God of the Impossible | Luke 1:26–45

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. We've been in a three-week

Christmas series. Last week we did the God of the

unconventional, how God reached the shepherds with the message

of the gospel and the good news. This this week we're doing that

that God is the God of the impossible in the gospel of

Luke. Luke chapter 1, if you have your

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Bible handy, Luke chapter 1 beginning in verse 6, if you

Luke 1 · chapter mention

would follow along with me in the Bible.

Now in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a

city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a verge betrothed to a man

whose name was Joseph of the House of David.

Interesting. The virgin's name was Mary.

And having come in, and the Angel said to her, Rejoice

highly favored one, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among

women. But when she saw him, she was

troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of

greeting this was. Then the Angel said to her the

same thing that the Angel said to the shepherd.

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and

behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son,

and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will 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 his Kingdom, and of his Kingdom

there will be no end. And then Mary said to the Angel,

How can this be, since I do not know a man?

And the Angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will

come upon you, and the power of the highest will over shadow

you. Therefore also the Holy One who

is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a

son in her old age, and this is now the 6th month of for her,

who was called Baron. For with God nothing will be

impossible. I want to read that to you

again. For with God nothing will be

impossible. And then Mary said, Behold, the

maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to your

word. And the Angel departed from her.

Now Mary arose in those days and went into the Hill Country with

haste to a city of Judah and entered the House of Zacharias

and greeted her cousin Elizabeth.

And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that

the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit. And then she spoke out with a

loud voice and said to Mary, Blessed are you among women, and

blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Father, we thank you for the power of your word.

Thank you and just reading your word, God, you continue to feed,

you continue to fill, You continue, Lord, to strengthen us

to follow after you. Lord, we pray that we would be

men and women of your work, that at your word we would believe

that at your word we would act, that at your word we would trust

in what you have shared with us. So God, we commit ourselves to

you and we ask that you would move with power.

Now I'm revealing to us the person of Jesus and we ask this

in Jesus name and everybody said Amen.

If you could for me as we always do, it's the it's the custom as

you come to Bridgetown, if you could just look at your neighbor

and say, neighbor, my neighbor. Nothing is impossible with God.

Yep, nothing is impossible with God.

It was just this past Wednesday that we had joined together with

my Multiply community and Ron and Rachel had hosted us for a

Christmas dinner. I was tremendous.

We had prime rib. We had potatoes.

Not just mashed. I'm talking about red potatoes.

And you know Rachel, she takes it up to another level.

She just didn't make it. She just didn't make green

beans. She actually made green beans

with roasted almonds. Before the meal would ever

start, Rachel had decided and Ron that we would play this game

and this game had to do with a kazoo.

And this was the goal of the game.

The goal of the game was that you would pick out a card and

with that card you would get a song.

And with that song you actually had to kazoo the song.

In kazooing the song, you couldn't sing the song, you

couldn't hand gesture the song, you actually had to kazoo the

song. Now if any of you have ever used

a kazoo, it is rather an embarrassing and it's hard to

use a kazoo. Some of you don't think so.

You're shaking your head no, but I have not practiced with a

kazoo in my entire life. And the point of the game was

this. You actually had to kazoo the

song, not sing the song, and the people had to guess the song as

you're kazooing. So while you're kazooing,

they're guessing and laughing and pointing at you.

But what I have found with this kazoo is that sometimes kazooing

could be rather perplexing because I could sing the song

and make it clear, but when I can kazoo the song it seems more

confusing. So.

So if I was to kazoo the song for you?

Evangelia is just on fire today, guessing these songs.

There are moments in your life where it feels as if the season

that you are in is more confusing than it is clear.

It is not really matching because what God is telling you

is not the reality of what you're going through.

And sometimes in life we are LED in situations a lot like Mary

this morning where it seems like the thing that God said was

unattainable to you. It is something in your life

that's unsolvable and simply it's undoable.

And it is left it rather questionable because God is

asking you to do something that does seem unreasonable.

He is asking you to bear something that seems unbearable

in your life. And God this morning is asking

you to expect something that seems impossible in your life.

I want you to know this morning, Merry Christmas.

When everybody else might say happy holidays, I just want to

tell you today, Merry Christmas. And I, I want to, I want to give

you a message today, a Christmas message.

And here is my message to you this morning.

I want you to know this morning that in every journey with the

Lord, every child of God will reach a moment in their life

where you have to take everything that you own,

everything that you trust, and put it into the hands of God.

