. He's got to be born into

a priest's home. He's got to be born into the

favorite family of the community's home. No, he's born in

the home of a young girl named Mary who lives

in a place called Nazareth, who was the ghetto of

all ghettos of the cities of Israel. So this was

this was not like, oh, there's that one wealthy family

in Nazareth. It was like, No, nobody's wealthy in Nazareth.

They're all working class. They all have no little to

no means. How do we know that, because immediately she

has to start to rely when her and Joseph have

to run away, they have to rely on as many.

Outside people as possible.

That's why she goes and lives with Elizabeth and Zachariah.

That's why they fleed to Egypt when he's coming after Jesus.

There isn't a strong community where they're at that can

financially sustain, covering and caring for them. And so God

chooses a young girl. Why doesn't God choose already a

married woman that would look more better in the community,

at least she's married. No, he chooses someone that the

community knew had never been with a man before.

And God chooses her. And what does she do?

She immediately starts to reflect on how she got here.

She starts to say, it must be because man, I

just look at this, she says in verse fifty two.

He has brought down the mighty from the thrones and

exalted those of humble state. He has filled the hungry

with good things. So what she starts to reflect on

she says, I think God chose me because I'm hungry

for him. I'm not hungry for position. I'm not hungry

for power. I'm not hungry for wealth. I'm not hungr

for politics. She says, I'm just hungry for God. And

you see, when you're hungry for God, God can do

a lot with that. God can't do much with your aspirations.

But God, if you're hungry for him, he can feel you,

and you can be a byproduct of any effort, any aspiration.

But for God.

He doesn't look at our dream board and say, oh,

I want to I want to fill that dream board

with everything they want. He looks at you and you're

his dream board, and he says, how can I fill

that person up, to do my will, to make my

name known, to give me glory.

That goes back to what Jesus did.

He said He's looking for a donkey that he can

use that's never been ridden before. And God is looking

for a people that are empty, that are not full

of self, that aren't full of the world, that aren't

full of sin, that aren't full of our own loves

and desires, but are empty.

So that we could say, God, feel me.

When people ask the question or think to themselves, why

would God choose Mary. It's because through Mary he would

get the glory. With anyone else they would get the glory,

but not with Mary. She gives God all of the glory.

It's important in our own life. You know, I have

this right here. I got a little mirror reflector, and

these are you never realize how important these are in

the car, and you may have like more of a

smart car nowadays, where you got a little camera where

you back up, and sometimes that camera doesn't work for me,

like either it's delayed or it's dirty because we had

wins the night before or something like that. And immediately

I start freaking out because I think to myself, how

am I going to back up safely? And then I remember, dummy,

you have a mirror above your head that you haven't

used in for.

Just look in the mirror.

And then, even though as I start to drive and

go straight, any time I want to make a turn,

whether I want to merge into a new lane, whether

I want to make a right or left turn, and

there may be a pedestrian, it's important that for a moment.

I look at this reflection.

I look in the mirror, and I see what was

just already behind me or pasting me so that I

could go forward. And what happens for Mary is she's

about to embark on a big journey.

She's about to become.

Pregnant with God's child, and immediately she was about to

go through a whirlwind. Not only was the King of

the day gonna be going for Jesus's head, but her

own community.

Was gonna cut her off.

And the first thing she does is she doesn't say, wait, wait,

let me get my things, or hold on, let me

do this. She reflects. She looks in this mirror, and

she goes. Before I go to where I'm headed, first

I'm gonna look at how good God has been, so

that when this journey gets hard, I will have already

reminded myself that He got me here.

And if he got me here, then he can take

me there.

Because if you don't know how to reflect, and you

can't find anything.

Good God has done, then the.

First thing, the first ounce of storm, the first ounce

of trouble in this.

Path, you're gonna falld. It's like if I tell my

boy sons, what are you thankful for? I'm nothing. I'll

be quiet.

You gotta bed, you got a iPad, you got a cabinet,

you can get food whenever you like. Don't say you're

not thankful for anything. I'm thankful for my dogs. No,

you better be frankful for mom and dad. So you

see when we're like children and we're just unable at times.

And the more you get teenagers, they start to get

a little bit more forgetful about how good they have it.

I was gonna Justin's not in here about call him

out yesterday where we're at Chuck e Chiez.

Justin sixteen years old.