You will have multiple moments this morning in your life where

you have to trust God with everything.

You have to trust God with everything because there's

nothing else for you to do. There is no more phone calls

that you can make. There's no more checks that you

can write. There's no more doctors that you

can visit. There's no more friends around

or appeals to be made. There's moments in your life

where you have to fall on your knees and lift up your hands and

cry out to God and tell him that if you don't fix this, if you

don't fight this, if you don't move in this, if you don't heal

this, if you don't breathe on this, if you don't make a way,

if you don't answer this prayer, if you don't fight this battle,

I will be lost. Have you ever wanted to be in a

position to meet God at a place where God does what only God can

do? I have prayed to see in my life

the situations of God turn into the miracles of God.

But although I'm seeking a miracle, many times I don't want

to put myself in a place like Moses, where he's standing at

the Red Sea and at the Red Sea. Egypt is coming from behind and

the Red Sea is in front. I don't want to put myself in

that place because that place is hard to be in.

And many times I find in my own life that I might pray for a

miracle, but I never put myself in a position to experience the

miracle because it's hard to be in that place.

But God still does the impossible.

God still works in all of our lives.

And maybe you've come into this place today, and maybe you just

need to hear this Christmas conversation, the Christmas

conversation between Gabriel and Mary.

And I wanted us to give our ear to this conversation.

I want us to hear what happens in this conversation because

nothing is impossible with God. And if there is a Christmas

message that we need to hear and that is that there's nothing

impossible with God. I just received a text on Friday

from a couple in our church and the wife, the husband said, can

you please pray for my wife? She has pneumonia and she's in

the hospital. Those those moments at Christmas

that you find yourself in where it is just hard to understand

what God is actually doing. Come with me and just hear the

story. If you're a seasoned St.

You remember that the story just didn't begin with Mary and

Gabriel and Mary hearing this message from this Angel.

If we were to back up a little bit, the story actually would

begin with a couple, an older couple by the name of Zechariah

and his wife that was barren named Elizabeth.

You remember that with message that they had heard left

Zechariah in such disbelief that Zechariah was muted by the Lord.

But what was in Elizabeth's womb would be the forerunner to the

person of Jesus Christ, a man that you know, his name they

would call John, John the Baptist who would prepare the

way of the Lord. Now, this is so important that

we cover this moment because we'll come back to this at the

very end of our story together. But the Angel Gabriel moves from

this place where he is at now with Elizabeth and Zachariah,

and he moves now 70 miles north to a region of Galilee, to a

little city called Nazareth. And there he finds the Bible

says in verse 26 that now in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel

was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 70

miles. The Angel is sent by the Lord.

Notice this to a virgin, to a virgin, and the Bible says who

was betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, who was at the

House of David and noticed this twice.

The virgin's name was Mary. Notice the people in our story.

We have Zechariah and Elizabeth. We have an Angel by the name of

Gabriel, who goes now to a city in a region of Galilee, to a

city called Nazareth. And there he meets a virgin

named Mary, who's betrothed to a man by the name of Joseph, who

is coming from the House of David.

Now, as you know, as we studied for Samuel, the first king of

Israel was a man by the name of King Saul who bled into now a

man by the name of King David. But God promised that the

Messiah would come through this reign.

And David was pointing us to another king whose name was,

look at how First Samuel's connecting into the Gospel of

Luke. Well, that was a good spot for

an Amen. Notice the story of redemption

throughout scripture. The Bible says that God met a

woman by the name of Mary through the person of Gabriel.

Now the name Mary means beloved of the Lord or loved by God.

And notice how the Bible describes her.

The Bible says that she is betrothed.

She is now connected to Joseph, but not yet married, and she's

also a virgin. She's a virgin.

You know what that means? She has not yet known a man.

She has not had any relations with a man and all of a sudden

Gabriel shows up and he gives her some news that is too hard

to believe. Mary, you are about to have a

baby. But twice in verse 27, the Bible

says that Mary is a virgin. Nothing is impossible with God.

This this is hard to believe. This will not be some ordinary

baby. No notice the Bible tells us a

little bit about this baby in verse 31 and behold, you will

conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, a capital S the son

of God and you shall call his name Jesus Yeshua.

He is God is our salvation and, and he will be great Mary notice

this and he will be called the son of the highest Mary notice

in verse 32 and the Lord God will give him the throne of his

father David. Let's pause, stop, hit rewind if

you can for a moment. Notice all of this information

that that that Mary is getting your child will be the Son of

God. He will be the Savior of the

world. This baby will sit on the throne

of David. David, your baby will rule over

the House of Jacob. Your baby Mary will be the King

of kings, and he will be the Lord of Lords.

Mary, you are about to have God's child.

But Mary, you're a virgin. Nothing is impossible with God.

Nothing is impossible with God. Mary hears it, but she doesn't

believe it. It's kind of like a kazoo

moment. You heard it, but it really

didn't seem to match up with logical explanation.

Because, Mary, you're actually a virgin.

I know you know how all of this happens, but Mary's at a spot

where she's hearing this message and she's a virgin.

Now. To make a baby, the egg and the

seed have to come together. And so listen, there is no way

that this could actually happen. So Mary asked the question to

the Angel in verse 34. How can this be?

Since I do not know a man I know I know putting yourself in this

place sometimes it's it's hard to do, but I don't want to judge

Mary and maybe we have judged Mary with our sanctified selves

when we've heard messages like Mary that just seem so

outlandish. They seem so unbelievable in

this moment. I think can I tell you today

that we get ourselves into situations where it's hard to

believe what God said is actually what God will do I I

know as you've come in here this Sunday morning.

I, I know you, you want your neighbor to believe that you

speak in tongues all day. I know you want your neighbor to

believe that all you that you do is read your Bible every hour

and every minute of the day. I know you want your your

neighbor to believe here at church that you have no problems

in your life at all. But here's the problem with

church people is we seek to be holy, but we don't seek to be

honest. And I think a lot of times if we

were to put ourselves in Mary's spot, we would find that in this

moment of time that there are moments where you have actually

doubted what God has told you. If we were honest today, there

are moments that you have a lot like Mary, doubted what God has

actually said to you. And in this moment, I want to

bring us to the spot where we understand that sometimes it's

hard to believe that everything will work out for our good when

everything seems to be going wrong.

It's hard to believe that God will heal, even though the

doctors have given us a, an explanation of our disease.

It's hard to believe many times as we go through the things that

we're going through that there is really a reason and a season

for our trial, and God will not allow this to last forever.

It's hard to believe in moments that we're in that weeping might

endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning.

It's hard to believe sometimes that when you've been planning

everything that that you feel like it's all working against

you, but that God is actually with you and he's for you and

he's in you in the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead

actually lives in you. It's hard to believe sometimes

that there will be days that are brighter.

There will be days that are a blessing.

There will be days that when you come out of the season of

struggle that you're actually going to be better for it.

Sometimes we, we hear it, but we just don't believe it.

And Mary says, but I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin now, now, now I

know we often we, we, we have the definition in place that

Mary had no relations with a man.

But I want to give you a second definition of the word virgin.

The word virgin also means that she was young.

Sometimes in our American culture and Western Christianity

we have in our Christmas plays we have painted Mary as this old

seasoned St. She has a blue cloth over her

head. She's probably in her mid 20s,

late 20s at the time. She's always already finished

her degree. She's already gone through all

of her schooling that she could ever go through.

And she sits up there and calmly is holding the baby Jesus in her

hands. But the word virgin doesn't

paint that picture for us. The word virgin can also mean

that she was young, that she was young.

Scholars believe that Mary at this time is 12 to 13 years old,

12 to 13 years old. Now imagine if you were 12 or 13

and an Angel appears in your room and all the sudden the

Angel says to you, You will bear the Son of God, the King of

Kings and the Lord of Lords at 12 or 13 years old.

Would you be afraid? I don't think you'd be hopping

on Instagram going I just met an Angel.

I don't think you'd be going on TikTok and or on X or whatever

it might be and sending out your post and you would be in

disbelief and dumbfounded. So I want you to think through

this just for a moment with me. Mary says she's just a virgin.

I just want, I want this to sink in to our lives that maybe at

this time, Mary is just 12 to 13 years old and an Angel comes to

her and says you will bear the Messiah.

That's like my daughter Claire I.

It's hard to grasp what must have been going through Mary's

mind and heart. She's a virgin.

She's not known a man. She's young.

And here's the other problem. Kings don't come from people in

Nazareth. Kings come from Queens and

princesses. But not only that, notice this

that Mary is from. The Bible says a region of

Galilee, but the Angel finds her in this little city called

Nazareth. Nazareth.