He got a brand new car and he was talking

about the next car he wants to get. He got

twenty twenty four. And we looked at Justin. I said, Justin,

I'll if I could, and you and I were sixteen,

I'll beat you up right now. And we are messing

with him, and he's sweet, and but he was, I

really want to testla. I got this twenty twenty four kill,

but I really want to test it. It was like, boy,

if you don't reflect real quick, you know, he canna

be mad.

That I brought it up to him.

But if you hang out with me, your free preaching

material all day long, but we say, oh, a sixteen

year old does that? They we think about what we do. God,

you've never you've never given me a good job. God,

you've never been giving me you man, this wife of mine,

this husband of mine.

You didn't say that at the thought alter.

You didn't say that in the honeymoon. You didn't say

it then. But all of a sudden we become forgetful

and we forget how to reflect them. So what Mary does.

She starts reflecting right away, that says, Wow, God, God's

choosing me. And even though the road that He's chose

me to go down is not gonna be easy, He's

gonna be with me. And I'd rather go down a

road that's hard that God's with me than a road

that's easy where God isn't with me. I don't want

to be down that road because where I know. I

know where that road ends, because Jesus tells us what

good is it to again the whole world but lose

your soul? So I know what the easy road looks like.

I'll choose God's road any day of the week. And

here's the last thing she does. She does reflection, but

she does something slightly different as well. Is She also

remembers she reflects her personal life, but then she also

remembers the story that God.

Is telling in humanity.

And so there may be times that it's hard for

you to pull from a current reflection because times have

been hard. But what you can do is you can

go to God's word and you can find all the

times God has been faithful to people in the Word

of God. And let that be a reminder to you

that if He can do it for them, then he

can do it for you. If he can heal them,

he can heal you. If he can supply for them,

he can supply for you. If he can use them,

he can use you. And so it will be a

reminder to you. God's not done with me. He's not

finished with me. This season may be hard, but He's

not finished. And here's what it says. She remembers. She goes,

he has helped his servant Israel. So now she starts

talking about Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he

spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

So now all of a sudden, she remembers, and she goes,

we're thousands of years.

Away from Abraham, and here we are are God's gonna

send his son to us. And so she.

Remembers God's story in the Word of God. And back

then she would have just had the five first books

of the Bible, the Torah, and through that Genesis, Exodus,

and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy.

She looks at those passages. She looks at.

God's faithfulness, and she says, God, You're good. You promised

to give us Abraham, and here was Abraham. You gave

us Jacob, and here was Jacob, and now You're gonna

give us Jesus. And she, even though she's gonna embark

on a tough journey, she remembers how good God is.

And you and I not only do we need to

pull from the Word of God to remember there are

times God has been faithful in your life that you

gotta remember those days. You gotta remember the days that

God fulfilled a promise, or God was faithful to you,

or God chose you out from something to do something.

You gotta remember the words God give you. You know,

there was a time in my life in my early

twenties that from some of those who know and sometimes

I share the whole story, and sometimes I share pieces.

But there was a time in my life early twenties,

I was with a girl all four years of college.

And she became my fiance, and I was excited because

I was like, this is gonna be my dream girl.

We're gonna get married, you know, all these things like that.

Yet in my head, I'm in Bible school. She's doing this,

We're gonna graduate, I'm gonna go pastor, blah blah blah,

blah blah. And all of a sudden, for three months,

she doesn't pick up any of my phone calls, and

all of a sudden, my middle brother Caleb runs into

her at Disneyland holding hands with a guy kissing in line.

She finally, three months after ignoring me because we go

to different universities at the time, she says, yeah, I

just I didn't want to be married to a pastor.

And I decided this, and I didn't know how.

To tell you, so I thought it'd be best just

to move on.

And so obviously I was very upset and very hurt.

And so what do I do anyone else? Is I say, God,

I'm doing all the right things. I'm in Bible school,

I'm studying your word. I'm gonna go be a pastor.

I'm a Christian, And the one thing that's missing.

For me is I don't you know I have needs?

Lord, And so I'm trying to be married because I'm

trying to do everything. So if I'm trying to do

everything right, you got to fill in where my struggle

is or I'm gonna go do stupid things. And so

that's what I'm thinking that I have to be talking

to God and discussing. So I think that I'm God's

on a timeline with me. And so I then start

just dating, not fooling around, but just dating and hanging

out with as many girls as I can to try

to find my wife, not in an appropriate way, but

coffee dates and this and that. And then my whole

time is I'm talking to I'm like, she could she

be my wife? Cause she be my wife, she'd be

my And then like date one, Oh she's not gonna

be my wife. Day three, Oh yeah, she's not gonna

be my wife. And this happened for a little while

cause cause I'm going, hey, God, you gotta fit. It

shouldn't be this hard, it shouldn't be this difficult. If

I'm doing all the things right, and I'm on your

path that you you know, I got friends who have

lived the total world standard and they already got their one.