The Bible says that can't be because the Messiah will be born

in Bethlehem. But in this moment, the Angel

finds Mary in Nazareth. Nazareth, as you might know from

the Gospel of John, is not a good city.

Nazareth would equate for where I grew up in San Bernardino.

If you're not from there, you don't go there.

And you're not like, I'm like, hey, everybody, come down

baseline with me. Come down East St. let's go to

Central City Mall. I'm not inviting people into San

Bernardino, CA. Nazareth is the same.

It's the same place. And Mary comes from this place.

She's 12 or 13 years old. She's from the wrong place, the

city of Nazareth. And notice this, Mary doesn't

have a husband yet. She doesn't have a husband.

She's from the wrong place. She has the wrong age.

She's at the wrong town and I believe in this moment Mary is

not wrestling with if God can, but if God will.

I think as we read this, there's a bit of unworthiness in Mary's

heart, in her life, and sometimes in our lives.

What we have found in each of our hearts is this.

The issue is not God's ability. Many times the issue is my

identity. Can I just say that again to

you? The issue when it comes to

something that is impossible is not God's ability.

The issue is my identity. Because the greatest tactic of

the enemy is to let you be focused simply upon your

mistakes, your thoughts, your problems, your sins.

And how could you be worthy enough to allow God to really do

that for you? Oh, I have AI have faith for

every person in this room, but when it comes often times to

myself, I lack the faith because not that God is able to do it,

but I'm unworthy to receive it. And here is the issue.

The issue is maybe you're too old.

You might say you're too young, you're too large or too small.

You don't look right, you're not from the right school, you're

still struggling with something. You're not holy enough, you're

not at church enough, you don't read your Bible enough.

You come from a broken home. You've had not enough men.

Maybe some of you've had too many men, too many women.

Maybe you find yourself at a place where you think that God

could never do this because there's a stain of sin upon your

life. And Mary asked, why me?

What a great question. Why us?

Why me and why us? And here's the answer.

You ready and having come in. In verse 28, the Angel said to

her, Rejoice highly favored one, notice that the Lord is with

you, Blessed are you among women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and

considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the Angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you

have found favor with God. Why me?

Why US? One word, favor, favor not now.

Now you might be asking, why US today?

Why did God choose us? It's because you have found

favor, and it's not because you were necessarily good.

You found favor. You see, It's not because you

were perfect. It's because you found favor.

Yes, you messed up, but you found favor.

You weren't holy enough, but you found favor.

The only reason why is because you found favor.

Can I push it a little bit? Worthy You ain't.

You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it.

We're not worthy enough for it. But in this place you found

favor. God is so good that He has

allowed us to find favor. He we, we found favor with the

Lord. The word favor in the Greek is

karis. Karis.

Thank you. I need my Greek interpreter up

here. It can also be defined as grace.

You found grace. Rejoice, highly graced one.

Listen, if you're a graced 1, you should be able to rejoice.

If you are a graced 1, you should be able to rejoice.

Listen, listen, please, I want you to understand this.

You should be able to rejoice because God has poured out His

grace upon you. Grace not only allowed me into

salvation, but grace opens doors that you never thought ever

existed. Grace puts you in rooms that you

never thought you would ever be in.

Grace allows you to build a life that you were never able to

build. Grace of God brings me into this

spot. It is in this room that God has

graced us. I am, I was, I planned for my

dad for his birthday and for a couple of my kids to go to the

Phil Wickham Christmas concert. And so our friend at Downey

Calvary Chapel, Downey Art Reyes, said, Hey, come on, come

on over. And I want you not just to come

over. I'm going to actually save you a

seat. Not just you, but your whole

family. I'm going to save all of them

seats right in the center. Graced And then he said, I want

you to go back into this room because in this room, Casey, I'm

going to provide your whole family with dinner.

Graced Phil Wickham gets up there.

He begins to lead us in song. You know, Phil, with his

vibrato, he begins to sing all of these Christmas songs and

we're just, yeah, thank you, Lord, holy forever.

He's singing that Chris Tomlin song.

And at the end of it, at the end of it, he said, Art said, come

here, come here. My dad had left and Andre had

left. And he said, come here.

And we ran with Art into the back of the back of the back of

the back rooms. In that room.

Phil Wickham was there, said Casey.

He said you look like AUFC fighter now.

What happened to you? Just enough about that.

I want you to meet my daughter Hudson.

And I want you to meet my son Evan.

He's all Evan. I remember Evan, I remember you

when you were nine years old, I actually copied your haircut and

Evan said, can we get a picture with you, Phil?

And they all grabbed arms together and they they took the

picture. It was Phil Wickham in the

middle, Evan on one side, Hudson on the other.

And I, I didn't know. I didn't know Hudson was excited

about this, but but one of her friends said you went to the

Phil Wickham concert, Grace, you went and had food.

Grace, you went to the back of the back of the back of the back

back rooms. You didn't really meet Phil, did

you? She said, I have proof.

So she said, Dad, show me your phone.

So I got out my phone and the little girl with her, it's like,

Oh my word, she said. The good little girl said, how

did you get to the back of the back of the back of the back

rooms? She said these words because I

was with my father. I want you to hear that for a

minute. When you are with the Father, he

graces you to be in positions that you never thought you would

ever imagine being in. And I think Ron's the only one

who's excited about this. Do you know how we know how,

how, how you've experienced grace is you don't come in here

as sour. You don't come in here.

You come in here rejoicing. But but, but listen, I want you

as Mary did, to rejoice in this grace.

But but I want to just break it down a little bit further.

If I could push it in the Greek. This isn't the passive voice.

And if you have remembered in the passive voice in the English

grammar, the verb is not being directed by the subject, but the

subject is being directed by the verb in the passive voice.

We, we don't always get this. You didn't find favor, favor

found you. I just want to say that again,

you didn't find favor. Favor found you.

Grace found you. God pursued you.

God was after you. Now, now, now, if we could go a

little bit further. No, notice this.

This is the Christmas gift and the Christmas gift is here for

you. Is it Favor found you?

But but, but this is also in the Eros tense, AORIST.

Now we have the past tense, the present tense and the future

tense. But in the Greek, there's the

arrows tense that is not connected to time.

It didn't just happen yesterday or right now or nor is it

limited to tomorrow. Wherever grace gets a hold of

you, grace will not let go of you.

This is this is listen, real miracle is not the pregnancy.

The real miracle is the grace. If you understand the grace, if

I can favor you, the miracle is easy.

If I could choose you, the blessing is easy.

If I can save you, I can also provide for you if I could

deliver you. Listen, it's easy to delight in

you, trusting in God that He actually found you.

Notice this. The Holy Spirit will come upon

you, he says, and the power of the highest will over shadow

you. Here is Mary in this moment.

And when she saw him, she was troubled at 12 or 13, coming

from the city of Nazareth. And in this city, she's not a

queen, she's not a Princess. She's just an average teenager

that is out walking through the night and the Angel finds her

there and says do not be afraid you found favor.

And behold you will conceive your in your womb and bring

forth a son and shall call his name Jesus and he will be great

and 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 ever in his

Kingdom there will be no end. So Mary said, well OK Angel, how

can this be since I don't know a man because with God nothing is

impossible. And the Angel answered and said

to her, notice these words, the Holy Spirit will come upon you

and the power of the highest will over shadow you.

Do you get that? Don't, don't just don't just fly

by this verse. Listen to this.

This is Old Testament language. The Angel said the Holy Spirit

will come upon you. How did God move in the Old

Testament? The Spirit of God came upon

people. How did God move through Samson?

The Spirit of God came upon him. Do you see the Old Testament

now? I want you to see something

else. Notice he says that the power of

the highest will over shadow you.

The word power is the same word that's used in Acts chapter one

verse 8 when Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem

for they will be their witness. He will be they will be his

witnesses in Jerusalem when the power of the Spirit comes upon

them. This is pre Pentecostal

language. Old Testament, the Spirit's

coming upon you. New Testament, the Dunamis

power, the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit will over shadow

you. Who was the first person to get

this pre Pentecostal language? A young teenage girl named Mary.

Now this is interesting because with Elizabeth, the Bible says

that you will have a son that's through the natural means of her

husband, Zechariah. But with Mary, this will be

supernatural. Let's move on your and this

might be going over your head a little bit.

We want it to hit your heart also.

Listen, you're going to experience the same thing.

And God chooses a teenager named Mary.

He chose a woman, chose this woman, this young girl.

Notice this message didn't come to Pastor Peter first.

It didn't come to Pastor Paul or Barnabas.