They're already living with a girl, and so what this

ain't fair? And so I'm dating and I'm dating, and

I'm dating, I'm dating. And then there was an old

mother in the church called Mother Strong, who we love

and Mother's Strong, she man she she she gave incredible

prophetic words from the Lord. But oddly enough I had

a great relationship mother Mother Strong, she like, never gave

me a prophetic word, and so everybody would always get them,

except for your boy.

And so.

One day I'm leaving service on a on a Wednesday

night because I'm the youth pastor at the time, and

I passed by Mother Strong, and she used to call

me eat socks.

She was She's a black Jewish woman, and so uh,

she gave me.

A Hebrew name, which Isaac is what she called me

laughter because she said I make her laugh. And so

she called me Isaac now because of her old age,

and she forgot my name, but because that's the name

that she gave me. So I'm leaving service one day

and she says, Ettak, come here, and she says, I

have a word for you, And I'm thinking to myself,

here it is, here it is.

That's what everybody's been talking about.

This what all the roots, every everybody's prophecy comes true

with this woman. So here it comes and she goes

the Lord told me to tell you that you're gonna

find your wife when you stop looking for a wife. No,

don't clap for that, Like, I didn't sign up for

that type of prophecy.

I want the one that's like today's a Monday.

By Wednesday, you're gonna you're gonna be at a grocery store.

You're gonna drop a loaf of bread and your wife

is gonna pick it up, and you're gonna know, Like,

that's the one I want. You're gonna find it when

you stop looking for What.

Does that mean? How can I find it? If I'm

not looking what I'm looking at it. I'm like, this

woman has lost her mind and she's not good at it.

She lost the gift. That was my assumption.

I'm like, she just she's picking on me this uh,

and so I literally disregard what she said. Start dating

a couple more months again now this time, I become

kind of fed up on my own because I'm like, God,

these Christian girls, it's not working out. I can't meet

them at the club because you say that's not allowed.

I can't do anything.

So I'm at church, I'm meeting them, but it's nothing's happening.

And so finally, on my own, I give up and

I'm like, I'm just gonna work in youth ministry. I'm

gonna put my nose to the ground and I'm just

gonna work. And about nine months later, my dad's in

San Diego. I come to visit him for a day

and my dad says, hey, Adam, when was the last

time you went on a date with a girl. And

I said, oh, it's been like nine months. He said, well,

I have a friend who's a pastor in Hawaii, and

he has like three daughters that.

Are around the same age.

And he said, why don't you, for like a week,

go over to Hawaii hang out with his family and

see if you click with any of his daughters. Now,

Old Adam, number one, I get a choice.

Number two.

I get to be in Hawaii. Like this is like

an Old Testament story right here, Like Dad, my dad

had the dowry and everything and hand money in the pocket,

like just pass this off to my friend. He'll take you, know,

like he'll let you pick whatever one whether they want

to be married you or not, you can do it.

Just pick old At It would be like, that's the

prophecy I signed up for. That was the one. And

so I remember, I look at my dad and I

tell my dad. I say, Dad, I'm not interested in

a girlfriend right now. I just want to work in

ministry and I have no interest in finding a woman

right now. I just want to focus on ministry and

I'm good. I'm not looking for that anymore.

He says, all right, suit yourself.

That was on a Sunday, because I drove over there

after church that Friday. I see my wife in a

volunteer meeting and I think that girl's really pretty.

By Saturday night service.

The next day, her parents are introducing us for the

first time. And within a week, so within two weeks

of saying that to my dad, I'm on my first

date with my wife eleven years ago, and then within

one year from there we're engaged. One year from that

we're married. And about a few months before we were

getting engaged. I just hear Mother Strong's voice in my

ear because actually I think by this time she had

went home to be with the Lord. I hear her

voice in my head say, I told you you're gonna

find your wife when you stop looking for a wife.

And the moment, here's what I credit God's word to

for that in moment which I have to remember regularly,

was that when my dad said, hey, here's opportunity and

I said, no, that's okay. God's given me contentment. The

Lord fulfilled a promise. And a lot of times we

forget how good God is because we're just looking for opportunity.