No, it came to Mary. Ladies, can I just speak to you

for a moment? We are so thankful for you that

you have chosen to do the work of God and fulfill the will of

God and being obedient to the Word of God.

God's grace is upon your life and nothing ladies, that you are

doing is in vain. You might be going well, Casey,

you don't understand what's happening at my house.

My kids aren't even thankful for my presence.

Not your, your, your. Not just the presents you're

buying, but your presence. I'm wrapping all of these gifts

and my husband's oblivious to all of this.

I, I listen ladies, God is at work in your heart.

Nothing about Nazareth could determine Mary being surrendered

to the Lord, her city, her past, none of it.

God was working in all of it. And isn't it interesting that it

says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph?

Now understand during that time they didn't have pregnancy

tests. You can run to the $0.99 store

and grab a test and Mary comes out and says, Joe, look at I

have, I'm pregnant. No, they're not even married

yet. Can you imagine Joseph hearing

that Mary is pregnant? Guys, can I just speak to you

men for a minute? Sometimes we're like, no way

your wife says something to you. You're like, no way.

But it was actually a bit prophetic that she shared it

with you. And sometimes as men, we have a

hard time holding what our wives are saying.

Let me be careful on this because we just have a hard time

believing it. It doesn't fit into the box of

logic, but it does fit into a life that's obedient to God.

And Joseph, through the angels message would also hear.

Don't put Mary aside, but notice this if you would.

The language here gives to us that Mary is now being told that

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

Highest will over shadow you. Therefore also the Holy One who

is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now indeed Elizabeth your relative has conceived, notice

that word, a Son in her old age, and this is now the 6th month

for her who is called barren. For with God nothing will be.

I want to take that Lord. We believe in that.

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. Notice it if you would.

This is not divine impregnation. This is divine conception.

Divine pregnation would come from the Greek mythology and in

that Zeus would have relations and then produce Hercules,

right? This is divine conception giving

life and value to the womb. And in that moment notice this,

they use the word you will conceive.

Now, Dora, I don't know if I'll pronounce this right, so you

could correct me when you want. Silimbano, Silimvano.

Let's all say that together with our teachers today.

Silimvano, thank you. This word conceived literally

means to seize or to take hold of or to take control of.

Notice this and behold, you will conceive in your womb.

God will take control of this, He will take hold of this, and

you're going to bring forth a son and you're going to call his

name Jesus. The impossible happens when the

control of it is given over to God.

We don't, we're not told that the timing of it.

Did it happen in this moment? Did it happen when Mary was on

her way walking somewhere? No, no, no.

It it just says that Mary said this.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And so I want to encourage you with this this Christmas.

The impossible happens when we release control of what's

plausible and possible back to the Lord.

Now that is not always the story that I desire because God

doesn't move in the way often times that I desire because His

ways are higher than my ways. I asked for healing for my mom.

He did heal her, but He'd healed her in heaven.

I asked for healing for my mother-in-law brain cancer, but

he didn't heal her on that bed. He healed her in heaven.

I asked for healing for my father-in-law.

He didn't heal him then He healed him in heaven.

And God's ways are higher than our ways, and I don't fully

understand all of them. But when Mary goes to see

Elizabeth, the Bible says that John in her womb would leap.

Now I just want to connect this and that is with this.

God gave the message first to a woman by the name of Elizabeth.

Then six months later he gives the message to Mary.

We all need Elizabeth's in our lives that have already

experienced the promise of God to encourage the Mary position

that we might be in to hear all that God has called us to do and

in this moment. Notice the Bible says Elizabeth

looks at Mary and says blessed are you among women.

Blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Nothing is impossible with God. And if I could encourage you

with anything today, and that is to surrender the control of it

all back into the hands of God, He is sovereign.

He is the one who works at His will according to His time.

And so I was closing this out as I was studying and this song

came into my mind. It's not a Christian song.

Well, by a band called Journey. And so I kept thinking of this

song, Don't stop believing. You remember that song?

Some of you that are all a little bit older don't stop

believing. So I'm like, what's this song

all about? Well, one of the band members

was so discouraged in his musical career, so upset, so

despondent he was ready to throw in the towel, that on a phone

call with his dad, the dad said to him, don't stop believing.

And then they wrote this song about this small town boy and

tagged it with this ginormous chorus at the end.

Don't stop believing. The Bible says that the just

shall walk by faith. And we're not just saying

believe in yourself. We're not saying believe in your

heart. We're saying believe in the Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.