But God doesn't give opportunity until you're like Mary and

you're content just being with God. And if you can

be content with God and you can really have faith

that God is with you in whatever season you're in,

then what will happen is like Mary says, she reflects,

and she says, He's given me and he's used me,

and he's filled me because of my hunger. Because for her,

she's like, I just want to know God in my life.

And then God was like, okay, now I can give

you opportunity to do something great. And it won't be easy,

but God's promises will be fulfilled. And so there are

times in your own life that it's important. There's times

in my life that I'm like, God, i don't see

you in this season, and then I look over at

my wife and I'm like, well, he was with me

in that season when I met her, and so if

he was with me in that season helping write my story,

then he's got to be in this season helping write

my story. And if I could just tune into the

will of God and find contentment in the season God

has me in, well, then He'll start to open whatever

doors are necessary for my life. And so this Christmas

season isn't just about recognizing this sweet baby that was

born for us.

It's also recognizing.

That God used Mary, God used Joseph, God used the

wise men, God used the shepherds, And in twenty twenty.

Four, God can use you.

Just like he looked at that donkey and he said

I have need of it, he looks at you and

he says I have need of you. So that's why

we don't quit, That's why we don't check out, That's

why we don't give up. Because God can use you,

and God has use of You, and I let's pray today, God,

we thank you for this word.

Today Lord, I pray Lord that if.

There's anyone here today, God, that they feel far from

You in this place, Lord, but they feel broken, they

feel destitute, that either their own life or things that

have happened in their life have pulled them far from You,

or maybe their own sin has pulled them far from You.

God.

I pray that in this moment, the love of Jesus

is calling them to him. And I pray in this

moment as they can recognize that as Jesus was born,

not only was he born, he was born to die

for You and I. Three days later, when he's put

in that tomb, he would resurrect in the fullness of life.

And You made a promise available to all of us

that salvation is guaranteed for those who hunger and thirst

for a relationship with God, who are willing to turn

from their old ways and trust in Jesus. So God,

I pray in this moment if there's anyone in this

room that is ready for a fresh start in the

name of Jesus, ready to give their life to Christ,

ready to turn from their old ways and confess with

their mouth that Jesus is Lord and Savior no matter

where they're at.

I pray right now that as we say this prayer out.

Loud, we simply can affirm what the Holy Spirit is

already doing in your life. So we're about to say

a prayer, and I invite anyone who is hungry for

God that's ready to start fresh in Jesus Christ.

We're all going to join you in this prayer.

But for those of you this is going to be

either your first time or a rededication of your life.

But could we all say this out loud with one

another as we confess Jesus as our Lord and savior.

Would you say this with me, Dear Lord Jesus.

In this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior.

I repent to my sins. I trust in you that

you died on the cross and you rose three days later.

From this day forward, I choose to follow you in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Hey, if you said that prayer for the first time

today or rededicated your life, we want to celebrate with you.

We want to welcome you to the family of God.

So I'm going to count to three and if you

said that today, I'm gonna ask that you raise your hand.

All we want to do is welcome you into the family.

The Bible says that if one person gives their life

to Christ, all of Heaven rejoices. We want to mirror

Heaven today by rejoicing that God called you as his

own today. So on the counter three, whether you in

the courtyard, cafe, or in this room, would you shoot

your hand up so we can celebrate with you. One two,

one two three, raise your hand up. INDI air there' say. Hey,

God bless you, says I see that hand. I see

that hand, I see that hand, I see those hands.

God bless you. Guys, Praise God. Welcome to the Family

of God. Before you leave this place, If you raised

your hand, or maybe you didn't, but you know you

said that prayer today for the first time, would you

go to our website ww dot Grow dot Faith. We

want to walk alongside of you. It's one of the

easiest ways we can do it. If you have any

trouble going to the website, you can see anyone with

a family T shirt or badge.

They love to help you out.

But we want to give you a free book written

by our faith bounding pastor, Pastor Diego, growing your Christian walk.

Seven steps that's gonna be our gift to you so

that you could spend the next few months reading them

and learning how to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

And we're always available for here you as you grow

here at Patria. My wife Ashley is gonna come and

dismiss us. I'll be out in the foyer if you'd

like to say hello. We'll see you either on Wednesday

or next Sunday. Ashley, would you dismiss us?

Yeah? How many of you were blessed today with that

word